Pretty, Fizzy Paradise

I'm back! And reading! And maybe even blogging! No promises!

Friday, January 05, 2007

Cartoons!

My roommate actually managed to netflix "Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers" and so I've been watching that instead of, you know, actually thinking up a blog post.

It's a campy cheesy 80s cartoon with appalling anime-esque character designs and pretty awful voice acting. So you know I love it.

The only way it could be better is if they had one of those public service morals at the end.

I like the characters. Even if the token female character follows the 80s formula to a T as a fainting psychic. She does actually get to do stuff.

Besides. It has Jerry Orbach playing the leader! (And there are certain shots, where I'd say the character's design was totally based on him. Especially the eyebrows!)

And it's a gratuitous space western with robot horses. Anything with robot horses...TALKING robot horses, is damn cool.

Not to mention, a very special "Battle of the Bands" sort of episode where the characters have to go on stage for NO APPARENT REASON. (I think I love the 80s)

And the tough guy kind of looks like a very tall Sand (by way of Clint Eastwood)...except with poofy eighties hair.

And the main villain is basically the evil queen from Snow White. In SPACE!

I'm still not entirely sure how the powers work. And the DVDs are totally not in order. (We can tell because there's actual continuity!)

Now if only the psychic girl could stop fainting, it'd be a show.

posted by kalinara @ 12:35 PM  

11 Comments:

  • At January 05, 2007 2:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    First, I really thought this was an actual dubbed anime cartoon; even this early, people were trying to copy the style? Wow.

    I think that's why I didn't pay attention when the girl kept fainting. Fainting psychic token girls are just part of Japanese anime and its millieu. I think it's because of Japan and its by-our-view old-fashioned sex roles. Usually, anymore, they change it up a bit, but if the series was domestically made that way, then, well, I don't know what to say.

    Wait, yes, I do. I want to say that superteams of any stripe really don't need a psychic twit who stands on the sidelines holding their head and contributing observations about how the people trying to hit their teammates are feeling angry. Or saying the obviously-monstrous thing is the villain du jour. Let's face it, that's usually what they do.

    Probably one of the best changes I can think of as far as excising the wilting psychic flower role without cutting out the character is from my personal guilty pleasure, Power Rangers SPD (which was way better than any series in the franchise has any right to be). In the Japanese series, the yellow Ranger was your typical token psychic female who could sense that the monster standing right in front of them and firing lasers was evil, usually with visible pain; in the US version, she could split into multiple bodies for maximum ass-kickage. In the recycled fight footage, they had to find reasons to explain why she might be holding her head and wincing, but overall, they did a good job of minimizing the stereotypical powers without minimizing her role.

    So, what I'm saying between long diversions, is that I always thought the weak psychic girl was more a product of its place of origin than its era. And it's neat to learn otherwise.

     

  • At January 05, 2007 2:41 PM, Blogger Bill D. said…

    Galaxy Rangers was a fun show, and it looked so much different than anything else that was being shown afterschool at the time. And it didn't just have the Fainting Pyschic Girl meme covered, but also the Usually Gruff Loner Who Is Now Slowly Starting To Fit In (And Oh Yeah, He Has A Shadowy Past) one as well. This show covered all your basic X-Men types.

    I didn't know it was out on DVD now. I'll have to check that out.

     

  • At January 05, 2007 5:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Speaking of Jerry Orbach, one of his few Sci-Fi endeavors was a guest role on Buck Rogers. Hearing Orbach's native Noo Yawk accent in THE 25TH CENTURY was quite surreal.

     

  • At January 05, 2007 6:21 PM, Blogger Will Staples said…

    Huh, I never heard of this show... probably because the only cartoons I was watching at the time were on Nick Jr.

    I'm surprised they copied the anime art style, too. I didn't know that Macross and Space Battleship Yamato -- er, I mean, Robotech and Star Blazers :P -- were popular enough in the States to spawn imitators.

     

  • At January 05, 2007 7:21 PM, Blogger LurkerWithout said…

    Netflix has Galaxy Rangers? My recomendations area has been proven fricken USELESS!

     

  • At January 05, 2007 7:32 PM, Blogger Ferrous Buller said…

    "THE GALAXY RANGERS!"

    [cue 80s rawk soundtrack]

    I am faintly embarrassed by how fond I was of this show as a wee lad: I think it and Robotech were my favorite `toons back in the 80s.

    Boys and our blaster-firing toys, I guess. :-)

    So I'm gratified to hear it still has its charms...if that's the word I'm looking for.

    I never thought the art style was particularly anime-ish, though: it always looked closer to other `80s American `toons to me than, say, Robotech or Star Blazers. I mean, look at those tiny eyes! Those vaguely proportional bodies! And nary a skinny pretty boy in sight!

    And true, Niko does play the "passive wilting psychic" most of the time - but did you notice that she also gets to carry the biggest gun? Make of that what you will...

     

  • At January 05, 2007 10:11 PM, Blogger Dave Menendez said…

    First, I really thought this was an actual dubbed anime cartoon; even this early, people were trying to copy the style? Wow.

    Actually, I think it was a Japanese-American co-production.

     

  • At January 06, 2007 4:32 AM, Blogger D.Bishop (aka Mr. Allison Blaire) said…

    wow

    I have an episode I downloaded years ago , didnt think there were actual dvds or releases made of the show

    of all the futuristic cowboy cartoons from the 80s this was my favorite

    this and Bravestar

    I wonder if they have any Spartakus episodes ?

     

  • At January 06, 2007 7:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Dave: Actually, I think it was a Japanese-American co-production.

    That's pretty neat. I always thought that Japanese-American co-productions and American/European shows with a deliberately anime-esque style were a relatively new trend.

     

  • At January 06, 2007 2:48 PM, Blogger SallyP said…

    Oh God, I loved this show, which did come out in the mid 80's. Actually I always thought that Niko was pretty cool, yes, she fainted sometimes, but she also kicked people in the face occasionally, which is ALWAYS fun.

    What I liked is that it had a character that was married, and had kids! Granted, the wife was kidnapped and put into a star-stone induced coma, the main plot was him trying to rescue her, but how married cartoon charaters were there at the timed? Or now for that matter.

    And it had a cheesy title song that was fun, and Goose was kind of sexy, and Doc was funny, and what the heck.

     

  • At January 07, 2007 3:47 AM, Blogger Ununnilium said…

    *Loved* this when I was little. Love. Loooove.

     

Post a Comment

<< Home