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. From Theodore Cardman's backyard aI ....to over 450,000 locations around the worldl 9" . . bank~tripe The ENHANCED A00 11.f777 f B'ank Stripe is now Mcard Debit and the change is autom1iatic* + Use Mcard Debit anywhere you see the VAE .and logos. Including: -