I’m Smith, He’s Jones #1

“Spring Rain” by Rvkh

“Mushkind” by Rvkh

“Nystar” by Rvkh

So this year we’ve bene looking back at fun things  of years ending with a 2; we’ve already covered 2012, 2002 and 1992, so this month we’re listing our favorite films from 1982, one of the best years ever for cinema! So, are y’all ready to “conduct the lightning”?

Hai. Combine a heroic team of endearing kemonomimis with thrilling aerial magick combat and magnificent military mecha in an alternate reality’s 1944, with quite the bit of amewsing slice-of-life moments and ’fan service’ and there you have the Strike Witches a.ka. the World Witches series, the military moe /magickal  girls with guns series of light novels, manga, anime (TV series, movie & OVAS) & video games plus a few spin-offs since 2007.

The anime TV series is based upon the manga by Humikane Shimada & Projeckt Kagonfish which was serialized in Comp Ace magazine, published monthly by Sneaker Bunko. The purremise of this series is that instead of a 2nd World War, countries analogous to our own US, Britiain, Japan, Germany, Italy, Russia and so forth have united against alien invaders called the Neurois, whose mysterious dark aircraft have decimated Europe.

In response, the multi-national 501st Joint Fighter Wing  known as The Strike Witches and other teams were created. The 501st is compurrised of girls with magickal abilities who can create very ornate magickal deflector shields, and they fly into combat not on brooms, but with the magickal mana-powered mechanical Striker Units which resemble aircraft fuselages worn around each leg, hence the witche wear short skirts instead of pants.

When a witch uses her powers, animal ears & tail are manifest. For example,Yoshika’s are Shiba Inu, Perrine’s are Chartreaux Cat, and Eila’s are Black Fox.They carry weapons such as Perrine’s Bren Gun, Sanya’s Fliegerhammer, and Gertrude and Erica’s MG-42s. The Striker units resemble the fuselages of real aircraft, such as Mio’s Yamanishi Shiden Model 53 N1K5-J, Lynette’es Spitfire Mk.22, Charlotte’s P51D, and Mina’s Bf109K-4.

They group attempts to liberate Berlin from the Neurois in Road to Berlin, which is the 3rd season of the Strike Witches anime TV series, which aired in Japan in 2020 and was recently released here on Blu-Ray by Funimation. Purrduced by Takashi Tachisaki and directed by Kazuhiro Takamura, the character, mecha and scenic design, art and animation are supurrb, with the wonderful voices, sound FX and Nagaoka Shigemu’s rousing mewsic.

This Blu-Ray set includes epurrsodes 1-12 plus special features upon the two disks with the digital copy instuction sheet packaged in the plastic case with the outer cardboard sleeve.The reverse side of the insert is the wraparound pic of Mio. The 1080p HD video is of the 16:9 screen aspect ratio, with the Dolby TrueHD audio choices of English 5.1and Japanese 2.0, and theoptional  English subtitles. The few special features include the “eyecatch” gallery, and 12 textless versions of the opening song.

I wish there were far more special features, but I found Road to Berlin to be highly entertaining, due to the excellent story, characters, mecha and world-building, plus the great balance of charming, joyful, sad, heroic, cute, zany and slice-of-life moments in addition to the thrilling combat scenes. I will give it the “A” grade, and I hope that the subsequent spin-off series Luminous Witches will be released here on Blu-ray soon. Nyow here is Nya-sensei to discuss

Arigato! I have been enjoying the heck out of the live-action and animated Star Wars series on Disney Plus, such Star Wars Visions, Clone Wars season 7, The Bad Batch, The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, which stars Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett, Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand, and Pedro Pascal as Din Djarin, plus many other characters whose surpurrises I do not wish to spoil!

This series has the seven epurrsodes which are spun off of The Mandalorian and are set 5 years after Return of the Jedi, with appurrances by certain characters from Epurrsodes I-V, the Clone Wars and Rebels. There even seem to be some veiled references to the Star Wars Holiday Special, which was Bobba Fett’s first appurrance in 1978, about the year and a half before The Empire struck back in 1980!

This series also goes a long way in atoning for the Tattooine scenes of Return of the Jedi, such as that 1983 movie’s regrettable Rancor FX and the Fett’s embarrassingly silly Sarlacc Pit fight scene.  It’s the most “western” Star Wars, moreso than even the Han Solo movie, but not as “samurai” as Star Wars Visions. The Tusken / Sandpeople flashbacks remind me of the movie A Man Called Horse.

I have no purroblem with Fett not wearing his helmet all the time. Like Bo Katan, Sabine Wren, etc his spirtual path is not the same as Din Djardin or The Armorer. I almost didn’t recognize Matt (What We Do in the Shadows) Berry’s voice as 8D8, but Corey Burton’s voice was unmistakable as a certain bounty hunter who’s name I won’t reveal as not to spoil anything.

Arigato! Haruhiko Mikimoto is a lengendary Japanese animator, character designer, illustrator and manga-ka whose famous works include anime, manga, novels and games such as Gundam,  Macross, Gunbuster, Megazone 23, Orguss, Quo Vadis, Hi-Speed Jecy, Marionette Generation, and Tytania!

Published by PIE Books, and priced $49.99 USA & £40.00 UK, this 208 page 12” x 8.5” x 7/8” hardcover by Mikimoto is chock full of hundreds of annotated images that are as beautiful as beautiful can be! Representing the master’s career from the 1980’s to the present. it also includes more his recent works such as Blue Remains, Kabaneri, Khamrai, Koyasai, Tottoi, Mirage of the Flower, and Hatsune Miko!

I lost count of the hundreds of images of all sizes, but I’d say there are over four dozen full-page pics, over a dozen two-page spreads, and hundreds of other images of various sizes. I will give it the high praise grade of the “A” as in Aquarian Age! Now Trini-chan wants to tll us about—

Trini-chan:

Hai! We are fond of the books about the design of the Star Wars productions so I am pleased with this book by published by Abrams and written by Lucasfilm’s Creative Art Manager Phil Szostak, who also wrote The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story, and The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian I!

The full color, 256 page, 11 5/16“ x 10 7/8” x 7/8” dust – jacketed hardcover is purriced at $40.00 in the USA, $50.00 in Canada and £30.00 in the UK. The jacket front llustration of Mando & Grogu is by Lucasfilm Executive Creative Director Doug Chiang ( who wrote the book’s forward), and the jacket back llustration of Ahsoka Version 01 is by Lucasfilm Senior Concept Designer Brian Martyas.

With the case’s wraparound illustration of Crash Spider Version 105 by concept supurvisor Ryan Church, this book is the lavish collection of sketches, storyboards, concept art, paintings, diagrams, 3D models and comments for the characters, creatures, costumes, props, mecha, graphics, environments and FX of the 2nd season of The Mandalorian TV series.

The hundreds of other images by the dozens of contributors include many half-page pics, twenty full – page pics, two1.5 page pics, and twenty-five two-page spreads! I will highly recommend this beautiful informative book to fans of Star Wars, the science fantasy genre, cinematic design, and beautiful art in general; and I hope that there will be a similar book for The Book of Boba Fett! Now here is Mike to discuss the

I’m Smith, He’s Jones #1!

Alias Smith and Jones was a fun early 70’s Western TV series about two outlaws Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry who try to go straight with new identities, while a governer secretly considers pardoning them, but every week some new trouble would find them.  As a kid in the mid 70’s before we got cable TV, I watched reruns of it and Star Trek, Time Tunnel, Then Came Bronson and other shows that comprised Bob Gordon Theater, a weekend show on a channel out of Winston-Salem.

Meanwhile, the 70’s were a golden age for Star Trek fandom, during which I found out fanzines. Nowadays most fanfics and fan art is posted to the internet, but in those days there were no web sites and few fans had computers, so fan fiction, art and essays were typically published in those amateur magazines and newsletters. The ones dedicated to Star Trek might be the most famous, but tof course here are fan works dedicated to, well, pretty much any subject that has its fans.

Jim and Melody Rondeau have been famous fans, collectors, authors, artists and publishers for many decades; buying and selling fanzines, magazines, books, comics, games, film clips, posters, memorabilia and so forth at cons and through their web site Make it Go Away http://www.crossovers.net/makeitgoaway/home.htm. It has been a joy to make their acquaintance, do business and trade art with, so I was quite eager to get a copy of their latest fanzine, I’m Smith, He’s Jones #1!

Edited by Jim & Melody, published by their Buffalo Chip Press in January, and limited to a first print run of 75 copies, the 8.5×11” zine has 114 stapled pages (plus covers), consisting of nine short stories and a poignant essay by Pamela J. Corsa, six short stories and a couple of vignettes by Terrence Oswald Knova, four illustrations and five limericks by Melody, and a cordial opening editorial by Jim. I don’t want want to spoil the plots of the captivating tales—

– but I will broadly say that they range from charming, whimsical and adventurous to suspensful, tragic, poignant and bittersweet. Melody’s Black and White art of Heyes, The Kid and the horses is quite delightful, and I especially liked the pic that accompanied the Cat House Tale! Not only was this old-fashioned. top quality fanzine such a lovely read, but it put me in a wonderfully nostalgic mood, almost like I was 50 years younger, and that ain’t bad! Ah, that’s all for our book reviews, so now I’ll turn The Mew over to Lizzy, Becca and Nyo-sensei who’ll present the