12 The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, January 13, 1999
Bounty Dogs' live iluna city
I
Student marks
MLK by poetry
By Adlin Rosti
Daily Arts Writer
In the futuristic world of
"Bounty Dog," the moon is colo-
nized by man and used as a
extraterrestrial city. This "moon
city" stands tall as a representa-
tion of man's ability to conquer.
seemingly impossible frontiers.
"Bounty Dog," however, is an
action/adventure Anime, so you
know things are not going to be
peachy.
This moon, as it turns out, is
not really a leftover piece of obit-
ing debris formed during the big
bang but is really an observation
post for an alien entity in the
form of a beautiful woman. The
origin of the alien entity, called
"The Sleeper," is never really sat-
Bounty
Dog
Now Available on
Manga Video
is fa c tori y
explained.
But what
seems to
count is that
" T h e
Sleeper" has
always been
there, fasci-
nated by
humans and
evolution and
comes down
to observe
mere mortals
every 2,000
years or so.
Japanese for light?) has loved.
Because Yayoy loves humans,
Darkness wants to see the com-
plete obliteration of the entire
human race.
Yayoy, unfortunately, is out-
numbered as Darkness has creat-
ed an army of minions in her
image. Of course Yayoy wants to
prevent human destruction, but
why she never bothers to actually
accomplish the heroism is also
never addressed. What she does
do is get romantically involved
with a young man named
Yashiyuki, a member of The
Bounty Dog Investigation Unit-
a "high tech cybernetic merce-
nary team." She manages to
secure an artificial hand on
Yashiyuki, replacing his natural
one, before her untimely death at
the hands of Darkness' hench-
men. Engraved with some
strange shape, the hand is the key
towards defeating Darkness'
would-be reign of terror on
mankind.
Yashiyuki however, has no clue
about any of the cosmic-level
drama going on as Yayoy never
explained anything about her
extraterrestrial roots. What
Yashiyuki seems to instinctively
know is that he needs to head to
the moon in order to settle some
matter about which he is still
unclear. We learn later that Yayoy
did manage to create a single
lackey clone of herself to help
our hero Yashiyuki, who then
begins his journey to avenge the
death of his lady love.
Disturbing psychological prob-
lems repeat frequently for the
hero as every henchman of
Darkness' he has to kill looks
exactly like Yayoy. His
trauma of losing Yayoy is
thus intensified with
every lookalike he
has to destroy.
The ani-
mation for
""Bounty
Dog" is the
CourtesyofMangaVideo t e rri f ic
is the hero oftthe t o p -
stic life on the moon. n o t c h
By Jenni Glenn
Daily Arts Writer
The Martin Luther King
Symposium's events include this week-
end's Basement Arts production, "The
Blackness Blues - Time to Change the
Tune (A Sister's Story)." Written and
directed by Music junior Dominique
Morisseau, this choreopoem examines
African-American culture.
Morisseau wrote "The Blackness
Blues" to fill a gap that she saw in the
University's theater productions. "I saw
the lack of diversity (in theatre) since
I've been here at U of M, the lack of
something for myself to connect with on
stage," Morisseau said.
She also wanted to see more black stu-
dents in the audience. "That made me
The Blackness
Blues
Arena Theater
Thursday through
Saturday at 7 p.m.
want to do it, but
what made me
want to write it
was my love for
poetry and my
need to be
expressive," she
said.
This is
Morisseau's first
attempt at direct-
ing and writing
for the stage, but
she belongs to a
p e r fo r m a n c e
group called
Universal
ties and the meaning of freedom. The
story raises issues such as unsuccessful
relationships, ebonics and the influence
of music on everyday life.
"The basic point of the play is to
encourage people to rise above stereo-
types and labels and all other elements
of society that try and limit their poten-
tial," Morisseau said. "It's a celebration
of loving who you are and understand-
ing who you are and where you came
from."
To convey this message, Morisseau
chose a cast of 18, a large number for a
Basement Arts show. This proved a chal-
lenge for blocking and choreography,
she said, but was worth it. "Every cast
member contributed something from
themselves that I will cherish forever."
Morisseau also said she was excited
about "the massive amount of love that
she received from various organizations
and students on campus. People from
the University community interested in
the show's subject matter volunteered to
help with costumes, publicity and the
programs.
In addition, the show gained off cam-
pus attention. Morisseau said is expect-
ing several out-of-town visitors to see
the show. These include members of the
Last Poets, a group of well-known
artists who began the trend in the '60s
toward social critique and street poetry
that continues today in hip hop and rap
music.
Another exciting aspect of the show,
according to Morisseau, was being
added to the Martin Luther King sym-
posium. The show "is a long overdue
and much needed event on this campus,
and I'm really excited about exposing
the talent of my cast," she said.
"The Blackness Blues - Thne to
Change the Tune (A Sister's Stoty),"
runs tomorrow, Friday and Saturday at
7p.m. with a special late night perfor-*
mance on Friday at 11 p.m. The Arena
Theater is located on the ground floor
of the Frieze Building.
Admission is free.
Courtesy ofManga Vieo
Two arch enemies, the evil Sleeper and the good Sleeper, match wits and
muscles in "Bounty Dog," an Anime video.
Throughout the centuries, how-
ever, "The Sleeper" developed a
good and evil duality embodied
in two nearly identical women.
Their only difference is that the
good one is blond and the evil
one is brunette. The evil
Sleeper, also known
as Darkness, has
p e r pe tu a l y
hated everything.
that the good
Sleeper, known
as Yayoy (hey,,
the evil one
is "Dark-
ness" and
the good one
is "Yayoy,"
maybe Yashyuki,'a bounty do
i t ' s Anime story about futu
standard one would expect from
anything with a "Manga Video"
label on it. No debate there. The
action scenes are vividly por-
trayed with spurting blood and
whizzing laser blast sequences.
The story development and plot,
on the other hand, seem to have
taken a back seat to the visuals
and sound effects. (What does
this sound like? Hollywood
movies?)
There is so much potential in
the premise of the movie and the
concepts introduced, but it fails
to live up to any of its initially
exciting bits. With everything in
the movie unfortunately falling
into mediocrity by the end, one
might've expected all the hype
about Yashiyuki's artificial arm,
"being the key to stopping
Darkness," to do something cool.
Much to our consternation, it
doesn't! All the funny shapes
engragved upon its surface and
the way the characters lent end-
less tirades about it seemed all
for nothing, especially since
Yashiyuki ended up using it like
a crude demolition tool.
Although in "Bounty Dog" the
moon was triumphantly colo-
nized by advanced humans and a
dominating extraterrestrial entity
threatened their liberty, this
puppy just could not do anything
with these elements to raise itself
beyond the dime-a-dozen
mediocre Anime category,
Righteous Poets. "The Blackness
Blues" reflects these roots. "It's a com-
bination of poetry and a lot of different
cultures embedded into the black cul-
ture of America like hip hop, jazz and
blues,"she said.
The show also mixes monologues and
dialogue with poetry. "The nature of it is
inspired by 'for colored girls who have
considered suicide when the rainbow is
enuf' by Ntozake Shange," Morisseau
explained.
Morisseau's script follows three
African-american women on a spiritual
journey as they search for their identi-
g,1
WEi
Daily Arts is seeking talented writers for
the winter semester. If you're interested,
come to the Michigan Daily mass meeting
tonight at 420 Maynard at 7:30.
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