Kamichu: A Little Bit of Heaven

If you're lucky enough to get the Imaginasian channel (Channel 157 on Time-Warner in LA), I recommend that you tune in at 8 p.m. on Tuesday night. That's because the cable channel's Anime Ener-G programming block (sponsored, ghostlike, by Geneon, even though Geneon itself is in reorganization and won't be buying advertising anytime soon) will rerunning episodes of a series we've grown to love, KAMICHU.

KAMICHU is a program that I cannot imagine an American channel would run -- in part because the concept is deeply rooted in Japan's pantheistic Shinto religion. The series' main character is Yurie (pronounced yury-eh), a rather immature 13-year-old girl who lives in a small seaside town near Hiroshima in the '80's. In the first episode, Yurie announces to her best friend that the previous night she somehow discovered that she is a god. And she is. In the Shinto religion, there is a god for everything that exists. And so the existence of a junior high school god is worthy of some note (there's an announcement on the school PA right after she inadvertently creates a typhoon with her face in the eye of the storm), but not a lot of fuss.

The title of the series is the magic word her friends make up for her to say to summon her power -- a contraction of the Japanese words for god and junior high student.

We learn that she's more powerful than the resident god in the Shinto shrine where her friend Matsuri lives (a god who acts more like a servant than a deity, and who yearns to be a rock star). We learn that the land is swarming with gods, who are generally invisible to all but Yurie and those whom she temporarily gives magical sight. She sets up a consultation tent at her school during lunch hours, and grants wishes to some who approach her with worthy wishes (although one of her first supplicants, the Prime Minister, turns out to have an agenda).

One could imagine that a comedy about a teenager who obtains divine powers would devolve into slapstick or lowball comedy. Certainly most kids Yurie's age could not be trusted with such might. But Yurie simply does not think of abusing her power for personal purposes (except, say, to change the TV channel from across the room without a remote). She remains dedicated to trying to live her life as a normal junior high student, yearning to catch the attention of the largely oblivious boy she likes, and dealing with Matsuri's various schemes to capitalize on Yurie's powers to help Matsuri's shrine.

The series overall has a soothing, relaxing feeling, from the opening harmonica theme through the cute closing. Aiding this is terrific writing from Hideyuki Kurata (creator of the READ OR DIE franchise, and screenwriter for the HELLSING ULTIMATE series) and the creative team that produced the ROD THE TV series a few years ago. A sign of the care put into the series is the attention paid to the setting. The town in which Yurie lives, the hill she rides her bike down, the ferry she and her friends ride to school, the businesses and the shrine all feel so real that if the viewer woke up in the town tomorrow, they could probably navigate their way around.

If you want to watch an anime that does not go down like a twice-frozen TV dinner (which happens with some of the more derivative series), check out KAMICHU.

More on Cat's Eye's and Orguss's US TV Debuts

Imaginasian TV will begin broadcasting its block of TMS shows -- including my fave, CAT'S EYE, and '80's gem ORGUSS -- on June 5. Further, anime retailer Right Stuf has landed the exclusive retail rights for the DVDs of the shows. The DVDs will be printed-to-order, and feature extremely low price points -- the starter sets for the first volumes (including a case for the remaining DVDs) will be $12.99, and subsequent volumes will be $9.99 each. (By comparison, most DVDs of anime TV series are $24.99 to 29.99 MSRP, and starter sets run in the $35-50 range.) Right Stuf announces that the first volumes should be ready in early July -- which, I believe, should be just in time for Anime Expo.

I'm there, dude.

Magicplay is Dancing

Excellent news for folks who, like me, are fans of 1980's anime from studio TMS: Imaginasian TV (Channel 157 on our cable network) has announced that beginning in June it will begin broadcasting a daily block of three subtitled TMS shows from the '80's. Best of all, one of those shows will be my all-time favorite TV anime series, CAT'S EYE. It will also be selling the three series as subtitled DVDs.

That CAT'S EYE is being picked up for broadcast and video is something of a minor miracle. Even though the series was broadcast through most of the rest of the world in the '80's, it was never picked up here, so most anime/manga fans have never heard of it. (By contrast, another anime series based on a manga by the same creator, CITY HUNTER, has had numerous episodes issued on DVD in the US, through ADV.) Actually, TMS tried to market the series to American TV in the '80's, even taking out ads in Variety and Hollywood Reporter; but for some reason, the syndicators weren't too eager to broadcast an animated series in which the main characters are, well, thieves.

Further, the commercial prospects for CAT'S EYE seemed dim now, 24 years after its debut, since (a) the series doesn't have giant robots, ninja, samurai, or magical-powered high school girls, and (b) the fashions, hairstyles and music are all extremely early-'80's vintage. Plus, while the series is delightful, funny, and exciting, with engaging characters and great art, one has to deal with the obviously-silly aspects of the plot. In a nutshell, three sisters find out that pieces from their artist/art collector father's collection have been showing up in the hands of various ne'er do wells. So the ridiculously talented ladies set out to steal all the items, in hopes that they will provide a clue as to their missing pop's whereabouts. Do they do so surreptitiously? Do they keep a low profile? Of course not. In the tradition of "gentleman" thieves, they brashly leave metal cards announcing their next heist. Sometimes they shoot the cards into police headquarters. And they call themselves (or at least, middle sister Hitomi) "Cat's Eye." Further, they maintain a coffee shop -- across from police headquarters. And the coffee shop is named -- uhm -- Cat's Eye. And sister Hitomi's boyfriend is -- wait for it -- a police detective. The one whose primary case is, yes, tracking down Cat's Eye.

Sure, it's a high-concept series that Aaron Spelling would have loved, but it's great. Trust me.

Another one of the TMS series being broadcast/sold is ORGUSS. (No, it's not what you think.) This series holds a place in anime history not only as a neat science fiction/time travel/giant robot series, but also as an unofficial sequel of sorts to a much more lionized series from that era, MACROSS. Although MACROSS was produced by another studio, Tatsunoko, ORGUSS ended up with much of the same creative personnel -- most notably, character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto. ORGUSS, unlike CAT'S EYE, was partially released in the U.S. back in the early '90's, under the auspices of U.S. Renditions (whose principals included an old acquaintance of mine, David Riddick); but that was when the U.S. anime market was in its infancy, and only the first 17 episodes were released, with a fairly disappointing dub job.

I can only hope this new incarnation, and its sister series, have a better fate.


The images (if they ever appear above) are copyrighted by TMS and Tsukasa Hojo/Coamix.