Given my track record for intros so far, I would bring up
this guy’s simmering disrespect for Tim Burton as reason enough for why I don’t
like him. Hell, for a long time, Bennett The Sage was legitimately my least
favourite reviewer (that I was aware of at the time) for that very reason. And
yet, as the series being spotlighted today ‘Anime Abandon’ grew and his prior
series ‘Sage Reviews’ fell more and more by the wayside, the guy well and truly
won me over. So much so that this guy might be the single best reviewer I’ve
seen in terms of storylines, something I’ll clarify about as we go through
today’s list. As such, let’s get into my picks for Top 20 best episodes of
Anime Abandon.
#20. Agent Aika
Opening on a note of questioning the difference between
exploitation for the sake of satire and just plain old exploitation (wondering
how much of the joke is intended? Sage and the Rap Critic should do a collab at
some point), this review is littered with that pondering that brings certain
parts of the story and production into a clearer light, which is pretty
symptomatic of a lot of Sage’s deeper musings in certain episodes. As a result,
this is the perfect way to start out our list. That, and it showcases quite possibly one of the best extended counting gags of any video.
#19: Night Warriors
While filtering through a film that is balls-to-the-wall
stupid, and yet keeps trying to pretend that it isn’t, we get a taste of Sage’s
past aggression in his outburst towards whoever it was that left us with the
main character we have in this series. It gives a nice reminder of how
impulsive and psychopathic Sage’s character used to be, which works as a really
good contrast for some of the episodes that we’ll get to later on down the
list, especially with how it stands next to his depiction of being lonely that
occurs not long after that initial outburst.
#18: Aeon Flux
Reviewed as part of Not-Quite Anime Month, Sage goes into
detail about how this is easily the worst show he’s ever seen; even more so
than the show’s whipping boy Neon Genesis Evangelion. While a lot of the review
revolves around the series’ philosophical touches, and admittedly my brain
continues to glaze over at a lot of the finer points in the massive block of
explanation Sage gives to bring the audience up to speed on Gnosticism, his
grievances with the show are definitely made perfectly clear.
#17: Akira
A look at one of the most celebrated anime films of all
time, Sage manages to give the film its due in terms of influence and grandeur,
all the while admitting that a film doesn’t need to be ‘good’ to be ‘important’.
Indeed, between the original horrible dub and the story gutting that it went
through during the adaptation process, he shows that the film has a lot of problems. And yet, none of those
problems take away from the film’s positives, and Sage in no way thinks that
they should.
#16: Ninja
Resurrection
This is one of Sage’s freakout episodes where the subject is
so bad that he actually has a mental breakdown, and while I would argue that
the idea is getting slightly overused of late, that doesn’t detract heavily
from the ones that work. Take, for instance, this one where the battle between
legendary ninjas and major religious figures reaches the heights of lunacy.
This is also one of the more gory freakouts on Sage’s part, which is something
that adds to quite a bit of the character mythos. After spending so long
playing the depraved murderous sicko, it’s kind of interesting how violent his
traumatic visions end up being.
#15: 8 Man After
Billing something as a ‘gritty reboot’ is just about the
worst label possible that doesn’t involve the word “Jai”, “Theresa” or “Akiva
Goldsman”, and this might show the absolute worst traits associated with that
label: Mandated connections to the original that feel amazingly disjointed,
serious tonal issues, not to mention plot developments that make no sense. I’m
with Sage on this one: A brain in a jar shouldn’t be this poorly explained.
#14: Tokyo Revelation
Getting into a couple’s spat with his big book of gay jokes,
the hipster demon worshipper, the nonsensical demonic ritual in question, the
over-your-head jokes that are almost Adult Swim in how weirdly funny they are;
this is almost like a highlight reel of great Sage moments. Given how insanely
weird the plot is, it makes sense how something like this could inspire so many
great little moments in such a small package.
#13: Virgin Fleet
Even with how much worse his subject material would get (and
in fact, had already been), this is easily the angriest review of the series.
The hatred is just dripping from his voice with every word, not to mention the
fact that he almost looks like he’s going to explode under his own power near
the end, and he brings up more than legitimate reasons for him to be. Somehow,
I doubt that the concept of ‘virgin energy planes’ could sound good to anyone.
#12: Burn-Up W
Using Jackass as a means to explain the line between
mindless fun and just mindless idiocy is a decent enough footing to start off
with, along with using Movie 43 as a clear example of how not to do either, but he extends his examination
of that same line to the review proper. Not only that, he cuts off a nice bit
of potential conspiracy theorizing concerning a certain mech look-a-like, and
his “Someone’s waifu is missing!” line just cracks me up.
#11: Tokyo Godfathers
Sage prefers anime dubs over anime subs. That’s a pretty
hefty deal-breaker for some people, but damn it all if he doesn’t give a damn
good reason for thinking so. His little experiment to test his theory about the
experience of watching a subbed film is interesting and makes for some nice
points. It probably helps that the film he chose to review and break his
usually-stringent rule about dubs is one that genuinely deserves to be looked
at.
#10: Love Hina Spring
Movie
This is just straight-up reaction porn, as Sage’s facial
expressions and cries of utter bewilderment at what is happening on screen,
flying turtles included, rank up there among some of the best I’ve seen from an
Internet critic. I haven’t watched any of the Love Hina series outside of the
clips from his reviews, but based on his own feelings and the content inside,
just the fact that this is rounding off a trilogy of reviews gives this video a
lot of oomph as well. This is all in spite of an opening gag with Oancitizen
that ends on a note that, honestly, I’m still
having difficulty reading into even after watching and re-watching it an
unhealthy number of times.
#9: The Guyver
Yeah, this video has gotten very little regard since its
release that it inspired quite possibly one of the greatest responses of any
video, which itself got dramatized into its own video. That said, I’m
highlighting this video because of its place in the storyline of Bennett The
Sage, specifically his past appearances. His interaction with the Nostalgia
Critic is basically his earlier sins and violent tendencies coming back to bite
him (like his infamous appearance on Ask That Guy With The Glasses), with
Sage’s stance essentially being to try and see past his previous actions in
favour of who he is now. That, and his banter with the Critic is funny as well,
but I like this primarily for its thematic elements.
#8: Tenchi 2: The
Daughter Of Darkness
This isn’t the first time Sage has gotten into the Tenchi
Muyo series, but he certainly lends the credence to why people would be into it
by going through the characters and the essential premise and pointing out its
inherent strengths. Hell, he even gives lip service to what is a pretty damn effective
bit of drama in the film proper. That said, this is still a Christmas film that
in no way should be a Christmas film, and barely even qualifies for that
matter, and Sage gives it the hiding it deserves on those grounds.
#7: Inuyasha:
Affections Touching Across Time [Nuts & Bolts]
This review’s impact may be heightened with me personally
because this is the one review that I was seriously waiting for him to do. When
the 100th episode came out and it wasn’t Inuyasha, I’ll admit, I was a bit pissed. But then this
review came out and, even with its notions about the archetypical ‘bad boy’
that I could make serious disagreements about, his gripes with the series and
the characters are all solid. I really like when someone points out how a
possessive relationship where the girl is abusive is still possessive and abusive; this might get me some hideous
feedback, but I like the gender-equal view on that one. That, and the line in
response to the freeing of the demon at the beginning is absolutely hilarious.
#6: A Wind Named
Amnesia
This is a film that, for reasons of idiocy, I checked out
after having seen the review. Really, after having to sit through this mass of
pretentious twaddle with its empty and sickening platitudes about the human
condition, not to mention the piss-poor conclusion that the story comes to, I
fully understand Sage’s anger with this one. It also helps that seeing someone
else tear this thing a new one is hella satisfying as well.
#5: Fake
Have to admit, this is probably the last place I was
expecting to find some amazingly poignant statements about the depiction of gay
characters in fiction, even in porn. And yet, his espousing about how yaoi
titles are tailored for audiences that can’t participate in such courtships is
genuinely fascinating, especially when you consider that this isn’t limited
just to homosexual guys. In lieu of a long rant that would take a whole other
post to get everything across, I’ll just say that you’d be surprised how little
lesbian porn out there is actually made for lesbians, rather than straight
guys.
#4: Twilight Of The
Cockroaches
This entire review is done as a send-up to the Simpsons
spin-off show The Critic. And yet, this video is extremely funny even if you
don’t know anything about the original show; I should know, as I still haven’t watched any episodes of
the show yet and I still found this to be awesome. Sage’s performance is
top-notch, but I honestly love Neer in this review as he probably gets some of the
best lines of the entire series.
#3: Memories
So far, I’ve covered a few videos that have honestly changed
how I view media; this is another one in that grouping. Through looking at this
anthology’s utter mastery of the animated medium, between the artistry of
Millennium Rose, the slapstick of Stink Bomb and the experimentation of Cannon
Fodder, he also explains about the finer points of animation that, since seeing
it just a short amount of time ago, has given me a better understanding of
animation than I had before watching it.
#2: Violence Jack [N&B]
A seriously risky venture on Sage’s part who, after spending
months setting up his review of the almost legendarily awful of Violence Jack,
instead made a video that was a dramatization of the making of the review.
While some viewers were (somewhat reasonably) pissed off by this decision, I
and many others found merit in the legitimate drama that went into this thing.
From Sage’s conviction in showing the dilemma he’s in when it comes to showing
the review, to Neer playing the raging superego that insists he completes it to
Gabe in one of his less butt-monkey roles as the emotional support, this is a
wrenching watch that is honestly more engaging than a slew of the stuff that he
ends up reviewing. As if that feat of outdoing his opposition wasn’t good
enough, the video itself ends on a note that is seriously tear-jerking in how
well it’s played.
#1: Video Girl Ai [N&B]
How in the hell do you outdo the finesse of the Violence
Jack “review”? Well, making one of the most comforting videos of all time is a
good way to go. Seriously, with how easily the subject matter lends itself to
cheap laughs at the expense of others, the way he gives it a disarming amount
of pathos is worth all the kudos I can bestow unto him. He talks about how
different people cope with their lives, from movies to anime to… well, video
girls, and the way he is able to normalize all of it and even takes time to
give comfort to people that may relate to such a title is insanely admirable.
This, in my humble opinion, is the highest dramatic point of Sage’s karmic
character arc. After spending so long having to pay for his past sins and
actions, with the mental strain of his demons and his want to redeem himself regularly causing him to mentally break down mid-review, this is the point where he
reaches utter redemption and shows humility and compassion where few people do.
He may have continued making mental freakout reviews later on, but I still
consider this to be his ultimate moment in terms of development; it is just plain heart-warming to hear this guy speak in such a tone.
Since we’re already look at reviewers of Japanese media
that may be somewhat underappreciated for his legitimate talents, time to dive
even deeper into that pool next time with a look at a reviewer that is well and
truly underrated.
My personal favorite is top 20 Giant Robots, but the list you got is quite good.
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