All about Anime

[ferrarimanf355]

slerch- I don't know if I should laugh at you or- aw hell, sorry to hear about the screw-up. Volume 4 comes out on Tuesday? Man, I remember complaining about the length between DVD releases and now this. Makes me wish I had more money...

 

[Arcademan]

Over 1,000 posts here. Impressive

 

[dj898]

I've started to watch my Patlabour series DVD collections again.
Finished with TV series, OVA and now three movies to finish off marathon watching from Friday night...

it's one of my favourite series - another being Lupin The 3rd - and kind of wish I didn' throw out all those LD when I moved...

 

[slerch666]

ferrarimanf355- Like I said, I didn't expect Bandai to take so long with the replacements. I also figure that with a pile of DVDs that I haven't yet watched that hovers between 20-40 discs (new discs come in every week), I had more than enough to watch. It doesn't say much for Bandai's ability as a company if it's taken more than 2 subsequent releases and they still haven't gotten people's replacements to them,

I like the series, but there are also many series I like more.

Arcademan- 1000 posts, 3/4 of which are probably mine. lol

dj898- I have the Palabor OVAs. I ordered discs 1-3 of the TV series when Rightstuf was offering them at $10 each. I liked it, but didn't want to pay the price for them.

 

[slerch666]

I watched Wolf's Rain disc 4 and 5 today. Anyone buying the series and doesn't care about filling up the box, just skip disc 4. Seriously. The recaps are a total retell of the same story. Each story has a different "narrator" so to speak, but there is absolutely no new animation and maybe 5-10 new lines of dialog per episode, if even that much. Total fucking waste of 100 minutes. So unless you have the box and need to fill it, don't even buy disc 4. Disc 5 is back to the story and is pretty good.

I also watched Shrine of the Morning Mist or Asagiri no Miko depending on how you know it. Asagiri no Miko would be Priestess of the Morning Mist, not sure why MB went with Shrine.

SotMM was a fun watch. It uses the 12 minute eps format of Steel Angel Kurumi. The disc has 10 episodes on it, or roughly 2 hours of stuff. It's about a biy who has 2 different color eyes, and the red eye can see into the spirit realm. The bad guys are after him. He isn't able to protect himself so a shrine maiden (a girl he's known for a long time, they were really close when they were younger) and her sisters are out to protect him. Since he's getting attacked at school and the girl's sister is a priestess and a teacher at the school, they create a priestess club. These episodes mostly revolve around the formation of the club and an introduction to all of the main characters in the show.

MB did a really good job on the transfer and I have no complaints.

10 eps for the price is a good deal, and the show is a really good one IMO. Definitely worth checking out.

 

[dj898]

dj898- I have the Palabor OVAs. I ordered discs 1-3 of the TV series when Rightstuf was offering them at $10 each. I liked it, but didn't want to pay the price for them.

to me it was more of nostalgia since I saw its TV run all those years ago... I still have LD single of Patlabour promo - dunno when and where I got this from...
I'm surprised and bit disappointed that we are still far off from the day when we will have labours...

most of my anime DVD collections are more to do with my nostalgia than anything else... I still remember first time I saw Mazinger Z on TV - I was like 9-10... and kidousenshi gudam!!! umm... memories...

 

[slerch666]

most of my anime DVD collections are more to do with my nostalgia than anything else... I still remember first time I saw Mazinger Z on TV - I was like 9-10... and kidousenshi gudam!!! umm... memories...

I have the Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger TV series on R2 DVD. Great stuff. Of course, I knew Mazinger Z as Tranzor Z so it was nice to see the "real thing" for once.

 

[slerch666]

I watched Hanaukyo Maid Team: Verite disc 1 yesterday.

Anyone looking for a simple yet fun series, this is one. It's a harem show with more maids than you can shake a stick at (or shake your dick at if it gets you that excited).

It's a story of a boy whose mother dies and his grandfather decides to take him in. The funny part is, instead of being there with the boy, the grandfather sends the head maid Mariel to pick the boy up and has assigned HIM the head of the house. The grandfather then disappears (though there is a scene with a dude talking to a maid in a very sinister manner asking if the boy has arrived, not sure if this is the g-father or someone else, something tells me it is) and of course, there are plenty of scenes of fan service.

Each episode seems to focus on one of the maids, or at least has one as a focal point. Typical "boy gets to know girls" stuff.

It's not the same series Now Loading wanted released, and I'm not sure how different the 2 are, but this is definitely fun to watch. 12 episodes total for 3 discs in the series isn't bad. The first disc can be had with a box and some very nice pencil boards.

 

[Deyer]

About to watch AH! My goddess... It seems slerch doesn't like that one

Still waiting on the last dvd's of Last Exile to be delivered.

Finished watching WHR. It was a decent show a good watch indeed, but I felt it didn't live up to the hype.

 

[slerch666]

About to watch AH! My goddess... It seems slerch doesn't like that one

Yeah, it's total shit. Worst show EVAR!

Are you watching the OVA series, the movie or the TV series? I still love that movie to death.

 

[Now Loading]

I watched Hanaukyo Maid Team: Verite disc 1 yesterday.

Anyone looking for a simple yet fun series, this is one. It's a harem show with more maids than you can shake a stick at (or shake your dick at if it gets you that excited).

It's a story of a boy whose mother dies and his grandfather decides to take him in. The funny part is, instead of being there with the boy, the grandfather sends the head maid Mariel to pick the boy up and has assigned HIM the head of the house. The grandfather then disappears (though there is a scene with a dude talking to a maid in a very sinister manner asking if the boy has arrived, not sure if this is the g-father or someone else, something tells me it is) and of course, there are plenty of scenes of fan service.

Each episode seems to focus on one of the maids, or at least has one as a focal point. Typical "boy gets to know girls" stuff.

It's not the same series Now Loading wanted released, and I'm not sure how different the 2 are, but this is definitely fun to watch. 12 episodes total for 3 discs in the series isn't bad. The first disc can be had with a box and some very nice pencil boards.

Yeah, the character designs are ugly in Verite, but it's closer to the original manga.

Now if it had the art team of the first season (well, not really season, but I don't know what you'd call it) Verite would have been pretty good.

 

[slerch666]

Just finished watching Dead Leaves.

This show has a definite style. It's really interesting and starts out as something akin to a moving comic. It has panels with stuff moving in the panels, then switching to a new panel and so forth. It's pretty cool, actually.

The show (a short played theatrically, I believe) is about a male and a female, Pandy and Retro, who basically have amnesia, they get arrested for playing hell in the local town and thrown in a prison. As they are escaping, we learn about their past.

Don't let the story fool you, it's all about 100% action. This show is super fast paced and shitloads of fun to watch.

The action is frantic and schizophrenic. It can get going pretty fast at times and keeping up with the action can be a chore, even if you aren't trying to read subs. Good stuff.

The downside, other than it coming from Mangle, is the fact that the authoring house REALLY fucked up on the video. Scenes with lots of motion have massive amounts of compression blocking going on. If you watch on a lower end setup, you may not notice, and on my middle of the road setup I could definitely see how shitty it was. The authoring house is one I've never heard of, so this may be their first attempt at Anime/Animation in general. They did a wonderfully shitty job of it.

It's worth seeing, even with the compression problems. Perhaps just a rent, then a buy if it doesn't bother you that bad. Or, if you can understand Japanese and don't need subs, buy the R2 release instead.

 

[toy_brain]

I just recieved a wonderfully large order of anime yesterday, so now I finally have a sizeable backlog of stuff to watch through. I also picked up a few UK DVD's to watch as well, though most are just sitting on my shelf, wating for me to be in the right mood to watch them.

So far I've only watched:
Gungrave #4 - This continues to be extremely good, and is now making the shift from mafia-crime-drama, to the more sci-fi themes of the videogme. It was kinda cool to see al the events leading up to the scene with Harry and Brandon in the elevator that was so vital to the videogame. They did a relly good job of building up the tension, especially for those that have played the game and just knew what was going to happen.
My only complaint is that it dosent seem to be making the transition from crime-drama to sci-fi all that smoothly. A lot of background details and story on the Necrolysation research seem to have been glossed over. Its dissapointing, but only slightly.

Wandaba Style #1 - Hooookay, now why the heck did I buy this disk? I'm sure I had a good reason behind the desicion, just cant seem to remember what it was right now.
Umm, right, where to start. *deep breath* Well its a story about an upcoming girl band featuring a rock-star, traditional-songs-singer, washed up child star and a folk-singer who are all managed by a dude with a huge blond afro, all of whom then team up with some child genious (and his pink-hared robot) that wants to send them too the moon.
Riiight.
Anyone else think that souinds like its trying just a bit too hard to be wacky?
I mean, hey, I like stupid stuff like Excel Saga and Nurse Witch Komugi, but they tended to mix dry humour in with the wackyness to balance things out. Wandaba style just tends to go for all-out-bizzareness and it ends up feeling flat.
The fact that each episode plays out in much the same way (bizzare attempt of getting to the moon that goes wrong at the last minute, leaving the girls stranded in outer space, only for them to return in time for the next episode) stretches the already thin comedy to breaking point.
Unless the series develops something of a mini-arc in its plot during the next disk, I can see the remaining 8 episodes being uninteresting to watch.
Its not utterly dreadfull. There's decent amounts of fanservice for the pervs among us, and also these really wierd green bodybuilding faries (no, seriously, there are) for those genuine 'WTF?' moments, but otherwise.....meh.

 

[slerch666]

I skipped on Wandaba Style. When I saw it was being compared to ES, I said "fuck no." Glad I did.

 

[toy_brain]

I also finally got round to watching Urda: the third Reich, which is a single 30-minute episode that I think was animated (all in CGI) by just one person.
Kinda like Voices of a distant Star.
Only VoaDS was good.
and Urda isnt.
At all.
In any way.
Whatsoever.

Time-travelling 10-year-olds from the future and superhuman ninja-like Natzi women anyone?
More derivitave plot and chartacter background crammed into 30 minutes than the puny human mind can possibly imagine. All topped off with really bad sound-design that takes all the 'punch' out of the explosions and gunshots.
I'm willing to let the slightly rubbish CGI slide because it was all done by one bloke, so its impressive (ish) in that respect, but even so, the rest of it is so shite you'll be too busy laughing at the plot and dialogue to care about the visuals.

Its a cheap disk.
But its an expensive coffee-coaster.
A.V.O.I.D.

 

[slerch666]

I followed toy_brain's lead and watched Gungrave 4. I've had it for about 5 days, the problem is that I just haven't been in the mood to watch anything (which is why this thread was dormant for a time). Still not in the mood to watch a buncha stuff, but this was a nice distraction to get me a little bit outta my funk.

One thing that bothers me is the love triangle thing. *spoiler alert* You can tell Brandon really loves Maria, right? You can tell Maria really loves Brandon. Then you have... Big Daddy. He tried getting the 2 together, but ends up being the one getting hooked up with Maria. Brandon wanted Maria to be happy, so he tried to protect her from what he had become. Maria wanted to be happy WITH him for a time, then decided to try and be happy for him when she realized "they" wouldn't work out. Even after death, she still loved him, yet here it all is, crumbling around them.*end spoiler*. I knew the girl in the beginning wasn't Brandon's daughter, but I didn't really want to believe it came from where it did, even though all the signs were there.

So, this show can be seen as being "deep" on many different levels. It seems to be a show that can be seen as shallow or as deep as you'd like to make it. There is plenty of action for the shallow people, and enough of a great story to keep people looking for a little more occupied at the same time. Now that we'll be given Beyond the Grave, I'm wondering if it can keep this balance up?

Having not played the games, and having no background on it, just the Anime, even I knew what way it was headed. The elevator scene was telegraphed even at the beginning the Brandon and Harry's exit from their old town. Just as toy_brain said, there was that tension there the entire time, as you knew it was coming, it was just a matter of when. When the rubber band broke, it really broke and lashed back in several ways, from what Brandon did to himself, to what Maria was going to do for Brandon to what Big Daddy attempted and failed to do.

Gungrave is a fucking GREAT show. I can't recommend this one enough. I'm tempted to import the last 9 episodes from Japan, just so I don't have to wait the 6 months it's going to take for the last 3 discs of the R1 release. Every time I watch it, I end up wishing there were MORE on the disc. If that's not a sign of a great series, I don't know what is.

 

[slerch666]

toy_brain- if you don't mind me saying so, and I mean no offense, I think part of the reason you bought Wandaba Style is because it's an ADV disc. I've noticed that the majority of what you watch is ADV stuff, peppered with several Geneon releases and an occasional Media-Blasters release, but you have a decidedly ADV slant to your viewing.

Is this because you like their dubbing, so it's a way to support them? If so, that's pretty cool; I mean, I thought I was the only person who would do something like that (I buy all of Animeigo's releases, even if the quality or the show is crap, just to support them, usually going so far as to buy directly from them so they get all the profit).

Is it just because you like the shows they get, so it's a matter of course you buy a lot of their stuff?

You don't seem to buy a lot of Bandai stuff. Do you not like Gundam (since that's about all they seem to do these days)? Do they just not get shows you enjoy? (I can see that)

After Media-Blaster's mono issues, there are a lot of people who won't buy their discs. Even if I hate a company, if they picked up a show I wanted to see, I'd buy it anyway. That's just me; I buy my discs for the content, not past experiences with the company. If I did, I'd never buy ANY Manga releases.

Just an observation, and no offense meant. As everyone here can tell, I watch anything and everything, no matter who it's from. Getting a feel for other's viewing habits is just something I find interesting.

 

[toy_brain]

toy_brain- if you don't mind me saying so, and I mean no offense, I think part of the reason you bought Wandaba Style is because it's an ADV disc. I've noticed that the majority of what you watch is ADV stuff, peppered with several Geneon releases and an occasional Media-Blasters release, but you have a decidedly ADV slant to your viewing.

Yea, you're probably right.
There was a fair bit of talk about it at the AoD English track forums, so that, along with it being a 'wacky' show (usually a favorate sub-genre of mine), featuring some of my favorate ADV VA's, compelled me to try it out.

Aaaand, just so you know, this is how my current viewing pile (I.E, shows I'm still collecting, or have all the disks for but havent yet fully watched) stands. Catagorised by company...........

ADV:
Wandaba Style
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi
BGC 2040 (Essential Anime)
Mezzo TV
Eva Platinum
Chrono Crusade
Milk-Chan
Getbackers

Geneon:
Gungrave
Gad Guard (I'll post comments on this after watching a couple more disks)
R.O.D TV
Lunar Legend
Dokkoida
Burn-up Scramble
Paranoia Agent
Texhnolyze

Bandai:
GitS SAC
Galax Angel
Yukikaze

Otheres:
The Gokusen (Media Blasters)
Galerians: Rion (Revolver)
Cowboy Bebob (Beez - UK release of what is basically a Pioneer/Geneon disk)
Orguss 02 (Manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist (Funimation - first disk+box on order right now)

So, a fairly even split between ADV and Geneon for my no#1 spot. If it were not for the slight price difference and slower release shedule, I'd probably have more Geneon disks. (I was gonna buy Stellvia, but 8 disks over a Geneon release shedule....no thanks)
I'm always looking to maintain some diversity in my anime buying, which is why I ended up buying some rather wierd Media-Blasters stuff like Urda and Early Reins. Its not all bad though. Your recomendation of Gokudo turned out to be a god one.
(See, some of us do pay attention to your reviews )

 

[slerch666]

So, a fairly even split between ADV and Geneon for my no#1 spot. If it were not for the slight price difference and slower release shedule, I'd probably have more Geneon disks. (I was gonna buy Stellvia, but 8 disks over a Geneon release shedule....no thanks)
I'm always looking to maintain some diversity in my anime buying, which is why I ended up buying some rather wierd Media-Blasters stuff like Urda and Early Reins. Its not all bad though. Your recomendation of Gokudo turned out to be a god one.
(See, some of us do pay attention to your reviews )

Fair enough. It just seemed that the majority of reviews coming from you were for ADV discs. I'd list all the stuff I'm collecting now, but fuck that. It's a huge list.

As far as Geneon's release schedule, it's the same as everyone else, minus ADV. Even ADV has started some series back on the 2 months schedule. I will agree that 16 months to see Stellvia is kinda disappointing. It's an interesting show though.

I had these ship last night:

MAPS
Gantz 1 w/box
Sister Princess 3
Saint Seiya 10
Peacemaker 3
Dai-Guard Complete (toy_brain, I believe you recommended this, and I listened)
Stellvia 3
Saiyuki Reload 1 w/ box
Human Crossing 1 w/ box

I have a ADV slant going on there, but that's more because of the diarhea of releases they have over any personal preference.

And it's nice to know some people read my reviews.

 

[toy_brain]

Sorry, I totally forgot to answer your other questions in my previous post, so here we go......

Is this because you like their (ADV's) dubbing, so it's a way to support them?

heh, you just reminded me, I actually bought Najica Blitz Tactics purely on the strength of the audio commentary.
(I should point out that this was the first show (I think) to have one, so there was a certain novelty value to it.)
I doubt I'd actually buy a show just because of its english cast, although there have been cases where the dub cast 'tipped the balance' and provided that extra incentive. I imagine its the same with you sub fans and certain seiyuu.

This isnt something that is specifically localised to ADV though. Laura Bailey as Tohru Honda eventually swayed me to buying Fruits Basket (Funimation), and I'm desperatly trying to resist buying Popo-tan (Geneon), but......Jocelyne Loewen..... must....resist....

I wouldnt say I like ADV's dubbing any more or any less than any other company, but there is a certain feeling of security when buying an ADV disk. I know the quality of the dubbing will fall within a certain range, due to the years of experience of the voice actors and ADR directors, and my farmiliarity with their output.

Is it just because you like the shows they get, so it's a matter of course you buy a lot of their stuff?

Mostly yes, though as pointed out in my previous post, its an even split between Geneon and ADV.
ADV's slightly lower price-point (via online discounts) means I'm slightly more willing to take a chance on an ADV series than I would be on a Geneon series though.

You don't seem to buy a lot of Bandai stuff. Do you not like Gundam (since that's about all they seem to do these days)? Do they just not get shows you enjoy? (I can see that)

True, Gundam just isnt my thing. I tried watching Gundam Wing but just couldnt be bothered with it. I found the battles to be too one-sided and the angsty teenage heroes to be either gay as hell, or just plain annoying.
The other problem with Gundam is that there is rather a lot of it, so it would take a lot of effort for me to really get up to speed on it.
I do have a few Bandai shows though. There are the 3 I listed in my previous post, and also Witch Hunter Robin and The Big O. I'm also thinking of getting Kaze no Yojimbo as it sounds interesting and fairly different to what I usually watch.

After Media-Blaster's mono issues, there are a lot of people who won't buy their discs. Even if I hate a company, if they picked up a show I wanted to see, I'd buy it anyway. That's just me; I buy my discs for the content, not past experiences with the company. If I did, I'd never buy ANY Manga releases.

Y'know what, I never actually noticed the mono-audio issue, and neither did anyone I lent any of the affected disks to, so I've never had any reason to dislike Media-Blasters.
I do sorta have a thing against Manga, but its more to do with their apalling marketing stratergy here in the UK, which has forever branded anime as 'those sick and violent japanese cartoons' in the minds of the uneducated masses.
I've never really had a problem with any of their DVD's though.

 

[slerch666]

toy_brain- I never really noticed the mono issue either, until I saw which discs I owned and watched/listened to them. It doesn't bother me THAT much and John Sirabella, owner of MB, has promised replacements. They've just been a long time coming...

So far today I've watched Debutante Detective Corps and Giant Robo 2.

DDD was only 30 minutes. Over all I'd have to say it's middle of the road at best. Chara designs seem to have been copied from several places. There are at least 2 charas that remind me of Burn-Up.

The plot of the show is that 5 girls are being targeted by killers for some unknown reason. They band together and save themselves, to become the Debutante Detective Corps.

It's OK, but not woth more than $10. Actually, it's probably a rental for most people, if even that. Watchable, and not total crap, but everything felt like "been there, done that."

As far as Giant Robo 2, it's a great series and everyone should buy it. Media Blasters did a TREMENDOUS job on the transfer. The animation quality is extremely high and the story is great. I highly recommend this to Giant/Super Robot fans without hesitation. I recommend it to everyone else too!

 

[slerch666]

I watched some more stuff yesterday.

I watched Cybuster 2. It's more of the same from the first disc. We get to learn more about the past of the of the DC (the group who was cleaning up the environment but has recently begun fighting the Cybuster). Several of the main charas make a break from the DC. We learn who is controlling the DC and what their purpose is. There are a lot of things that I thought were funny (there's a scene where 2 of the main charas are being chased down by one of the RTs (one of the DC's robots), somehow they can run faster than it... a LOT faster, and a helicopter lands in front of them and gives them enough time to get in and get away without the robot catching up. No way they'd be that far ahead). Over all it's a decent series, nothing great but nothing bad. Middle of the road. If Geneon wanted more people to buy it, they'd drop the MSRP. $15 a disc would make it a really good deal.

I also watched Inu Yasha 26. You know my thoughts on the show. I really enjoy it, but it needs to end and have a proper end.

I also watched Burn-Up Scramble 2. The series is simply OK. The animation is OK, the stories are OK and the humor... isn't really. They try to go for slap stick and visual humor, it just falls flat/feels stale. One thing that pisses me off to no end is the ending credits. I haven't seen such shitty end credits in a long time (minus BU-S 1 and Hanaukyo 1). The names are near impossible to read because of the massive of amounts of compression blocking around the text. How anyone can think replacing Japanese credits with this TRASH is better than leaving the Japanese, I'll never know. I mean, if you really wanted people to know who did what, you'd fucking make your fucking credits at least a little LEGIBLE. Seriously, it's bad enough that they are difficult to read. The first disc suffered the same issue. Hanaukyo Maid Team has a similar issue. Either way, BU- Scramble is simply middle of the road at best. I can't really recommend it to anyone.

Yes, I am one who would like to see the Japanese credits on all shows. I also understand why people would want the English credits, and I accept them. However, when credits are THIS poorly done, what's the fucking point? I find it hard to believe anyone can read them (there are spots where even if you pause the video, the problem is so bad they are extremely difficult to read), so what's the difference between putting in English credits people can't read and Japanese credits people can't read? None. At least the Japanese credits may have eliminated the ridiculous amounts of compression blocking seen here.

toy_brain- You should pick up Popotan. It's a fun show and I think it's only going to be 3 discs long.

 

[slerch666]

I watched Patlabor TV 1-3. Started and finished 1-2 last night, watched 3 tonight. Damn fine TV series, no bullshit. Of course, having Mamoru Oshii direct probably helped that. I actually like this TV series a lot. They took all the best parts of the OVAs and have expanded them. It had a redone beginning (in terms of how the team formed), but once the first couple episodes stuck 'em all together, it was back to the fun. Damn good stuff.

And, I'll have to say, the dub cast did a decent job of it. I was watching some of the extras and heard them. Whoever did the casting did a good job trying to match voices to characters and have them come out almost like the Japanese charas.

One thing I thought was funny, was one of the extras on disc 3. CPM ran a voice acting contest at Icon (convention) and the grand prize winner got a bit part in the Patlabor TV series! She was OK, but not great. It was her cherry popper though.

When I think of CPM, I think of Lodoss War TV and shudder. That was absolutely one of THE worst dubs I've EVER experienced. Back when I watched dubbed all the time, this one was so God awful I switched over to Japanese. It's the only series I can think of that I did that to at the time. I couldn't believe how shitty the voice actors had become between the OVA and the TV series. Fuck, it HAD to be bad if my even my brother, who was watching it with me, BEGGED me to switch it.

 

[toy_brain]

Galerians: Rion came out in the UK a week or so ago.
I happened to be in town and with a pile of cash in my pocket - so I decided to get it.

Any good? Well, I think thats going to depend on wether or not you've played the PSone game. Personally I have - right up to the final boss (though I never did get around to beating it) - so this is a nice opportunity to experience the games story in a more condensed form.
Yes, Galerians: Rion really does follow the game's plot all the way down to each location and boss battle. I could even swear that they use the same CGI models for some of it!
What this results in is a film with a truckload of action and a rather spastic plot. Certain things just arn't explained very well (if at all) and, much like the game, Rion dosent really have any sense of eventual goal untill about halfway through, with most of his actions seeming devoid of any reason or motivation. He just does them because... well... thats what videogame Rion did, so thats what Film Rion does.
The film also feels very cramped. Its difficult to explain, but there just isnt any sense of scale or cohesive location. There are only a few outside shots, with most of the film taking place in tight corridors or darkened rooms, with very few shots linking them togeather. It makes the film feel kinda... wierd.
And then theres the slightly below-par CGI. Basic issues like character models floating slightly above the floor, and a spot of clipping here and there, all provide a few niggiling gripes.

But.....

It is still quite a lot of fun to watch - for me at least.
Prior knowlege of the game will allow you to fill in any gaping plotholes, the 'boss battles' are nicely done - always referencing the way they played out in the game but usually adding a few twists, and there are a number of cool action scenes as psychic powers are unleashed with spectacularly explosive results. The film also has very few dull moments, as it moves from boss-fight to plot development without pausing for breath.
Yes the plot may be stupid and riddled with problems, but at least it isnt dull.

So, like I said, If you liked the games plot, or are feeling a little nostalgic about it - but dont actually want to bother playing the damn thing again, this isnt too bad a choice. Heck, it may also be a decent DVD to pull out if you and a bunch of friends decide to get wasted one night and need some mindless fun to pass an hour and 10 minutes.
But if you actually want a genuinely good film.. sorry, look elsewhere.

I went in expecting it to suck, and came away plesently entertained.

 

[Mike Shagohod]

Okay SLERCH you're the fuckin' man when it comes to Japanimation... so tell me, where can I get the "uncensored" DVD of Mezzo Forte {yes the ones with the Hentai stuff in it} these days in 2K5? ~I know the more cleaned up Mezzo TV is currently getting rave reviews {from what I can see}, but I want to upgrade from my VHS copy of the original 2-part OVA release. I don't normally buy much Hentai these days, but when something was initially apart of the story I hate it when a company censors ANY part of it to make it more accessible to a larger bracket of ppl.

Also have you heard anything more about the VOTOMS re-releases, or whether or not CPM might be actually releasing the OVAs in the near future after the Memorial DVD Box Set???

MERCENARY X99