Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:15:36 — 34.6MB)
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It’s been entirely too long since we’ve reviewed something from before the 1980s, so we all checked out the Toei Douga 1975 film adaptation of The Little Mermaid.
Introduction (0:00 – 34:30)
There are multiple things sapping us of willpower lately, and only a few of them pertain to the anime we’re watching. Be that as it may, we give our answer to a question that doesn’t strictly have any one correct response: how do you come up with ideas for what to do at anime conventions? We’ve talked about it before, but perhaps not in this level of detail. Or perhaps we keep saying the same thing over and over but have no short or long term memory anymore.
This episode is brought to you by Right Stuf Anime, whose current sale (that probably expires in a few hours) is on Discotek Media titles, such as what we’re reviewing this episode. Note: we did not plan for that. We were going to review this anyway.
Review: The Little Mermaid (34:30 – 1:15:36)
We probably ought to state that, for the sake of avoiding customer confusion aka “parents/grandparents bought you the wrong thing because they got tricked into thinking it was the other, more famous thing” this adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid is the 1975 Japanese animated Toei version in which the lead character is blonde instead of a redhead. This selection from Japan’s Ministry of Education, Science and Culture may not be quite as technically proficient as the 1989 Walt Disney musical everyone knows (except Daryl, who’s never seen it), but it does have going for it the things which make anime inherently superior. Namely, added VIOLENCE and TOPLESS BABES. Okay fine, those are not things which are featured with much prominence in either this film or our review of it, BUT IT’S THERE. Gerald ended up not only watching this film and reading the original story, he also watched the Russian animated version, Rusalochka. Russia actually made more than one version, since one was from the 1960s and another was from the 1970s, released shortly after this film. You can see them on Youtube should you wish to weigh in on what YOU think may have been “borrowed” or “inspiring” for the template of the modern Walt Disney song and dance routine cartoon.
