Only really hard core manga fans who like the military/war genre (um, I'm one of those...) have probably ever read the US release of Motofumi Kobayashi's Cat Shit One titled Apocalypse Meow. It was published for a short time in the US by (who else?) ADV, before their manga division went belly up, so it's been out of print for for some time.While it was never more than an obscure title, it was a great manga and a really serious war drama set during Vietnam. The only thing that 'outsiders' felt was odd about it is that it characterized the US Troops as cute bunny rabbits, and the NVA troops as evil cats. It was the sort of manga that you will love and find extremely compelling, but you'll never tell your non-manga friends you ever read - much less actually show them a copy lest you get branded as one of those really bizzaro Otaku.
Anyway, word has been out for awhile that Anima is going to produce an Anime version of Cat Shit One (I just love repeating that title by the way...), but this time the Bunny's and Cats (or is that Camels?) are going to be fighting each other in Iraq. For some strange reason, this release is getting a lot of attention from folks outside of the Anime sphere, leading Steven Den Beste to write:
Suddenly I'm seeing posts about Cat Shit 1 all over the place on non-anime websites... ... It's kind of spooky, really. What are they doing playing in our yard?
Indeed, I smell a right wing conspiracy brewing already...
Ace notes uncomfortably on his blog:
Will Hollywood ever make a heroic movie about Iraq? Probably not. But the Japanese have. Trouble is -- this being Japan -- it stars animated bunnies fighting terrorist cats.
They have a trailer out now, and when you see it you'll understand why Anime fans are wondering what the big deal is, and non-Anime fans are wondering what's wrong with Anime fans:
Hell yeah!!! Those non-Anime people will just never understand... -_^
4 comments:
*bursts out laughing*
Ooooooo myyyy gooosh! Americans as cute little bunny rabbits blowing things up. That's so weird and funny!
My husband is USAF and has been to Iraq. I'm trying to picture him as a bunny... haha... it's hard to do!
Oh. My. God. That was awesome! I can't wait for this one!
A gun-related forum I frequent had one user describing this as:
"It's like Watership Down...but with AC-130 Gunships!"
And the bad guys appear to be camels, oddly enough. If they're cats, they are the oddest looking ones I've ever seen.
And the bad guys appear to be camels, oddly enough. If they're cats, they are the oddest looking ones I've ever seen.
Yep, they are definitely camels, I think they are just carrying over the 'cat' name from the manga. In the manga different animals represented different nationalities. The French were pigs, for instance. The irony there does not escape me. :-)
Post a Comment