DKW: Are you telling me I’m NOT going to get a heartrending backstory on the horrific childhood trauma that birthed Strikeman? I’m shocked, I tell you. Shocked. 
I would have put Fatal Fury at the TOP of the fighting game anime molehill, actually. Not saying too much, but they were attractive and the direction was competent-to-good, and worked in a turn-off-your-brain way. I didn’t see Toshinden, but then, I don’t think I ever played it, either.
Sunspace: Well, I’m not Smiling Bandit, but I’ll field that one if he doesn’t mind. I liked the movie a lot, though Jet was once again criminally shorted on both screen-time and plot importance. If you were confused about character-related stuff, (Spike and Jet were introduced fairly well, I thought, most of the others, especially Ed, weren’t) the TV series will probably clear it up. If it was world or tech related, it probably won’t help much, as the world was never gone into much detail to begin with.
You probably want to see the TV series anyway. It’s loads of fun. Actually, the movie doesn’t quite seem to fit into the TV continuity, a nitpicker might point out that the earth is supposed to be constantly have giant boulders falling from the sky.
Odd that they dropped the rest of the title, ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.’ Probably a licensing thing . . .
This is actually a pretty consistent problem with anime movies, and one of the reasons why the long-time anime-fan expectation of ‘a movie that’ll kick anime into mainstream’ didn’t, and won’t, happen. Of course, it really doesn’t need too. It’s slowly sneaking over that border all on its own.
Anime movies are almost always follow-ups to TV series, OAVs, or at least a manga series. So they assume a knowledge of the setting and characters already. And, unfortunately, they frequently just aren’t that great, unless you’re already a fan.
Speaking of pure entertainment, the oddly named Eat Man ‘98 was a load of fun. Sort of an update of the ‘wandering badass’ animes of the 80s, (which themselves were pretty heavily influenced by the American wandering badass TV shows of the 70’s and early 80s) Our hero, Bolt Crank, (man, I wish MY name was Bolt Crank) the Worlds Greatest Mercenary, wanders through a sort of microcosm of anime genres, passing megacities, desert badlands, tiny hamlets, and a weird final-fantasyish kingdom, making the world a better place, or at least a quieter one.
Has the rather bizarre ability to eat anything, and then at a later point produce it (whole) in his hand. Not only is this never explained, no one ever seems to question it. Mostly guns, but sometimes other stuff. Well done on pretty much every level. Ok, the scripts are pretty formula, but as long as we’re all having fun, who cares? The music is FANTASTIC.
I picked up Rune Soldier on Tuesday, and finally watched it yesterday. Pretty much what you’d expect from Ryo Mizuno, the mind behind Slayers. Having played Final Fantasy, a fighter, priest, and thief (all female) know they need a mage to fill out the party. Unfortunately, most of them are geeks who have no intention of leaving school to poke around in dark smelly places. The only one available is a big dumb . . . well ok, it’s Gaurry Gabriev. (big dumb-but-kinda-nice guy) Most of the humor is of the traditional male abuse, running around and screaming, and people doing really dumb things variety. It’s fun, though.
Since Slayers: Again fell through, this is the closest to more we’re going to get. And since that had pretty much reached the power-level ceiling, maybe it’s not a bad idea to start over. And the (female) fighter is a body builder type who’s only wearing a loincloth and a bikini, so I’m basically sold, anyway.
‘Justice is Love! Justice is Truth! Justice is . . . STRIKEMAN!’ (Or something like that. I seem to have lost my YUA graphic novels.)