Forgotten Anime #1 - Voogie's Angel

[Pixel]

I mentioned in the threads about the unidentified girl, later identified as Hime Utsumiya of Brain Power[e]d, that I misunderstood the auction title.

At first, I thought I was getting two characters from the same title. Now, I should have known they weren't from the same series because the styles are so different, but it had been probably at least twelve years since I'd seen the title with which I was familiar.

How could such a misunderstanding have happened? Well you see, I thought the seller had mistranslated a Japanese word from the title I wanted as "Brain Powered", when actually that was the title of a different series altogether.

The Japanese word that caused the confusion is "Dennou".

voogies_kanji.png (28.49 KiB) Viewed 2994 times

The expression at the top of this graphic is the full title of the anime discussed in this article, which you can see below with the English translation in parenthesis. Sometimes a star is used inseatd of the raised dot shown above.

With that explained, I would like to announce a new series of presentations entitled "Forgotten Anime". These anime may not have been forgotten in the strictest sense, but many of those I intend to feature are not even remotely as well known as say the Dragon Ball series, Sailor Moon, or what have you. Some of them have not been published in the US in years; some were never licensed/formally published here at all.

This anime however, was published on DVD here in the US sometime around 2008, I think. I'm pretty sure it's been out of print here for a long time.

Please see my RubberSlug Gallery, Pixel's Randomness - "Mystery and Miscellany" for better views of the still pics below.


Forgotten Anime #1
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Horizontal Pan Douga
JPN Title: Dennou Sentai Voogie's Angel (Cyborg Squadron Voogie's Angel)
USA/Short Title: Voogie's Angel
OVA 1 - "The Angel's Assault", Sequence No. B-3
Runtime Location (approx.) - 00:24:10:03
Single Character: Voogie


This is one of those things I wasn't sure I should buy. The story is troubled, and the characters are often strangely drawn. However, I remembered this OVA from years ago, and something about this just kind of--the look stunned me. I was actually surprised to even see it for sale. After some consideration, I worked out a deal with the seller to buy this douga, the Brain Powered douga, some Marmalade Boy dougas, and some timing sheets from the latter as a package deal.

First, the Douga. A screencap of the finished production shot follows.

Oversized H-Pan Douga (unadjusted photo)




Original Production Shot




I've noticed that the douga seems different from the finished screen cap. Voogie's dominant cheek is more prominent in the douga, and the hair highlights on her head have somewhat different contours. I'm beginning to wonder if corrections were made at the level of the otherwise finished cel. There are other things as well, but some of it may have something to do with the granularity of detail in the painting process, I don't know.

Something Different

Before presenting the scene in context, I wanted to show something a bit different-

I've tried something I wanted to do for a long time with one of my pieces. Some time back, I was arranging my sketches in their box when this douga caught my eye-it had been about three weeks since I had looked at the original. It was so captivating that I froze. It may be difficult to believe, but her eyes held me more than anything else. I felt sad that I didn't have the cel.

I'd thought about it for awhile, and finally decided that it was so cool that I had to see what it would look like if I could somehow pull Voogie out of the gunk of poor video encoding. So, I set to work in the vector drawing app Inkscape. I plugged away for most of a month, fighting with the quirks of the program until I finally said. "Enough, it's fine like it is." Then went back and fixed a few more things.

I traced the [leveled] close-up photo below manually in the program, patching in the top of her ponytail when decided I had to have it too. I ultimately decided not to go all the way to the bottom of the sketch. I'd say there's enough there to get the idea, and it's more than shows up in the screencap.

As an aside, I'm amazed at how much they did cut off, for the trouble that was taken to do all the un-shown linework.

Most of the colors were sampled from a screen cap of the finished frame, but that graphic was smaller than the one shown with this article. NOTE: I did not try to reproduce the sunlight effects. I could not see them clearly indicated on the douga, and I think they were probably either on their own layer, or produced after the original cel was painted.

Here's what I had to work from.

Close-up of Douga, photo adjusted/leveled





Digital Paint Result (Inkscape 0.92.2 - Linux) Shading Error Corrected



I used some of the techniques I developed when making my so-called "Scene Recreations". I usually try to avoid direct tracing, but this was an actual piece of production art I was working from, not a mere screen cap. This is a from-the-ground-up digital "finishing" of a the douga (well, a photo of the douga) into something resembling a CGI "cel/layer" of the type used in computer-finished series like Azumanga Daioh.

I even considered trying to re-create the background, but I would have had to limit the character to the dimensions of the BG in the screen cap. I didn't think I could handle both the character work and the background, anyway.

Detailed backgrounds can be heinously difficult to recreate in a vector drawing program. I learned this while making "Scene Recreations".

New Info: Inkscape itself doesn't help either, sometimes. I just noticed a shading error in the "paint", but Inkscape is indicating that the color information is correct. I tried fixing it with Inkscape, but the fixes I tried won't work. The program seems to be bugging out a bit too. I had to correct it as best I could at the bitmap level with GIMP 2. Thanks alot, Inkscape. The corrected graphic should now appear above.

Overview of the Story

A quick run-down of the story. A group of human (or human-like) alien invaders called the Space Emigrants (S.E.), has plagued the residents of Earth for at least a century. With their insanely powerful "Hyper Cannons", they intend to destroy Earth's people once and for all. Humans are ultimately forced to live in underwater shelters. A team of cybernetically-enhanced girls is developed in order to combat this scourge, with the ultimate goal of taking the planet back from the S.E., making it safe for people again.

Originally Voogie's Angel was a radio drama by Aoi Takeuchi. Later, J.C. Staff would head up production of the OVA.

The OVA was mostly directed by Masami Obari. It is divided into a 3 episodes, with Aoi Takeuchi directing Episode 3.

Mini-Review

Frankly, I'm not really sure how something of this sort could have possibly worked out well. To me, "cybernetically-enhanced girls" sounds like a fancy way of saying "train wreck", and that's pretty much what Voogie's Angel is, IMO. While the overall look of each team member is perhaps not surprising, some of the facial drawings can be jarring to distraction, causing the entire character to sort of visually fall apart. Perhaps the point of this style of drawing is for the viewer to ignore faces altogether. That may work for some, but not everybody. As you might have guessed, I fall mainly into the latter category.

While there is no graphic nudity per se, the OVA comes very close a few times-the fan service is very heavy-handed. The crafty animators occasionally draw skimpy garments very tight and thin, though they are careful to show such for a very small amount of time on-screen. They make it absolutely clear that there are women in these "clothes", make no mistake.

Apparently, this series is in some respects actually rather tame for Mr. Obari. Just reading about some his other series was more than enough for me.

There are a number of large water and submersible craft battles in Voogie's Angel, which are all over the place and explode spectacularly when attacked, making such action nearly impossible to follow.

Making matters worse, the team themselves seem to be less than competent. The four fighters don't seem to win battles so much as fumble and bumble through them, succeeding in spite of themselves. At one point during a mock battle between the girls, Voogie charges an attack that sends her careening into a wall.

Making up the combat contingent, we have the main character Voogie, the brash hothead and leader-in-combat; Rebecca, the burly tomboy fascinated with guns; Shiori, a sad but seemingly gentle-natured character with a strange power to summon energy and electricity; and Merrybell, who seems to be rather pleasant from what I could tell.

There is a fifth girl who is not a fighter, but more of a strategist and a go-between for both the fighters and their superiors. Her name is MIDI. She is the youngest, but strangely seems to serve as a mother-figure to the other girls. The bosses give her the orders, and she helps ensure that the four fighters carry them out, such as they can anyway. She is shown to be kind and compassionate, but is also seen admonishing the others when they act up. All four of the fighters seem to hold MIDI in high esteem, with Voogie being particularly attached.

"Their superiors" are Dr. Klimt and Dr. Michelle Summers. Dr. Klimt is the man behind the "Voogie's Angel" project; Dr. Summers is his assistant. Exactly what he did to these girls I'm not sure. From what little is shown, I very seriously doubt I would even want to know.

The Scene in Context

Anyway, finally to the scene in context. The "Angels" have been ordered to take out a Hyper Cannon, in the process facilitating a millitary operation against the S.E.

Piloting their submersible/aircraft/mega-weapon "Strikemeyer(-san)" they succeed, resulting in a celebratory sequence where each girl is shown up close. I have included both a video and a description. I love how you can hear the whirring sound of the aircraft during the video.


"The Angels Celebrate their Success"

Merrybell clasps her hands and looks into the camera. (Whether she knows she's addressing the camera is unclear, but she does it all the same.)

"The Doctors will be so pleased with our success!" She's very cheerful.

Rebecca give a thumbs up. "I'd say so." [I apologize for the awkwardness resulting from the placement of the subtitles here. I didn't like the thought of putting them at the top of the screen any better. Seriously, I didn't]

Shiori's eyes close. "Yes, we did really well."

Note: The next scene is accompanied by a sleepy sounding guitar solo.

As the camera cuts to Voogie, her head is faced leftward. It appears that B-1 is shown first, then her eyes blink and her smile changes a bit. This action prompts separate cel layers to accommodate it. Her head begins to turn when her eyes open, all on a single B-2. Here is the sequence broken down.

B-1 (start of scene, Voogie facing left)
*blink action* [multi layer setup] - eyebrows and chin shading participate
B-2 *eyes open fully, her head actually starts moving, body shifting with the motion* **rightward pan starts** **sunlight effect becomes barely noticeable.**
B-3 Made from my douga (with kabuse?)

The motion picks up speed to finish, particularly between B-2 and B-3. The scene ends on a freeze with Voogie on B-8, with the sunlight efffect at full power most of the freeze. Somwhere about 2/3 seconds into the freeze, a very shrill sound can be heard coming from somewhere behind Voogie.

"Ikenai!" (roughly in context, "We're in BIG trouble!")

Voogie reacts during the "na" portion, abruptly ending the rather sleepy sounding background music, and the sunlight effect.

Turning around in her seat, Voogie asks "Wh-wh-what's wrong, MIDI?"

The look on MIDI's face is priceless-her eyes dart around a bit at first- she can't even seem to look Voogie in the eye right off the bat. "You know...when Strikemeyer delivers a full-force attack, he loses power." (More literally, something like "It's just that, when Strikemeyer-san administers justice, his energy is cut.")

"Loses power?" They all repeat.

"And he won't work anymore!!!" MIDI cries. Cries as in, literally-you can see tears forming in her eyes as she lowers the boom.

The camera view transitions to the outside to show the craft. The other four girls scream "WHAT??" Almost right on cue, Strikemeyer sputters (it looks like the craft passes gas), misfires, and shuts down, plummeting from the sky.

"HELP!!" They all scream, as Strikemeyer slams into the water.

This has become my favorite scene-it's so ridiculous, that it's actually brilliant in a hilariously bad/silly sort of way. What kind of idiot designs a manned air/space/water craft that shuts down shortly after firing the primary weapon? Just how long were they in-flight between the time they destroyed the Hyper Cannon, and MIDI suddenly realizing that they were in big trouble?

When she finally does get it, she's all like "You know something guys I just now realized, we're in deep ** !" She comes across as a puppy who just made a mess on the carpet, and is cowering at the thought of the heavy scolding that is sure to follow.

If she had just thought of this sooner, maybe they could have gotten down to safety in time. *Sigh* even poor MIDI isn't particularly competent, it seems.

To top it all off, Strikemeyer is actually equipped with fully functional ejector seats. The craft is shown falling out of the sky at least twice during the OVA, but the ejector seats are only engaged once-late in Episode 2, when the craft and crew are threatened by lasers, while it is sitting on the floor of one of the enemy installations. A full explanation of the seat configuration and the exact reasoning behind when the ejection system is used falls outside the scope of this article. I just pointed it out because you would have thought they would have "pulled the handle", to borrow a term from an old Top Gun video game I used to play, and bailed out, versus screaming for their lives as their disabled craft splashes violently into the ocean. Somehow, they don't seem to be hurt by this however.

Even though the drawing style is rather strange, there are moments of brilliance. This douga struck me as soon as I saw a detailed photo-at first glance it looks like a portrait. Upon locating the matching frame in the OVA, I realized that during the in-between phases of Voogie's head motion, it just so happens that this frame (and the one before) have her eyes lined up with the camera in such a way that she seems to be addressing it. This gives the sketch a sort of spooky, life-like quality that borders on surreal.

Voogie looks like a capable fighter, yet at the same time she seems sort of immature and vulnerable, and prettier than the less-than-stellar animation sometimes presents her. This douga seems to show just the right amount to give you an idea of how the character looks overall, but close enough in to provide a good quality view of her face and hair. I love her hair. The way the two shocks hang down in front remind me of another character that J.C. Staff would animate just a few years later.

On reflection, it's easy to gripe about an animation style when I haven't animated anything myself-I do good to manage an occasional still piece.

That said, I really don't care for the story at all.

Aya Hisakawa voiced Voogie, making this the only series/OVA I know of where she voiced the title character. I expect there are others, though. She did well for what she had to work with, as did the rest of the cast. While the humor is effective, it seems strangely misplaced. The quality of the voice acting is NOT one of this OVA's problems, not by a long shot.

I forgot, I originally sort of thought that the Brain Powered douga might be either MIDI, or a young Shiori. (They show her as a girl in a flashback of sorts.) Like I said, it had been years since I seen the OVA, and I couldn't remember exactly what everybody looked like.

Anyway, let me know what you think. Do you remember this OVA? How do you think my experiment with digital painting turned out? Feel free to let me know, or share comments.

[sensei]

An interesting review of what is likely to remain for most of us an obscure series -- and yet as you point out, there is art and fun in it. It would be interesting to get Aya Hisakawa's perspective on doing short series like these. I'm sure voice actors don't get paid much, though probably more than their North American counterparts -- the forums of voice actors talking frankly about their economic and work situations was one of the revealing parts of BronyCon '17. And so these OVAs probably make up an important part of the seiyuu salary.

It's interesting to see who ended up voicing the parts: Aya Hisakawa was of course Kero-chan in CCS but also Skuld in the long-running Ah My Goddess. Kikuko Inoue (Shiori) and Yumi Touma (Teddy the Boy) were the other two core goddesses (Belldandy and Urd). They also toured as "The Goddess Family Club," singing material related to their goddess roles, and also some original music. (I have some of these CDs -- the three had distinctive and well trained voices, especially Touma).

Rebecca was Kotono Mitsuishi aka Usagi Tsukino aka Sailor Moon, and MIDI was Sakura Tange, who created "the" Sakura in CCS. The other principals had extensive resumes and did roles familiar to many hard-bitten otaku. (Ash was Akira Ishida, who did the complex and wide-ranging role of Mikael in TnN.)

One also notices that Mamoru Hosoda did some storyboarding and unit work for the series, this being his hungry years before The Girl Who Leapt through Time gave him much more visibility and ready cash to subsist on. Typically, he did this under a pseudonym ("Moruho Sodama").

The colorization looks good and makes a nice counterpart to your RS display of the douga. And you use the space well to communicate some information on the series. From what I could learn from a quick search, only Washu's Lab has any cels on display, and those have nearly no information on the character, situation, or context. So in lots of ways your page serves as an online core source of information for anyone wanting more than just an encyclopedia plot summary/credit list.

In some ways I've tried to do the same with some of the oddball items that have come my way. Among these is the 1988 Madhouse OAV Yousei-oh (The Fairy King), a striking cel from which caught my eye on Mandarake some years back. Every so often I like to do an Image search on Google for "Sensei's Anime Gallery" to see what people have been viewing recently, and I see that this obscure Madhouse production must have some lovers out there, as that cel keeps coming up close to the top of these searches. (It helps that it has recently showed up on YouTube as well).

Anyhow, anime that's traveled "under the radar" as I say often deserves some love, as it often makes use of surprisingly strong voice and drawing talent. Thanks for your work and for sharing it here.

[Pixel]

An interesting review of what is likely to remain for most of us an obscure series -- and yet as you point out, there is art and fun in it. It would be interesting to get Aya Hisakawa's perspective on doing short series like these. I'm sure voice actors don't get paid much, though probably more than their North American counterparts -- the forums of voice actors talking frankly about their economic and work situations was one of the revealing parts of BronyCon '17. And so these OVAs probably make up an important part of the seiyuu salary.

I don't necessarily think the art is completely terrible quality (obviously), I just think some things could have been a lot better. I felt like they focus too much on the girl's bodies, and not enough on their faces.

I find the story to be the main problem by far. I can see why others would like it though.

As far as Japanese voice acting in general, I wonder how many see it as a means of moving on to something else. While of course I have never spoken with her, that doesn't seem to have been the case for Hisakawa-san. She has been at this for over 40 years.

...(Ash was Akira Ishida, who did the complex and wide-ranging role of Mikael in TnN.)

Capital research on the voice work, Sensei.

I'm going to do something else rather unusual. So rarely do I talk about male voice actors, this seems like a great time to focus on one, and did you pick one for me to highlight. I won't post a picture right now though, I might just save that for another character he voiced. Maybe one day before too long I can find an example of one.

Akira Ishida is a master of the craft, period. Especially when it comes to snide, unlikeable characters. In this case, Ash has his go-around with the "Angels" late in the OVA, and it is NO picnic, to put if mildly. By the time Ishida-san is through, he makes you hate Ash so much, you are cheering for Voogie to cut Ash to pieces.

Ishida-san is one of my favorite male seiyuu, and one of the most effective at voicing unlikeable characters I've ever heard.

One also notices that Mamoru Hosoda did some storyboarding and unit work for the series, this being his hungry years before The Girl Who Leapt through Time gave him much more visibility and ready cash to subsist on. Typically, he did this under a pseudonym ("Moruho Sodama").

I saw the pseudonym, but I wasn't sure what it meant. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with him.

I did however notice that Makoto Furuta was a key animator for Episode 2. He moved up to Animation Director for Azumanga Daioh. I've mentioned him before, as I actually have one of his pieces. In it, he offers considerable guidance to his colleagues about how to draw Yomi as Chiyo is helping her study for entrance exams in Episode 25 of said series.

You can see that piece here - Cramming for Exams? The Yo's have it! (Part 1)

The colorization looks good and makes a nice counterpart to your RS display of the douga. And you use the space well to communicate some information on the series.

Thank you. I got the idea for the info panel from my "Scene Recreations". I feel like if I'm going to work from a specific point in an animation, then I should at least try to bring that information forward.

In other words, if I'm going to bring out a specific point in a series/OVA/etc. I should try to pass along where I found it.

Incidently, I gave the English form of Hisakawa-san's name as "given-name SURNAME" because the I typed the Japanese kanji form to follow their tradition of surname first. This all-caps surname form is meant to be a self-clarification on the name-order swap between languages.

From what I could learn from a quick search, only Washu's Lab has any cels on display, and those have nearly no information on the character, situation, or context.

Ah yes, Rebecca "Sweet" Heisen. Apparently at one point the owner didn't even know what he had. I have that same problem right now with other cels, and I hate not knowing what I have.

As far as Voogie's Angel goes, I've only seen a single cel for sale in the last few months, and someone else bought it.

Where the digital-paint/colorization is concerned, I couldn't do digital finishes for everything in my collection.

At this point, I seriously doubt I will ever see the cel that matches this douga.Indeed, that cel may very well have been destroyed long ago. While not a perfect replica by any means, this digi-paint will at least provide a way for people to see roughly what this character would look have looked like headed for J.C Staff's photography department.

Even as far removed as this is from the original cel, this may be as close as one can now get to seeing it.

I bet that cel was beautiful.

So in lots of ways your page serves as an online core source of information for anyone wanting more than just an encyclopedia plot summary/credit list.

Detailed material does seem to be pretty scarce. I admit, my negativity toward some of the artistic aspects fed a bit off of other reviews I read, but my opinion of the animation isn't quite as harsh as some of what I read. Like I said, it's difficult for me to criticize animation quality when I can't even do it myself.

IIRC, I wasn't even looking for the douga. I think I initially found just a set of Marmalade Boy douga and timing sheets. IIRC, when I clicked on the auction page, I looked over to the left at the sellers other items. There Voogie was, "looking at me". I don't think I even needed to see the title to recognize her. I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing.

I meant to point out that a given name like "Voogie", which is actually rendered with the rare "VU" katakana in the original Japanese, demonstrates that the they can sometimes devise some interesting names for foreigners.

I chuckle at the title, I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought of Charlie's Angels when seeing it.

In my mind some drawings from the series were better than others, and I felt like this one was probably one of the best. I mean, I know that's easy for me to say now being the owner. I thought that just seeing it on the seller's auction page.

In some ways I've tried to do the same with some of the oddball items that have come my way. Among these is the 1988 Madhouse OAV Yousei-oh (The Fairy King), a striking cel from which caught my eye on Mandarake some years back. Every so often I like to do an Image search on Google for "Sensei's Anime Gallery" to see what people have been viewing recently, and I see that this obscure Madhouse production must have some lovers out there, as that cel keeps coming up close to the top of these searches. (It helps that it has recently showed up on YouTube as well).

I've noticed that my Hime Utsumiya/Brain Powered douga seems more popular that I would have thought. There's a large mecha fan contingent out there, but the "organic mecha" featured in that series I would have thought were rather unusual.

Anyhow, anime that's travelled "under the radar" as I say often deserves some love, as it often makes use of surprisingly strong voice and drawing talent. Thanks for your work and for sharing it here.

You're most welcome, to all of my fellow Betarians. That's what "Forgotten Anime" is all about-there is SO much out there that is just not even thought of anymore. Now, I'm not necessarily fond of all of it, but maybe perhaps I can help keep some of it from fading into oblivion.

There may be more coming soon.

[sensei]

One also notices that Mamoru Hosoda did some storyboarding and unit work for the series, this being his hungry years before The Girl Who Leapt through Time gave him much more visibility and ready cash to subsist on. Typically, he did this under a pseudonym ("Moruho Sodama").

I saw the pseudonym, but I wasn't sure what it meant. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with him.

Hosoda is one of the fast-rising anime film directors. I come across him every so often (usually under a pseudonym) in the series that I collect: he worked for Madhouse but did occasional moonlighting for Pierrot (he storyboarded Tenshi ni Narumon's Step 20, one of the very finest episodes of that series). After doing two successful movies for Madhouse, one for Digimon (2000) and the other for One Piece (2005), he put together a team in 2006 to do an original project, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. This surprised Madhouse by playing to standing-room-only audiences in Japan, and since then he's done a number of highly promoted, successful anime films.

I grabbed some very precious sketches for his 2009 Summer Wars, which won the Japanese Academy's prize for Animation of the Year and got him a Best Director prize in the Kobe Awards. And his subsequent Wolf Children (2012) is superb, the equal of many of Miyazaki's efforts though admittedly not up to the master's top work. (Hosoda was tapped to direct Howl's Moving Castle for Ghibli but was dismissed after some disagreement with the management and Miyazaki himself took over.)

I have a couple of other episodes in which I'm sure that the credit is a pseudonym for a moonlighting artist. But sadly from this vantage point I can't determine who might actually be involved. I suppose I have to do what I can to preserve the sketches (some are really very good) and expect the next gen. to solve the mystery.

[Pixel]

I have a couple of other episodes in which I'm sure that the credit is a pseudonym for a moonlighting artist. But sadly from this vantage point I can't determine who might actually be involved. I suppose I have to do what I can to preserve the sketches (some are really very good) and expect the next gen. to solve the mystery.

I wish I knew who drew this douga. I'm guessing one of the in-betweeners for Episode 1, it's not a keyframe as far as I know. Anime Encylopedia has no in-between animation credits listed. Is it possible that all of the key animators did their own in-betweening?

I doubt I ever know for sure who drew it.

It's interesting to see who ended up voicing the parts: Aya Hisakawa was of course Kero-chan in CCS but also Skuld in the long-running Ah My Goddess. Kikuko Inoue (Shiori) and Yumi Touma (Teddy the Boy) were the other two core goddesses (Belldandy and Urd). They also toured as "The Goddess Family Club," singing material related to their goddess roles, and also some original music. (I have some of these CDs -- the three had distinctive and well trained voices, especially Touma).

Rebecca was Kotono Mitsuishi aka Usagi Tsukino aka Sailor Moon, and MIDI was Sakura Tange, who created "the" Sakura in CCS. The other principals had extensive resumes and did roles familiar to many hard-bitten otaku. (Ash was Akira Ishida, who did the complex and wide-ranging role of Mikael in TnN.)

After some thought, I decided to go back into this a bit. There really isn't a whole lot of dialog to work with overall, but way the scene was written with "book-ends" is pretty impressive, warranting some discussion.

Because most of the girls are initially in agreement, the most prominent characters in terms of how the vocals affect the tone of the scene are Merybell and MIDI.

To start us off, "Merrybell" Candy Stewart sets the initial tone with her very high pitched, upbeat expressions of delight. Merrybell was voiced by Shiho Kikuchi. Her credits include Momiji of InuYasha, (I bet you remember this character, Sensei.) and Hikaru Amano of Martian Successor Nadesico. I noticed the way Merrybell clasps her hands against her cheek before, but I never quite understood the gesture. I think it's associated with being thrilled about something.

Rebecca gives a thumbs up and says "Maa ne." This is considered a form of agreement along the lines of "I'd say so.", but it often implies that the speaker is not necessarily in agreement, but will go along with it anyway. Perhaps this is a clue to the audience of not-so-smooth sailing somewhere ahead. I kind of think Rebecca's voice is meant convey both her tomboyish nature and her stout, buxom build.

Shiori says "Yes, we did really well." or "Truly, we did good." I think you can hear (and see) that she is a softer, gentler character than the two girls shown prior. Certainly an obvious vocal and visual contrast to Rebecca.

It is interesting that Voogie herself doesn't speak to their success. I would have thought she would say something. She only speaks in reaction to the "I--kenai" thrown from the back, trying to find out what has upset MIDI. (note the vocalized split in the syllables).

I'm convinced this scene was written to have a strangely humorous ending, like a type of high-altitude slapstick-where an ostensibly violent incident turns into a really silly, funny sight gag. Recall the infamous scene of Wile E. Coyote plummeting to the canyon floor below him. In terms of the basic idea that's sort of what this scene is, only with cute cyborg girls in a flying something-or-other instead of a goofy, grisly coyote.

With that in mind, managing the tone of the scene was very important. MIDI needed to come off just right for the change in tone to work properly. While her looks and expressions are clever and effective, what really made this work was MIDI's delivery.

Sakura Tange was excellent, she made MIDI so small and helpless. I think it was MIDI's second line where Tange-san really showed her stuff. The other girls just didn't get what MIDI was saying from the first try, so she becomes as direct as can be under the circumstances.

Ugokenaku naru ndesu!! (Roughly, "..and he won't work anymore!")

Was that shouting or wailing? I'd say it was a heavy dose of both fear and panic. In any case, it was brilliant. This is exactly what the scene called for, and MIDI's tone is very plain-there can be no doubt something very bad either has happened or is just about to.

To the five girls it was bad but I think in this case it's hilarious. It's hard to put into words exactly how something so frightening can become so funny, but I think it was meant to. I also think all five seiyuu acting here understood that perfectly, splendidly acting it out.

Bravo to Kikuchi-san and Tange-san for effectively setting and changing the tone of the scene, and plaudits to Mitsuishi-san, Inoue-san, and of course Hisakawa-san for managing the scene so elegantly in between them.

[GuyvarIII]

I generally like the work of Masami O'Bari. He's like an Anime mech god. He did a lot of animation for the Brave Series, as well as a lot of work on Dancougar, and Machine Robo. He did the openings for Dragonar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qtac6uabSI), and Tekkaman Blade (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prbMFYuLtC4). He was the director of the Moonlight Rambler episode of the original Bubblegum Crisis OVA, and designed the DD. He did mech designs, key animation, and storyboards (episode one) for Dangaioh.

I think his art style is very distinctive and recognizable. I collect cels from: Fatal Fury, Virus Buster Serge, Gowcaizer, and Platinum Hugen Ordian...

However, what I found most memorable about Voogie's Angels was the Anime's jarring change in tone. Episode one was like a joke, five dingbat girls and some mysterious guy are our last hope for survival. However, the tone changed completely towards the end of episode two with MIDI essentially being beaten to death in front of the team... and, then in the beginning of episode three, they all begin to remember how they originally died. The darkest scenes in the show being: Rebeca remembers how her mom, dad , and baby brother were killed in front of her before she was shot; and Merybell remembers hacking up blood and then bleeding to death while thinking, "...Please don't let me die..."
https://youtu.be/_i-ae4xwC5M?t=3481
The show was just kind of like... "Wow, that got harsh fast."

Digitally coloring in your sketch is a neat idea. The full color version helps the image to stand out more on your section page of thumbnail images.

[Pixel]

Ah, you do remember. I wondered if I might run into someone here who did.

If I knew Obari-san had worked on the Fatal Fury movies, I'd forgotten. Having seen most of them, I can't say I'm particularly surprised. Incidently, Mai was voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi, who voiced Rebecca in Voogie's Angel.

Episode 3 of Voogie's Angel was directed by the radio drama series creator, Aoi Takeuchi. Perhaps that is part of the change in tone.

I'm not particularly crazy about Episode 3. This ain't no charming slice-of-life, that's for darn sure.

Anyway, you mentioned the scene in Episode 2 where Ash brutalizes MIDI, that's one sequence I think of often when thinking about this OVA.

While I enjoyed Tange-san's comic reactions as MIDI in Episode 1, it is in this scene where you can really hear her acting prowess. All of the seiyuu upped their game at this point (this was of course the broader turn to the dramatic), and as I said Ishida-san was brilliant.

I don't remember exactly what Ash did to MIDI, but I do remember the sounds she made. They were disturbing. I think he started with electroshock. She was constantly making these pathetic grunts and whimpers, while the captured "Angels" screamed at him to stop. I know it got worse from there, but I can't remember all of it. I really don't want to.

I can't watch that part to this day, or listen to it. My memories have a tendency to embellish things from animation, but if what I remember of this is even half-way right, it all sounded way too real.

Back when I first watched this OVA, I didn't have enough awareness of Japanese to even begin properly studying the dramatic qualities of their voices. Even then, this scene still turned my stomach. MIDI sounded so real, she didn't even have to speak properly-just the sounds were enough.

This OVA is very different from just about anything else I collect. Where anime is concerned I tend toward light-hearted comedy. Even though the first half of Voogie's Angel contains more humor than one would expect, adversity pervades the entirety of the OVA. There have been times when I wondered what it would be like to live in some of the places I've seen in anime. The world presented here is far too unstable and foreboding.

Before I forget, Ash eventually turned his hatred on Voogie. Somehow the girls get loose, and Voogie does battle with him. He gets hold of her with these strange electrical cables coming out of his stomach, zapping her for quite a number of seconds. (Nightmare fuel there-this is also how he zapped MIDI, IIRC.)

Hisakawa-san gets her moment to shine here, complete with some screaming as I recall. Seems like Rebecca jumps up (they're about 80 feet off the floor on a platform), and slices the cables loose. I won't spoil the battle completely though.

As to the digital colorization-thank you for the kind words. I'd like to do more of it, but only for certain pieces. It's a lot of work, and as you may have seen I do have a small number of cels. For the most part I'd just let them speak for themselves. It's meant for sketches without cels, and generally those that are special to me for some reason.

I posted it as a separate entry on RS, to help clarify that it is not original production material. I mean, it should be obvious that it's not, but with the late 90's bringing proper studio CGI finishing into the mix I suppose at first glance it could be mistaken for a color test or something.

If this douga was done by an in-betweener, it must have been a darn good one.

I'd been thinking about it for awhile, but I hadn't settled on a sketch with which to try it. Voogie's expression is what prompted me to try it with this one. It's that surreal, portrait-like quality. Almost like she's looking back at the viewer. I felt like she just had to be seen in full color. Also, the digital camera didn't really capture the douga very well. Considering the electronic source, I'm amazed that the digi-paint turned out as well as it did.

Her eyes get me nearly every time. While I was working on other parts, I'd turn off the eye layer, then later turn it back on when I wanted to check my work. Something about turning that eye layer back on made me feel like it was all going to work. They contain so much personality.


I went to your gallery and took a look at Misty Shaia from Gowcaizer-wow, she and Voogie could be sisters.

I looked it up on ANN's Encylcopedia- I can't find who did her voice, but I recognize a large number of the seiyuu listed. Oh wait here it is, Yumi Touma-they have the character listed as"Shaia Hishizaki".

Hmmm, she voiced chief antagonist Teddy the Boy in Voogie's Angel. Quite a swap, I'd say.

[Pixel]

She [Aya Hisakawa] has been at this for over 40 years.

Correction - 30 years this year. How did I manage to screw that one up??