Jason is more familiar with spirits than he is with wonder.
Publisher: Madman
Fri, 17 November 2006
by: Jason
Somewhat deceptive, this one. By looking at Spirit of Wonder's cover (or even just the title), you could assume you were about to watch a heartwarming tale of the rediscovery of youth and other such themes. What we have instead are the longer feature The Scientific Boys Club and two shorter Miss China adventures. All of the stories are set in Bristol England in what I presume to be the early 1900's and they do complement each other quite well.
Miss China
While neither of the stories on this DVD are what you would call "typical anime" meaning there aren't any giant robots, samurai, vampires or Japanese schoolgirls with fantastically enhanced chests. Having said that, Miss China is of course a young lady with a rack that defies gravity, but she is not a schoolgirl. In fact, she runs, of all things, a Chinese restaurant - as well as being the resident guinea pig for a local scientist's wacky inventions. Of course she also displays the required martial arts skills for the beating of lecherous old men. The first "Miss China" story is entitled "The Shrinking of Miss China" and details exactly what you would expect. Although I'm sure just how she manages to continue running a restaurant while being, quite literally, knee high to a grasshopper.
The Second Miss China Short, "Planet of Miss China" finds our heroine taking a virtual trip to mars, via another of the old professor's wacky inventions.
The Scientific Boys Club
Now on to the main feature. Three young men Cooper, Gordon and Shepherd were entranced by the works of astrologer Percival Lowell (the guy that "discovered" the canals on mars) and by science in general.
50 years later, they remain good friends and are still interested in the scientific. When they were younger, the men had dreams of traveling to Mars, which were sort of put on hold as they lived their lives.
When Gordon's son-in-law Jack returns from a sea voyage, they decide to finally make their Mars dream a reality. So they set about constructing a vessel to convey them there (I refuse to call it a space ship and you will know why when you see this bucket). The do this using the theories developed by Gordon's daughter Windy (what kind of cruel and unusual punishment is it to name your child Windy?) some years ago.
So we have 3 old men trying to recapture their youth, a younger man who would rather spend his time dicking about in a clubhouse than with his wife and a young lady who has more brains than the rest of them put together - but would rather live the life of a married woman.
You're probably wondering weather they do actually get to Mars. Yes, they do they fire up their submarine slash zeppelin and away they go to the red planet.
So, is the DVD any good? Well, it is not something I would usually choose to watch, personally. But, having said that, the main feature certainly has a good story (although the Miss China shorts do seem a bit tacked on, like they were included just to fill out the disc). The main feature would be something you could quite easily plonk the kids in front of on a rainy day, but the same probably cant be said for Miss China - as naked boobies and guys lifting girl's skirts to see what colour panties she's wearing isn't exactly suitable for children's viewing.
While Spirit of Wonder didn't do much for me, if you're after a change of pace from constant ultraviolence in your Anime, you could do a lot worse than this.
by: Jason
More articles by Jason
While it is not my kind of thing, Spirit of Wonder at least provides something different & is not without its charms. On the other hand, a Studio Ghibli flick would have much the same attraction...and probably a more enthralling plot. | |
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