Time Bokan and the Skeletons of Cartoon VIllainy.

The Time Skeletons of the 1975 TV Anime Time Bokan are in Japan among the most Iconic villains in all of Animation.  This year will be their Fiftieth Anniversary.

But we Western Weebs haven’t had a lot of direct experience with them.

I’m among many who the first time I heard about them was in an AniTube video about how they were a big part of the inspiration for Team Rocket (Jesse, James and Meowth to be precise) in the Pokémon Anime.  The 2018 Anime Last Period had a group of villains I was comparing to Team Rocket as it aired and then when I learned about the Time Skeletons I immediately made that connection.

More recently we also learned how Waluigi was based on Glocky and the discarded Wapeach was based on Marjo which retroactively makes Wario into a Walther, or maybe he always was? 

There are no doubt many more.  When considering how similar to the Time Skeletons a group of villains are, there are many factors to consider.  Are they just functioning in the plot/story the same way or are there more specific parallels?  Are they only similar as a group or can each member be compared to a specific Time Skeleton?  Do they visually look similar?

And in that context Team Rocket are among the most distinct from the originals of confirmed admitted Time Skeleton descendants.

For as much as the Time Skeletons are the Ur Text of so many Anime villains they are themselves also a product of trends and archetypes that came before them.   Who their predecessors within Anime are is something someone who knows way more than I do about very old Anime will have to look into.  But I happen to know a bit about what prior American Cartoon villains have some similar qualities.

Boris and Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle are among the first to come to mind.

I had long thought of Waluigi as looking a lot like Dick Dastardly, so after learning about this I’m thinking maybe Glocky is the missing link.

Marjo’s Iconic Costume actually reminds me a lot of a Costume Catwoman wore during much of the 70s in DC Comics.  But this Costume didn’t appear in Animation till Batman The Brave and The Bold in the 21st Century and I have no idea if any actual Batman Comics made it overseas to Japan during the 70s, so that similarity could be a coincidence.

This is one of many posts on my Blog where I don’t have a final thesis or anything, I just like thinking about these kinds of things.

Public Domain Expansion continues.

This is a follow up to a post I made in January of last year, make sure to read it first.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2024/01/popeye-and-betty-boop-should-be-next.html

Popeye is in the Public Domain now, but many aspects of his lore are not yet, most notable some key supporting characters like Bluto.

Some have made a thing out of the Spinach connection technically being added years later, but that lame Horror movie felt safe including it.  Since Spinach itself as a real vegetable can't be Copyrighted there's a good chance including it in ways other then as a Power Up is probably fine.

Poopdeck Pappy will be one of the last major Popeye characters to enter the PD.  But on some level now that Popeye's the PD can you really copyright the idea of having a character who looks like him but older and saying that's his Dad?  It's really just a matter of specific names.  (For years my ideal fan casting for Popeye's dad has been Michael Hogan most known for playing Colonel Tight in BSG 2004, but due to his recent Medical Concerns he may not be acting again in the future.)

Maybe you can try to argue the same thing about Bluto?  A Character who's at his core just Bigger bad Popeye?  But I think that'd be a harder case to argue, and that no fans of the character would be happy with a version changed and renamed to avoid Copyright.

I want to return to the topic of the biggest next year entrant, Betty Boop.  I've recently learned she was originally an Anthropomorphic Dog and that the the Character Design we usually think of when we hear the name isn't introduced till 1932.   Now I wouldn't be opposed to Mahou Shoujo Betty Boop also being a Dog Girl Furry.   But still what people really want to see won't be available till 2028.

Anime 2005 Twenty Years later.

I’m not going to go as in depth as my equivalent 2004 post last year.

A lot of Anime in 2005 were continuations of 2004 shows, or sequels to 2004 shows, or spiritual follow ups in some fashion.  From getting more Pretty Cure and Nanoha to Mai Otome.

But it was also a year where new trends were started and new groundwork laid.  Air and Shuffle ushered in a Golden Era of Visual Novel adaptations. And in the Hentai world the start of PoRo as a studio and NTR as a genre with True Blue.

Blood+ and Karin are both neat Vampire shows to remember when October rolls around.

In the world of what was getting Localized in the West, I don’t have any specifics on me right now but I suspect most stuff from 2000-2002 that got Localized at all had the localization started at least by the end of 2005.

In the world of source material that got Animated later we had School Days, the second Durarara!! LN, and more of both Index and Higurashi. 

For Detective Conan, nothing really big happened in the TV Anime main plot wise, I don’t know how many 2005 episodes I have seen but 394-396 was that year’s Kaito Kid appearance.  It’s possible the big Anime events of 2006 happened in the Manga in 2005 including episode 425 but I'm unsure. That year's movie was the 9th which some consider the last good one. I consider it pretty good. 

Superman fans need to stop bickering and act like Superman

I’m tired of seeing discourse around the new Superman Trailer about fighting between Snyder fans and James Gunn fans, from both sides.

Going off this trailer I personally expect Gunn’s movie to be my favorite Superman movie so far, the closest any Live Action film has come to what I personally would make.

But I'm not a hater of Snyder’s Superman, go through the history of this Blog and you’ll see what a long time Snyder apologist I’ve been.  Yes there was a time after Batman V Superman first game out when I was sometimes down on that film but the more I rewatched it the more I came to appreciate it.

The Snyder haters keep accusing those being negative about this trailer of being “stuck in the past” but so are you that can’t praise something you like without dwelling on some decade old films you still have a grudge against.  Calling “Cultists” anyone who liked Snyder’s take and wanted more of it is absurd.  

There is one Live Action Superman movie I have no fondness for (and a couple Animated ones) and would even at one time have said I Hated, and there was a time when I was young and immature and in my 20s when I wouldn't shut about it. But then I grew up, now I prefer to just pretend that movie doesn't exist.  I don’t feel the need to complain about the takes on Superman I don't like everytime I express excitement for the many I do.

But to Snyder fans, everytime you hate on every little detail of this movie that isn’t out yet you are being the same as the 2013 people who hated everything about Man of Steel simply for not being exactly like Richard Donner’s Superman or STAS or whatever Comics they were Nostalgic for.  

Snyder got a full Trilogy which is more than many MCU directors got, he’s happily moved on to his Rebel Moon project which I have very much enjoyed.

And if you honestly are genuinely upset at this new movie not having the Darker Depressing tone of Snyder’s movies, congratulations you are everything I was trying to convince people Snyder fans were not.