Either of these could work as a Step destination picking up near or at the ends, and if it came after the Utena step Doug might well wonder how (or perhaps why, given that Utena seems to have teleported with planetary range in the opening scene that got posted) she came with him and why she's in that fanservice getup, at least until Kurumi opens her mouth. Even better if it's directly after the Eva step, and he shows up for one of the episodes where her feathery wings appear (No spoiler there, they're in the opening sequence).
The original setting, somewhere around 1927, is probably the better story from a dramatic perspective, but harder to do something useful in without taking over fo the main characters in the way that Bob has said he doesn't want to do (Standard SI behavior, IOW) but there are a few places to put him there - probably best would be to show up at the Academy, where they'd likely detect his magic/mystic potential and want him to help recapture Kurumi. Coming straight from Eva, he'd probably be primed to accept their story (Which is more of an interpretation than a lie - they absolutely believe it to be the truth) but would have to be out of the loop if the thing with Mikhail and Nakhito is still pulled off as in the original. Doug would NOT want to be in the fights, though, the top Acadamy steel angel could probably hold her own with Radditz, TV's Ifurita, or one-gem OVA Ryoko. Whoa, sudden bad mental image, El-Hazard Lost Science Theater 3000, with Jinnai and TV's Ifurita as the Mads, Makoto and the princesses on the Ai of God...
Moving right along, S2 Kurumi is set 75 years later and is basically a remake of Project A-Ko with the latent shojo-ai themes played up, from the rich rival for the super-girl over the friend, to roof-hopping to school, to mecha battles over the friend at school, all the way to a battle bikini by the show's end. It has a punched-up version of the theme song that I like better, the blonde Steel Angel's costume is better but her hairstyle makes her look like a six year old, and instead of the 24-part plot with four character-focus epilogues like the original it's pretty much episodic eye-candy with a cute animal mascot, and only the occasional reference to the first season backstory to give some semblance of a plot besides fighting over who gets to be the Friend's main squeeze. Oh, and there are three recurring male characters in the entire cast, one is the rich daddy, one is the cello teacher who maintains a proper student relationship without visible effort, and one is the grandfather that the main character never meets. I did mention that the shojo-ai had been played up, yes? THere are also a few times when the animation frame rate is noticeably low, repeated battle footage, and stills in dramatic action poses instead of extended combat, so I suspect the budget per episode was also reduced. While I don't know, I'd guess that the first 24 eps of the first season followed a manga, the remaining four were written by the manga-ka to fill out the seaons, and the second series was some studio hack riding out the popularity of the franchise... if I'm wrong, well, it has been known to happen, from time ti time, but that's certainly the impression I get.
- CD, who DL'd the series before it was licensed, but only got around to watching it now, after seeing a couple of eps at a freind's. Gods, that dub is a crime against humanity...
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
The original setting, somewhere around 1927, is probably the better story from a dramatic perspective, but harder to do something useful in without taking over fo the main characters in the way that Bob has said he doesn't want to do (Standard SI behavior, IOW) but there are a few places to put him there - probably best would be to show up at the Academy, where they'd likely detect his magic/mystic potential and want him to help recapture Kurumi. Coming straight from Eva, he'd probably be primed to accept their story (Which is more of an interpretation than a lie - they absolutely believe it to be the truth) but would have to be out of the loop if the thing with Mikhail and Nakhito is still pulled off as in the original. Doug would NOT want to be in the fights, though, the top Acadamy steel angel could probably hold her own with Radditz, TV's Ifurita, or one-gem OVA Ryoko. Whoa, sudden bad mental image, El-Hazard Lost Science Theater 3000, with Jinnai and TV's Ifurita as the Mads, Makoto and the princesses on the Ai of God...
Moving right along, S2 Kurumi is set 75 years later and is basically a remake of Project A-Ko with the latent shojo-ai themes played up, from the rich rival for the super-girl over the friend, to roof-hopping to school, to mecha battles over the friend at school, all the way to a battle bikini by the show's end. It has a punched-up version of the theme song that I like better, the blonde Steel Angel's costume is better but her hairstyle makes her look like a six year old, and instead of the 24-part plot with four character-focus epilogues like the original it's pretty much episodic eye-candy with a cute animal mascot, and only the occasional reference to the first season backstory to give some semblance of a plot besides fighting over who gets to be the Friend's main squeeze. Oh, and there are three recurring male characters in the entire cast, one is the rich daddy, one is the cello teacher who maintains a proper student relationship without visible effort, and one is the grandfather that the main character never meets. I did mention that the shojo-ai had been played up, yes? THere are also a few times when the animation frame rate is noticeably low, repeated battle footage, and stills in dramatic action poses instead of extended combat, so I suspect the budget per episode was also reduced. While I don't know, I'd guess that the first 24 eps of the first season followed a manga, the remaining four were written by the manga-ka to fill out the seaons, and the second series was some studio hack riding out the popularity of the franchise... if I'm wrong, well, it has been known to happen, from time ti time, but that's certainly the impression I get.
- CD, who DL'd the series before it was licensed, but only got around to watching it now, after seeing a couple of eps at a freind's. Gods, that dub is a crime against humanity...
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows