06-Jul-2000
In the interests of keeping this parody comprehensible for those who have not seen all of the shows which Heero seems to have fixated on, I present some notes.
Please note, I am not trying to do more than give a basic idea of each show, so that the humor can be seen. Please do not tell me that my summaries are not complete. I am well aware of this.
Also, some of these are either from series that I have only seen once or twice, so if there are errors in either the title or the various names, please accept my apologies.
Possible spoilers, certainly one in the bit about X.
The various anime and manga parodied in this series are, in order of appearance:
I have made a cast list for each show, listing which character Heero believes each pilot to be, and the role he believes that they play in the show. Some may be a little cliched, and some may differ a bit from the norm, but remember, we are looking at all of these casting choices from Heero's point of view, and he's not terribly sane, just now.
A magical girl show starring a clutzy young girl named Usagi who turns out to be a heroine named Sailor Moon. Lots of posing, leaping about and inspirational speeches while fighting against the forces of darkness. Usagi is crazy about Tuxedo Kamen....
Cast:
A show featuring brave young men, a princess and their large robots. The robots are giant lions that can form one huge humanoid robot when all are assembled together. The lions are hidden about the planet in various bizzare locations, all of which can be reached from the princess' castle. The villain (who has long white hair) spends all his time trying to disable the robots and capture the princess.
Cast:
Another group of young people with fighting machines. These brave freedom fighters are attempting to free a decimated earth from the clutches of a hideous alien race. Lancer is a character who, to escape the enemy, assumed a persona as a _female_ popular performer named Yellow Dancer.
Cast:
This is the story of a police force armed with giant robots. Their mission is to stop the rampages of _other_ giant robots. A quasi-comedy/sitcom type of situation. Noa is in love with her Patlabour and possibly Shinohara. Ota is in love with violence. The Captain sits, schemes and watches it all.
Cast:
Another of those stories where an ordinary schoolgirl is swept away to a magical world where she becomes a heroine, finds love, and eventually returns home. (I personally never understood that. Sweep me away to a magical anime world and I ain't _never_ coming back.) This one features giant robots (more or less) called Guymelfs. The villians are actually messed up hero-types, while the heroes are also a bit confused. And Dilandau-the-psycho operates a red Guymelf.
Cast:
The story of a young man with an amusing curse and his zany martial arts adventures. Lots of magic, multiple fiancees, lots and lots of violence, shape changing and unbelievably eccentric characters.
Cast:
A CLAMP invention about the end of the world. Lots of bishounen, lots of angst, lots of symbolism, lots of death, lots of ambiguity and magical swords. X the Movie is not very much like X the manga, which is why Heero also read the manga. FYI, Fuuma kills his sister Kotori right in front of Kamui, which is why the whole business with Heero and Duo in the kitchen. And Subaru only has one eye....
Cast:
A story of four young women fighting the scary corporate empire and its insane robot-type creations. Urban Tokyo of the Future backdrop. The four young women in question fight in 'hardsuits', small armored body-suits.
Cast:
The story of a girl and her half-vampire sidekick.... He does what she tells him, albeit unwillingly, and his two demonic henchmen/people do what he tells _them_. Mosquiton also has a vampiric wife who is not particularly fond of the girl, for obvious reasons....
Cast:
The heart-warming story of a young high-school girl and her inner demons of jealousy, insecurity and paranoia. Oh, and her obsessive love interest, who has problems of his own.
Cast:
At this time, this is still a manga only - although I have heard that it is to be aired as an anime soon. Yet another story of a girl sucked into another time and place, though this time she ends up in feudal Japan, smack dab in the middle of a mess of demons. Kagome is the reincarnation of a priestess and must track down the pieces of a mystic jewel. A half-demon named Inu-Yasha (who was madly in love with her former incarnation) must grudgingly help her. Other allies include a small fox demon, Shippo, and a lecherous monk, Miroku. The previous incarnation of our heroine returns and is a very nasty customer indeed and much chaos ensues.
Cast:
More magical girls, again sucked from their own world to another. Here, Hikaru, Umi and Fuu must fight as magic knights, attain personal and spiritual growth and incidently save the world and the princess from the evil Zagato. (This being another CLAMP story, you know that it's a) not that simple and b) there's gotta be serious angst in here _somewhere_, but what the hey).
Cast:
Just for a change of pace, this time it's a _guy_ who's sucked away to a magical world to preserve the peace. Makoto is minding his own business when he, two schoolmates and a teacher get pulled away to the world of El-Hazard. There, Makoto is forced to crossdress as the missing princess that he resembles, and chaos ensues. He and his teacher, Fujisawa-sensei, must also enlist the aid of some rather interesting priestesses.
Cast:
Ooookay. This time it's a young man who has another world come to _him_. Tenchi is a young man just trying to live a normal life, unaware that he is actually the heir to an interstellar empire. About then six or seven alien girls decide to crash land/invade/come searching for someone etc all in the vicinity of his home.... And they all move in. Roll call!!! One demon space pirate, one mad scientist, two imperial princesses, two galaxy policewomen, our hapless hero, his lecherous father and his mysterious grandfather.
Cast:
Yet another CLAMP production, this one mostly angst free. The adventures of three elementary school students with money, power and a desire to protect young women from the forces of evil (or anything else that will keep our protagonist from having to finish his paperwork). Nokoru is a boy of unparalleled genius and the President of the Elementary School Council. His Secretary, Suoh, is a ninja and his Treasurer, Akira, is a Master Thief. The end of the series focuses around a tense, almost deadly argument with another boy from Nokoru's past named Idomu.
Cast:
Another CLAMP creation. This one does have angst, but if you're watching it on American TV, you'll probably never see it. Sakura is an elementary school girl who suddenly finds herself thrust into the traditional magical girl role. She is not pleased and argues with her traditional small, animal-type advisor about it at every opportunity. Her best friend, Tomoyo, delights in designing and dressing her up in the traditional type magical girl outfits, which Sakura dies of humiliation over in every episode. Sakura has an older brother named Touya who is very protective, and she's in love with his best friend, Yukito. Part way into the series, she meets another person who is chasing the cards. He is also young, the descendant of the person who made the cards, and not happy with her at all. We'll call him Li-kun as I can't remember his full name off the top of my head.
Cast:
End
And that's the end of my notes. Hope that helps those of you who were confused by some of my references.
Truth
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