Adventures in anime

So I've been watching a lot of anime lately. 

An awful lot. A criminal amount. Perhaps even enough to kill a full grown horse if you wanted to be dramatic and hated horses. This all started when I realised a while ago that I hadn't actually watched an anime start to end for a fair while. I used to find time to watch anime - so what's changed? Well it's been a combination of being busy with other more important real life things and old hobbies (if you can call watching anime that) being pushed out of the way for new things - such as wasting time on the internet, which isn't a hobby but bear with me here.

(I will say at this point - that the internet, is a terrible, terrible time sink if you are not careful and that I do not regret quitting  some of the sites I was on to be more productive with actually getting things (no matter how trivial) done.)

So apart from this making me have a closer look at how regularly I should be taking breaks and other ergonomic issues I've been noticing a few trends.

Mainly that out of ten anime. Two will be pants shitingly good, six will be okay to tepid and two are so bad that I check my email and talk to people on steam so that I don't feel like I've totally wasted my time.

Seriously, some of the bottom of the barrel ones feel like they were down to the last 10,00Y on the animation budget and the staff sat around on their lunch break despairing and filling out job applications.

But I digress.

I've been enjoying finding small references, details and probable copyright infringement as I watch.
I'd like to note at this point that Blue Ray anime is fucking amazing and please, please, please for the love of all that is kawaii let there be more Blu Ray re-releases in the future. 

So without further delay lets flick through some of the things I've found - After the jump!

Black Magic M-66

Note the Expo '85 on the shirt. Black Magic was printed in tankobon in 1985 - coincidence?!

Also the newspaper text appears to have been lifted from a review of the 1979 muppets movie, what?

Burn up!

Rambo 12 and Quest Dragon 31? That's a real subtle dig there guys.

Also Paoari the nothing-to-do-with-pocari-sweat drink

City Hunter: Death of the Vicious Criminal Ryo Saeba

Vita card? Also this OVA is terrible, don't see it.

Patlabor 2

Hello Qantas. 

No fucking around with spelling or obscuring logos here, I wonder if they ever found out about this?

Also the Patlabor movies are amazing, even more so in Blu Ray.

Also - my Patlabor waifu.

Appleseed (1988)

Appleseed was the next Masamune Shirow anime after Black Magic M-66.

It also has a few typos.

WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3

I can't quite tell who that is in the top left, Glenn Gould?

Gunbuster

Is a goldmine for this kind of stuff, seriously. 

 
 

Japan Air Lines (and a Gainax billboard)

Adidas mechs?

A character called, and I shit you not. Jung Freud?

Not Tag Heuer of course.

Or the actual Coca Cola

My Neighbour Totoro and Nausicaä of the Valley of the wind posters.

Also Van Halen 2021 I don't think "I only enjoy what I'm doing" is an album though.

And Seiko.

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

Studio Bones (bottom left shirt)

"One of their first projects was collaborating with Sunrise on Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door, a feature film based on the Cowboy Bebop TV anime series."

 Marlboro cigarettes.

The infamous WcDonald's - a company who for some reason has managed to turn up in a bunch of anime.

And the German train company DB or Deutsche Bahn 

New Dominion Tank Police

This one has some fun bits of english text floating around in it.

Under Pressure

Blame it on my youth

Also Denki Groove

To the Batmobile! 

Lets go!

And of course, a sneaky poster for the Dominion Tank Police!

Fight!! Iczer-1

Snoopy? Why not!

 Add in some quality audio and video and you're all set!

Also planking.

 Ninja Gaiden

I'm not sure which broadway version this is seeing as Ninja Gaiden is 1991 and the broadway Les Miśerables closest to is is 1987? I think I remember this signage (Which is signature Les Miśerables art anyway) being used in other shows too.

Also Ninja Gaiden was terrible.

Angel Densetsu

Cocala and ??nta, nothing too special but I think it's still amusing.

However, it shits me to tears that one of the best manga out there (Angel Densetsu - go read it!) only got a two episode OVA. What happened there?!

A Wind Named Amnesia

And we're really winding down here because all I have is Adidas again.

I will say however that A Wind Named Amnesia would have done really nicely in a short series. Heck, even a full 26 episode one - why not? The framework was all laid out nicely.

It was probably for legal reasons though, considering it was based off a book. Maybe a licensing condition.

And that's about enough of that for now!

I seem to only find these weird references, near logos and nods to other shows and presumably, things the animators like in every second or third anime. It really has to be set in a city to slip these kinds of thing in. It keeps things interesting too, finding strange things in the background or neat little details.

I do wish more of these were high definition or in Blu Ray though. If only!

Thanks for having a look, I'll seeya next time!

-Superkawaii‼