The Running Man

In the early 90's I was exposed to anime and some phenomenal stuff at that too. What attracted me to it was the attention to details. One could follow shadows into the furrows on a character's brow; split screen action shots and many other gimmicks. If you've seen the cartoon series Samurai Jack one can see each and everyone of these cliches in one episode. Today the anime scene sucks and can be compared to Bollywood movies- garish in use of colours and unrestrained melodrama.

The Running Man was directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Its split up into two parts and uploaded onto youtube by someone considerate. Yoshiaki Kawajiri was also behind the Ninja Scroll series and the 'World Record' episode in the Animatrix. Enjoy the wonder that was yesterday's anime.

Part 1
Part 2

Growing Up in the 80's (Part 1): SUPER TED!

In the 80's, I grew up watching cartoons & programs mostly produced in the UK. I've seen most of the stuff produced by Cosgrove Hall and then some. So in a series of posts I'll introduce you to some of the best stuff I have ever seen till date. Around that time a lot of anime-esque shows were gaining popularity and most kids my age preferred watching violent crap like G.I. Joe and mecha shite. I loved the non-violent stuff produced by Cosgrove Hall. I think this was because I started reading voraciously around the time and most of the cartoons were based on popular children's books. These cartoons were unlike the melodramatic soaps (read as pokemon & anime) of today. To start of the series we have Super Ted! He needs no introduction as the following clip says it all.



It still is one of the coolest intro for a cartoon in my book. Note the orchestral score in the background. One important thing about Super Ted is that he looks like an ordinary teddy bear. But at the first sign of trouble he says his magic word & unzips his ordinary guise and becomes SUPER TED! Incidentally, The magic word was given to him by Mother Nature. We never hear the magic word when Ted mumbles it. Ted tells us that it is so because its a secret. The wee bastard!

Ted lives with two friends on Planet Spot - Spotty Man (voiced by the 3rd Doctor Who -Jon Pertwee) and Blotch (a female version of Spotty Man). The Villain is Texas Pete and he is an American and definitely not nice . Pete has two cronies - a timid Skeleton who loves kittens and soft things; The other guy is a fat guy called Bulk (he is the duh-dumb type). The show was originally produced in Welsh and later dubbed into English.

For further entertaining stuff about SuperTed look here and here.