As a person who tends to be absent minded I get a certain amount of dread whenever I cannot find something and wonder if I have lost it forever. So I acutely understand the pain and loss of losing track of something precious. But I think that it a universal misfortune that everyone has faced at one time or another. Oblivion Island taps into this feeling while tying it into a fantasy adventure story that uses Japanese myth to tell a tale of friendship and the bonds of family.
I wasn’t very interested in Oblivion Island, but really I don’t know why that was. I had heard of the film, but not really gone out of my way to learn more about it. The real draw in the end was that it is by Production I.G. And considering the fact that you shouldn’t look the gift of a film festival in the mouth, I ended up with a ticket to the last-minute-added showing.
The opening scene is a young girl named Haruka being read a picture book while visiting her sickly mother in the hospital. The story is about foxes who take things which people no longer appreciate. We then fast forward to Haruka in her teens. Haruka notices that the mirror her mother gave her, who has since passed away, has disappeared. In trying to find the mirror she follows a fox named Teo back to his magical homeland. Teo decided to help her find her missing mirror so he can get rid of her before everyone else realizes he has let a human discover their world. But they soon realize that in the world of Oblivion Island the mirror has great power and its new owner will not give it up easily.
The plot is steadfastly simple, we are taken in by Haruka’s adorable child-self and the very relatable plight of looking for something that was once important only to find it has disappeared from neglect. The world of the Kitsune, who are really all kinds of strange looking creatures who just wear fox masks, is colorful and vibrate with life. The looming evil a foot, which doesn’t ever get a good grip on just what it is doing, adds some stunning machine and battle moments. As the teen Haruka encounters this strange otherworld, she regains not only lost items, but lost feelings and memories as well. However, as the story goes on the connected feeling from the beginning moments is neglected and you never truly feel the what is displayed, you merely see it.
Riding Bean has an fascinating back story. Although it might seem that Riding Bean is a spin off of 
I remember vividly from my youth trying to rent this from the video store on multiple occasions. When I did finally get my hands on it, I was overwhelmed with joy at its lovely 80’s OVA-ness. I didn’t really have access to much information at the time, so I was in denial that there wasn’t anymore of the adventures of Bean and Rally. Much to my joy years later I learned of Bean’s appearance in the Gunsmith Cats manga, but still there is a little hole in my heart that Bean was relegated to just a side character.
YAYAYAANEWUNIVERSALCENTURYGUNDAMYAYAYA! Okay, now that I got that out of my system, I can happily say that all the hype (that I myself was contributing to) surrounding this OVA release is 100% justified. Gundam Unicorn has all the trappings of the original storyline directed by Tomino, it knows its source material well. Audrey caught me happily by surprise with her determination and courage. Banagher acts in typical UC teenager style and does things seemingly for no reason and falls in love at the drop of a hat, but atleast I didn’t want to punch him! They set up a lot of players for the coming story and rattle off a few tempting names before a spectacular finale. I am completely in love with the modern but 70’s characters designs that are the trend for series with old roots, their simplicity actually makes the series looks even more slick. And that’s pretty amazing because the production quality is on overload with this. I am also enjoying the robot designs with this animation as well, Marida’s 
Reverse Thieves 