Mobius Strip

Have you been enjoying the frequent blog posts? Well, great! You can thank all the time I have had on my hands as of late*. And what better way then blogging away and digging through the archives of YouTube.

Of lately, I have lost myself in a time warp back to the mid 1990's. Those YouTube lawyers might have scoured the airwaves for anything Viacom, but the wealth of entire TV episodes speaks to the power of nostalgia and sheer ingenuity.

Entire episodes of Swat KATS, Batman Beyond, VR Troopers, Gundam Wing, Samurai Pizza Cats, Wing Commander Academy, and Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills!

There is something odd and infinite about watching these shows again as an adult. So many hours spent watching them at home and, now, entire afternoons lost to the digital video channels. Of course, I should probably go play outside because, back then, it would do a boy well and, now, it would lessen my fat ass. There is also a bit of justice, scales falling from my eyes and what not.

Some of these shows were absolutely crazy. Pizza Cats was particularly insane, the kind of stuff they probably play at Guatanamo Bay to break enemy combatants. Did you see that intro? There are anime purists out there that think that is tame. They wear their armor all the time, get shot out of a revolver cannon on top of a pagoda pizza place, and one fights with an umbrella. The main villain has a banana for a nose!
It was aired on WPIX, which is now a CW affiliate in New York City. Being Puerto Rico, we had not network affiliates so your cable provider would choose whatever it wanted. We mostly had NYC stations, but by the time I hit puberty, our ABC affiliate came out of Nashville. It did not matter much to me then since we still had all those cartoons.

Sticking with the cat team, I was pleased to see how well Swat KATS held up. That was my 60's Batman. They had a missile for everything and the fighter jet spat out more cat themed things than Noah's Ark. Octopus missiles! Mole Missiles! Drill Bits Missiles! Shark Repellent Missi...err...well we never saw that one, but I am sure that Razor and T-Bone had it. When I turn on the TV today, Saturday morning seems dominated by horrible anime imports. Back when I was a kid, the anime dubs seemed counterbalanced by a fine crop of American animation like SWAT Kats or Tiny Toons. Now it feels like it is the mold and kids are shocked to see something that has normal sized-eyes and none of those weird sweat drop effects. I mean, we had three Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons and the only spikey hair was on the damn hedgehog! Like with the new Transformers cartoon, I realize that styles change and animators want to go in a new direction, but why should kids only know one cartoon style? We are sending the message that if something is anime and/or from Japan, then it must be good. That is ridiculous. We know that not all movies are great just because we saw Citizen Kane. All those great works of literature cannot defend Wild Animus. And Princess Mononoke cannot defend Hentai, Tentacle Rape, or One Piece!

Wow, I watch a lot of cartoons. STILL! No wonder I can't write a decent short story. My mind is set for...HORRIBLE FAN FICTION! Stop laughing at me! Just like when I was a kid! CURSE YOU CARTOON COSMIC ELEGANCE!

If you are of my same persuasion and want some serious "Oh, Hell Yeah" moments...check these out.

Peace!

*Ok, so I am in between jobs. But, you like the blog posts, eh?