I was scanning the
YesAsia Koichi Mashimo listing looking for Spider Riders box sets, and stumbled on
something I didn't recognize, with Mashimo credited as the director.
Looking it up
on ANN, there's no mention of him. But as it turns out, ANN is incomplete. I found that
AnimeClassic has been subbing it this year, and grabbed the first couple of episodes. Sure enough, in the opening and closing credits, there's Koichi Mashimo! ...except in the subtitles of the closing credits, where they just use what they found on ANN. But of the few Japanese characters I recognize, I recognize those. I'm guessing since it's 52 episodes, he may have directed just the first season, or at some point it'll start switching between directors. Dunno, I'm only up to #3, and it's only subbed up to #23 so far.
About the show itself -- an early-80's old-skool sci-fi cop comedy, and all the improbable zaniness it involves. Some of it is a bit wince-worthy. This pre-dates Dominion Tank Police and the Dirty Pair movie he did by a little bit, but if you've seen those, you'll kind of know what to expect, only add an early-80's fashion (and music
) sense, a nun-turned-cop (what's with Mashimo and nuns?), a preposterously large mobile police assault vehicle, and a preposterously small premise to try and hang a plot on, and you've got Future Police.
So far, I'm still fascinated enough by the discovery that I'm quite entertained, and there's a lot to have fun with. There's those early glimpses of cinematic storyboard style that's indicitave of the Mashimo techniques I dig so much. And in the context of the era, the slapstick and innuendo humor fit in just fine, though I would probably be a bit irritated with it by now on it's own merits.
I wonder what other little surprises lurk out there on the internets? There's a whole lot of old-skool to unearth; somebody must have it somewhere...
