Jest'O'Clock Animation Review N3: Red's Tournament

Mind your watches! Everything has to stop, 'cause now it's Jest'O'Clock!

Startin' to feel like that catchphrase's a bit paradoxal…

Welcome, my Jesters, to the third installment of my Animation Reviews! This time, we'll take a look at Red's Tournament series, made by an amazing sprite artist: TheRedHeadHenry!

That headband is amazing, trust me. Yes I'm totally foreshadowing.

Plot:

In the realm of Pixtopia, powerful warriors have gathered to participate in a Martial Arts tournament organized by The Red Head Henry, legendary warrior of their world. Red sought for powerful competitors to test his strength against in order to become more powerful. And so, to fulfill his goal, he organized two tournaments.

Unfortunately, although Red did find competitors worthy of his challenge, things did not go as smoothly as anticipated. Indeed, a series of strange events unfolding during his tournaments would plunge Pixtopia in an era of danger and chaos, which would also be the era during which, guided by Red, the Heroes of Pixtopia would rise in order to save the realm that had seen them evolve as courageous battlers.

Summary:

LSW stands for Legendary Super Warriors, AKA the type of sprites used here.

The first tournament is actually nothing compared to what happens after it, but it does introduce us to TheRedHeadHenry's unexpected development gimmick in a simple yet effective way. Indeed, since it's a tournament between a bunch of random fighters, we simply expect said fighters to battle until the champion is revealed. The end.

Well, Red (Note that I'll always refer as the sprite character by his three letters nickname) does not seem to like organizing a tournament and stay out of it, which is why he decides to fight the champion.

Dude fights blindfolded. Do I need to say more?

After an amazing battle, Red leaves and we're left wondering when the next tournament's going to happen. And some months later, it is finally organized.

I dig those titles, man. I really do.

And this, my Jesters, is where it starts to get interesting. As a new gathering of Pixtopians unfolds, Red seem to be away from his tournament, as he seem determined to deal with a much different threat than before.

Kinda spooky shadows if you ask me. 

An evil monk only known by the name Erk is looking for pieces of Rah's Sword of Command in order to summon a “Neo-Pixel Army” to, you guessed it, take over the world!

Because Nostalgia Critic references are necessary. I couldn't resist.

So obviously, Red's not gonna let him do that, which means that while the Pixtopians are fighting in Red's tournament, Red himself goes in a wild chase to find Erk and stop him before he carries out his plan. Unfortunately, Erk manages to not only gather all the pieces of the sword, but he also manages to summon his army, and the first place he decides to take over is the tournament stadium. By the time Erk arrives, the tournament's already finished, but the participants, guided by Red, still have to deal with the mad monk and his army or Neo-Pixels, which will lead to a chaotic war I the stadium grounds.

And gosh is it enjoyable to watch.

Things. Just. Got. REAL.

A blazing battle unfolds, Pixtopians vs Neo-Pixels, while Red fights against Erk. The struggle lasts for quite a long time, too, and when the mad monk unleashes his true power, Red and the Pixtopians repel it with all their might in an epic finale made of willpower, colored auras and good old beam struggles.

Everything that makes DBZ's action great.

This war will trigger a brand new series of events, starting with the disappearance of Red and continuing with Heroes of Pixtopia, though I'll cover that series in another Review.

In any case, an unknown scientist named Dr.Groxel will call for the strongest warriors of Pixtopia to gather yet again, though this time in a team battle challenge, during which the champions will be able to battle against his “Bots”, who he claims are stronger than Red himself and could become the new protectors of the world. Answering the call, new and old faces muster to participate in the tournament, determined to show off their skills and eventually prove Dr.Groxel wrong.

Each new Logo is better than the old one, it's amazing.

Atmosphere:

The atmosphere is really something that TheRedHeadHenry nails. Not only does he manages to masterfully animate any of the sprite sheets he's given for his tournaments, but he also manages to give them custom-made aura and beam effects, coupled with various sounds and edited fields that effectively creates a world with his mark on it. And maybe it is to confirm this that he finally created his own series – Heroes of Pixtopia – in which we finally get to see more of this world he built through what started as a simple series of competitions.

See what I mean?

In any case, The Red's Tournament series is different from many sprite animations in many ways. With custom sounds and effects – as I already mentioned – but also with the fact that subtitles are not needed to understand what's happening. There are no dialogues during the tournaments – well except to introduce character identities – and yet we can still understand the actions of the characters, and we still have the chance to understand the lore behind the matches, said lore being first introduced with the unexpected appearance of Red in the first tournament, then developed through the second tournament. Everything is showed instead of told, which really gives the whole series a charm that many series of sprite battles lack, or at least the ones I've seen.

Why waste a few “have a good match” lines when you can animate a brofist?

Personal Observations:

Take a look at this:

These are the custom aura effects I mentioned earlier. These are representations of the efforts TheRedHeadHenry takes in order to build up a world. Sure, like many other sprite series, he takes his inspiration from DBZ, and his other works show it even more than this one. But despite the obvious side of his inspiration sources, I really liked the fact that he did his best to make the characters stand on their own.

Take Red, for example. Several hints show that this specific character is inspired by Trainer Red from the Pokemon series: by his name, his tremendous power, his calm yet confident behavior and the fact that whenever he's around, remixes of Pokemon music play as he fights. And speaking of music, TheRedHeadHenry also shows that he uses music only when the situation deems it necessary, which means never during tournament, but always when an external, unforeseen event unfolds (Red's first appearance, the side-story with Erk, etc). In my opinion, this makes the soundtrack used during the videos much more memorable, especially during the “epic moments”, as I like to call them.

General Opinion:

Originality: I'd call the Red's Tournament Series more of a homage than a rip-off of DBZ. Because it it truly was a rip-off, it wouldn't have so much efforts to stand on its own. No Super Saiyan, no Goku, no Vegeta, no brand new Cyborg created by the already dead Dr.Gero, etc. No. TheRedHeadHenry has achieved something quite good, which is the creation of his own lore, with its own story, characters and a world to organize all of these elements. Definitely original to my eyes. Especially when you think that the original tournament was just a gathering of random fighters who were kind enough to send their sprite sheets so that they could be animated for our pleasure.

Animation: Do I EVEN NEED to mention that part? Seriously? In case some of you Jesters didn't know, TheRedHeadHenry is also the creator of the Goku vs Evil Goku series, which is worthy of a DBZ OVA. Yes, it's THAT good. Especially the 4th one. The fourth one really is a cinematic production. But I'll cover that in yet another review, don't worryu.

Music & Sound: ...Huh. Already covered that part, didn't I. Oh well! Mom always said repeating's good for memory anyway.

So! As I already mentioned, part of what makes Red's Tournament Series so good is the fact that instead of using the insanely overused DBZ sound effects for his sprite animations (that don't relate to the DBZ universe), he uses a variety of other sound effects, many of them being quite explosive. As for the music choices, it's quite unique as well, actually. I've heard a lot of music from Waterflame and EliteFerrex, and several orchestral themes for the more epic moments. Keyword: variety!

Graphics: Why must I talk here? Take a freakin' gander!

As you can see, polished sprites and environment, coupled with several lighting and 3-D effect to make the whole experience look quite enjoyable.

Overall: Any of you Jesters who appreciate good sprite fighting should go to TheRedHeadHenry's channel THIS INSTANCE and go enjoy his works. I'll cover the other main two in other reviews, but really, Red's Tournaments Series is one that has the potential to go quite far indeed.

With that said, thank you all for stickin' around, my Jesters. It's time for me to say goodbye, as usual with a little gift:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFCQNR…

Enjoy! And see you for my next installment of Jest'O'Clock Reviews!

~Glyph