Welcome to the finale of the Revenge of the Lost Media as last week I covered a Shin Megami Tenzai series of a spinoff from a video game, now for the finale (and hopefully I don’t have to bring this back again) the finale will be about another anime but a well known series that I never seen but seem to have a following: this is the “Rose of the Versailles”.
The “Rose of Versailles” is a anime that takes place at a time for France that is going through another revolution the same revolution that would ascend Napoleon Bonaparte into status as famous general of history and if you know your French history: its not going to go well for a certain French figure: Marie Antoinette but this shows main focus is a woman named Oscar Francois de Jarjayes who was raised to be a boy and succeed her father to be a royal guard of the Palace of the Versailles, but this show is not about the violent revolution but a complex love story between her and her servant: Andre Grandier. I never seen the anime but this show has developed a grown underground cult following by anime fans and the setting in France serves as a great detail in this conflicted love story during a prolific event in French history, surprised this never had a crossover with Les Misérables (unless it did I don’t know, I never saw the series in full). It debuted on September of 1979 till September of 1980 as the animation studio behind was TMS to add to their long list of resume. Now what is this all about for this show?
During its runtime the show had its own issues like sudden cancellations because of multiple broadcasting conflicts an episode called “Portrait of a Burning Rose” that was aired frequently but never aired again nor in any public syndication or any home media release and streaming. Multiple blog posts dedicated to the series had many questions for this lost episode that was suddenly pulled from airing. Some say that was old drawings from previous episodes reused but that was widely disproven. What was the main plot for this mysterious episode, it was a about a necklace stolen which was a retelling of the Diamond Necklace that belonged to the Queen of France which long story short some say that she defrauded the crown jewelers that she refused to pay for but then her own signature was forged that continued the downward spiral of the French monarchy that lasted since the middle ages ended. But this episode would jump skip four years later as Andre would confess his live to Oscar. Now this sounds like a very interesting episode but some call into question if this one existed. Unlike my long previous entry about a lost Japanese commercial “Hitogata” this did have some evidence to support its airing. In August of 2020, Twitter user “@nakky16” uploaded screenshots of this lost episode like scenes like a young girl being pushed with a burning ‘V’ shaped iron, yikes. Or a scene of the confession of Oscar and Andre after a brief battle of the father of Oscar and last month of this year in March more screenshots of this episode surfaced. Now with this said you think someone would air the episode in full online. Your answer is Japan, they have a very strict and grounded prohibiting any airings whatsoever just look what happened with Suede and his Pokemon videos for an indicator that was taken down in full and threats of lawsuit. Fair used be damned. So, its very unlikely that an episode would air elsewhere, but we do know that it exists so its not a total loss.
(from user @Nakky16 the VHS tape that contains the Rose of the Versailles episode)
And that covers the entire Revenge of the Lost Media for this month, let’s pray I don’t do this again and in May we will get back into the saddle of regular lost media schedule and talk about a one of America’s well-known Tornadoes, a ominous photo and a lost documentary. The walking man has arrived in Texas.
Welcome to another edition of the Lost Media Files and to kick off the new year after well that was 2020 and like my previously entrees I cover pieces of lost media from movies, to shows, video games, art, literature, whatever; as in this month to kick off the new year is a stage show of another anime series; I covered Pokémon Live before which featured some future notable Broadway players like Andrew Rannells, this time I will cover about the series that depicts humans as their respective nationalities: this is the Hetalia Axis Powers stage show.
Hetalia: Axis Powers is a series created by Hidekaz Himaruya that depicts people from different nations living together during the events of the second World War and our main characters are Japan, Italy and Germany. The axis powers as main characters, so how does that work? But the charm to this show is each nation has a personality to distance themselves from the actual leaders of the time, some of the time is stereotypical like Italy loves Italian food and being a good artist, Germany adores being muscular, tall, blonde and military attire, Japan being uncomfortable if anyone gets to close or touches him but is willing to show his geek side with hiding magazines, at least here they are willing to show not be too stereotypical on the country as they had for different reasons, thanks Disney and Warner Bros. But this doesn’t also just go to these guys other nations have been involved and stereotyped like America is the loud, obnoxious, egotistical type kind of a accurate detail maybe a bit scarily considering how this has gone too in today’s age, Canada is mostly mistaken as America as the little brother at least they never said “eh” which give small chuckles or have America say “Ya’ll” which is there version of our word, Russia or the Soviet Union is the muscular type wearing a fluffy winter coat but stalks the Balkans. Again, kind of scary given what Russia is today, France is the master cuisine, the UK is brothers with England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland as England as a serious rival to France based of their age long history in the middle ages and both nations would get into series of hijinks between each other and other nations.
Hetalia also had other works like audio dramas, movies, video games but another idea that was eventually made as a live stage show that was in production with Yusei Naruse as the writer and Kotaro Yoshitani. The first of these stage shows was “Singin’ in the World” as it debuted on Christmas Eve in 2015, as the plot of the stage show was Germany trying to get to a major world conference but allies and his own friends Italy with Japan cause mischief in his venture trying to get there, the show also added puppet shows with every nation as puppet chibi forms. The show would run until it would finish their run-on December 29th.
The next stage series was called “Hetalia: The Great World” that would premiere on November 10th to the 20th in Tokyo, then Osaka sometime later and would run to November 26th. The plot follows the same as the previous stage show “Singin’” but no puppets, the next stage show was “In the New World” that ran from July 15th, 2017 to August 2nd 2017 as the plot follows the axis group split after the second World War, however upon discovering a diary left over from Russia the trio would reunite. The last of the stage shows was a finale called “A World in the Universe” that would serve as the final of the four musical stage shows and be a collection of songs of the previous shows but also new songs in to pad it out and as of this writing from Jump Fiesta in 2020 of last year it was revealed that another stage show of Hetalia is in the works for Japan.
Now how come we know so much of these stage shows? There were of course uploaded online, the first of these stage shows “Singin’ in the World” was fully found on DVD and sold pretty cheap, “The Great World” had a rip that existed way back in early 2017 but it was taken down and can’t be retrieved at all, “In the New World” has seen a release in November of 2017, but only in small clips has been uploaded as for the fourth last one it hasn’t seen any uploads at all. Pretty sure copyright has been a pain and with the recent DMCA takedowns on gifs I noticed, yeah it might be trouble for anyone who wants to upload any vids online also Japan has been cracking down on content illegally out there. But as of right now these stage shows are almost close to being found.
And that covers this entry of the Lost Media Files, for next month’s entry is a early top 10 is covering the bizarre world of public access shows, to the ones that are strange to one that was so controversial it only aired once with a taboo subject. I know that this is short, but consider this an appetizer for the February entry..
Japanese anime has been around ever since the introduction of film with the silent era from the very first one called Katsudo Shashin even though it is four seconds long, anime in general has come along way to being a popular genre even having inspired some shows like Avatar the Last Airbender to some regard being an anime, in this entry I am going to cover the disturbing characters in anime that is unsettling and disturbing. Coming soon a disturbing non-anime list so let’s begin.
10. Imperfect Cell (DragonBall Z)
Feels like a crime starting off with this but no matter how you put it, this fella deserves to be on here.
Imperfect Cell from “Dragon Ball Z” is a character that is certainly intimidating before being just a shmuck letting the good guys recover to eventually defeat him and not just wasting everything in sight that is my criticism on him. Maybe he just like doing it on camera as a showman? Anyway what makes him on the list is in this one episode where Cell confronts a man pleading for his life he is willing to pay for his life being spared and we watched the slow demise of the man as his insides are slowly eaten from the inside out.
9. Lil’ Slugger (Paranoia Agent)
Satoshi Kon was a manga writer with a unique way of story telling and nothing that showcases that with this anime series, now if you haven’t seen “Paranoia Agent” I highly recommend this anime, its one of the best of his early career along with the anime films like: Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika. I will be brief on this because I don’t want to spoil it but be on the look out for one character. His name is Lil’ Slugger. And who is that perhaps? Well you just have to watch and see.
8. Mad Pierrot (Cowboy Bebop)
His name goes without saying.
Cowboy Bebop is highly regarded as one of the best anime’s of all time and most people’s gateway into the genre thanks to Toonami being part of it helps. His debut is in the episode “Pierrot Lefou”, here it is revealed that Pierrot is a serial killer engineered as an experiment and after he escaped, he would go into a killing spree. His design is inspired by the Penguin from Batman: the Animated Series by his robust body and use of umbrella’s as a weapon of choice and during the preview of his episode he gives off a menacing laugh throughout the 20 seconds.
7. Hisoka (Hunter x Hunter)
Hunter x Hunter is a series that has seen life in recent years then go in hiatus many times by its writer Yoshihiro Togashi due to his health issues, while the anime weather you watch the 1999 version or the recent 2011 reboot it has some disturbing moments here and there one particular character that fits the bill is Hisoka Morow.
He serves as an antagonist and a licensed hunter, Hisoka’s main attacks are playing cards, his nen ability which is like some spiritual ability is Bungee gum, that can extend as the name persists. He also vows to be the one to battle Gon when he is stronger. In the manga later he finally gets his chance to battle Chrollo that he had a hard on after the York New Election Arc but he is defeated and presumed dead until he was reborn into his violent form and proceeds to kill two members of the Phantom Troupe. Good luck Gon…
6. The Noh Mask + Soul Piper (InuYasha)
I FINALLY get to talk about this show, InuYasha created by Rumiko Takahashi is a series about a girl leaping into the feudal era of Japan with adventures of a half-bred demon called InuYasha, a flirtatious monk named Miroku, a demon slayer named Sango and a young fox-demon named Shippo this show lasted from October of 2000 to 2006 as a new series called Final Act was created to serve as the final season that started in 2010 to 2011. The series in general was so popular that today as of this writing has a sequel series involving the daughters of the main characters.
The first unsettling character on this entry is about the Noh Mask, a Noh mask has been a long running tradition of Japanese theatres going back way into the 14th century of Japan. This mask is a demon that was sealed away after being exorcised however the mask would break free to cause havoc, the unsettling part of this as when the demon attaches itself to a victim it sucks the life out of them devouring the flesh on the inside like a giant dark blob it can even reach out to include people caught within the path of its need for a stable flesh.
made by Paramore from DeviantART
The next is the Soul Piper while not in antagonist in anyway this demon is anything but innocent, the Soul Piper is a demon that would play a flute to children who have died like in a war or some other unfortunate accident with the expense of having its eyes close before the child passes into the afterlife however if one child has died with deep hate and anger to someone living then the demon would slowly open its red blood shot eyes until it is fully opened then takes the child to their previous place of death to re-watch how they died and literally drags them to hell for all eternity.
5. The D-Reaper (Digimon)
Digimon is the last place for anything disturbing but this show had no problem pulling punches killing off characters from either self-sacrifice or being killed off from their main antagonist and here is no acceptation.
In Digimon Tamers a series that reigns supreme in being dark while having some light comedy relief, the D-Reaper was once a anti-viral program that becomes self-aware and is unleashed after Takato our cheerful main protagonist witness the brutal death of Leomon who we’d established as the Michael Biehn or Sean Bean of the Digimon series and fully becomes enraged with anger, the D-Reaper later ravages the digital world and then Earth after due to Geri who picks up a small marble that contained the D-Reaper to possess her as a broken husk of a person. I was going to include people turning into stone from Digimon Fusion from Lord Bagramon going into the real world or people being absorbed into a self-aware program called the Leviathan from Universe but the D-Reaper takes the cake of being disturbing from the way it manifests inside Jeri and becomes her to intimidate the Digidestined.
4. Johan Liebert (Monster)
An underrated anime series not often brought up “Monster” was created by manga writer Noaki Urasawa and aired in Japan from April of 2004 to September of 2005. The series is about a surgeon whose patient unknowingly is a serial killer and is constantly tormented by him. Johan Liebert is man who is calculative in his murders even as for when he was child and drag the person to their lowest and bringing them down to kill plus he’s voiced by Keith Silverstein who seems to be the master voice of the persuasive and calculative. Its almost very unnerving and terrifying to have a serial killer who is smart and knows what to do and what point they will do for their motives.
3. Nobuyuki Sugou (Sword Art Online)
“Sword Art Online” is what most people call ReBoot in anime form but if you die in game and already trapped inside it, you die in real life too sooo have fun!
Nobuyuki is a greedy, arrogant psychopath but a weak coward in real life who was the sole reason why 300 players were trapped inside Sword Art Online a game that is your standard adventure MMO with the Oculus Rift accessory, while a group of kids venture into the lands to find out who did plus there is one episode what shoots him into on this list. Nobuyuki sexually harasses Asuna. While one of her friends Kirito is tied up. He is eventually defeated and sent to prison although if I was Kirito I’d waste him for treating my friend like that, but that scene alone took everyone by surprise and shock.
2. Shou Tucker (Fullmetal Alchemist)
Yeah he’s here.
“Fullmetal Alchemist” is a show about two boys who tried to resurrect their dead mother but something goes wrong at the cost of a boy’s literal arm and a leg and another brother his entire body and was transmuted into a suit of armor now have to find the mythical philosopher’s stone.
In one particular episode the Ed and Alphonse are introduced to a alchemist called Shou Tucker who has said to successfully engineered a chimera while looking on research for the stone. They also meet up with a little girl named Nina and a dog Alexander who plays with Ed and Alphonse then in one day they arrive to see that Shou Tucker has created a living chimera to keep his state license as a alchemist, it is when Ed checks the creature out when the chimera says “Big Brother Edward”. Edward immediately beats the crap out of Shou after the revelation, but he would make a point to call out Ed’s hypocrisy for trying to bring back a loved one. In the Manga and Brotherhood adaptation from 2009 Shou Tucker is killed by Scar a fleeing refugee from another region as in the 2003 version he isn’t killed but turned into a chimera himself who tries to bring a back his dead daughter in the form of a doll.
1. Yoshikage Kira (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure)
“Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure” is often called the Courage the Cowardly Dog of anime, because of its bizarreness. From the surrealness from the manga with that page that either through bad timing or not foreshadowed 9/11 to Dio but they are often sideswiped by this guy: Yoshikage Kira the main antagonist of the fourth series. “Diamond is Unbreakable”. At first rumors of a notorious serial killer on the loose, then we are introduced to Kirawho looks like a normal person however he has a sinister side by a hand fetish by sniffing the hand of a already long deceased victim of his which are women after gazing the picture of the Mona Lisa. Yeah, this show would push the boundaries of murder like killing people when the plot demands it in sudden ways. His stand which is like this ghost like special ability is named Killer Queen and named after a track from the album “Sheer Heart Attack” as so is his ultimate attack “Bites the Dust” is based from the song “Another One Bites the Dust” from the album “The Game” also from Queen and he is voiced by Wesker from Resident Evil. So, you know you’re going to probably grow to hate him.
And that will cover the top 10 Disturbing anime characters, next week for the final week of our theme month a double play on Monday the top 15 Disturbing characters in non-anime and to close out our entry, the top 20 haunted places in America.
The Maurice Bear Times 