Animastic Starring Kaorin

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Animastic Starring Kaorin is a nighttime show made by Okendo Parks similar to Disneyland's "Fantasmic", at Okendo's Animation Universe California in Bakersfield, California, Okendo's Animation Universe Texas in Houston, Texas, and Okendo's Anime Universe in Akebono, Japan, that features fireworks, live actors, water effects, pyrotechnics, lasers, music, audio-animatronics, decorated boat floats, and mist screen projections. The narrative structure of Animastic—although varying differently in set pieces in both versions—centers on a voyage through Kaorin's imagination that culminates in a battle against the anime villains.

The show made its debut at Okendo's Animation Universe California in 2017, a second version was made in 2019 for Okendo's Animation Universe Texas, and Okendo's Anime Universe. The shows were updated with new scene in place of some of the older scenes.

Storyline

Poster of the original show

The show begins with a faint musical note that swells into a lush fanfare, revealing Kaorin onstage. She dances and orchestrates various water fountain effects to the show's theme, until bringing up the mist screens, which fades into her as a powerful sorcerer high on top of a penicle commanding the stars, planets, and water. From there, the falling stars of the scene bloom into flowers. Ambient jungle sounds can then be heard and the show transitions into the jungle, featuring a 100-foot-long (30 m) puppet of Caterkiller from "Sonic 1" and three floating barges carrying characters from "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" and "Lucky Star" in black-lit jungle outfits across the river stage. The music segues to Pani Poni Dash! characters appearing onscreen and in the form of performers on the island, then the Azumanga Daioh characters take over to do their performance onscreen. The scene transitions into an onstage marionette sequence of Chiyo Chan, Miruchi, Yuka, Takeru, Hikari, and Mikan from "Azumanga Preschool And Takeru & Hikari." Cream the Rabbit appears onscreen underwater searching for Cheese. Then it fades into a Mermaid Melody sequence where Hippo swims onscreen, then Lucia, Hanon, and Rina all sing an anchor from the anime series "Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch." A giant whale appears suddenly, accompanied by a heavy musical score as he crashes through water. The sea morphs and Kaorin gets sucked in a whirlpool. As Kaorin looks around in the dark, a ship caught in a storm appears. The screens disappear, and the lights darken.

A cannon is fired from the ship by one of the The Norn Sisters from "Mythical Detective Loki RAGNAROK". Verdandi, Urd, Skuld, Loki, Mayura, and female pirates participate in a stunt sequence. Following the ship is a shark. The scene ends with Urd hanging from the end of the boat, being pursued by the shark. As the scene concludes, three small floats arrive carrying Princess Tutu and Mytho, Lucia and Kaito from "Mermaid Melody, and Yucie and Prince Arrow from "Petite Princess Yucie", with the accompanying signature melodies.

The music takes on an ominous tone as Kaorin's dream takes a turn for the worse. One of the Tenjouin girls Saki (from To Love-Ru/Sakaki & Kaorin) on stage, is angered by Kaorin's optimistic imagination and tells Rin and Aya her plans on turning Kaorin's dream into a nightmare, she then invokes a riled Izuru, (from Mermaid Melody) who ecstatically joins the Saki's plot to destroy Kaorin. Izuru calls upon Devimon (from Digimon) who summons deceased spirits. He summons Sumire (from Gakuen Alice) who threatens Kaorin, as she transforms herself into an enormous dragon. On stage, the 45-foot dragon sets the waters ablaze breathing fire onto the river. Kaorin faces the dragon, claiming that she is in control of her imagination, and defeats the dragon, destroying the villains in the process.

Everything is silent, until Kimura's Wife as a fairy (from ep. 16 of Azumanga Daioh) appears. Magical stars sparkle in the tavern as a riverboat approaches. A spark of pyrotechnics ignite from the riverboat, revealing Sakaki, Chiyo Chan, and Osaka from "Azumanga Daioh." The vessel glides past the audience, carrying several dozens anime characters as a celebratory atmosphere prevails. With another flash, Kaorin appears atop the highest point of the tavern as a sorcerer as she controls a final series of water, fireworks, laser and light orchestrations. Kaorin disappears and reappears onstage in her high school uniform from the beginning of the show, bidding the audience farewell and disappears once again in a bright blast of fireworks.

Differences

Poster of the second show

The plot on the second version is fairly similar, to that of the original, but there are notable differences throughout the rest of the show:

• The Jungle Scene with Caterkiller, The Melancholy Of Harui Suzumiya, and Lucky Star is replaced with a tribute to Pokemon and Digimon.

• The Pani Poni Dash!, Azumanga Daioh, and Azumanga Preschool and Takeru & Hikari sequences are replaced with a sequence of Mimi from Digimon singing "Itsudemo Aeru Kara" (in English) with the rest of the digidestined kids and their Digimon, along with the Gekomons and Otamamons dancing to her song. But then Shogunmon comes in and smashes the ground with his feet, causing the water to rise.

• The live-action Mythical Detective Loki sequence during Kaorin's dream is replaced with an onstage battle scene of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Nanoha's friends Suzuka and Alisa would then stop the battle to give out piece and harmony which leads to a melody with Nanoha and Fate.

• Izuru's sequence is taken out to introduce the other anime villains. She plays a smaller role in the second show than in the original.

• More villains are featured in the second version. Many of the additional villains include Team Rocket (Jessie and James) from Pokemon, Ryoko from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, King Dedede from Kirby of the Stars, Myotismon from Digimon, and Dr. Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog.

• In the original version, the giant robotic caterpillar that comes out on the stage is Caterkiller from Sonic the Hedgehog; in the second version, the snake is Myotismon from Digimon in his new Mega form "CobraMyotismon". He then digivolves into VenomMyotismon after Kaorin finds and lamp and rubs it to make a wish. Also, Myotismon has a much bigger role in the show than any other villain except for Sumire.

• In the original, Kaorin destroys the villains by pointing a sword at the Dragon and saying, "You may think you're so powerful, well, this is my dream!" before light shoots from her sword toward the villains. In the second version, she still says this, but before she destroys the villains, she causes a wall of water to block out the island and douse the flames; she then marches over to the sword in the stone and pulls it out.

• The battle between Kaorin and the villains, as well as their subsequent defeat, is longer in the original version.

Updated Version Changes

• The shows upgrades the animated projection sequences and add in some new animation.
• Kaorin has a bigger role in newly animated screen projections.
• An animated translation of Haruka Takayama and Yū Sonoda from "Sakura Trick" kissing each other was added before the princess sequence. Yucie and Prince Arrow from "Petite Princess Yucie" were replaced by Haruka and Yū in the princess sequence.
• The entire sequence with the Tenjouin Girls was change entirely. Rin and Aya come up which both appear onscreen in animated form. Angered by Kaorin's optimistic imagination, they trap Kaorin inside of a cauldron and Saki call all the villains to partake in Kaorin's nightmare.

Original 2017 Show

• Caterkiller now has animated blinking eyes added to make it more realistic.
• The Melancholy Of Harui Suzumiya, and Lucky Star characters on floats were replaced by Sonic the Hedgehog characters in The Jungle Scene.
• The Azumanga Preschool and Takeru & Hikari sequences was omitted and replaced by a new sequence featuring characters from The Melancholy Of Harui Suzumiya, and Lucky Star (although a tribute to the sequence is featured here, and some of the Azumanga Preschool and Takeru & Hikari characters can be seen in the Azumanga Daioh sequence).
• The Mythical Detective Loki sequence was replaced by a new sequences featuring Inuyasha characters fighting on a ship.

Second 2019 Version

• The entire sequence of Mimi from Digimon singing "Itsudemo Aeru Kara" was shortened to include a musical number for K-ON! With the sequence of Shogunmon smashing his foot to the ground to make the water rise replaced by Hippo diving into the water.
• The onstage battle scene of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha was omitted, and was replaced by a new onstage sequence of characters from Aria the Scarlet Ammo (and the spin-off double A). Which is then halted by both Raika Hino and Kirin Shima.