Neo Ranga

A bit of a rabbit hole this... Simply put, Neo Ranga is one of my favorite anime series and, though far from flawless, it gets my vote for most underrated series on this site. Functioning somewhere between modern-day fable and social satire, Neo Ranga tells the story of the Shimabara sisters who live on a hill in a suburb of Tokyo, and of Ranga, a massive godlike creature (physically - part Godzilla, part giant robot) who comes from the sea to serve them. However, far from a simple girl-meets-sentient-mecha anime, Neo Ranga takes a wide-angle view of the storyand is as much about Tokyo and its citizens as it is about the sisters. We are introduced to local merchants, crooked politicians, ambitious tv producers, opportunistic yakuza, a military excited to try out new weapons on Ranga, disanchanted youth, secret societies, etc, all of whom must come to grips with this seemingly omnicient power. Perhaps it's worth noting that this was a late '90s production with the fear of Y2K still looming large on the horizon. Neo Ranga is very episodic in nature & often feels disjointed in its presentation due to its short episode length. This is very much a slice-of-life series (with very little that could be construed as horror, at least in the traditional sense), as the 3 sisters struggle through their daily existance even as a giant god sits in their backyard & half of Tokyo bears down on them for one reason or another. The sisters themselves are fairly archetypal (I'm sure a Freudian analysis would be valid here) as Ushio is generally idealistic, Yuuhi destructive, and Minami, the older, more pragmatic caregiver. That said, I didn't think the personalities were too overbearing or static - they came across as genuine characters, true to their ages rather than as allegorical puppets. The other characters in the series were reasonably well-developed, - they felt genuine in their purpose and didn't seem to exist simply to push the plot in a contrivial manner. A couple of the more antagonistic characters in the 2nd half of the series failed to live up to this description, but otherwise, I had no qualms. Through the 1st 40 episodes (41-48 comes later), the animation, art, and character design was remarkable. The style feels very much a product of its time. It lacks the smooth crisp lines of most Gonzo or Bones productions of today, instead relying on a gritty, realistic feel with occasional artistic flourishes - this anime has my favorite Tokyo-look ever. The girls themselves have typically massive eyes and sharp foxlike features - the rest of the characters vary from foxlike to potatolike depending on whether they are meant to be attractive. The god/mecha design also was excellent, though often very strange (which is what I like I guess) and at times, rather silly. Sound production was great - the voice actors were well-cast and there wasn't anything in the anime itself that proved detrimental. The songs are certainly a bizarre set - the opening tracks rely on groovy "tribal" rhythms and chanting. Season 1's op theme is one of my favorite anime songs ever, a bit of a throwback to '60s and '70s b-movie exploitation themes. The 2nd season's op theme has more of a Ennio Morricone feel to it but doesn't work as well, mainly due to (purposely?) poor use of synthetic voice sampling. The endsongs left less impression, though I remember trying to avoid listening to the 2nd season endsong as much as possible (reminded me of Escaflowne's endsong). The next paragraph mentions the last few episodes of the anime - not the story so much as the form and quality. I don't really consider that a spoiler but if you do - might wanna skip it. Regarding episodes 41-48: I've seen a few ambitious anime series that simply don't quite know what to do with themselves down the stretch, usually a quality-drop is in order. However, I have never seen such a transformation in tone, pacing, and animation style as occurs with Neo Ranga in it's final episodes. Episodes 41-42 and part of 43 look as though they were produced by a completely different company altogether (production i.g. is my guess). Most of the humor is jettisoned and the story rockets forward into the bizarre and outlandish...perhaps incoherent. But what's really odd, is that it's not badly done. I enjoyed the end as much as the rest, I just felt I was watching a different show. Overall, Neo Ranga is one of the most idiosyncratically enjoyable anime series I've seen, and at the end I felt it was as fully realized a world as I've come across in an anime series, with likeable characters who's actions & reactions, while in the shadow of the massive Ranga, made sense (until episode 41). Though perhaps hard to recommend - maybe too slow and goofy for most mecha fans and too dark and strange for fans of domestic comedy, but, if you're looking for something a bit different, curious, thoughtful, and self-aware, you might want to give Neo Ranga a shot.

Yeah, I can see why this doesn't get much fanfare after seeing it years later when I bought it for my collection. Pretty much, Neo Ranga is focused on how the presence of Ranga makes the lives of the Shimabara sisters turn upside-down when they inherit a kingdom from their dead brother. The first half of the series is mostly a mix of social satire and slice-of-life comedy focused on how Ranga's presence effects the neighborhood in which the Shimabaras live in and how this invites figures like crooked politicians, the mass media, yakuza and the military to get entangled in the hijinks. From howI interpreted things, Neo Ranga was apparently poking fun of the cultural divide between those embracing Western influences and those trying to uphold the older traditions of Japan's past. While the humor was a bit hit or miss for me, the show's first half was structured well enough where it knew what it wished to focus on and things appeared to be getting interesting when the secret society called the Kyoshin Council made their move to gain influence in Japan. Sadly, the second half to Neo Ranga takes a big hit in quality as the show got too experimental for its own good in what it wanted to focus on. The focus seemed to have shifted on the tensions between the Shimabaras and the Kyoshin Council at first, but the series decided to return to its slice-of-life/ social satire mix for a bit with the addition of "monster of the day" plot setups compliments of the Kyoshin Council as this mixture was a bit of a miss. Some of the themes focused on with Christmas and filming for TV specials were quite outlandish compared to the first half's focus on poking fun of more influential elements of Japanese society. The series then decides to go back to being more serious for the show's final episodes with the actions of the Kyoshin Council, a third faction that gets poorly introduced and hardly any depth and attempting to philosophize the worth of freedom and worship of gods. However with the sloppy handling of these developments and not being consistent with the tone of Neo Ranga's first half, these elements for the show's finale lack the punch they could have delivered if consistently delivered throughout the title's complete run. Another area that Neo Ranga tends to be weak in is character depth. The series tacked on many of its prominent character with simple personalities such as Yuuhi being rebellious and pampered, Ushio being the heroic tomboy and Minami their stressed-out surrogate mother/ sister. While the simplicity was fine for much of the show's first half, Neo Ranga's attempts to incorporate more serious plot development and complex themes required more depth for these characters introduced. With exception to a few notable characters whose roles are expanded upon from the first half, the Shimabara sisters and most other characters don't get much depth given to their characters and their characters don't evolve too much throughout the show's run. Visual-wise, Neo Ranga does make use of cel-shaded animation in the designs of scenery and character designs which looked solid to a great extent throughout the show's run as many shots featured a great amount of detail put into the designs of scenery and monster designs. The animation isn't the title's best highlight, but it gets the job done in depicting character movement and battle scenes. Overall, I'm not really sure what drew my mind to come back to this show when I put it on hold years ago. Neo Ranga was seemingly experimenting with differing ways in which to explore its themes as its first half had a solid focus with its mix of slice-of-life and social satire while the second half became quite a mess in its overall focus. While it explores some interesting themes related to Japanese society at large, the series didn't seem to be sure how it wanted to implement them effectively while maintaining a consistent focus and tone. I suppose your mileage could vary on how well you enjoy Neo Ranga.

Neo Ranga As I stated on my anime list, it is pretty much a real Masterpiece Animation is very well done, classical in its feel, though in some eps different team was clearly in charge of the production, with a lesser quality but that did not affect the flow of the series, and they did no more than 4 eps. The plot idea may not be really original, as the use of science fiction elements and misticism is not really new in anime production, but we need to consider that Neo Ranga is nt really new, beingf one of those productions that used really well the concept. The plothas many interesting points and turns, and the action is fair without transforming it into one of those boooooring fighting animes so in fashion (sadly). The plot is carried well and without filler episodes, being a constant evolution to the final episodes. Some elements, as Minami and Haseoka, were not completely explored in the end, but then again perfection is had to achieve. The end was well done and does close the story, and yet leaves it open for a real sequel, as it did laid a very interesting ideas and plot points that could produce a really interesting sequel. Some o the plot ideas echoes animes like Demon Lord Dante, which has a really interesting plot regarding ancient powers fighting in Earth's past and mixing/victimizing humans in the process. I really liked Neo Ranga's concept, which can even be moved into full science fiction category if seen into the perspectivew that the Kyoshinkai were classified as machines by the Tao's emissaries. Tao itself being an egotistical, tyrannical entity evolved elsewhere and wishing to control everything oposing it. All in all, great show, very good anmation, very well developed plot and a really entertaining show to watch. I highly recomend it! I reasn I give it an overall 9 because the animation team was not the same through the whole series, and some characters could have been better developed. Minor over the whole of the series but yet could have been a full 10 easily.

What is right?? What is wrong?? What would you do if....?? Neo Ranga tells the story of three average girls put into an extra ordinary position. After their brothers passing, the girl's "inherit" a God named Ranga. This gift-of-such however is not always a blessing, for the people of Japan are not sure how to accept this newcomer. The three sisters have their own ideas of how to use Ranga. The oldest sister, concerned about her family's well being tries to profit from their new found fame. The middle sister tries to help the people of Japan with Ranga's power.The youngest sister, infuriated about the welcoming home, tries to use Ranga to destroy the population of Japan and her enemies. Because of the sisters indecision, Ranga is torn and develops a personality all of his own. The people fear Ranga, and with due cause. A 50' Bio-Beast now lives in the city, destroying it piece by piece every time he moves. Yes, he has helped the people, but at what cost...?? As the story progresses, and the characters develop, we learn that the sisters all have similar goals in mind and that Ranga is no more of a God than we ourselves are. Story 10 Neo Ranga is by far one of the nicest stories I have watched in quite some time. Right from the first 10 minute episode (which at first I was not overly fond of, but by the end of the series I really got into) I knew that this was going to be sometime special. You know the feeling when eveything just clicks within the first few moments and you know right then are there that nothing about the series could disappoint you...that's the feeling you get...POW right off the bat. Though not comepletely original (pleanty of series have giant "monsters" or "Gods" as a main focus for a story), something about this series stands apart. Perhaps it's the interaction between the main and supporting characters. Perhaps it's the way the series plays off both sides to each senerio (meaning who is right and who is wrong??). Perhaps it's the way Neo Ranga himself is portrayed as a God, but has so much humanity and flaws within himself that you feel for him. I can't put my finger on it but the story rocked. Art 8 Nothing about the way this series was drawn was overwhelming. That's what made it so friggin' fantastic. Yes it was produced in '99 and yes since then anime has come a long way, but the grittiness and flawed production quality is one of the reasons that this title stands leagues above others. Sound 9 The soundtrack suited the series just fine. I'll be the first to admit that rarely do I sit through the opening and closing credits, and this series was no different. Also, I don't really pay that much attention to the background music. I'm sure everything was just fine beacuse I didn't sit up and say, "Well that sounded stupid". I did however like the English voice cast. I think they cast the actors very well and that 90% or more of the cast suited the characters perfectly. That being said, I didn't watch any of the series in it's orignal Japanese language so they may or may not sound good. Couldn't tell you. Character 10 One of the best things about this series was how completely believable each and everyone of the characters are. You can put yourself in each one of their shoes and be like, "Yup, that's what I would do." And I am not just refering to the main actresses. All the supporting roles were right-on-the-money too. It was also nice to see female lead characters that were just normal. They weren't stupid. They didn't have shill voices. They didn't have tits that were falling out of their barely-there clothes. They were just your run-of-the-mill, girl-next-door kinda girls. The have problems with work, with school and with boys. The don't always know what is right, and make mistakes just like the rest of us. It was a real treat to sit down to an anime that I could relate to. Enjoyment 9 I loved it. Beautifully crafted. Great story, which came to a great conclusion. Couple twists and turns thrown it to keep it interesting (sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't). It was a pretty orignal idea for the most part even though some concepts were loosely borrowed. It was just a fun, emotion filled series. Overall 9 After watching fanservice after samurai after mecha series, Neo Ranga was a great change of pace. With 10 minute episodes you can really sit back and power through the series quickly or take your time and enjoy each and every episode. Well worth a watch and if you have the money to buy it...it's worth every penny.