Ken's World
Ken's World
Hidden Gems: Underrated Anime Worth Your Time
Yo yo yo. It's your boy Ken the whiz.
SPEAKER_02:I need to know.
SPEAKER_00:And you tuning in to another episode.
SPEAKER_02:Trust me, I hear Ken. I'm curious, George. I hop in the pause. It's five and a horse. I'm ready for war. I'm coming for throws. To turn to a ghost, I need to know everything. Now you be surprised if the info you get is by letting them talk, so I'm letting them talk. Gotta keep quiet, maneuver instance to let them and talk up their body. Another one body, that's just how they go. I got some stickers, I'm shaking the game, so they stay on their toes. Stay in your lane out to stay on the go. I can't play with the pros and act like a rookie, so they overlook me. They not double up again. None of them knows. None of them cold. They just got lucky but never adapted. So I'm telling the one if it's comin' to blows. My enemies are feeling it close. I let them think that they got me, but what he can know. I had them beat before we ever spoke. I'm ready for smoke. I need to know everything. Who in the what in the where I need everything? Trust me, I hear what you're saying, but I like this knew what you're telling me. I'm curious, George. I hop in the force, just five in the horse. I'm ready for war, I'm coming for toast, to turn to a ghost. I need to know everything. Now they ain't go harder than me. They need a blade in the cheek, they're stanking the peace, to pray for the heat. The army of flea, the tankin' the Jeep, a navy a stea, where it's a marine, a face up this leave, a team of marines, the freak on the leash, the mix with a appetite, raise the fatigue, and still they will lay in my feet. Well, you gotta do wrong. I gotta look over all of my publishing statements for Qin as soon as the song's done it. I gotta call her my mama and tell her I made it as soon as my log's done it. I gotta read all my trade publications and sit my teeth till it's not done. I think it's all funny. I need to know everything. Who in the what in the way I need everything? Trust me, I hear what you're saying, but I like this knew what you're telling me. I'm curious, George. I hop in the post. I'm ready for war. I'm coming for close, to turn to a ghost. I need to know everything. I need to know everything. Who in the what in the where I need everything?
SPEAKER_00:Welcome to that. I appreciate your time. I done got a whole busy schedule. It's been a long week. I know it's been it's getting kinda hot. I'm out here in Florida. Uh, it's been raining, so you know I'm into that tropical storms or whatnot. I've only been here for about three years, and uh I still can't get used to all this rain. Not gonna lie to you. Still can't get used to all this rain. Um, it's great weather when it wants to have it. Uh, but I never thought that I'll actually say that winter would probably be my greatest time in Florida. I'm originally from Jersey, so anybody who's up north understands that yeah, you can you can handle the weather. Nobody says you can't handle the weather, but man, that snow be beating you up in the mornings, especially when you gotta shovel out that snow. So I guess I can say I'm a little bit more grateful that you know there's heat wave than I'm in. Technically, I'm in the Sahara's cousin's house. That's what it feels like. And my step cousins out there in Texas. Y'all be safe out there in Texas. Anyway, we got another exciting episode, guys. Got a lot to talk about. Um I want to make this one a little bit different since this is technically um my real first episode. Uh, my last one's obviously just the intro. I was just kind of just rambling, I feel like. Um just to try to break the ice, basically. But this episode, I really wanted to talk about underrated animes, you know, ones that just flew right underneath the radar, man. Had no thoughts to it, had no recognition. Uh the you know, it's crazy, the world of anime is so huge, and I uh people do kind of forget that. I mean, there are genres all across the board. So to dive into this, I think this is only like 10% of not being publicized more, I think, as opposed to some of these mainstream animes. You know, I'm saying a lot of the mainstream animes overshadowed. Um, one had to do with you know, kids being a little bit more closer to the characters, or studio just kind of dropping a ball on the character development. Maybe the illustration wasn't appealing enough, or maybe it was just so deep that you couldn't really understand what was going on because sometimes you know you start off in somebody's head that got cut off, like, whoa, wait a minute, man. That's that's a little intense. You know, I don't know if I want my kids watching this, and then you're completely turned off. But um, there are shows that are like that, but then there are all shows that start up like that, but then you know, there are ones that really start out real slow, but it it just doesn't it doesn't grab you enough in the beginning, you know. For me, if if I'm talking about from my own personal experience, I need animes that uh have attention grabber in the beginning, you know, uh, or give me a tidbit as to what could lead to what I love the pot, I love the plot twists, I love the uh different avenues that you know they hit now. Nowadays, they have I don't know what's going on in Japan, I don't know, but juice milk, uh squid juice that fell in some people's eyes, and I mean because I know y'all been seeing some of these uh some of these YouTube videos, and these women just been eating everything, right? I don't know if the DNA is getting to them, and then they done got crazy out there. I don't know, but it is gotten wild more sexually, uh, a little bit more on the demonic demons, and uh, but now I think the the hype right now is Is Kai's obviously. So, you know, everybody's reincarnated, you know, Sword Are online is going crazy, and um, you know, uh not uh what is that ReZero, uh few elves. I don't know, my brain just went dead right now, so don't quote me on it. But I like to to kind of give the animes that that fell underneath the radar, you know, give them a little bit more pop, a little bit more scene. Um, and also a love for you guys to to go back and watch them. Now, some of them again um I'm gonna do a two-part to this episode one. Uh so part one is obviously just for the it's the same, uh, the same subject, but I'm gonna focus more on the older styles a little bit more, and then on the second part, I'm gonna be uh focusing on the newer one, so the newer type of anime. So, you know, kind of give you guys the the before and after effects, you know, but still great story, still great uh character development. Um, and if you just stick around, you can learn a little bit. So I'm gonna dive all into this. Um the first one will probably be Trinity Blood. Because one, you know, to put to put myself out there, I haven't seen Trinity Blood since they stopped because I mean that goes all the way back to when I was in high school, and uh I'm 33 now. So, but I think the one thing I can I can remember from it was Trinity Blood was based on uh family specifically, but uh they were military or in the navy or something like that, but they were in space, and the group of uh brother and sister really is three of them, and one of them got killed. Um and one was blaming the other, and I mean it was like a whole mess. So basically, because of that death, they um they kind of fell apart. They uh it just went crazy, honestly. Uh so you had Seth, you had Kane, and you had Lilith. Uh Seth was kind of the older brother, I want to say. I might have to go back and watch it again. But I think Seth was like the older brother. Kane was the one that went crazy, as opposed to you know. Um and Lilith. I feel like I'm missing somebody. I think there was like a Kane and Abel type of scenario going on there, I want to say, because one of them did die. So, and I mean it just it disrupted them. Uh, and they kind of went to Earth, and I want to say that Seth became like this rogue vampire killer, it was kind of awesome. He had like a two-stage power to him, you know, and he was all about the guns. Because it was, I think it was also, I think they kind of took some of the uh um was it tri-gun, was it stampede, trigunst or something like that? Because he had like the two guns, and he was just kind of like that guy, and he was basically just kind of killing all the vampires, where his brother got severely hurt, so he was basically like in a coffin for some time, but he had some henchmen that was out there just going ridiculously crazy, and I think he was turning people as well. So Kane was just kind of like just doing anything he felt like he could. Um, and the crazy thing about that whole thing was you never saw half of the things that was supposed to happen in this show because everything was all about a plot twist, and his sister Lila took more of the queen role, she took more of the leadership, so she had like a whole kingdom, and all this was in the Vatican, crazy, right? So basically, all in the Catholic Church. Uh Seth was kind of just kind of doing the Lord's work, you know, as a priest, but he wasn't a priest. What he was really trying to do was find Cain and kill Cain, and he just couldn't get there fast enough, you know. And he just man, I'm talking my my man was wreaking havoc, and they were amazing fight scenes against each other. I mean, the ending, I think it was like uh episode 23, 24, because I think it's only like 24 episodes. Uh the 20th, the 23rd and 24th episode, fire. Fire. Because I mean, everything led up to that moment, and they didn't disappoint for sure. They did not disappoint. Trinity Blood is I'll say top five in terms of vampire series in the anime world. Obviously, everybody can make their own arguments, but in terms of like character development, great story. Um, and again, I get on those plot choices. Those plot sources really mess you up, so you never see it coming. So that's one. Uh, second, Aquarion. Aquarion had two seasons. They had Genesis, which was the first one, and then they had Evil, Evil, E V O L. Um Mecha. It's like a mecha anime. Um, I it definitely came after uh um Evangelion, and I mean we ain't gonna talk about Evangeline, Evangeline was dope. Okay, nobody's talking about Evangelion, and also here's a little bonus Big O. Come on, man. Show my age is there as well. I mean, big O was also on Tsunami and also early in the morning before you went to school, it was like five or six. Uh Zoys came on, Ronin Warriors came on, and uh sometimes Transformer, but they they remixed it. Even uh Thundercast too. Thundercast was was my man, come on, I'll talk about this all day. Anyway, Evangeline was kind of kind of cool because I like the concept of it, because it was one mecha, but you had to have the special attribute to control the main cockpit, right? The main cockpit was basically like you're you're like a god, you know what I'm saying? You had to have that that certain DNA to be able to control the main cockpit. They always found people for the arms and the legs and things like that, but you got the you got the chest and head, you know what I'm saying? So that's that's basically like the main base of operation, and if I can remember correctly, uh the guy who took over the main cock cockpit, I think they kind of dove into the Greek mythology a little bit. I think he had like Apollo, like Apollo's son power, like he he was like a descendant from Apollo, and the uh the enemy uh I don't know, it's like shadow walkers or shadow stalkers, it was something like that, but they was kind of fighting against like a the moon aspect, you know. So everything was kind of based like Greek mythology and uh nature, you know. But it was so good. The fight scenes were amazing, very clear, very crisp, very good color coordination. Um, I want to say that was toy toy animation, to e i um animation. So, you know, usually they always got good creds, man. They do really good. So they think they they had the two seasons, and I guess they just kind of fell off. I don't know if the studio dropped it, or I don't know. It's kind of weird how it just kind of fell off the face of the earth because I I thought they had like I thought they had more coming because I know the manga has still had some some stuff now. Oh, and then another super side note on my side too. I had to dive a little bit more into the manga because I am on the show side. The manga does let you know more intricate information and they break down more fight scenes. The only reason why I couldn't get in it because it was certain animes I feel like I need to watch in action, right? You gotta watch some of these things in action. I'm looking at these pages, and yeah, the illustration jumps off, but it's it's just not enough. You need some voice, you need some blood, you need you need something blowing up, you know, to keep to keep the the attention, you know. But that's just me. I'm a kid at heart. I try my best to try to pay attention to the storylines, and also has some plot choices in there as well. Not as much, not as much as uh Trinity Blood for sure, but definitely has some plot choices. Great storyline, great uh character development. It was kind of cheesy too, had some cheesy moments, but hey, gotta have some cheesy moments in the anime. It won't be anime without the cheesy moments, right? Um, another one will probably be uh Ikitozen. Ikitozen's uh kind of old, kind of new. Well, it's definitely old, but kind of on the newer side. I think they dropped a more newer version uh last year. I want to say it'll probably either was around spring of last year, either spring or summer. Um, but they're very periodically dropping episodes, like I'll see them pop up, you know, and I'm like, whoa, I totally forgot about that. You know, I thought they were done, but they not. So basically, Ikitozin is like high school girls who took I'm explaining it right, they took dragon spirits, and they got like these pendants, and the pendants kind of true their master, right? So obviously there's one big ginormous one of a of a dragon, and there's like the oldest dragon, and then it's like specialty dragons that had like you know what they were known for, but they're all like kind of under one dragon, technically. But these dragons is not like schoolgirls. Now, do not judge me because I've been told that I've been put in the category of watching like hentai type stuff, which that's not my angle. Okay, this is not my angle. I'm just saying that you're gonna see some titties pop out. Hey, I wasn't watching it for that. It's there though. Great fight scenes, amazing fight scenes, extremely um intuitive. Uh, they actually um focus a lot on different martial arts, and each martial art, you know, highlights the dragon, you know, and then you had the the pin to pin. So you had dragon against dragon, certain dragons were like mortal enemies against that one, so you see them kind of fighting and it turns like this one thing. And obviously, you had like the main one, like the protagonist and an antagonist one that just kind of fuse it out, but like it's so good, it's so good, man. Um, again, nips might be popping out. So don't judge me, do not judge me. If you have kids, I advise you to guard that you know if they're around, and they do stay out, they be fighting, they do stay out because it be in intense battles, man. So again, don't judge, don't judge. Um the fourth one would be air gear. Air gear was one of my favorites, um, and specifically, it was only like 24-25 episodes. This was back in maybe oh seven, oh eight-ish. Could be a little bit a little bit later, a little bit earlier. I don't know. But I I I put this kind of in my my sports aspect because it was really around uh skating, rollerblading, you know. Uh who's the best rollerblade? You had your clicks all over the place. Um, and the one particular guy, I think he was like known as the crow. He was like one of the best skaters. I mean, everybody was trying to, I mean, he flew, man. It was dope. The concept of the show was so awesome. Um, and they just stopped. They just stopped making it. Uh, I think there was only like maybe three seasons of the manga, and it was like, yo, what happened? Why y'all just gonna drop off? That's crazy. Like, how y'all gonna just you mean get get the blood blowing, get the blood flowing, and then y'all just gonna poof, knock it off, shoot it, snipe it, gone. I don't really know what happened with that. Um, to also the Divi back Trinity, but only stopped because the director died, so there's nobody else that can, or the screenwriter, somebody was a writer or director, and so the studio just dropped that. So that's that's the reason why I think they they stopped. Um, as far as the other ones, I think they just stopped because I think the studio just dropped them, maybe it wasn't getting enough funding, you know. And and I want to highlight this too. Um, I don't know if you guys pay attention to this. Um, I didn't, so I was guilty of it at first, but as of late, you know, I I've been kind of paying attention a little bit more. Man, we gotta give more props to to these manga artists, man. Uh, they are extremely, extremely under duress. Okay, a lot of them have been just get picked off one by one. I don't know, they're being overworked. I don't know. Well, I'll tell you this, they're definitely being overworked. They uh not getting the recognition that they deserve now. I think because of some of the minor, you know, discrepancies in terms of deaths and things like that, people falling ill, covet probably didn't make things um any better. And you know, Japan, man, they they worse than New York, you know. They really built on top of each other, and they they actually do live in like a four by four. Um, not enough space, not enough room to work with, uh, bad air quality, you know what I'm saying? So I just want to give a shout out to them, man. I really appreciate you guys more than you know. Um, and I'm I'm speaking for people who who can't speak up. Um we really appreciate you guys. Please continue to do out some good work, man. Uh, definitely um we'll try to petition uh or or or give my my two cents so y'all can get some razors out there, some better working conditions, and maybe maybe some time off. Dang it. We're all human out here, man. And and these guys are doing something they're passionately love to do, and you can see it in some of these works. So, shout out to all the men geekas, all the illustrators, all the visual artists. Okay, dope. Oh, let me let me drink some water because all this time I got me parched excuse me. So, yeah, but last but not least, one of my old school all-time favorites. Now, a little bit on me as to why I wanna before I say this one, it's been getting a little bit more hype lately, so it's not necessarily underrated, people kind of do know about it, but I I I I want to say this because nobody gives it enough recognition, okay. As a former boxer, um I want to say that Hajime Ipo goes down as the top sports all around in anime. Granted, we were in different different weight classes, okay. Uh the man was probably like a butt five, but looked like Mike Tyson out there. I mean, it was the coolest unmistakable visual effect nonsense in terms of fight scenes you can ever imagine. But let me tell you something. Um Michael B. Jordan and his new Creed movie, the one he just did, I think that was Creed 3, had some elements of Epo in the movie. Right along with Dragon Ball Z and One Punch Man and all that. Um, so shout out to Michael B. Appreciate you, bro, for giving out, for giving Epo some love and affection. Um the one scene where I think it was like the opening scene of the movie of Kree 3, um, where you know it was Mike and he was fighting. I think he was in the championship out. I mean, he was kind of picking the guy off, you know. Each hit wasn't really phasing him because you know, after you get to a certain pinnacle in that level, you you really can just shrug some some damage off. It's really not that, it's really not like you're feeling that person. It is you are definitely respecting the fighter, though. So no, don't don't get that twisted. You're definitely respecting the fighter. We are in a championship battle. And as anybody who plays any type of sports, understands that when you get to the highest level, especially championship, you don't disrespect that opponent. You you you have to have a certain outlook as to say, like, you know, they're not about to beat you, obviously. But you do have that respect, and I respected Mike for putting putting his anime in there and putting the remnants of in there because it shows one, he's a true fan of anime, and you know, the anime community is getting so much more love now, and I love it. I love it. But there are also some phonies out here. Yeah, I said it. Yeah, I said it. Yeah, yeah, some bandwagoners, yup, mm-hmm. But it's okay, it's okay because those same people that used to pick on me is now watching it. Okay, so I digress, but Hajame Ippo not visually uh pleasing. Later, you see the progression as the uh as the artists put a little bit more emphasis on the fight scenes and you know the movements and things like that. The like it's like the the the show itself becomes a lot more crispier, like it becomes a lot more sharper. Um, but I will say this. I have never at that time watching anime have felt the gravity of each fight. It wasn't like attack on Titan, it wasn't Sword Art Online, you know, visually, it wasn't like One Punch Man, but it had its own aesthetic where you know not the mess with Epo. Cause Evo gonna hit you with that thing, you hear me? And so I guess the I guess the author the author of the show must have must have been a Tyson, a Mike Tyson fan. Because Epo looked like dang on Mike Tyson, okay, Japanese style. So it was pretty cool. It was pretty cool to look at. Um, as the fight progressed, you just you just see Epo. And and let me just say, Epo also, his whole character was really very timid, man. Um, but he had the foundation, you know, he worked on a boat. Um really, I think he had his mother to worry about only, or his grandfather, I can't remember um the whole thing, but I know I know it was like a one, it was just like a single parent, and he was just wanted to take care of him, and he was a tryhard, man. You know, people looked down on him, and when he found out that he can actually do boxing, because it was really introduced, he didn't look for it, it was just really introduced. The people that he was fighting made him better. It made him better, it sharpened him. Can we all say, you know, on an everyday basis that we found a foe in real life that can sharpen our senses? That's a beautiful thing, if you really think about it. Because that means you found not necessarily an equal, but you found somebody who you respect to that level of saying that you would actually give that recognition to. Well, that was Epo. Epo came from the mud, bro. Epo understood like sacrifice, he understood that like let's not take nothing for granted. Um, but at the same time, he struggled, man. He lost fights. Uh he it I mean it hit him pretty hard. Pretty hard. But he came back stronger. And even made, even made his opponent think twice. And it was it was some fights you like, yo, there's no way this guy's gonna win. I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy. I've I I really enjoyed it. I definitely really enjoyed it. Um let's do something different. Let's do something different. I got a question. At all the uh anime is out there. Alright. What are the most underrated villains at all? Those shows, not my shows that I I mean, you can use my shows obviously, but in the shows that you liked, the shows that you watched and grew up with, and and uh and thought like, yo, if that villain was in today's society, we're all messed up. I mean, we we ain't coming back from it. Cause I mean, like, the protagonist is only as good as the antagonist, right? At least that's what they say. Iron shop is iron, fire creates more fire, water is wet. I don't know. I mean, as far as underrated villains, um, at least if if I'm going off of mine, I'll say I'd say Trinity Blood had the most personal uh connection with the protagonist. So in a way, you know, the ones that really hit home, the ones that you would feel like, okay, yo, like, yo, he wasn't playing, you know. I I don't really know. I don't really know if uh I don't even know if he can actually be in this work because he would be way too much. I mean, we're all gonna be dead for sure, for sure. Some of those villains really overpowered, man. Seriously. I mean, seriously, for no reason. Sometimes the the main character look like they just I mean, they need help. They need their boys. They need they need that training session. If they ain't get that training session, yo, uh, it's over with. It's over with. Um and did they get enough screen time? Like, can they can they get a little bit more, like, more than 10 minutes out of the show? You know, it's all about the the protagonists and their character development. You know, it was all about the things that they had to give up to make sure that they're you know, they they they made sure they can win that fight. But you see, I don't know if all animes, but to my knowledge, most of the animes, some of the some of the villains, they were already powered up, man. So what does that say? What does that say, man? Are they really villains or were they just misunderstood? Foof of thought. I don't know. It was just a it was just a question. I just I just never really thought like because it was always it's like think about it, because the protagonist always has to get up most of the time, anyway, most of the time, they always have to power up just so they can fight the enemy. I mean, because the show, if the if the enemy wasn't good, then the show ain't good. I don't know. Food for thought, guys. Food for thought um, I'm gonna leave this little tidbit knowledge. Never underestimate your opponent, man. Never underestimate your opponent, your opponent will definitely surprise you when you least expect it. So we gotta take that little, even though we know, even though we know that saying, 99.9999% of the world knows that saying. But do we actually put it into practice? Because if we actually put it into practice, I believe we won't be having most of the problems that we have in today's society. If you have respect, anyway. That's why I say the anime is so beautiful, man. Because it teaches you boundaries on what to do and what not to do, and it shows what happens when you choose the wrong way. When you choose the wrong way, you see the ramifications of that. So ain't no guessing. Um I wanted to make this specifically to put some put put some uh put some fillers out there, you know, get curious. And I'm serious, guys. I really want you guys to let me know. Like what what what is your top five underrated animes? The older ones, anyway. The second part uh so it'd be episode one, part two. Um it would be for the underrated animes, but it's for the newer class, newer school, you know, further up. So let me know. Let me know some older ones. I like people's perspective. They, you know, because you know, some of my friends, you know, they're all into the mainstream because one, they're new, and two, they want something that can be you know uh substantial, they like something that they feel like they can gravitate to a little bit more, and actually understand too, because let's face it, unless you've been in the anime world since the beginning, you really don't know how Japan really looks at things or you know their uh their outlook on life sometimes, and I mean it's pretty much to the T. Everything is about respect and honor, and I'm all for that, man. I I'm I'm all for the the militant lifestyle, I'm all for the respect issue because I think I'm telling you, I think that is what the problem is in today's society is we lost the respect for one another, and I think that's probably why I gravitate more to anime and not to the reality TV shows and most of the mess that be on TV, and again, you know, mine's is a mess, but it's a different mess. You know, we're watching reality TV shows because that's actually reality, even though it's dramatized, but those things do happen on an everyday basis, it may not happen in your household, but they definitely still happen. So, I'll leave you with that tip. Never underestimate your opponent, but I'ma sign off folks. I appreciate your time. Definitely like and subscribe to my channel, I'm on Spotify, I'm on Google Podcasts, I'm gonna be on Apple Podcast. I'm not on Google Podcasts just yet, I'm still working on that, but um definitely show some love for your boy. So, thank you for tuning in to another episode of Ken's World. It's your boy, Ken DeWiz. Peace!