Ronal the Barbarian

Ronal is the only weakling in a tribe of Barbarians.  They haven’t been invaded for years simply because no one is stupid enough to try.  Inevitably though the bad guys do arrive everyone bar Ronal is captured, so it is up to him to rescue everyone, find love and save the day.  You know, that kind of thing, until the point where Ronal’s invisible potion runs out before he can cover his balls…

Ronal the Barbarian is a Dutch-made film from the makers of Terkel in Trouble that parodies pretty much every fantasy film you could care to mention.  The barbarians are self-absorbed meatheads, the amazons are crazy nymphos and the bad guys are more than a little bit kinky.  The clichéd plot and shallow characters serve the film’s parody nature, and is a juvenile giggle throughout.  Also in its favour is that it’s one of the nicest looking CG films coming from outside of America.  It’s no masterpiece, but a bit of rude fun and requires next to no brain power.

It’s unavailable in the English speaking market, but is widely available on DVD from other countries and many of them include the English dub (I have a French copy for example).

Terkel in Trouble

 

Living up to the title, Terkel is indeed in trouble.  He is bullied every day at school, has parents who ignore everything he says and has also started to receive death threats from an anonymous villain.  True, he’s still an arsehole to his little sister and becomes friends with his bullies by becoming one himself, but frankly many kids of a certain age have that shitty streak about them.  You can either be offended by this jaded depiction of childhood or just go with it.

This is what happens when you go outside of your safe zone.  Wanting to experience a wider variety in my animation I chanced this Danish offering and was served this truly bizarre comedy.  This is a CG film that’s starting to show its age with its curiously grotesque character designs, woeful lip-synching and patchy humour.  The original Danish characters were voiced by the same person whereas the English UK-centric dub uses several.  So while it’s fun to hear the likes of Johnny Vegas and Bill Bailey having fun with the work, there is a fundamentally different approach applied to each version.  No doubt some details are lost in translation, but the overall mean-spirited tone seems pretty consistent between the two.

It takes a sizeable chunk of its 77-minute running time to get your head around Terkel’s dark sense of humour, and by dark I mean totally-sucks-all-the-goodness-out-of-the-world kind of dark.  I’ll admit I sniggered at the early pissing scene and the steady stream of schoolyard swearing, but later on I sat agape at songs  making jokes about domestic violence and another containing the classic line of ‘Piss off and die, for you’re an ugly twat and your mummy likes to shag horses.’ (yes, there are random songs dotted throughout the film).  It will offend pretty much everyone, and for a while I honestly did not know how to take it.  After crying for mercy at it brutality of its worldview I turned off the 40-minute mark, only to return the next day and finding myself enjoying it a lot more.  It was probably the desensitisation to super-bleak Danish humour, but at least now I can say I enjoyed it even though I am probably a little more dead inside because of it.

This is definitely a film that people will either love or loathe.  I’m a lover, but would consider very carefully when recommending to people with any sort of moral compass.

 

Detriot Metal City

… or DMC depending on who you ask.

This is one for the all the metalheads who don’t take themselves too seriously. Like a cross between Alice Cooper and Tenacious D, DMC rips into itself in a knowing way and holds little back.

Moving into the city to try and achieve his dream as an indie-pop artist, Soichi is a good boy who loves his mother, gentle melodies and being a super-hip musician. He does find success with his music, but only as the lead guitarist and vocalist in DMC, the heaviest death metal band around that is taking the industry by storm. The lyrics are vile and most bodily fluids are readily shared on stage for his adoring fans. You’d think he’d be happy to be making his way in the world, but Soichi resents his role as Lord Krauser II and does whatever he can to avoid performing while hiding his dual identity from his friends and family.

DMC is a situational comedy mixed with heavy metal. To be perfectly honest, I don’t really like Soichi as himself. He is a pathetic and limp do-gooder who will swallow all of his pride to keep up appearances. He does have a breaking point though, at which he seeks revenge as Krauser. Spitting down someone’s throat or dry humping people in public (affectionately referred to as ‘rape’) is the kind of low-brow thing to expect. It’s as offensive as it is ridiculous. I love it, but would understand if the constant torrents of swearing and filth put the majority of readers off.

It starts out as somewhat of a satire, but gradually turns into a familiar pattern of Soichi tries to be nice, gets burned, and then kicks ass as Krauser. It’s very funny, especially in the first few volumes, but would advise reading in shorter bursts as opposed to reading the whole thing in one sitting. It’s difficult to laugh at the same joke more than once, so it’s impressive that DMC is able to retell its joke so many times. The final few volumes develop a longer narrative, so the series is able to round itself out properly rather than outstaying its welcome.

This is a stupid and likably earnest manga that beats death metal into the otherwise gentle and inhibited societies such as ours. Satsugai!

Dojin Work

The dojin (self-published comics) scene is Japan is huge. With some artists selling multiple thousands of copies of their work it’s virtually a self-sustaining business within the world of manga. The lure of fame and fortune can be strong, particularly for protagonist Najimi who think it an way to sell out and make an easy living. Failing to take into account that drawing a comic is hard, let alone trying to actually sell your stuff, especially if your artwork stinks, we follow Najimi into a world populated with geeks and freaks.

A quick flick through a volume of this series won’t reveal a thing about this manga. The unglossy artwork does well to keep its hilariously jaded and mean sense of humour well under wraps from the passing eye, making the joy of reading this manga stronger as anyone seeing you read won’t have a clue to the filth being discussed within it. It’s no big secret that some dojin comics are porn, of which Dojin Work shows nothing. However the psychological impact on a creator making their first porn comic is hilarious (‘it’s like masturbating in public’ we’re told).

As time goes on Najimi’s sales steadily rise from single figures to double digits, against her friends who all regularly sell in the thousands. She gains a rival who issuitably awful and the two battle it out to get the best sales. Best character of all Tsuyuri who is comfortable with her status as a pervert and subtly manipulates her friends into making the worst and most embarrassing decisions on their creative journey. The whole thing is totally understated, but out of all the yon-koma available in English this is probably my favourite.

Of the six volumes, Anime Works only published up to the 4^th one and exists as one of my biggest wants of unfinished manga. They did also release the 12 episode anime series which is worth checking out as an emergency backup. If you’re familiar with the Comiket scenes from the likes of Genshiken and Lucky Star, you might be tempted to take a cynical glimpse at this anti-Bakuman series.

Tokyo Zombie

We’re told never to judge a book by its cover, but it’s probably fair to say if you don’t like the artwork on show here there’s little reason to dig deeper. Promoting a style described as ‘Heta Uma’ (bad, but good), Tokyo Zombie’s artwork is deliberately simplistic and causes much turning up of noses of readers browsing the manga aisles. Diversity in your manga reading is one thing, but for many this is a step too far.

Originally serialized in the underground AX magazine, Tokyo Zombie is about two amateur wrestling fans who find themselves in the middle of a zombie outbreak. The plot ambles on in its own peculiar way as our heroes munch their snacks while driving through crowds of zombies. Some stuff happens in between including zombie blowjobs and pig surfing, and culminates in a human/zombie showdown at an underground fighting arena amidst a social revolution. It’s as bizarre as it is stupid, and will have more people wondering what the point is rather than accumulating fans.

The manga was popular (or should that be ‘obscure’?) enough to warrant the making of a live-action film which came out on DVD in English a couple of years ago. To be honest I found its understated humour to be a little on the dull side, and it works a lot better in comic form. It’s undeniably stupid, and yes the artwork is quite, quite bad, but then who said that zombies were neat and tidy? As a final note the main character has an afro - some things I just can’t say no to…

Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo

You kind of have to wonder sometimes how a series is pitched to publishers, especially if your idea has little plot, wobbly artwork and virtually no sense of direction. But despite being in this predicament, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (that’s 7 lots of ‘bo’) somehow got itself a gig and went on to spawn 21 volumes, an anime and a further sequel series.

Running almost as a stream of consciousness, Bo-bobo is takes every typical fighting manga cliché you’ve read and then stamps all over it with loving prejudice. Bungee fights, attacking with nose hair and screaming special moves such as ‘Fist of the Wild Dance of the Infuriated Jelly’, there’s much to take in but little genuine content. Reading a single chapter requires a surprising amount of headspace to keep up the its random and destructive tendencies, and many will be put off by its constant juvenile stupidity with little else to back it up. There’s a guy with a turd for a head also. The quality of the series? It just. Doesn’t. Stop. Most pages have more ideas than most series run in a chapter. Quite what the mangaka’s inspirations are is anybody’s guess, but I doubt it’s anything legal.

Imagine if you were suffering from food poisoning, had taken laxatives and were high on laughing gas - This is manga diarrhea at its most violent,. I’ve yet to even finish the first volume… is that even a recommendation?

Note: Doing a little research for writing this it seems that the US release of this is pretty confusing. A solo volume was released a few years ago which actually turns out to be volume 9 of the Japanese release. If you buy volume 1, you’re actually starting at volume 11 and carrying on from there.