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fandomhigh_ooc2009-11-24 12:18 am
heromaniac) wrote in fandomhigh_ooc2009-11-24 12:18 am
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Spotlight on Fandoms: Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z
I’m late. My first ‘Spotlight’ and I’m late! So sorry!
Okay, uhm, so the Powerpuff Girls Z (Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z) is a Japanese anime remake/homage to the American show, The Powerpuff Girls.
The Powerpuff Girls was an original Cartoon Network series that began airing in 1998. It was about three 5-year-old girls created by a scientist who was trying to create the 'perfect little girl' out of "sugar, spice, and everything nice." Unfortunately (for the bad guys) he accidentally spilled some Chemical X into the mixture and the three sisters were "born" with superpowers. They live in the City of Townsville, which happens to be next to Monster Island, where the giant invading monsters come from. There are also a few resident monsters in town, like Mojo Jojo – a former lab monkey turned criminal super genius thanks to a Chemical X accident of his own, and Fuzzy Lumpkins, a pink crazy banjo-playing hermit, as well as non-monsters that just commit crimes and make it hard for the idiot Mayor to keep being re-elected.
The show was really cool, don’t let anyone tell you different. This is probably why they decided to re-make it into an anime.
The Powerpuff Girls Z is an alternate reality from the original Powerpuff Girls. Literally. There is an episode where the Z-girls' time machine (Yes, a time machine. There's plot for it, don't worry!) goes wonky and they end up in an alternate dimension and we watch as the original Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup fly past and fight an invading monster. They even comment on it. :)
Japan kicks it up a notch!
In PPGZ, Professor Utonium is married and works for the National Laboratory in Tokyo City, Japan. The Professor and Ken, his 8-year-old genius son, are working to discover the secrets of Chemical X, but are having no luck. One day, their robot dog accidentally knocks a daifuku into the vat of Chemical X, creating a new formula – Chemical Z. Why Z? Because it sounds cool, duh.
Just as the Professor is registering this new chemical find in the scientific world’s data systems, catastrophic weather changes start to happen all over the world. Young Ken sneaks off and uses the new and untested Chemical Z to blast away an iceberg in the Tokyo City harbour. Of course he does. As the iceberg explodes, beams of white light shoot from its center, head into town, and land on three middle school girls. The unrelated thirteen year olds are suddenly able to transform into flying costumed superheroes.
Once they all find each other and realize what has happened, the girls agree to form a team and make a deal with the mayor to get paid as many snacks as they want, as much sports channel as they want to watch, and as many fashion magazines as they want. In return, they fight to save the town from monsters and super villains that have just as suddenly appeared, created by beams of black light that emerged from the shattered iceberg and, later, by an ancient demon.
In addition to the monsters from the original show (recast, of course, anime-style) like Mojo and Fuzzy, there are random monsters created specifically for the series - like a Christmas flower that decides to send seeds everywhere in town and everyplace they land, they take root. Including in Momoko’s nose. At one point, Miyako’s pen and eraser come to life and graffiti the town. Also, a piano that hates being played poorly starts eating people who can't play, and a bowl of spaghetti comes to life, upset that he isn't really Italian. A child's rubber ducky almost squishes the city when it grows in size... You know, your basic run-of-the-crack-mill monsters d’jour.
Roll Call!
Momoko Akatsutsumi / Hyper Blossom
Momoko is described as a hero-maniac in the actual show. She’s what’s known as an otaku… basically a crazy fangirl. She recorded and re-watched the news program because she thought the weatherman was cute. She nearly killed the star of her favourite program, Miracle Ace, when he came to town and she (as Blossom) was assigned to his security detail. She’s a hyper red-head who wants to become a superhero and get married. She lives with her parents and a younger sister, Kuriko, in a western style house.
When Momoko was walking home from an after-school shopping trip to buy snacks and sweets, she saw a beam of light racing towards a little girl who was playing with a yo-yo. She dropped her groceries and ran to protect the girl, getting herself hit in the process. She instantly transformed into Hyper Blossom, with a red outfit, a pink power compact, and a red yo-yo that she suddenly knew how to use. She also found that she could do more sports-stuff than usual and, once she met her first monster, that she could see ‘black auras.' She considers herself the leader of the team, because she’s the red costume.
Miyako Gotokuji / Rolling Bubbles
Miyako is both the fashion plate and the traditional Japanese girl. She's blonde, nice and sweet and generally caring and is described as being an ‘idol’ and adored by all of the boys. She turns them all down, though, as she already has someone she likes. She is very polite and proper and dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Her parents live in another town, and she lives with her grandmother in a very large traditional Japanese house.
When Miyako was on her way home from an afterschool clothes shopping trip, she saw a little girl blowing bubbles. We find out later in the series that Miyako has a personal history with bubbles. As she’s watching the bubbles float off, Miyako notices the beam of white light arcing towards them and grabs the girl to her, getting hit by the light herself instead. She instantly transforms into Rolling Bubbles, with a blue outfit and power compact and a giant bubblewand. Her initial reaction is along the lines of “I don’t remember buying this cute outfit.”
She then takes off skipping through town, until she meets up with Mojo Jojo and Blossom, who are fighting because Mojo ate Blossom’s snacks. After some convincing, Blossom finally tosses the wand at Mojo, knocking him unconscious, and Blossom has to take her aside and say, basically, “I don’t think that’s how it’s used.” She later gets instructions on how to activate her powers of creating various types and sizes of bubbles.
Kaoru Matsubara / Powered Buttercup
Kaoru does not want to be a superhero at first. She takes a lot of convincing and almost destroys the lab before the other two girls chase her down and she agrees. Kaoru is a short haired tomboy. She uses boy-speech, is excellent at almost every sport, rides a skateboard most places, and absolutely detests skirts and dresses and “girly” stuff. Which means it goes over well that her costume includes a skirt. She is admired by all the girls in the school, including Miyako, and is probably the smartest of the three. She dreams of becoming a masked wrestler like her father. She lives in an apartment with her parents, an older brother, and a younger brother.
Kaoru was skateboarding home from school, trying to escape throngs of swooning girls (yes, girls) when she saw a little boy playing with a hammer and building blocks game (looks sorta like a Jenga game?) She sees a beam of white light about to hit him and she jumps her board to shield him… getting hit by the light herself instead. She instantly transforms into Powered Buttercup, with a green and yellow outfit and power compact and a giant hammer: “I haven’t worn a skirt since kindergarten!” She then stomps off and we don’t see her until she encounters Mojo Jojo, who’s escaped from Blossom and Bubbles. Buttercup bangs her hammer on the ground between them and the street crumbles, showing that she’s got enhanced strength, and sending Mojo flying off into the distance.
Others who are important but this is long enough already, so they’re getting abbreviated:
Professor Utonium: The professor who sort of creates the Chemical Z, he treats the girls like his own daughters.
Ken Kitazawa: Son of the professor, he’s the genius who used an untested chemical on a glacier and created the Powerpuff Girls Z. And the Monsters.
Peach: The robot dog of the Kitazawa family, created by the professor. He gets struck by a beam of white light as well, and becomes sentient.
The Mayor of Tokyo City. He’s not as much of an idiot as the mayor in the original series, but he’s close.
Miss Bellum, the Mayor’s assistant: She is smart, as opposed to all-knowing, like the original. But in this series we still don’t ever see her face. Scarily enough, if you freeze frame? She has none.
Miss Keane, the girls' homeroom and English teacher: She’s on-again, off-again dating a moleman, and thinks that Mojo is a nice monkey. She even goes on a date with him. Oh, and she knows the President of the United States well enough to call him up at random in the middle of a school day.
Mojo Jojo: a zoo monkey, often teased by zoo-goers, who was struck by the black light and turned into a not-so-super-genius villain. He builds lots of robots, though.
Fuzzy Lumpkins: still pink, but no one knows what he used to be before being struck by the black light; they suspect some sort of animal. He plays a banjo and claims everything is his territory. Especially Miss Bellum.
The Gangrene Gang: a gang of high school kids who were turned into green monsters by the black light. They have homes that they return to, in one episode, and it’s funny to see them interact with their parents now that they are monsters.
The Amoeba Boys and Lady: Three amoeba are turned ‘sentient’ - two boys and a girl. Don’t ask me how an amoeba can have a gender.
Sedusa: a rather plain looking pastry cook turns into a heavily made-up bomb-shell-wannabe monster named Sedusa whenever she gets jealous of the boy she likes.
The RowdyRuff Boys: created by Mojo with stolen Chemical Z and stolen DNA from the Powerpuff Girls. They wreak havoc and cause the girls (and Mojo) no end of grief simply by being three idiot teen boys with superpowers.
Himeko: a classmate of the girls and the youngest daughter of the richest family in town, she is jealous of anyone else who gets attention. She and her cat were struck with black light at the same time and so she becomes the monster, Princess, when she hears her cat scream.
Him: a demon who ran wild in the Edo period of Japan and was sealed away by the Chakichaki girls (Edo period Powerpuff Girls). He breaks his seals and returns.
Is it really an awesome series?
The first episode sucks. Really. After that, the first season is mostly back story and getting you used to the world and the characters. There are fully encapsulated stories and lots of hilarity and it really hangs together very well, continuity-wise. After you reach about 12 episodes, you start to see the thin beginnings of a plot stirring and realize it’s not just remakes of the American episodes anymore.
You can easily see the different homage points to the original show, they’re not subtle, but you can also point out the stereotypes of anime that are being made fun of. And then there’s the fact that it’s a fun cartoon, on its own. Check out this site for some awesomely thorough reviews: http://www.moetron.com/2007/12/09/demashitaa-powerpuff-girls-z-final-words/
And yes, the ending made me cry. *shakes fist at series*
I am a tease, so here are some links to specific scenes:
Blossom meets Mojo
Blossom meets Bubbles
The transformation sequences
Blossom gets out of control with Mojo over cake and Peach makes Buttercup mad
Momoko and Kaoru spend the night in Miyako’s old house
And the entire episode of “Kaoru loves biceps” totally rocks!
An actual battle with Him
And I have a bunch of raw screen caps in Momoko's scrapbook
Want to watch and can't get to my house to steal mytotally for research copies?
It's not available in the States, but an English version has been released in the Philippines and in other countries. Here’s where I reveal my elitism; don’t watch the English Dub. The dubbed version has changed so much and it’s really really not as good. And yes, I watched a few episodes to make sure.
That being said, subtitled and raw Japanese versions are all over YouTube. They also have a lot of the episodes linked at tv.blinkx.com. There are torrents available as well.
Sorry, again, for the delay. Man, these things are harder to write up than I thought. Hope that this is good enough to make you watch it! *wiggles fingers mystically* Come to the crack side.
Okay, uhm, so the Powerpuff Girls Z (Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z) is a Japanese anime remake/homage to the American show, The Powerpuff Girls.
The Powerpuff Girls was an original Cartoon Network series that began airing in 1998. It was about three 5-year-old girls created by a scientist who was trying to create the 'perfect little girl' out of "sugar, spice, and everything nice." Unfortunately (for the bad guys) he accidentally spilled some Chemical X into the mixture and the three sisters were "born" with superpowers. They live in the City of Townsville, which happens to be next to Monster Island, where the giant invading monsters come from. There are also a few resident monsters in town, like Mojo Jojo – a former lab monkey turned criminal super genius thanks to a Chemical X accident of his own, and Fuzzy Lumpkins, a pink crazy banjo-playing hermit, as well as non-monsters that just commit crimes and make it hard for the idiot Mayor to keep being re-elected.
The show was really cool, don’t let anyone tell you different. This is probably why they decided to re-make it into an anime.
The Powerpuff Girls Z is an alternate reality from the original Powerpuff Girls. Literally. There is an episode where the Z-girls' time machine (Yes, a time machine. There's plot for it, don't worry!) goes wonky and they end up in an alternate dimension and we watch as the original Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup fly past and fight an invading monster. They even comment on it. :)
Japan kicks it up a notch!
In PPGZ, Professor Utonium is married and works for the National Laboratory in Tokyo City, Japan. The Professor and Ken, his 8-year-old genius son, are working to discover the secrets of Chemical X, but are having no luck. One day, their robot dog accidentally knocks a daifuku into the vat of Chemical X, creating a new formula – Chemical Z. Why Z? Because it sounds cool, duh.
Just as the Professor is registering this new chemical find in the scientific world’s data systems, catastrophic weather changes start to happen all over the world. Young Ken sneaks off and uses the new and untested Chemical Z to blast away an iceberg in the Tokyo City harbour. Of course he does. As the iceberg explodes, beams of white light shoot from its center, head into town, and land on three middle school girls. The unrelated thirteen year olds are suddenly able to transform into flying costumed superheroes.
Once they all find each other and realize what has happened, the girls agree to form a team and make a deal with the mayor to get paid as many snacks as they want, as much sports channel as they want to watch, and as many fashion magazines as they want. In return, they fight to save the town from monsters and super villains that have just as suddenly appeared, created by beams of black light that emerged from the shattered iceberg and, later, by an ancient demon.
In addition to the monsters from the original show (recast, of course, anime-style) like Mojo and Fuzzy, there are random monsters created specifically for the series - like a Christmas flower that decides to send seeds everywhere in town and everyplace they land, they take root. Including in Momoko’s nose. At one point, Miyako’s pen and eraser come to life and graffiti the town. Also, a piano that hates being played poorly starts eating people who can't play, and a bowl of spaghetti comes to life, upset that he isn't really Italian. A child's rubber ducky almost squishes the city when it grows in size... You know, your basic run-of-the-crack-mill monsters d’jour.
Roll Call!
Momoko Akatsutsumi / Hyper Blossom
Momoko is described as a hero-maniac in the actual show. She’s what’s known as an otaku… basically a crazy fangirl. She recorded and re-watched the news program because she thought the weatherman was cute. She nearly killed the star of her favourite program, Miracle Ace, when he came to town and she (as Blossom) was assigned to his security detail. She’s a hyper red-head who wants to become a superhero and get married. She lives with her parents and a younger sister, Kuriko, in a western style house.
When Momoko was walking home from an after-school shopping trip to buy snacks and sweets, she saw a beam of light racing towards a little girl who was playing with a yo-yo. She dropped her groceries and ran to protect the girl, getting herself hit in the process. She instantly transformed into Hyper Blossom, with a red outfit, a pink power compact, and a red yo-yo that she suddenly knew how to use. She also found that she could do more sports-stuff than usual and, once she met her first monster, that she could see ‘black auras.' She considers herself the leader of the team, because she’s the red costume.
Miyako Gotokuji / Rolling Bubbles
Miyako is both the fashion plate and the traditional Japanese girl. She's blonde, nice and sweet and generally caring and is described as being an ‘idol’ and adored by all of the boys. She turns them all down, though, as she already has someone she likes. She is very polite and proper and dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Her parents live in another town, and she lives with her grandmother in a very large traditional Japanese house.
When Miyako was on her way home from an afterschool clothes shopping trip, she saw a little girl blowing bubbles. We find out later in the series that Miyako has a personal history with bubbles. As she’s watching the bubbles float off, Miyako notices the beam of white light arcing towards them and grabs the girl to her, getting hit by the light herself instead. She instantly transforms into Rolling Bubbles, with a blue outfit and power compact and a giant bubblewand. Her initial reaction is along the lines of “I don’t remember buying this cute outfit.”
She then takes off skipping through town, until she meets up with Mojo Jojo and Blossom, who are fighting because Mojo ate Blossom’s snacks. After some convincing, Blossom finally tosses the wand at Mojo, knocking him unconscious, and Blossom has to take her aside and say, basically, “I don’t think that’s how it’s used.” She later gets instructions on how to activate her powers of creating various types and sizes of bubbles.
Kaoru Matsubara / Powered Buttercup
Kaoru does not want to be a superhero at first. She takes a lot of convincing and almost destroys the lab before the other two girls chase her down and she agrees. Kaoru is a short haired tomboy. She uses boy-speech, is excellent at almost every sport, rides a skateboard most places, and absolutely detests skirts and dresses and “girly” stuff. Which means it goes over well that her costume includes a skirt. She is admired by all the girls in the school, including Miyako, and is probably the smartest of the three. She dreams of becoming a masked wrestler like her father. She lives in an apartment with her parents, an older brother, and a younger brother.
Kaoru was skateboarding home from school, trying to escape throngs of swooning girls (yes, girls) when she saw a little boy playing with a hammer and building blocks game (looks sorta like a Jenga game?) She sees a beam of white light about to hit him and she jumps her board to shield him… getting hit by the light herself instead. She instantly transforms into Powered Buttercup, with a green and yellow outfit and power compact and a giant hammer: “I haven’t worn a skirt since kindergarten!” She then stomps off and we don’t see her until she encounters Mojo Jojo, who’s escaped from Blossom and Bubbles. Buttercup bangs her hammer on the ground between them and the street crumbles, showing that she’s got enhanced strength, and sending Mojo flying off into the distance.
Others who are important but this is long enough already, so they’re getting abbreviated:
Is it really an awesome series?
The first episode sucks. Really. After that, the first season is mostly back story and getting you used to the world and the characters. There are fully encapsulated stories and lots of hilarity and it really hangs together very well, continuity-wise. After you reach about 12 episodes, you start to see the thin beginnings of a plot stirring and realize it’s not just remakes of the American episodes anymore.
You can easily see the different homage points to the original show, they’re not subtle, but you can also point out the stereotypes of anime that are being made fun of. And then there’s the fact that it’s a fun cartoon, on its own. Check out this site for some awesomely thorough reviews: http://www.moetron.com/2007/12/09/demashitaa-powerpuff-girls-z-final-words/
And yes, the ending made me cry. *shakes fist at series*
I am a tease, so here are some links to specific scenes:
Blossom meets Mojo
Blossom meets Bubbles
The transformation sequences
Blossom gets out of control with Mojo over cake and Peach makes Buttercup mad
Momoko and Kaoru spend the night in Miyako’s old house
And the entire episode of “Kaoru loves biceps” totally rocks!
An actual battle with Him
And I have a bunch of raw screen caps in Momoko's scrapbook
Want to watch and can't get to my house to steal my
It's not available in the States, but an English version has been released in the Philippines and in other countries. Here’s where I reveal my elitism; don’t watch the English Dub. The dubbed version has changed so much and it’s really really not as good. And yes, I watched a few episodes to make sure.
That being said, subtitled and raw Japanese versions are all over YouTube. They also have a lot of the episodes linked at tv.blinkx.com. There are torrents available as well.
Sorry, again, for the delay. Man, these things are harder to write up than I thought. Hope that this is good enough to make you watch it! *wiggles fingers mystically* Come to the crack side.
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