[Personal Shoplifter™] Speaking of Cyber City Oedo 808 (US Manga Corps, 2005)

Just so'z you know, Amazon has the classic 3-episode OVA (original video anime) Cyber City: The Final Collection listed at the low, low price of $4.99––but sometimes even lower! For instance, it was listed at $3.81 when this blogger unhesitatingly snagged a copy of this DVD on Black Friday back in 2012. At that time, he hadn't even heard of Cyber City: Oedo 808. But there wasn't much to lose, getting the title for that price. And the reviews on it were enticing. What's more, the buy seemed like a super safe bet when considering that the folks behind Cyber City were director Yohiaku Kawajiri and Madhouse, the makers of the cult-classic anime Ninja Scroll. If you're also a fan of cyberpunk-themed anime productions of the late '80s and early '90s like Bubblegum Crisis and Ghost in the Shell, then this "exciting and well-crafted" (DestroyAllMonsters) OVA is a highly recommended steal of a deal™.

Cho kawaii!! – Crystal Kay interviews Alicia Keys

Acknowledgement is the first step: Confessions of Prince Planet cartoon junkie

The black and white kid's show Prince Planet (aka Planet Boy Papi), for countless numbers of snot-nosed kids living in and around "Chicagoland" in the mid-1970s, was an innocent-looking cartoon gateway drug that lead an untold many into lifelong spiral patterns of addiction for the animated films and TV shows of Japan. 

This blogger/failed addict in recovery was an impressionable 4 year-old when Prince Planet was aired at 3:00 in the afternoon on WSNS Channel 44, a station situated on the ultrahigh frequency or UHF dial of antique analog TVs. 

On weekday afternoons, after being awakened from my midday nap, I would scramble like a little lunatic to the television in the living room, 'jonesing' like a junkie for my quick fix, my daily dose of that half-hour high called Prince Planet.   

It's nearly indescribable, the hold that this cartoon had on myself and also many others who, I would learn later as an adult, were similarly effected by its habit-forming charms. It was an appeal that grabbed at us all from multiple levels; from the catchy, kid-voiced theme song and the show's brave kid hero, to the crazy cast of equally brave supporting characters, wicked villains, and planet-spanning adventures. 

Prince Planet was like no other cartoon show on TV. Unless, of course, you'd been a kid in during in the 1960s –– which I hadn't –– and had the pleasure of seeing episodes of the exciting Astro Boy or Gigantor (which I didn't), two other black and white imports from Japan that also featured pint-sized heroes.   

And then, quite unexpectedly, I turned on the TV one day to find that Prince Planet was gone, replaced in the 3:00 time slot by another show called Speed Racer. 

Unlike the monochromatic cartoon that I had come to adore, Speed Racer had been produced in color––apparently the kind of thing that was more attractive to advertisers, whose dollars paid for the commercial airtime that sustained TV stations like WSNS. 

I, of course, being a lil' kid, had no idea about the very shady business side of the TV racket. It took a while to get over the sense of loss that was felt, but soon enough I warmed up to Speed Racer. 

Despite my age, I was still astute enough then to realize that, like Prince Planet, Speed Racer characters had similarly large eyes. And though I was still too young to understand the connection, I was satisfied just thinking that there was one, and that the large-eyed look suggested something in the way of uniqueness. 

[Press-N-Play®] Finger 5 – I Want You Back (Jackson 5 cover)

Yes, The download link on the old Finger 5 post on YKFS has been broken for a while, so... "I Want You Back" is being made available again here for a limited time. (Meaning for as long as the free downloads last.) You're welcome.