Oh! Edo Rocket

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Come take me far away.

In Edo during the mid-1800's, fireworks maker Seikichi Tamaya and his friends struggle to live under the harsh frugality laws imposed by the strict city magistrate, which ban all luxuries, including fireworks. One day, a strange girl named Sora stops by Seikichi's shop with an equally strange request: she wants Seikichi to build a firework that can reach the moon. It doesn't take long before Seikichi and the people of the poor row-house where Seikichi lives all find themselves trying to help her dream come true. However, not only do they have to hide the fireworks from local authorities, but there are rumors of mysterious "sky beasts" running rampant around Edo as the bodies of young women are found with their blood drained.

Oh! Edo Rocket is an anime that was shown in Japan during 2007, with an English-dubbed version from Funimation released in late 2010. It is loosely (and we mean loosely) based on a stage play written for the Gekidan Shinkansen theater troupe by Kazuki Nakashima. It is by no means a period piece, even though the story gets very dramatic.

Can be seen on Youtube and Hulu.

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Oh! Edo Rocket provides examples of:

• Acrofatic: The agility of Arms, a former sumo wrestler, is pointed out and complimented by Tenten. Arms claims to be in sub-optimal shape, so one can only imagine how quick he was before.
• Actor Allusion: In the dub of episode 19, Sora yells Vic Mignogna's last name to Tetsuju.
  • The Author Avatar of Kazuki Nakushima is an expy of Kamina and voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi in the Japanese version.
    • Two episodes later, Genzo (also voiced by Konishi) shows up wearing Kamina's Cool Shades.
  • In episode 21, Tenhou mentions Juliet and Tamama as past roles of Sora's VA.
  • Sora gushes about Negima in episode 22, referencing both Negi and Yue. Seikichi thinks the show sounds like crap.
  • Seikichi and Sora dress up as the musicians Ami and Yumi in the opening of one episode, as they appear in the Western cartoon Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi. Guess who performs the theme song!
• Anachronism Stew: Irreverent jokes are made about American culture, otaku culture, and anime. Some people have black and white TVs and maybe even old computers in their homes, yet they haven't discovered the combustion engine.
  • A lampshade is hung on the ability of the audience to buy into it when Oriku shows up on a helicopter, and Tetsuju orders her to apologize to the audience and to the original author!
• Animorphism: Onui.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: A giant wooden mech rampages across the town at one point.
• Baleful Polymorph: In episode 10, Genzo is turned into a dove and stays that way until episode 21. A few characters notice his absence, but only his mother still remembers who he is.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Ginjiro and Oise.
• Big Damn Heroes
• Breather Episode: The rather lighthearted episode 21 comes after a serious five episode miniarc.
• Butt Monkey: Despite being a genius at math, nobody likes Genzo, even the animators.
• Cloning Blues: A SWARM of Blue Beasts are accidentally created in the finale.
• Cartoonish Companions: About half the residents of the row house stand less than half the height of the rest of the residents, with vastly simplified features.
• Circling Birdies: Onui gets these when bonked on the head in episode 7.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The old man, combined with Chekhov's Gunman.
• Cute Kitten: Four of the main characters are briefly turned into cats in episode 10. Hilarity Ensues when they do a brief musical number.
• Cute Little Fangs: Onui, fitting with her dog girl personality.
• Darkest Hour: Episodes 16 to 20.
• A Day in the Limelight: Episode 23 (focusing on Ginjiro and Oise's past), lampshaded when Sora yells about their last bit of screentime in the episode.
• Development Hell: A little bit -- Funi licensed this in 2008, but production issues prevented release until 2010.
• Expressive Hair: Tenten from time to time.
• Eye Scream: Eyes has his left eye ripped out by the Blue Girl in episode 19.
• Gag Dub: Both the Japanese and English versions are like this, but the jokes are modified to play to their respective audiences.
• Heel Face Turn: The Men In Black...except for Eyes (not wanting to disband the group), who later gets killed. Akai pretty much has a face turn in episode 25.
• Heroic Sacrifice: The Blue Girl/Yuu
• Hot-Blooded: Tetsuju.
• Hot Springs Episode
• I Never Said It Was Poison: An accidental version of this causes Akai to slip that he's the murderer.
• Interspecies Romance: Seikichi and Sora, Akai and Yuu, Shunpei and Onui.
• Imagined Innuendo: For much of the series, Seikichi (and Akai apparently) thinks Ginjiro and Sora have been going out.
• Jerkass: Akai, Torii, and Mizuno.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Shunpei is afraid he's this in episode 15, but it turns out to not be true.
• Lampshade Hanging: In episode 4, Seikichi comments in the dub that a pun the girls make doesn't make any sense in English.
  • There are tons of this. At one point, the characters comment on how their lines do not sync with their lip movements!
  • At another point, the characters grab cels from the production studio (when cels haven't been used in mainstream animation since 1996!) to comment on past events.
  • Episode 21 is about a play they perform, which is a water-down version of the plot. Due to the alien cover-up, Sora's face can't be shown on-stage, so Genzo appears as Sora's stand-in, while Sora recites her lines backstage... like a voice actor!
  • "Sora! What are you doing here?" "I need to be, for the story to work out."
• Large Ham: Tetsuju.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Sora and Ginjiro have to keep their respective secrets from the rest of the heroes until episode 16.
• Love Makes You Evil: Akai. Later turned into Love Redeems.
• Love Potion: Shunpei accidentally takes some in episode 22, causing most of the females of the town to go after him.
• Meganekko: Shunpei.
• The Men in Black
• No Fourth Wall: Pretty much all the time.
• Only Sane Man: Ginjiro.
• Painful Transformation: Or conciousness splitting, but the Blue Girl still applies.
• Precious Puppies: Onui in her dog form.
• Precision F-Strike: When Akai tries to investigate the rowhouse and Seikichi is blocking it (English dub line): "Move, you little shit!"
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Men In Black.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Blue Girl.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Oriku and Sora respectively, though subverted a bit; Sora is an enthusiastic "blue" to Oriku's tsuntsun "red".
• The Reveal: A few times, but in one case it's subverted -- Sora turns out to have known all along that Onui was really a dog.
• Reverse Mole: Ginjiro, but it backfires for a while later.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Akai.
• Scenery Porn
• Sdrawkcab Name: Onui's name reversed is Inuo, which means dog.
• Shout-Out: So, so many.
• Sibling Team: Tenhou and Tenten.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Akai and Yuu...until the final episode.
• Stuff Blowing Up
• Theme Naming: All the members of the Men In Black are named after parts of the body.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Ginjiro's title as leader is Captain...Bellybutton.
• Third-Act Stupidity: Akai lets Seikichi and Sora go free in episode 19...so he can shoot Seikichi when his back's turned.
• Together in Death: Akai and Yuu
• Transformation Sequence: Sora the first time she goes into Sky Beast form in the open.
• Tsundere: Oriku.
• Villain with Good Publicity: The commissioners outside of the rowhouse.
• Voluntary Shapeshifter: Sora and the Blue Girl (the Blue Beasts as well).
• We Could Have Avoided All This: The very last episode reveals that the old man had invented a space ship that he had kept hidden in his home through the whole series! It's Played for Laughs, but still!
• Wingding Eyes: Sora and the Blue Girl.
• Who Is This Guy Again?: Genzo.
• Who Would Want to Watch Us?: A play is put on about the series' plot in episode 21.