Okay, so -- when I was younger, there was this show,
The Pirates of Dark Water. I loved that show with the sort of single-minded devotion that a six-year-old has for a favorite toy, though after a while it just seemed to go away, and so (also ike a six year old) I kind of forgot about it. A few years later, I caught some new episodes and boggled, because
hey, what, THESE ARE NEW. It wasn't till years later that I found out that the series had been cancelled before it ever reached completion; Ren and his crew were sort of stuck in this eternal fictional limbo, with eight of the thirteen Treasures of Rule collected and Bloth and his crew ever-dogging their heels.
Which you know, struck me as a crying shame, because of all the cartoons I watched as a kid (and hell, of the cartoons I watch now), PoDW had the sort of really fantastic, just-barely explored world that had all KINDS of potential behind it. This was a fully-developed fantasy world with its own set of countries, races, magic and strange wildlife. They even had their own cusswords, and I mean, dude, we're not talking about like an anime character muttering "kuso" or anything -- they had full phrases that probably, in translation, were quite colorful. It was probably one of my first exposures to the "epic quest" storyline, where the point wasn't a constant gag-of-the-week, but an ongoing story, trying to seek a set of artifacts. From what I can remember, there wasn't too much of the filler stuff, either, because with only sixteen (or so) episodes and eight treasures found, there wasn't much
time for extras.
But ... then it just ended. Thinking back, that was probably one of my first exposures to the disappointment of having something I liked canceled. XD; I was terribly excited last year when
sharky_chan was able to find some of the episodes for download, but they were of ... dubious quality. And sort of froze at one point, so we never did find out (again, but still) whether or not Ren GOT AWAY FROM THE PIRATES O NOEZ!!1!
Tonight,
voodoobob tells me that they at least made a video game, ostensibly to cover the finding of the final five treasures.
O RLY? I said.
YA RLY, she said.
And then she
gave me a download link.
I ... have no idea if the game really IS that, but if it tells me how Ren eventually (as we know he will, because this is a commercial story from the early '90s, what) gathers all Thirteen Treasures and becomes King of Octapon again.
[goes to download and CRACK IT OPEN]