Range Murata, Last Exile, Shangri-La, and PSE Pro #01 Skipper and Scooter

Welcome to another installment of aged anime.  Range Murata is a well known Japanese artist and illustrator. I first became familiar with his work in the early 2000s when I started watching more anime again.  He has been the character designer for a number of anime, and you can always tell it was him from his style.  The men's faces have angular features, the women/girls have more rounded faces and child-like features.  I do like his artwork and you can find his art books on Amazon.

The first anime I saw with his work was Blue Submarine No. 6 and the animation was pretty good.  He has gone on to do the character designs a number of anime, but these would be the most famous:

• Blue Submarine No. 6
• Last Exile
• Shangri-La
• Last Exile - Fam, The Silver Wing
• Cop Craft
  

Blue Submarine and Last Exile are pretty much vintage anime now as Blue Submarine was released in 2000, and last Exile was released in  2003.  These shows pretty much caught the initial wave of the anime boom in North America. Last Exile was made by Gonzo and it was an amazing original work and the box set releases had plenty of extras loaded in.  Anime released back then was more expensive as they were being released disc by disc rather than as season sets as it is done now.  But they sure had a lot of good extras thrown in.  I like having anime released by seasons myself, but I guess I'm still nostalgic about the original release format as the fan community here also got to get big monthly volumes of Shonen Jump in English and our own NewType magazine.

Blue Submarine No. 6

This was an interesting OVA with a short number of episodes.  The overall art was really good, but this is one of the earlier anime to use CG, so the underwater/mechanical scenes look dated now.  The rogue scientist Zorndyke caused global flooding (thus submarines become important) in his plan to extinguish humanity and let his army of animal hybrids take over the planet.  It is up to the crew of the Blue Submarine No. 6 to stop his ultimate plan from succeeding.

Last Exile figures showing a vanship, and some of the major characters by Murata.  Claus, the young hero, is shown looking up to the left; while Lavie, the heroine, smiles from the centre.

 Last Exile

This is one of my most favourite anime of all time.  Last Exile embodies a good story, great world building, sympathetic characters, and it is an original work by Studio Gonzo to celebrate their 10th anniversary at the time. "The story is set on the fictional world of Prester, where its inhabitants use aerial vehicles known as vanships as a means of transportation. On this world which is divided in eternal conflict between the nations of Anatoray and Disith, sky couriers Claus Valca and Lavie Head must deliver a girl who holds the key to uniting the two factions." Wikipedia  There is a big Art Deco, early 20th century steampunk/dieselpunk vibe to the show in the designs style which really added to the uniqueness of the world.  The mechanical designs themselves are good too, and of course the character designs are by Murata.  I quite enjoyed the soundtrack, especially Cloud Age Symphony which had some Celtic influence too.

Kuniko Hojo and her super boomerang she uses to defend her people.

 Shangri-La

This anime was released in 2004 and it was a bit of a let down after Last Exile, but it is an okay anime.  The anime is set in a post-apocalyptic Japan where the country was devastated by the double whammy of crazy global warming and a country-wide massive earthquake.  Kuniko Hojo, our heroine, strives to protect her people from the oppressive city states that now rule the land over impoverished masses.

Last Exile - Fam, The Silver Wing

This was a nice return to the world of Last Exile but set on Earth rather than the world of Prester that was released in 2011.  It is an all new story with plenty of sky pirates and flying action you would expect from the Last Exile.  The show isn't as good as the original, but it is worth a watch.

Cop Craft 

This is a recent show released in 2019.  It is pretty original for anime/manga as it is a police drama set in a city where our Earth has a portal to an alternate Earth where magic dominates instead of tech.  Magic does work in our world too.  The main characters are a classic odd couple cop duo with the hi-jinks coming the fact that one partner is an elf-warrior partnered up with a seasoned cop who doesn't like elves or all of the fairy land folk and magic.  This was a pretty interesting show, but the magic vs. tech can be kind of not well thought out sometimes in the world building.  Still entertaining though.

PSE Pro #01 Skipper and Scooter Figure

This whole blog article was caused by this figure.  Way back when in 2005 I was not able to purchase it as I hesitated too long to get it and it sold out.  Fifteen years later, I see it for sale on Amiami as a second hand figure that had not been opened.  This time, I bought it right away.  My life is now complete - just kidding.  It didn't pay much more than the original price for it, so that is pretty amazing considering how much inflation there is now.  The original price was 4620 Japanese Yen and it was made by Vice.

I was into the Range Murata art quite a bit back then because of Blue Submarine and especially Last Exile.  I didn't keep it in the box as it needs to be free and not a collectible (see Toy Story 2).  It is a pretty good sculpt with the Range Murata art style captured well.  It is one of the earlier figures that has a figure and a vehicle (scooter/bike/etc) together.  The paint job is simple and most of the colouring comes from the plastic itself.  I still like this figure a lot though and it sits on the front row of one of my shelves.

Skipper herself looks nice and elegant in her orange coat with its double row of buttons.  Her beret completes her outfit nicely and she looks pretty good with the scooter.  The scooter design is typical of the art deco type style Murata uses on his mechanical designs.

Front of box.

Back of box.

Figure in protective plastic.

Assembled figure.

It came with a little black and white illustrated sheet show what it should look like.

Skipper figure by itself.

Closeup of Skipper.

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