Conventional Wisdom: Sequels/Reboots/Remakes (Patreon)

Just a quick little blog, and even more self-indulgent than these things usually are, but inspiration hit pretty hard after my celebratory Far Out There day off, and I didn’t wanna waste it. 

Remakes, reboots, and sequels are everywhere these days. They’re ALMOST as omnipresent as people complaining about how many sequels and reboot and remakes there are these days. I’m not gonna contribute to that choir here, partially because I gave up any misguided hope of humankind having a truly original idea YEARS ago, but also because it breathes new life into an age old otaku question: If you could bring back any canceled anime, what would it be? There’s few things we as fans love doing more than telling the trained experts how to do their jobs, right? And those of us who are too lazy to just write our own fanfic sequels to canceled shows at LEAST like to play armchair studio exec and say which shows totally deserved a longer run. …wow, that’s a snarky opening. I dunno why I’m being so condescending about this sort of thing, since not only am I about to spend a whole blogpost doing it myself, but it’s clearly on the actual studio execs’ minds as well. Digimon Tri’s been coming out for a while now, Card Captor Sakura has a new season, Kino’s Journey got a new series, there’s new FLCL coming soon, getting more episodes of that one anime you really want seems more feasible than ever right now. I’m usually the kind of person who says it’s a big ‘ol waste of time to share opinions about things that don’t actually exist to form opinions about… but screw it, I felt like writing something, so here we go.

So what would I demand more of, if I were king of the world (or at least a small, anime-producing sliver of it)? Well, my automatic answer always has been and always will be Digimon Tamers. Digimon Adventure got its sequel (TWO, technically) so why can’t the scientifically-proven best Digimon series get at least a few sequel OVAs? At least, that’s what the eternal fanboy in my heart shouts before the brain has a chance to chime in. But then the more cynical, rational side of me looks at Digimon Tri, and… Look, I’m not ungrateful for the fact that we’ve been getting new Digimon at all, but let’s be realistic here: Tri is duller than beige room sometimes. That’s one of the big problems with the whole “They should bring this show back” line of thought (aside from the inherent problem of sinking money into a project that would probably turn out to be unprofitable): we always take it for granted that whoever actual does bring back that show we want will do a good job at it. I mean, sure, we’re already rejecting reality and substituting our own here, so we might as well assume this fictional reality will turn out the way we want it. But still, I dunno. Tri’s numerous “meh” moments make me hesitant to just automatically call for more Tamers any more… oh, who am I kidding. If they announced Tamers 02 tomorrow, I’d still cheer on general principle.

And as long as I’m being a total downer and poking holes in my own idea, let’s blow through a few more shows I’d love to see more of despite being ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN it couldn’t and probably shouldn’t happen. Right up near the top of my list is Pretty Cure Splash Star, one of the earliest of the approximately 2,358,079,324,087 seasons of PreCure Toei’s cranked out so far. Now, obviously, this will never happen because Toei doesn’t do PreCure sequels, only an endless stream of new seasons… except that they HAVE done some sequel seasons, and they were right on either side of the one season that I’d LIKE a sequel to. You can’t tease me like that without some kind of retaliation, dang it. It’d also never happen the what I’D want it because of what an anomaly Splash Star is in the franchise anyway. The writers really must have had the magical girl formula down well enough to crank the action side of the show on autopilot, because the character work is WAAAAAAAY better than the franchise’s usual standards. The extended cast is so fleshed out, the overall depiction of life in a cozy little beach town so well realized, that I’d honestly be fine watching a plain old slice of life show about these characters without any of the magical girl trappings at all. I know, I know, that’s like talking about a Gundam series without robots in it. Toei would never, ever, EVER spend money on something like that, but I’d still watch the heck out of it. Besides, everyone who misses all the colorful characters kicking and punching each other could go watch Angelic Layer, which I’d also love to see more of. CLAMP’s anomalous attempt to do a shonen action series tends to get overlooked these days, which is a shame since its blend of scifi and action and weapons-grade cuteness was right up my alley. And if you think about it, modern day production techniques could really a revamped Angelic Layer’s fight scenes something to behold. I’m not usually a fan of the conspicuous mixing of 2D and 3D characters in the same show, but seeing as how the fighters in this show are literal toys, I think Angelic Layer could get away with using CG in this case, which would open up the door for all kinds of impressive action sequences. But again, it’ll never happen. Not just because nobody remembers Angelic Layer, but because it technically has a sequel already. Turns out Angelic Layer is set in the same universe as Chobits, so any attempt to do something else with that franchise would run the risk of stepping all over the much better remembered one. Granted,  Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle  has some Angelic Layer characters in it too, but seeing as how NO HUMAN BEING ON THIS PLANET UNDERSTANDS WHAT RESERVOIR CHRONICLE IS, I have no idea what to make of that. Either way, I’m too resigned to the unreality of the idea to cling to the dream.

But SCREW reality, am I right? There’s still plenty of anime so beyond the realms of possibility that even my jaded, bitter heart isn’t afraid to idly fantasize about. First of all, Twin Signal. Nobody remembers Twin Signal anymore, but it was one of the first OVAs I ever saw, and was thus my first introduction to an anime that was obviously adapting just a small part of a longer-running story. Dweeby teenage me wanted to see more, and let’s be honest here, I’ve never really ever stopped being a dweeby teenager. And surely I’m not the only one who’d enjoy seeing more about a long-haired robot pretty boy who turns into a big-headed chibi every time his creator’s grandson sneezes… Anime is a serious, mature art form.

Steam Detectives is another show that I think it long overdue a do-over. I only caught a few episodes of the original run, but, well, they sucked. I mean, I love the Steam Detectives manga, but the show clearly didn’t have the production OOOMPH to capture either the intricate steampunk setting or the noir-ish, Batman-y atmosphere. At least, the episodes I saw didn’t, though even if I saw the filler-est of the filler, the “real” episodes couldn’t have looked THAT much better. Anyway, a new Steam Detectives with some real production muscle behind it would be really cool to see. Kia Asamiya remains one of the few manga authors I’ve ever seen who really “gets” western superhero stories, and seeing as how superhero movies are currently making more money than most nations, “Batman but he’s a kid in a trenchcoat and there’s steampunk robots everywhere” would probably do very well.

And speaking of steampunk, I still want Steamboy 2. Not that I loved the original Steamboy all that much, mind you. It wasn’t terrible or anything, but it was as underwhelming as its budget was boated. Still, I want to see Steamboy 2 anyway, mostly because they already teased it in the credits. Not a little teaser sequel hook or anything, they spend a good half of the credits showing all this wildly elaborate art of what happens after the movie wraps up. And I want to see that movie, dang it! C’mon! It’s WWI with rocket packs and mecha-blimps! You know you wanna see that movie too.

And then there’s my number one dream anime revival: Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars. This is another one that almost nobody remembers, which is great! No baggage to deal with! But yeah, this show was criminally underappreciated when it came out, I don’t even think the people working on it gave it all the attention it deserved (the opening and closing credits are some of the most sleep-inducing stuff I’ve ever seen). But it’s an INCREDIBLY charming little show with immensely likable characters and a warm, cozy environment that manages to be wildly nostalgic despite being set in the future. A bunch of middle schoolers go about their lives in a small town, which just so happens to be secret a point of contact between humanity and races of advanced spacefaring aliens. There’s a surprising amount of hard scifi lurking beneath the heavy layers of slice of life comedy, and both showed plenty of room for additional stories. Alas, one of Shingu’s greatest strengths –the slow, careful pace at which it worked out character development and world building– also ends up being its greatest flaw. The show’s ratings sucked, and I can totally see how someone watching this in weekly installments would scream “GET TO THE FREAKING ALIENS ALREADY!” and walk away. I’ve even heard that the show’s run was cut short thanks to the bad numbers, and seeing how franticly rushed the final arc is, I believe it. And that final arc is the part where the freaking aliens finally come to the forefront, so it’s unfortunate AND really ironic. AND I WANT MORE. I want to see the next step in all the character’s relationship, I want to learn more about all the galactic space politics, I want to see more of those weeeeiiird alien tech designs, and if it’s a sequel, I’d be able to see all this WITHOUT using up half a season to introduce it all! C’mon! Pretty please?

Geez, another “quick, little blog” that ended up being several pages long. Why can’t I get that actually IMPORTANT projects done this fast?