 Gio here from A Week in Geekdom, and finally I get to talk in length about Apari Ranman. Apari Ranman is an original Japanese anime series done by PA Works and directed by Masakazu Hashimoto. It is a series set in the late 19th century, early 20th century in the Meiji era of Japan, and we follow the character of Apari Ranman who is this eccentric, adventurous young man who is the second son of a merchant family. Now, he doesn't really follow social norms, he doesn't really want to follow in his family's footsteps. Instead, Apari is interested in constructing, building, engineering, science, and he's just a very inquisitive young man, and he one day decides to set off on a grand adventure to see what's out there, and we soon learn of the second character in the series, Kosume Ishiki, who is his family's head instructor at their dojo, and he's also a samurai under Lord Kudada. Kosume is tasked by his lord to keep track of Apari, keep him under control, but instead they get dragged into a really wacky adventure as Apari sets out to see, and Kosume accidentally causes the two of them to be stranded. They get rescued by an American steamboat that is on the way towards its destination of Los Angeles, so the series takes place in America, and we have what is called the Trans-America Wild Race. Race all across the continental U.S., starting in Los Angeles, and ending up in New York. Now that they're stranded in Los Angeles with no way of getting back home, Kosume decides to enter the Trans-America Wild Race along with Apari with the promise of earning a huge cash reward so they can use to travel back. However, Apari doesn't really want to go back, instead he is intrigued by the concept of this race, with several characters racing to see who's the best of the best. So that's sort of the basic setup when it comes to this series. I remember in my first impressions video that I did way back, I was a little annoyed or upset that the series started in a predictable manner, that it showed you a little bit of the race, and then it went back, and you uncovered Apari's origin, if you will. And I understood why they made that, but yeah, you know, you kind of wanted to go into the actual race itself right from the get-go, right? But no, you gotta step back a little bit and understand the characters and what you're getting yourself into when it comes to a show like this. This is an adventure, steampunk-ish, racing-type show that has a lot of really cool elements. Probably the single most attractive thing that I can sell you on is the amazing work that this series does with its character roster. It is all over the place, in the best way possible. You've got Apari, who is Japanese. You've got the character of Hototo, who is this young Native American kid who suffered a tragedy after an outlaw gang killed his father, so now he's seeking revenge because of it. You have the character of Jin Xilian, and I probably butchered that, so I apologize. She is an assistant to a racing team, and she has always dreamt of being a racer herself, but you know, this being early 19th century, you can imagine the abundant sexism involved in this era of history, so she is going to prove everybody wrong and become the winner and one of the best female racers out there. She actually ended up being my favorite character out of the whole bunch. I really, I don't know, her plight and her goals and everything, struck a chord with me, and I wanted her to succeed because I was rooting for her and I understood the prejudice that she was going up against. So yeah, instantly she became my favorite. You also have the character of Al Leon, this European racecar driver, Playboy, who is part of the family that owns one of the big auto corporations, BNW, I see what you did there, and he's trying to win the race to prove to his family that he should be the heir to the company, you know, to advance further and further. You also have the character of Dylan Olden, this top racer for GM who was part of the legendary outlaw gang, the 1003, and now is participating in the race. You also have the character of TJ, or as he's known, crazy TJ, another member of the legendary 1003 outlaw gang, but now he is contracted by Iron Motor Company to participate in the Transamerica wild race. We also have characters like Tristan the Bad, Chase the Bad, and Richard Reisman along other side characters. So as you can see, the cast is pretty diverse. You've got Japanese characters, Chinese, European, North American, North American Indian, all that stuff, and it really does help in the long run for this series to have such a diverse crowd to see the different walks of life, if you will. I was rooting for a ton of these characters, and you grow to like them as the episodes continue on and on. The animation in Apari Ranman is straight up solid. I loved it almost all the way through. There were a couple highs and lows here and there, but for the most part, I would say 95% of the series is really well animated. They were able to incorporate 3D elements, especially when it comes to the races and all that stuff, that I didn't mind that much. I'm not a fan of 3D in anime. I've never been a fan of it. And here it wasn't so in your face, and when the cars are racing, you don't mind it that much. Obviously, you've got to suspend your disbelief with some of the stuff that they're doing, specifically Apari and the monstrosity that he's building. He basically took his little boat engine thing and kitbashed the heck out of it with European car parts and just did monster car that is steam powered and he's using to race against the other drivers. There's always going to be plot points and character beats that you've seen before. It's nothing new. With a show like this and it being a racing series, you're going to have the same dynamics of them starting the race. Somebody's going to cheat, somebody's going to sabotage something so that others can't cross a checkpoint or stuff like that. But it's the fun setting. It's the great characters that really do set it apart. One of the cool things about Apari Hanban, in my honest opinion, is how nice and pretty and distinct the character designs are. No matter who it is in this series, you easily recognize them from afar and you remember about their character traits. It all lends itself to a very visually striking and pleasing series. You might not care about the actual race, but as you start watching the series, you care deeply about the characters. That is the heart and soul in my opinion for Apari Hanban. You've got characters with different convictions, different motives to win the cash prize, but are they able to succeed in the phase of adversity once antagonistic forces come to play? Another great point in this series is Apari's journey. He is kind of aloof and socially awkward. You see his character progression throughout the series, and I do think that by the end of it, the story, even though some would say it does have a somewhat predictable ending, you still care about Apari's journey. It goes all the way towards a satisfying conclusion, and you see his progression and you see him coming out of his shell and accepting friendship and being aware of the world around him, but still not backing down on his ambitions and wanting to go further and do cooler, bigger, better stuff. So I really did appreciate that fact, that you didn't compromise on any character quirk. You just made it bigger and better, but he still learned a few things along the way. And when stuff happens to the cast, I felt it, and I was emotional because I knew it wasn't based on a manga, so I didn't have that to fall back to you. I couldn't go back and say, oh well, obviously this is going to happen because it's based on a manga and it follows this route. No, it's an original story, so you don't really know what's going to happen. And I like that, I like that suspense, and I thought they did a really good job of that. So yeah, overall, Apari Hanuman, I absolutely loved it. Wonderful, fantastic character designs, really cool motivations, a story that, well, does have some tired old tropes, it's able to refresh itself by having such kooky characters, wonderful color palette, and just a fun action racing gunslinger western series is a mishmash of things that I like and easily one of my favorite things of 2020. What about you guys? Have you seen Apari Hanuman? Let me know in the comment section down below. And if you haven't, let me know in the comment section down below what is your favorite racing or western type anime or manga. Very interested in finding out. So that is that. Thank you everybody for tuning in. Thank you for liking, commenting, subscribing, and being a part of a We Can Geek them. I truly do appreciate it. If you're new here to the channel, I do content similar to this where I go over anime, manga, and comics. If you do subscribe, be sure to hit the bell icon so you know when new videos pop up. As for social media and merch stuff, well, all those links are in the description below. Thank you everybody once again. I have got to go. I will catch all of you on our next video.