Blog Talkback: Did You Know This Was Anime? - Amazing Zorro

Hahaha the opening is both ludicrous and awesomely hot blooded at the same time :anime: I love it. Its crazy how a few sound effect can impact the feel of the whole thing.
 
Yeah, the style is obvious. The point here was entirely "hmm, Japan made a show for this!"



I'm not sure what's more campy, the fencing on horseback where both fighters ignore the crashing wave or that over-the-top part where Lolita fires a gun and the result is a massive explosion somehow. I was just glad to find in my research that the show seems to play the premise straight.

Amusingly, Zorro dispatching all those grunts is arguably just a slight exaggeration. In Disney's 1950s live-action series and the 1990s series that aired on Family Channel, being a foot soldier acting on a villain's orders usually meant that you were there for Zorro to outsmart, outmanuver, outride, kick, disarm, push off of ladders, etc. Everybody was more competent in The Mask of Zorro, but in general that's how things were with a few exceptions. Of course, being led by the Gonzales/Garcia character certainly doesn't help...
 
Someone put Zorro in a blender with a martial arts anime, and that's the result. The intro is the sort of awesome cheese I'd expect from Endoh products. But yeah, why a kid? Really?
 
I love both parts :p

Also love the spinning camera spamming :p well animated at least.

The music with the spanish guitar in there is fantastic.
 
The use of the guitar made the theme work a lot better. A lot better than a lot of more generic themes with the standard synthesizer type music, since it adds the cultural flair to it. (Ex- Kekkaishi)
 
Well nice to see anime I didn't know about. You know I wish Funi or ANN could maybe stream this anime. I also wish they could remake this anime with a western audience in mind. Blonde Zorro with no mustache, that's kinda cute. Well, let's make the remake a bit faithful to the story. This anime was cute and creative but anyway, I would love GONZO, Production IG, or Madhouse to do the remake. I want the anime to have a Desperado/Once Upon a Time in Mexico feel into it. I would like the anime remake OP and ED to use spanish music for the show.
 
Missed this when it was originally posted. Although the entire series was supposedly dubbed into English, I'm not sure it actually played anywhere. I've heard mention that it was at one point shown in the UK, but I don't remember the series playing over here. There is a compilation movie out there that was released on DVD in Italy and Russia that does include an English soundtrack, but that seems to be it in terms of legitimate availability.
 
I joined these forums just so that I could post in this thread. I bought the whole Zorro anime on DVD in Germany about half a year ago and loved every second of it. It's a real shame that it's not properly available in English.

What I like the most about the series is the character interaction between various members of the cast. All the characters are pretty stereotypical and don't grow much in the course of the series, but their different personalities clash well and create numerous great situations. I particularly like all the moments when others react to Diego's fake cowardice, such as in episode 36 when Lieutenant Gabriel comes close to a mental breakdown after interrogating Diego about whether he's Zorro or not.

There were a couple of episodes that really stood out, especially towards the end of the series. The last six episodes in particular had a great sense of foreboding as the villains' plots became bigger and more desperate. Other great episodes were numbers 44 (my personal favourite because it brings some depth to Lieutenant Gabriel, my favourite character) and 34, which is easily the most tragic episode in the whole series.

The series wasn't perfect by any means. My biggest complaint is the lack of a continuous plot and story arcs. The whole series consists of stand-alone episodes, so there's not much character development even though it's 52 episodes long. Seemingly big events, such as death, are entirely forgotten once the credits for the episode in question roll.

Another problem is the inconsistent animation and character design. Some episodes look stunning, such as 31 and 51. They have really smooth and detailed animation, and the characters have a nice Ghibli-esque look to them. Like this. Some other episodes look terrible in comparison. The duel between Zorro and Gabriel in episode 8 is just embarrassing to watch.

All in all, however, the series was tons of fun. It had a great balance between humour and action, and it occasionally dealt with pretty serious issues without becoming too gritty. If you can find it in a language you understand, I totally recommend it.
 
Speaking of which, do you know of any? I happen to have one on dvd. (or did you mean the likes of MOMH?)

anyway, before i go off track i got one thing to say.

automatic wearing of clothes accompanied by lightning bolts RULE!
 
Ok I was already familiar with Kaiketzu Zorro, love the look of it, (except that they gave him blond hair and a white shirt is annoying), but now somebody please explain this to me - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6tSXIqi99c

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He's a "Fox", wears a Spanish Bolero hat, with a black mask and cape, has trademark Zees on his chest, and is called Zorori? What the hell am I looking at?:) ...it actually looks cute!

And yeah I think the title should read: Did You Know This Was An Anime?
 
Yeah, Tornado as a black horse is pretty much iconic. Though to be fair, at a minimum Zorro also used a white stallion for awhile during Disney's television series. During that time Diego was in Monterey instead of Los Angeles, so he operated a bit differently.



...I know. I wrote them, after all.
 
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