Here I was hoping to have reached this point a couple of months ago, but I just finished Spriggan moments ago. It is amazing how little delays add up to becoming one great delay. Tomorrow is the twelfth anniversary of this blog, and there will be something to show for it–I guarantee! Meanwhile, permit me to offer some quick takes on six movies plus a bonus TV anime.
-1-
Darkside Blues counts as a decent anime from the pen of Hideyuki Kikuchi, who is more famous for Vampire Hunter D. Vampire Hunter D is the better anime movie for sure–even Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is better. Darkside Blues conveys similar vibes to the other series, but it has a futuristic political conflict between the monopolistic Persona Century Corporation and freedom fighters who wish to live without its control. The main part of the story begins when a gang leader in Kabuki-cho, one of the last areas free of this corporation’s control, saves a freedom fighter from assassination and agrees to become his bodyguard.
The movie has a very slow start and only picks up once Mai decides to defend the freedom fighter. The titular hero, Darkside, has a certain role as a deus ex machina, but is pretty uninteresting overall. I’m glad that I watched it, but would probably not see this movie again.
★★★
-2-
Despite a video declaring Gundress the worst anime movie disaster in history being the first result when you search for it on YouTube, I found Gundress to be a fun movie which I would gladly watch again. The animation is what you would expect from a top quality movie in the 90’s. The characters are pretty quirky with good character designs by Masamune Shirow–the creator of Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell. Alissa’s history with the villain attempting to kill the charge guarded by the Angel Arms Company was rather engaging–as were the action sequences throughout the film. If you like 90’s animation and mecha, you’re sure to enjoy this one.
★★★★
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Prefectural Earth Defense Force is as wacky as its name. You need to be in the mood for a silly anime to enjoy this one. I loved seeing where Excel Saga got the strange idea for the evil organization Across of starting world conquest by taking a single prefecture:
In Prefectural Earth Defense Force, the mayor enlists a team of high school students to fight this enemy organization, the Telephone Pole Group. But, even with the help of an Indian exchange student turned cyborg, can they hope to defeat the evil organization bolstered as it is by having the daughter of Godzilla in its ranks?
(Yes, dear readers, I think that she’s cute, which explains all of the pictures.)
But, the Indian guy does really well, which forces the Telephone Pole Group to force someone else to become a cyborg. The two OVA episodes end with the resolution of the cyborg problem, but I imagine that there’s more to see in the manga. A very fun pair of OVAs!
★★★1/2
-4-
Roujin Z is a classic and easily the best of the movies here. It starts with an attempt to solve the problem of finding caretakers for the rapidly aging Japanese population. One company proposes the solution of providing the elderly with a fully automated bed capable of taking care of their bodily needs and entertainment. With a tiny nuclear reactor installed on it, the bed will never run out of power either! The student nurse attending the test subject finds this cruel, because everyone needs love in addition to care. Her and her friends’ attempts to spring the old man from the hospital in which the company has sequestered him leads to a whole host of crazy events and much destruction.
Great animation and action! The only thing which took away from my suspension of disbelief is how the heroine’s long, bare legs never seem to get scratched during any of the action which takes place–including her sliding across the tarmac!
★★★★1/2
-5-
Slayers the Motion Picture is a movie for people who really like Slayers. That means me and hopefully a good number of my dear readers. If you enjoy fantasy, you’re sure to like the 90’s anime. (The finale of the second season was particularly incredible.) If you like light novels, it’s possible to read Tokyopop’s translations of volumes 1 – 15 here. (I thought Tokyopop had gone out of business, but it’s still hanging on somehow, even though it lost many of its licenses with Kodansha.) The light novels are better than the anime, but it all depends on how you would prefer to absorb the story.
The movie is pretty basic with Naga and Lina teaming up for what they thought would be a relaxing hot springs vacation. It turns out that things are rotten on Mipross Island and that they need to defeat a twisted demon who ruined the lives of the islanders. Very standard fantasy fare, but perfect if you’re tired of isekai fantasies of omnipotent high school students.
★★★1/2
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Before high schoolers fantasized about being whisked away to a fantasy world, they may well have put themselves into the shoes of the protagonist of Spriggan: a super soldier named Yuu working for the clandestine organization ARCAM. The US Machine Corps–n.b. “Machine,” not “Marine”–wants to get their hands on Noah’s Ark to use it for nefarious purposes. The only Yuu can stop them from achieving their ends.
The chase scene in Istanbul was very well done, and you can watch it separately here on YouTube. All of the action is fun to watch. Some of the plot, such as the villain wanting to use Noah’s Ark to end global warming, struck me as silly. Still, this is a movie every action anime lover needs to watch.
★★★1/2
-7-
Here’s my bonus anime: My Instant Death Ability is Overpowered. It can only be considered a rather silly anime. The hero is never in any danger: whenever he feels killing intent coming from someone, he says “死ね” and they die. This conceit of the hero being powerful enough to kill all enemies with a thought managed to be entertaining for most of its twelve episodes. Takato is essentially an isekai’ed Draco dealing out the death penalty to all and sundry–even though he could afford to show mercy in many cases.
The anime starts with a sage bringing a bus load of high school students into her fantasy world. Most of the students gain a special ability upon entrance, and she hopes that at least one will pass through enough life and death battles to become a sage also. A few students without apparent powers, including Takato, are abandoned to what looks like certain death. However, Takato wakes up and kills everything which manifests the slightest hostile intent towards him or the heroine, Dannoura. Together, they set off to find their way back to Japan.
You need to be in a peculiar mood to enjoy this fanservicey parody on the whole isekai genre. If you are, the episodes fly by!
★★★
Medieval Otaku 