Reviews

'Magical God of War Goshogun' is one of the less well-known giant robot TV series for kids to have come out of Japan in the 1970's and 80's. Chances are you've never heard of it, even if the series has been aired in an English dubbed, and probably heavily edited version called 'Macron 1'. But the good news is that you don't need any familiarity with Goshogun's obscure roots to enjoy this spin-off film.

Now, animation from way back in 1985 with it's origin in an almost-unnoticed cheesy robot series may not sound very tempting at first, but give 'Goshogun: the time étranger' a chance, and you'll probably enjoy it quite a lot.

The story centers around French-born Remy, the only woman in the Goshogun team of heroes. We follow her through three distinct moments in her life when she came face-to-face with imminent death. As a little girl, she was trapped in a pit for several days, where she heard a voice telling her that she might as well give up, since she was fated to die there.

As a young adult, she and her friends get stranded in a strange Muslim desert town, where each member of the Goshogun team receives a prediction that they would die in the following days. Remy would be the first to die, with only two days to go until her death. And with no way out of the town, and the locals insisting that these announced deaths where the predetermined fate of the Goshogun team, from which they could not escape, the outlook isn't exactly rosy. And as an older woman, Remy gets into a car accident on the day of a long overdue reunion with her friends, and ends up seriously injured and in coma, with the doctor granting her only roughly two more days to live.

The film jumps back and forth between these three time periods, with most of the screen time devoted to Remy's adventure in the spooky desert town. The non-chronological narrative seems a bit jumbled at first, but the film actually does a good job of telling all three different stories simultaneously as well as presenting their common theme of triumphing over despair and the refusal to abandon hope even in the face of impossible odds. These strong themes are carried out very well, and make the film really quite touching, as a whole.

The characters are a likeable bunch, with Remy being a very sympathetic heroine. Neither a helpless airhead, nor a rock-hard tough gal, she's a very human character, and it's hard not to feel something for her efforts to keep struggling against the menaces. While she's being threatened with physical demise all through the film, it's really her will to live, her hope for survival and her faith in her friends that are being tested. And it works well - a touching bond of friendship and mutual trust is evident between the Goshogun gang. And then there are some nice little personality touches from the other team members, such as Bundle's penchant for the sophisticated things in life, Killy's attempts at writing a novel and the big guy with green skin who wears a track suit with a penguin on it.

The only real let-downs are the dated visuals who betray the film's age. While it doesn't look bad overall (in fact, you can tell a decent amount of care was put into the visuals), and features some inspired images, Goshogun looks distinctly retro in it's character designs and animation quality. If you just happen to be a fan of early eighties retro anime you'll have no problem with this, but most viewers will be used to slicker-looking modern efforts, and may find the visual to be a turn-off.

They shouldn't, though. If you can put the lack of superficial eye candy aside, the quality plot and character strength make for a rewarding viewing experience. The scenes of the Goshgun team's battle against the dark forces in the desert town which form the meat of the film provide a good deal of suspense, gloominess, and action (Muslim zombies, spooky illusions and even a giant purple panther are out to get them) but the scenes of Remy's childhood and sick bed are equally important as they make the emotional impact that much stronger.

Goshogun definitely deserves a look for handling a daring story very well, providing strong characters, and telling a touching tale of hope and individual strength. The film has plenty of pleasant surprises in store for those who'll give it a chance in spite of it's age and obscurity.

As with Patlabor 1, there's a facade of misleading marketing around this film. There's a picture of a big robot on the packaging, and any teaser will probably promise you a non-stop mecha blasting fest. This is, simply put, a shameless lie. Patlabor 2 is a political thriller (often likened to a Tom Clancy novel with good reasons), and a very slow, brooding, talky, philosophical one at that. Big robots just happen to exist in it's setting, but their presence in the film is so slight you'll hardly notice them.

What you will notice, however, are some wonderful visuals and music, and a story that asks the viewer many daring, insightful questions about the world of today.

The plot centers around a few terrorist attacks on Tokyo taking place in the winter of 2002 (note that the film was made in 1993). Most of these attacks are really fake, or harmless makebelieve-attacks, but they're enough to create panic and to cause the established sense of security to crumble to bits. Captains Gotoh and Nagumo of the Special Vehicle Units try to unmask the man, and especially the ideas behind these staged attacks. Everything points to a certain Yukihito Tsuge, who's an old familiar of Nagumo.

What makes this film special is the way we're given insights into Tsuge's beliefs through the dialogues. The viewer is directly confronted with some very powerful questions. The state of being that we call "peace" in the western world - just how peaceful is it really? How fragile is it, and how much do we deserve this relative 'peace' compared to the prices mostly others pay for it? The film is rife with such questions, and they leave a considerable impact on the viewer. I daresay Patlabor 2 is worth it's price alone for being confronted with such thought-provoking issues set to some of the most beautifully haunting images and music ever put on screen.

The animation is definitely finely-crafted (there's a scene where helicopters swoop over the city who's smoothness has to be seen to be believed), but it's biggest strong point is the way it's all been directed. Slow, sweeping shots of the intricate semi-futuristic cityscape are the order of the day, with many other impressively beautiful shots.

But it's the music that really stole the show for me, with a wonderful use of mostly gentle and haunting melodies. The soundtrack is a true masterpiece, whose tunes will remain with you for a long time after viewing the film. It adds a dimension to the atmosphere that really can't be described very well on paper, so I'll just say it's powerful and beautifully-crafted stuff. The image of snowflakes drifting down onto tanks stationed all over Tokyo while a soft, ghostly melody plays in the background is a good example of the sort of moment where Patlabor 2 shines.

It doesn't shine all the way, though. There are a few flaws to this film, which make it hard to recommend to everybody. The talkiness, for one thing, sometimes really goes over-the-top. Instead of showing you what happened, a pretty important development is sometimes only mentioned in a conversation. This makes it difficult to keep up all the time, especially as the viewer is sometimes assumed to be an expert on political powergames; -"Some minister has just done something or other, and then this and that happened" -"I see... that means so-and-so plans to do yakkity-something..." Dialogues like that pop up a few times in the film and manage to be pretty unpleasant. Likewise, there's no gentle introduction to Patlabor newcomers, so it's recommended that you've seen at least the first Patlabor movie before tackling this. While the few scenes of how the regular Patlabor cast have gotten on with their lives are fairly unimportant, being at least somewhat familiar with them is a welcome help in following a sometimes overwhelmingly complex film (I mean that in a good way, though ^^).

Patlabor 2 will never be suited to general public tastes, as it's simply too complex, talky and basically 'different' for anyone just seeking some escapist fun. The DragonBall and Akira crowd need not look into this until they've learned to stop referring to the anime medium as 'ménga movies' while mistaking it for a slew of violent cyberpunk slop which they consider 'kewl' or 'kickass' or whatever. Same to the general Hollywood crowd who'd freak out at the idea of a film demanding efforts from the viewer - Patlabor 2 demands lots of efforts, but has something special to reward you with.

Patlabor 2 serves it's doses of food for thought raw, and it takes some effort to swallow them. But I'd say that effort is well worth it. For the unique, powerful atmosphere alone, this is more than worth a look. I guess "haunting" is really the most suitable word to describe Patlabor 2's superb feel. It literally does haunt you, with questions about the state of the society we live in that you can't possibly turn a blind eye on (in fact, after the attacks on America in September 2001, Patlabor 2's messages have become ironically up-to-date in their relevance). And a film that achieves such effects so very well deserves to be seen and to be praised. And then there's -that- music. Absolutely brilliant, it makes this film a must-hear as well as a must-see.

This 2-part video series is the last installment in the vast Gall Force saga, which began back in 1986 with the 'Eternal Story' theatrical movie. This told the tale of how the human race was created more or less by accident during an all-consuming space war between two alien races. While the two warring races still made some attempts to avert the certain doom that their constant conflict was leading up to, it was already too late for them. Their last move before they died out completely at each other's hands was to entrust the future to their creation, the human race, and hope that they at least would succeed in building up a peaceful future. Mankind, however, repeated a large part of the mistakes their ancestors made and drove itself to the brink of ruin in a Terminator-esque war with the advanced machines called MME, who had been created by the humans to begin with. The 'Gall Force: Earth Chapter' videos show how the human-MME conflict eventually ends in a victory for mankind, and peace is established, at least for the time being.

Fast-forward to some 200 years later, and we see mankind living in crowded dome cities, while the Earth's surface is too ravaged to allow for survival outside of the cities' confines. Life in the cities itself is only superficially pleasant, it would seem. The first episode takes enough time to show that all is not quite perfect in these apparently civilised and peaceful cities (it's stated that giving birth is about to become forbidden to combat overpopulation). The real problem, however, is a shadow that secretly looms over mankind and prepares to strike a devastating blow. The only one to know of this menace is Catty, the android left over from previous conflicts who has been with mankind all this time. Just as all hell starts to break loose for real, she gathers five select women and allows them to escape into space and away from the city as it goes up in flames. A sixth woman joins these five fugitives, who are by now the last surviving humans, as everyone else has perished in a major catastrophe. Our heroines then have to survive several more attempts from mankind's enemy until they're out of harm's reach.

This new story arc actually starts out quite promising. The character designs in the first episode look a lot more polished than in previous Gall Force efforts, and enough time is spent on setting the stage to make things look interesting. When the sudden and brutal destruction of the city is triggered off, it's a very dramatic sight to behold (the music score is quite memorable as well). Just for good measure, every single other human being is killed off in a disastrous chain reaction as well before you can say 'apocalypse yesterday'. It works, but that's partly because a detailed account of an apocalypse can hardly -not- be somewhat gripping. And unfortunately, the second episode undoes a lot of the first's merits by being completely and utterly godawful.

For starters, the second half of the series looks as if it was beaten with an ugly stick. Terribly crude character designs, choppy movement and a color palette so poor and limited you might as well be looking at a Space Invaders arcade screen all make episode 2 a real visual travesty.

The plot doesn't exactly improve matters either. It's partly a lot of very boring talk between the characters where they slowly spin out theories as to what exactly has happened in the first episode. Alas, the viewer already knows that mankind is completely wiped out, and who's responsible for it. And any viewer with half a brain will already have a good idea of the how's and why's behind these events as well, so watching the girls having a long, dull talk that contains very little relevant new information is a right bore. Alas, when it's not chewing-the-fat scenes, we're treated to very poor carbon copies of the events in the very first Gall Force movie, only greatly watered down and much more poorly done than they were there. There's that same Alien pastiche (which was above-average in 'Eternal Story' and is downright rubbish here), the same loudmouth fighter pilot that gets stranded with the others, and several other re-threads of familiar ground. It's much too predictable for it's own good. A possible excuse is the Gall Force plot element that things happen in a constant cycle of events (for example, each story arc's cast share the same physical characteristics and personality trait, so that you always have the black girl with lavender hair, the whiny green-haired kid and the brawling blonde with a Mae West hairdo - it's just a shame they're rarely developed beyond just that), but layering it on -this- thick simply reeks of poor plotting and blatant re-hashing.

It all culminates in a somewhat frustrating open ending. The one thing that does make any impact with these videos is the empty sense of waste at the end. The whole previous Gall Force series showed a struggle to preserve mankind, and with it a possible last hope of some peaceful future. All of these efforts, however, have only been rewarded by the complete annihilation of the human race, save for our six heroines, who're supposedly sent off to a better place. And that's it. Complete destruction with one last shard of remaining hope is a powerful way to end any tale (especially when you consider how desperate the struggles have been throughout all the previous Gall Force films), but it's just a little too unresolved to really work here.

It's really a shame about the very poor second episode dragging this installment down so much. For those who've seen the previous Gall Force films, this is worth watching once to catch the full story. In fact, those familiar with Gall Force can tell that a lot of the shortcomings in the plot actually make sense as typically Gall Force elements. There's aforementioned theory of a constant cycle of events that serves as some kind of 'excuse' for the near-exact similiarities with the events of 'Eternal Story'. And endings that involve complete destruction, but with the hope that the cycle will start again somewhere are also a fact of life in Gall Force. But these excuses unfortunately just aren't good enough in the end. It may be because the viewer's already grown familiar with these typically Gall Force elements over the course of the previous films that they don't work anymore here. Rubbing it in and dragging it out this blatantly one more time is just needless, especially if it's done as poorly and with as much tedium as in that abysmal second episode. It's hard to believe, but they've managed to even make the good elements of Gall Force outstay their welcome with 'New Era'.

For the affictionado only, then. And even those are advised to handle 'New Era' with care. Apart from getting to see the last chapter in the Gall Force story, there's little to enjoy here, even for the die-hard fan (you may be better off watching only the first episode and leaving the rest up to your own imagination after that). It's a shame that with such epic scope and grand, dramatic themes, the Gall Force series as a whole is always dragged down by flaws that stick out so painfully. 'New Era' takes this trend a step too far - digging through the rubbish to unearth the good elements will be beyond the efforts of most viewers this time.

One last knee-jerk nag about the English dub, which is hilariously bad. The acting's so-so, but with a dub script as poor as this ("heyyy, tell me where the databank is located, huh, will ya?" - I only wish I was exaggerating), anyone'd have a hard time. The translation hits especially choppy waters when the plot begins to involve a genetically-created sub-category of humans called the Yumans. Presumeably, there'd be no problem in Japanese, but in English, there is absolutely no way to differentiate between the words 'human' and 'Yuman' in spoken dialogue, no matter how much the actors try to over-emphasize the 'h' (which sounds bloody silly). As a result, large lumps of the dialogue make absolutely no sense whatsoever (a scene where everyone argues whether or not Yumans are evil is a real head-scratcher). Mistakes in the translation also destroy the references to Greek mythology that are scattered throughout the story by pronouncing everything wrong. Clumsy handling of katakana-transcriptions is a possible cause, which means a small, but interesting detail has been lost. Although this probably won't be amazing no matter what language you watch it in, the English dub's wretchedness stands out so obviously that it deserves a warning label of it's own.

The main complaint from those who dislike Patlabor; the movie is that it's too slow and dull. Not to act like the brighter-than-thou intello snob here, but this never even remotely bothered me. Maybe it's because there are enough riveting action scenes to counterbalance the slower ones, or because a lot of the non-action scenes are spent on a believeable build-up to make the finale all the more poignant, while throwing in genuinely interesting issues and fleshing out the likeable characters in a very entertaining way. Or maybe it's because I saw Patlabor 2 first, which makes this first film seem lightning quick in comparison. All the same, I really don't see what there is to complain about. Patlabor takes the time needed to establish a coherent storyline, and the viewer is amply rewarded by a big and very thrilling dose of action in the end, made all the more involving by the intricate prior build-up that we've been following. Even after several viewings, I find myself fully satisfied at the film's end, and perhaps even intellectually stimulated, without this demanding excessive efforts on my behalf. True, this is at times a talky and rather philosophical film, but nothing that the average viewer should find impossible to sit through (that is, unless I'm being too optimistic in my views on general human intelligence and the world really is overrun by bovine straight jocks who's attention cannot last two minutes without massive explosions on-screen).

Mamoru Oshii's direction style has a reputation of being very slow and broody. From what I've seen of his work, this is quite true. So far, Patlabor is the movie where this style worked best for me, as everything fitted together very nicely, delivering an excellently balanced combo of entertainment and mental fodder (other films by him show his personal touch more clearly but are less 'easily accessible').

That is far from the only praiseworthy point in Patlabor, however. Animation and artwork are pleasingly solid overall, ascending to excellent levels when the intricately crafted scenes with the mecha come into play. Kudos to the music as well, which does it's thing very nicely. The fast pieces for the action scenes are especially good for the way they're so full of energy. It also does a very good job of establishing the Patlabor universe for the non-initiated viewer. This movie is but one gear in the works of a much larger franchise; Patlabor has spawned several TV and video series over the years, but the viewer is adequately told who is who and where they are to be able to follow the movie without prior experience.

The clever bit about the Patlabor universe is it's a down-to-earth, credible view of what the world might look like if there was such a thing as giant robots. The robots are not overly fanciful, nor are they even the defining factor in everyone's life. Despite Noah's attachment to her Labor which she named Alphonse, the robots serve as little more than bigger, stronger versions of everyday vehicles and machines, with not one infantile giant laser weapon in sight (that said, their design is very cool, including enough striking elements in their otherwise workmanlike and realistic appearance to be very noteworthy). It's still the little people that make the most difference and are the real stars in the Patlabor world. Top marks for originality, there.

The same thing goes for the film's plot: after the suicide of a certain Eiichiro Hoba, an increased number of incidents involving Labors gone berserk begins to spread over Japan. Our heroes are a somewhat whacky squad of anti Labor-crime officers (the 'mobile police', who operate with their Patrol Labors, or Patlabors) who gradually unravel the entire plot behind this wave of labor malfunctions, and the true disaster that this is building up to - a disaster of such magnitude that it may well signal doomsday if the one building that will trigger it off isn't destroyed by hand and by Labor in the little time that is left. There's far more to the story than just that - there are the likeable hi-jinks of the heroes along the way, as well as the more broody look at Hoba's motivations that get exposed by a private eye, packed with deep reflections and religious symbolism (a so-called 'Babylon Project' to build a new district for Tokyo over the water plays a large part in the film, to name but one example).

It probably -is- more of a thinking man's giant robot anime in the end. But this should be noted as great praise, rather than a complaint from those too stupid to appreciate it. Everything is well-crafted, involving and enjoyable enough to make for a very impressive film that can be recommended to everyone except complete numbskulls. I'd almost go so far as to claim that anyone who doesn't realise the great qualities of this film must be out of his mind, but that would be just petty personal vengeance on my behalf. You see, with the way this film is so excellent, stylish and highly likeable overall, I'm afraid I've rather fallen in love with it. Well worth checking out, at any rate.

Deep in space, a war is being waged between two races. In the red corner, we have the Solnoid race, consisting entirely of women with day-glo hair. The blue corner is graced by the Planoids, who're actually a kind of ooze that inhabits various mechanical 'shells' to get around. These two races are hell-bent on wiping each other out and have been at war for as long as everyone can remember. During a Solnoid/Planoid space skirmish, the Solnoid ship Star Leaf is badly damaged, leaving only seven Solnoids alive on board. Their orders are to head to planet Chaos, which may provide a safe haven for the Solnoid race. Only getting there won't be easy, with their ship pretty much falling apart, and several other dangers menacing them. The Planoids attack en route and manage to get a strange monster on board the Star Leaf, which further menaces the Solnoids. After the long voyage through space, only three surviving Solnoids make it to planet Chaos, where they eventually discover that they've been used as pawns in a plot of epic scope - to create a hybrid between the two races that may bring an end to the constant, and ultimately suicidal war. However, the results of this experiment are not what the top brass expected (it ought to surprise the viewer a fair bit as well), and everything dissolves into fighting again.

The storyline has a lot of strong points. It tries to point out the insane futility of war and violence, there are plenty of atmospheric moments, with a surprise creation theory and sad/hopeful ending thrown in for good measure. With this sort of plot strength, it ought to be a tremendous film. Alas, due to several flaws it just doesn't make that grade.

The most obvious shortcoming is the very weak characterisation. Out of our seven Solnoid protagonists, only about two of them show any character trait whatsoever (Rumy is an incompetent whiner, and Lufy is an arrogant butch - hardly fascinatingly rounded characters, in fact). The rest are just a bland bunch who show no distinct personality whatsoever. They really have only their hair colors to distinguish between them. Even Rabby, who gets most of the screen time never becomes more than the one with long, red hair and dangly earrings. If someone asked me to describe her personality, I seriously wouldn't know what to say.

And if the characters are mostly dead bland, it knocks away a lot of the story's impact. A lot of them die, which is supposed to be dead tragic, but since almost nothing has been done to make the viewer feel familiar with and sympathetic for most of the victims before their untimely death, it doesn't hit home as hard as it should. Worse yet, a lot of the deaths just seem stupid - "you know what? I'll just stay behind on this exploding ship and get myself killed so you lot can do a few agonised wails and droopy stares for the next two minutes. Yeah, that seems like a good idea!" On at least two occasions, one of our heroines 'heroically sacrifices' herself for a reason that appears really stupid and needless. This extends to other plot elements as well - supposedly lethal threats to our heroines turn out to be all mouth and no trousers and emotional scenes are cut short of any impact. Near the end, the Solnoids send their two droids to activate some kind of gizmo that devastates the whole planet, with almost no hint to the viewer as to what that thing is (did it just pop out of nowhere, or the Solnoids put instant-death gizmos on every planet?), or the reasons why they're going so over-the-top with this drastic last resort. More time spent on building up dramatic situations somewhat, and more insistance on the actual plot behind it all besides the brief explanations would've been nice, rather than letting the viewer do so much distilling by himself.

The dated look and even sound of the film are other flaws that drag down the film's promise. While the animation is fluent enough and some very intricate mecha show up, the character designs are awfully simplistic, with hardly any detail to them at all. Facial expressions of shock, anger or any other emotion become a lot less convincing this way, and the lack of finesse and detail on the characters makes them look almost as bland as they behave. An eye-candy banquet this sure is not - in fact, it looks downright sloppy in places. And the music composer strikes some very wrong notes by mixing in awfully cheesy insert songs here and there (complete with very dull, lengthy 'music clips'). The music in general is often badly out of whack with the tone of the on-screen happening. Seriously, who in their right minds would use a joyful plinkety-plonky music for an aerial dogfight scene?

It's a shame that such shortcomings stand in the way of an interesting and potentially very deep plot. There are obvious strengths to Gall Force which make it recommendable, but flaws that stick out painfully and will definitely hit a sore spot with many viewers as well. Utter sci-fi diehards may enjoy the film's atmosphere, as well as the hefty borrowing from some big SF names (bit of Alien, bit of Star Wars, and so on - it struck me as rather dopey). It still holds enough interest to be rental-worthy, but do so at your own risk. You may like the good aspects very much, or end up utterly hating it for it's pronounced flaws. The kernel of a strong and tragic story buried in there is worth digging out, if you can muster the effort.

(also note that there have been tons of sequels, and Gall Force does impress when you step back and contemplate the big picture painted by all nine films together - individual installments often don't fare very well, however).

This has been my first exposure to the much-acclaimed works of Miyazaki (and this comes from a self-proclaimed anime & manga fanatic - how embarrassing >.<), and I fully see what the fuss is all about now, as this is simply brilliant. It's been re-baptised 'Le voyage de Chihiro' for it's French release and it's being shown in French theaters both in a subtitled and a dubbed version as I write this. I strongly encourage any Francophone to jump at this opportunity and see the film subtitled. But I imagine not even a dub, or even meddling from the editing-happy Yanks could really ruin a film as beautiful and enthralling as this.

No doubt you've seen how Disney keeps claiming that the latest drivel they spit out is "a timeless classic full of wonder for the whole family to enjoy". It would be an insult to compare the beauty of this film to any Disney rubbish, but the phrase "a timeless classic full of wonder for the whole family to enjoy" describes what this film accomplishes very well. I've gone to see it twice, and noticed that the theater was filled with such diverse viewers as late teens, students their twenties and even middle-aged married couples. Yup, this whole spectrum of 'adults' had gone to see a so-called children's cartoon. And judging from the laughs and chuckles that the film's many charming moments raised (the fat mouse was a huge hit), everyone genuinely enjoyed it, regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality or whatever else. Sen to Chihiro has a kind of charm that can touch everyone (it says a lot if a fussy homosexual otaku can drag both his parents and grumpy kid brother into this and they all come out loving it to bits).

The story is quite simple, at first sight. On their way to their new home in the country, young Chihiro and her parents come across a tunnel which leads them to a strange-looking abandoned town. Her parents discover a restaurant packed with attractive food and immediately start to stuff their faces while Chihiro wanders off. It's then that things take a turn for the bizarre; night falls, and the town begins to fill with all sorts of ghosts and goblins, while Chihiro's parents have suddenly turned into pigs, and the way back is cut off. A young boy named Haku seems to be the only unexpected ally Chihiro has in this strange new world. To save her parents and make it back home eventually, Chihiro has to find work in a huge public bath house run by the witch Yubaba who seems to rule the place. Among the many strange and mysterious creatures there, she has to make friends, build up her courage and eventually find her way back to the normal world again.

There must be heaps of different possible interpretations and underlying depths to the film, and no doubt each viewer will experience it in his own personal way. The animation has already been greatly praised, and rightly so; it's gorgeous. Every scene is rich in color, crystal-clear fluidity and intricate detail (check out all the things moving in the backgrounds - there's a lot of silly mischief going on for you to discover). And best of all, the beauty never seems to strike a blunt in-your-face note - they're not trying to push big gasps of admiration out of the viewer with flashy CGI or over-the-top shots. The visuals' excellent just quietly seeps in and sweeps you away all the more efficiently for it. This isn't just brilliance, it's refined brilliance.

While every element of this little marvel deserves paragraphs of praise, I'll limit myself to the one element that impressed me the most - the very vivid atmosphere of Chihiro's world. The rich color palettes and the unusual architecture of the settings set a strong feeling of surreality. It's innocently colorful and rather spooky at the same time. And for such a fascinating world, it has inhabitants to match. The myriads of creatures that pop up all ooze personality with far more than just their weird looks. Watching the bizarre animals in motion really draws you in, and you cannot help but grow to like them. The frog in the blue kimono and the giant yellow birds really struck a note in me personally, while the aforementioned fat mouse and it's tiny bird companion raised so many laughs they must've stolen the show (somebody make us plushes of these critters, please!). And there are so many others to enjoy. To name but a few, the trio of bouncing green heads or the 'no-face' black Kaho-nashi who sways between endearing and frightening are brilliant ideas. Watching how these mysterious creatures behave adds loads to the fun of this movie.

All in all, an enchanting experience for any viewer, and a killer uppercut to the bloated jaw of Mickey Mouse. See it for yourself and let yourself be gently carried away to a dream-like world that your inner child can't resist to explore through your eyes. It looks like anime fanatics may finally have the cure for Akira Aftertaste. If there's a film that can to rub out the bad impressions left by the cheap violence-fests released by clueless companies and establish the international respect that the anime medium deserves, Chihiro has all it's chances. But more importantly, it's a wonderfully accomplished film full of imagination - a glimpse into a world that can make everyone dream. Very strongly recommended, for absolutely anyone.

Even with my expectations set at a very low level, this American 'interpretation' of Godzilla was genuinely painful to watch.

Yes, I knew it would not be the same as the good ol' Japanese Goji films I'm familiar with. It's drastically different, in fact. The American Godzilla is a good deal smaller than the oriental original, and also a bit more polite. Whereas any kaiju monster worth it's salt would go ploughing right -through- the buildings of whatever city it'd find in it's way, Ameri-Goji has been brought up well and politely walks along the streets, merely scratching one or two buildings. Heck, with the way the buildings actually tower over the monster instead of vice-versa, it's not surprising that the military end up doing more damage than the monster does. Seeing a skinny lizard taking a walk along some American buildings I've never heard of is not my idea of a fierce monster turning a giant metropole (preferably Tokyo) into a sea of fire and debris. Compared to the Asian example, the American Goji is a monster-wimp.

While initially disappointing to anyone who likes proper giant monster flicks, this different approach is not the problem. If they had done a different-style monster movie that was actually any good, the whole world would not be spitting vomit all over this film. Alas, they screwed up very royally. As soon as any of the characters opens his mouth to utter a sentence from the hopeless script, the whole thing falls to pieces.

"But it's a giant monster movie, so of course the plot is a bit daft and the characters aren't fascinatingly deep! It's what you should expect!", is the standard rebuttal to anyone pointing out this film's multiple flaws. Only it doesn't work so easily. You can aim for a light-plot, silly 'fun' movie and get that wrong too, after all. And that's just what happened here; you can tell whenever the writers thought they were being terribly witty, exciting or even thoughtful with a certain line. And you can also immediately tell how wrong they were. When the characters make an attempt at being funny, likeable or showing some kind of personality (maybe even -shock!- character development), they fall flat on their faces with a loud thwack and only appear... well, stupid, really. They look stupid, sound stupid and behave in an incredibly stupid fashion. And when they're not being dopey, they're downright detestable. Matthew Broderick plays a whiny git who's face you'll want to smack in, "Animal" is the biggest cretin to have ever walked the earth, and then... there's Maria Pitillo. Oh, the sheer horror of it. If there is a silver lining to the cloud of this movie, it's that we can rest assured that she has forever killed off her "acting career" with her downright ridiculous under-performance in this film. It says a lot when one person manages to stand out as the absolute worst spot in an overall extremely bad movie.

Even the monster itself isn't safe from the bad script. Here and there, attempts are made to evoke sympathy for the creature as being just an animal trying to survive. It doesn't work, though, and ends up looking like everything else in this movie - an embarrassingly failed attempt at being clever and cool. But then again, it's difficult to get really excited about a monster that's really just a big load of computer pixels on the screen.

There are so many other things terribly wrong with this film that one could fill an entire book with it (actually, that has already been done with the novelisation of this movie). Honorable mention goes out to the ludicrously ill-timed cuts from scene to scene which show especially painfully in the beginning of the film, and look utterly dreadful. Other examples; the monster is a wuss, for the aforementioned reasons - far too small and tame, hardly destructive, and possible to kill by puny helicopters. And that calls itself a kaiju? Or some typical American arrogance in an attempt to make the French look like a nation of evil psychopathic snobs - but even that goes wrong, as Jean Reno turns the joke around by being the only one in this film who seems to be somewhat in his right mind, lost in a sea of idiotic Americans. And the list goes on. It's just all depressingly dumb and all too obvious that this film fails hopelessly at anything it attempts. Maria Pitillo may not be able to act out a crying scene to save her life, but even she probably cried real, convincing tears before the finished product.

Unless you're looking for good documentation on how -not- to do a movie, stay well away. Any of the 1970's kiddie-oriented Godzilla movies, with their ridiculous special effects and daft plots floor this sad attempt hand-down (the 1990's and 2000's Goji films blow this into orbit by just breathing at it). Quite simply because the staff knew what they were doing and had put some effort into delivering films that, while not deep or intelligent were plain good fun. There's a right way and a wrong way of doing everything, after all.

The Gall Force; Earth Chapter series will be wasted on viewers who are not at least somewhat familiar with the previous Gall Force films. They'll miss out on several essential plot points, and this installment loses all of it's punch and point when viewed out of the grand scope of the whole Gall Force shebang (so it's a bit odd that Manga Video released the Earth videos here as a standalone title to an audience that had never previously heard of Gall Force and can't really appreciate this).

To re-cap it very briefly, the first Gall Force trilogy tells the story of a never-ending war in space between two advanced races; the Solnoids and the Paranoids. The elites of the two races are aware that their ongoing war has already sent both races on their way to inevitable mutual wiping out, so they started a project to create a new, Solnoid/Paranoid hybrid race, which would hopefully have a bit more common sense. This eventually led to the birth of the human race. While it was too late to save the Solnoids and Paranoids from killing off each other altogether, the humans got the chance to start over on earth and hopefully not make the same mistakes as their ancestors. Only, by the time of the Earth Chapter episodes, mankind has hit choppy waters. Using a last scrap of Solnoid/Paranoid technology found on the moon, they've built legions of cyborgs called the MME. These MME then went a bit Terminator and have turned the whole earth into a ravaged wasteland. Most of mankind has fled to Mars, and only a handful of fighters remain on earth, struggling against the MME.

What basically happens in the Earth Chapter tapes is that mankind makes a few collective attempts at wiping out the MME, only to change their mind at the last moment when they realise that they'll do more harm than good to themselves by running in, guns blazing. In the first episode, it's nuclear missiles that will irrevocably destroy the earth's ecosystem while they wouldn't even scratch the MME, all while a small sect believes they've found a way to restore earth's ecology someday. The second episode features a huge space-based plasma cannon sent from Mars to blow up the MME HQ from space...but the blast is so powerful it'll also destroy the entire earth along with it. The MME base is finally taken out in the third tape through less radical means, and mankind may hopefully have picked up some of the message that the Solnoids and Paranoids, and also these tapes try to convey; that blind aggression never leads to anything.

Trouble is, while the story is interesting enough at points and has some strong sentimental moments, it's all done pretty poorly. Animation quality is very lacklustre, for one thing. Between the frequent re-cycling of animation sequences and the hilarious jerky walks of the MME in the first tape, we're not exactly being treated to a visual feast.

The plots also suffer from being too hurried to pack the punch they could. The way they heavily borrow elements from previous Gall Force films and a myriad of other sci-fi greats also drags them down to more predictable and sedate levels. Even the whole pacifist message doesn't come across as powerfully as it could because of this. Same to the leitmotiv that mankind has itself to blame for the pretty stupid self-destruction they've set in motion. If even strong themes like this can't make the tapes really interesting, something has to be a bit wrong with them. It's unfortunately all too obvious that you're watching low-quality stuff for a viewer to be impressed by the few good things there still are in here. The staggeringly poor English dub doesn't help matters either, leading to lots of crummy dialogue and bad acting (Fortine is cursed with an especially ridiculous voice).

Some punches in favor of the Earth Chapter tapes, all the same; it does have atmosphere, with the nicely painted backgrounds getting the feel of a destroyed earth across very well. The acres of ruined skyscrapers are especially dramatic to behold. The music was really rather nice as well, with some themes that stick in your head for a while and back up the action scenes very well. However, even with this, the Earth Chapters can only be recommended to those who know the previous Gall Forces well, and really liked what they saw there. There's very little point in watching this otherwise.

As a sequel to the very popular Bubblegum Crisis OAV series, Bubblegum Crash had lots to live up to, and didn't quite succeed. BG Crisis fans generally have little sympathy for the Crash videos, calling it toned-down and even "alternate universe". Is it really that much of an unrecogniseably mauled travesty, though? Nope, it's actually quite good fun, but anyone expecting a coherent, proper sequel that ties up all the loose ends left by BG Crisis will be disappointed.

The "alternate universe" label is actually quite fitting, as Crash completely alters some major plot elements of Crisis, without any logical explanation to speak of. GENOM has apparently vanished overnight, and Boomer technology has taken a big step backwards. While it was commonplace in BG Crisis to have fully intelligent and even sentient Boomers (cyborgs, to put it simply) that looked and behaved exactly like humans, the Boomers are little more than blocky-looking stupid labor robots in the Crash storyline. Tefal toasters that talk. In the second Crash episode, everyone even gets dead excited about a Boomer that's so advanced it "would sound like a human if you talked to it on the phone!". It's as if Sylvie, Largo and all the others never existed (except that Largo -does- have a role in the Crash tapes). Besides, I don't suppose many people would have telephone conversations with something that looks like the child of C-3PO and Sonic the Hedgehog, but let that pass. There are some other minor points that don't gel with the events of BG Crisis (the state of Priss' singing career, for instance), and the overall tone of the Crash episodes is more light and action-oriented than it was in Crisis.

In fact, compared to somewhat deep plots of Crisis, Crash is little more than a fluffy action romp, with lots of running, shouting and nasties to blow apart. The plots are indeed lightweight, with even some holes here and there (such as Sylia luring the dopey baddies into a trap with "some phoney information I've put out on the net". Brilliant, Sylia). Little more than an excuse for the fight scenes, with the odd musings about advanced robots being nothing we haven't seen before. They do try to tie up that whole Sylia-Largo thing in the last episode, which makes for the only deep moments of Crash, but even those aren't revolutionnary, and even somewhat cheesy. Those who think of Crash as a cyberpunk Sailor Moon are very much on the right track.

But the bright side is that the cyberpunk Sailor Moon formula turns out to be quite good fun. Amusing scenes of the character's daily life build up to some slick, fast fight scenes where dramatic poses and funky weapons are the order of the day. Backed by a very vivid music score, plus cool new armor designs and techniques for our heroines to use (Nene can actually put up a decent fight now), it gets the feel of speed and adventure just right. The third episode goes into particularly strong dramatic overdrive, with a token cheesy over-villain and his melodramatic plot to blow up all of Mega-Tokyo in the most showy way possible. The Crash series sometimes feels as if the Bubblegum Crisis gang got together to re-cap their adventures in a glitzy and somewhat corny Hollywood flick; dumbed down but sped up. If your kid sister didn't like BG Crisis too much, chances are high that she'll get a big kick out of Crash (with that nifty ka-pang sound the Knight Saber's shoes make when they jump), and you very probably will too, providing you can switch off your brain, and your upset pride as a die-hard BG Crisis fan. If you can forget that this is not what you expected as a BG Crisis lover, there's a good deal of fast, harmless fun to enjoy in there. The many good close-ups of Daley that we're treated to in BG Crash are enough for me to enjoy it already ^.^

Bounty Dog is set in the distant future, where man has colonised the moon, and tourist flights to the lunar cities are possible. Some fishy business if going on, however, and suspicion has arisen that the Constans Lunar Corporation (who seem to own pretty much all of the moon) may be developing an illegal weapon. The Bounty Dog team, a trio of hi-tech undercover agents of some kind are sent to the moon to check it out. They find more than they bargained for, as Constans has in fact unearthed a kind of alien life-form called the Sleeper, who is emitting strange bursts of energy, and will probably cause mass chaos unless a way of keeping her quiet is found. What's more, identical clones of the Sleeper roam the streets of the moon city (they all wear identical outfits as well, somehow). Yoshiyuki, one of the Bounty Dog members runs into one of these Sleeper clones, and is surprised to see how much she looks like his friend Yayoi, who died on earth and told him with her last breath that they might meet again on the moon. The Sleeper clone, who's called Inez explains that Yoshiyuki is the only one who can kill the Sleeper, or Darkness as she puts it (apparently, it's his destiny, something to do with the robotic arm he was given after Yayoi's death), before it fully awakens and sets out to destroy the earth as every decent villain would do. So Yoshiyuki and his teammates set out to Darkness' hideout inside the moon, piloting mecha, beating up millitary guards and evil Sleeper clones and shooting a few more things in the process.

That's all very well, but Bounty Dog's main flaw is that it is far too confusing for it's own good. It's really a pretty straightforward good-vs-evil story, but the plot is explained in a much too twisty-turny fashion, throwing around flashbacks, dream scenes and bits that just aren't explained at all. Some examples; the Bounty Dog gang begin to go about their business on the moon, doing some moderate spy stuff, but it's not until roughly a quarter through the tape that it's even mentioned that the Bounty Dog team is an "investigation unit" (or that they're a team at all). Similiarly, Yoshiyuki mentions Yayoi's name a few times without the merest clue for the audience who he's talking about, until we get an explanation of who she was much later on. I'm all for mystery, suspense and that sort of thing (which is justified for a few plot elements, such as keeping the Sleeper's identity under wraps), but Bounty Dog goes way overboard, and it's jumbled, rapidly cut style of storytelling, while pretty trendy, only adds to the head-scratching. Frankly, if it weren't for a magazine article I had read on this, I wouldn't have been able to make heads or tails out of the whole shebang. True, there are lots of films that require multiple viewings to fully understand, but Bounty Dog is confusing for the wrong reasons and holds fairly little material for deep interpretations beneath it's surface (save for a few somewhat philosophical musings about the moon, and a hint that repeatedly killing Yayoi-lookalikes might be a bit hard on poor Yoshiyuki's nerves).

More frustration comes from elements that are not explained at all. For instance, they go on and on about how Yoshiyuki's cybernetic arm (how did he get it? A phrase here and there tries to explain it and fails) is the only tool that can kill Darkness. All he does with it in the end is punch through the floor to reach for an oversized strand of DNA, which he then pulls apart. Granted, it's floating in some very corrosive material that'd melt a flesh-and-blood arm, but surely there are a hundred other possible ways to reach into a puddle of slime and pull apart some strings. Really big salad tongs, perhaps. Why Yoshiyuki's arm is so special is -still- not clear after the end of the film, which is irritating considering how much of a key element of the plot they make it out to be. What Bounty Dog really needed was to either have an extra 20 or 30 minutes in which to explain all the vague bits and build up some more tension, or a more rigid approach to it's story.

The OAV's strength is really only in it's looks. The character designs are very fine and detailed, and colors are used in a striking, unusual fashion. Most of the film is painted entirely in dim yellow tones (some blue and even pink pops up timidly near the end). Coupled with the directing style, some surreal bits, and generally pretty dark imagery, it does lend the OAV a unique atmosphere. You might eventually grow to like it as a floaty, mildly eerie mental trip after viewing it a few times (by which time you will have completely given up trying to untangle the messy plot). Animation itself isn't really breathtaking, favoring a lot of still-shots over proper motion, but this adds somewhat to the pleasingly otherworldly feel of the film. Plus, the mecha are definitely cool and make for some pretty nice action scenes, with the somewhat violent encounters with the evil Ines-lookalikes also adding a fair bit of tension (even if they tend to stab largely the wrong targets with their knives). While all this can't save the film from it's big plot flaws, the atmosphere is worth sampling at least, providing that the idea of a film done almost completely in ochre and mustard hues doesn't put you off. This may be worth renting if you can get it cheap and reckon you'll like it. Also note that the English-language dub is decent enough to get away with it, if not outstanding (with only Kei's dub actor making clumsy attempts at covering up his American accent for no apparent reason). But it's still a too hampered film to fully recommend. Which is a shame, because it does have a certain -something- that deserved a better treatment.

Even after watching this several times, this film still leaves a very strong impression on one. It helps if you at least have some familiarity with the Sailor Moon saga (and the thrill will be intensified a lot of you happen to be a major fan, it did for me at any rate ^^). But even those who only know the series by name will have a good time watching this; it's not too hard to follow for the non-fan.

What's mostly impressive is the lightning quick pace of it all; after an introduction to the film's (admittedly flimsy) intrigue, we're treated to a -tremendous- battle scene in Tokyo between the Sailor Senshi and a flower monster. Backed by some hyper-infectuous music and all the funky transform and attack scenes of the early seasons, it's a supreme treat for Sailor Senshi fans. And it's only the beginning; the battle moves to an asteroid in space afterwards. There, the impressive action scenes continue and the plot thickens with insights into the "villain" Fiore that reveal him to be a very interesting character.

Granted, the concept of a misguided "non-villain" who is not properly evil has been done before, but the theme is treated with lots of style in Fiore's case and works excellently; both his sympathetic moments and his flashes of nastiness can be related to, making him a well-built character (and he looks damn cool with that hair, even if it -is- an obvious take on the earlier Ail and Ann designs). All the other characters get some very good moments as well, with Mamoru in particular gaining some much-needed depth to himself in the form of a dark childhood and the mention that he's "been alone all his life". The others do a good job of providing moments of touching friendship and understanding of each other, as well as some utterly hilarious comical moments that manage to give one hysterics every time (Usagi landing flat on her bum while the other leap through the air with grace springs to mind). And of course everyone's amusing typical character traits we know and love from the series rear their heads.

The theme of despairing loneliness, and how it is to find a friend who breaks through all this seems to be the main message of the movie. The way it's treated may strike some as a bit corny, but it works well for those who are prepared to use their imagination for it. It's mainly due to the pretty images and the great music that the film succeeds in making you feel moved and excited all along. Beautiful color palettes are used to create different moods, especially during flashbacks, and there are several subtelties in the visuals that deserve praise; note how the rooms in both flashbacks between Usagi and Mamoru look oddly similiar but with very different colors, and the recurring image of a flower is quite beautiful (there's also a scene that seems like an amusing little nod to Aliens, see if you can pick it out). The thrilling final descent back to earth, set to the beat of the gorgeous song "Moon Revenge" is a simply unforgettable moment which on it's own gives the movie a lot of impact (and it's reason enough to avoid the US dub like the plague; I'm told they chopped out the song as well as the usual scandalous butchery job they've done to the series). It's animation directed at it's very best. The only niggle I can find about the story and the directing is that the Senshi are somehow able to breathe in space, apparently. But, this being a fantasy story, one can hardly blame it for being built on... well, fantasy, basically.

The overall quality of the animation has stood the test of time well and remains very presentable despite never really soaring to eye-popping levels. The detail on the artwork and characters is still quite good and refined, and as stated above, it's the clever use of colors and images that give this movie a lot of strength in the sentimental moments. All of this action, emotion and beauty packed in just over an hour makes for a stunning film that leaves one impressed time and time again (Disney, and in fact all of Hollywood can merely stand and weep in front of Japanese skill of this calibre). It has all the typical fun a Sailor Senshi fan can expect coated with plenty of extra gloss and even a good deal of substance. Fans of the saga or of pretty shojo series in general need not hesitate, and others are encouraged to let themselves be tempted by this little gem. It has that special kind of spark that makes a movie fun to re-visit time and time again.

Momoko, Yuri and Hinagiku are three young girls slightly obsessed with the idea of a happy marriage. One day, they are given magical powers to transform into the fabled Love Angels Peach, Lily and Daisy (a fourth angel named Salvia later joins them) in order to fight against demons plotting to overrun the world and stamp out love and gentleness altogether. That, in a nutshell is the plot set-up for what seems like a very typical magical girls anime series.

One major criticism Wedding Peach often receives is that it very blatantly borrows plot elements from Sailor Moon. This is actually quite true. Of course, since both series fall into the same magical girls genre, there are bound to be similiarities, (in the same way that every SF movie has spaceships and lasers) but a trained eye can tell when Wedding Peach is deliberately copying it's main rival. The way Momoko and Yousuke constantly argue is very similiar to how Usagi and Mamoru didn't get along at all in the early days of Sailor Moon. The angel Limone's penchant for arriving at the very last minute to help our heroines out is an obvious nod to Tuxedo Kamen, and the at first difficult co-operation with the more mature Salvia reminds one of Sailors Neptune and Uranus quite distinctly. But if they're able to forgive this lack of plot originality, fans of magical girl series and cute, fluffy anime in general might very well enjoy this series a lot.

For Wedding Peach doesn't really need an innovative plot. The series works to a formula, and the viewer knows it. A standard episode has the girls fussing a bit over some event of everyday life (usually involving the favors of their love interests) while the villains plot a nasty and often slightly daft scheme. They eventually attack with a monster-of-the-week henchman, the girls transform and go into battle, win in the end, and all is well with the world. Bar a few episodes that actually further the story and bring the girls closer to their final goal, the standard formula is maintained. And it's actually handled very well. Wedding Peach uses all the typical, tried-and-tested elements of the genre and adds a large extra helping of colourful kitsch.

The animation quality is admirable for a standard TV series budget, with rich colors and great attention to detail on the glossy character designs. The music is pleasingly cute and boppy, with addictive songs thrown in. And everything else you'd want from a magical girls series is delivered by the bucketload; there are lots of elaborate and flashy transformation scenes, chucklesome comical moments (complete with some SD scenes sprinkled about), dewy-eyed teenage romance scenarios, absolutely silly monsters and über-villains who really steal the show with their downright funky hairdos and costumes (I'm particularly fond of Igunis). As an added bonus, the two sexy male leads spend most of their time in skimpy running shorts. Hurrah for some blatant exploitation of male skin-showing.

So yes, it's all standard magical girls fare, and yes, it -is- fluffy, commercial and very daft. Note, for instance, that the girls first wear elaborate wedding dresses when they transform (and actually attempt to fight in them), which later "power up" to more Sailor Moon-style battle costumes. But for fans of the genre, who know what they‘re in for, it's a real delight. As such, the only real complaint I have about the series is that the battle scenes sometimes become nothing but successions of the girl's transform and attack sequences, with very little else in between. But even then, a good magical girl transform scene never gets -really- boring.

Wedding Peach's attitude towards love and romance will perhaps strike a casual viewer as very cheesy. No shojo anime series is complete without big dashes of romance, usually of the dreamy and idealist variety. And indeed, in the Wedding Peach world, your crush on the boy next door materialises in lifelong bliss after you've married him and married people are still hopelessly in love with each other after several decades (and they never age beyond 30, by the looks of it). It may be very naive, but it's also sweet and inoffensive, and certainly wins my sympathy more easily than the typically Hollywoodian concept of "romance" where Macho Man and Plastic Girl indulge in gratuitous porn scenes for no reason at all (which, in it's own way is also naive and entirely unconnected with real life, unless Americans -really- are like that). At least Wedding Peach's concept of love stories offers a pleasant escape from the rough real world and allows for one's hopeless romantic side to find some peace of mind. Sugary and naive as some of the emotional scenes may be, they do manage to be genuinely touching in places, such as the second episode, where a bride gradually remembers the first meetings with her husband and thus shakes off the demon that possessed her, or the hesitant first date of a shy couple in episode 27. It's simple, idealistic and usually very cute.

Like everything else, the emotional scenes work best with an audience that's used to shojo and magical girl series and knows what to expect. Those who turn up their noses at the merest hint of a pink heart should obviously stay away. But if one is prepared to let their sense of reality go a little and believe in Wedding Peach's optimist message that love triumphs over everything (almost literally, as an energy called "love waves" is the main form of attack for the angels), the suspension of disbelief works and the series offers a nice and beautifully animated bit of dreamy entertainment. Basically, if you liked Sailor Moon and Pretty Sammy, you should also have a very good time watching Wedding Peach.

This series of three videos is based on the old Gradius games. Being familiar enough with the original games to have grown somewhat fond of them, this attracted me as a curiosity. Video games are often adapted into animation in Japan, and these films often do a far better job than any occidental live-action attempts at game tie-ins (Street Fighter, anyone?). Alas, even a fan of the Gradius games will have to admit that there's a lot wrong with these videos.

For starters, the animation quality is rather mediocre. Granted, the series is rather old and only on a video budget, but plenty of eighties OAVs still look the part today. The frequent recycling of animation sequences and overall pretty mundane look of everything makes this look sadly below-par at moments. Mikimoto's typical character design style is the only saving grace (I'm rather fond of his unmistakeable style as well), but we've seen him do much better on several occasions.

So-so animation aside, the plot of each episode is also rather insipid. They're predictable at best, and almost completely devoid of interest most

of time. There needs to be an excuse for all the blasting, so we must have -some- kind of plot. It's just a shame that we end with some pretty rushed and dull stories that aren't even counterbalanced by decent doses of action most of the time. Supposedly dramatic scenes, attempts at character development or emotional moments usually fail pretty miserably, with the exception of some nicely psychedelic scenes for Stephanie in the third episode that actually work. As such the characters are also a really rather flat and lifeless bunch, who's development, if there is any at all, won't interest the viewer very much. All of Eddy's scenes left me entirely cold, for instance. Even a heroic death scene is somehow entirely devoid of spark and leaves little to no impact on the viewer.

So we have all the makings for a first-rate disaster here, if it weren't for the saving grace of the battle scenes. In similiar fashion to Jackie Chan films where the viewer only really goes in for the fights and doesn't care too much if the rest is rubbish, the space blasting scenes are the only thing to really hold any interest for the viewer here. Anyone who's familiar with the Gradius videogames is bound to feel a glow of recognition during these scenes. The spaceship designs stick very closely to those in the games, and such typical elements as organic corridors with throbbing, trap-ridden walls (rendered with a lot of sideways shots, which makes it look very much like a side-scrolling shoot'em up), enemy ships and big monsters straight out of the games and even the same music from the games re-orchestrated with quite some flair; it's all there.

This establishes an enjoyable enough feel of "it's just like in the games!", and the references are fun to pick out. Alas, the battle scenes aren't always plentiful enough to counterbalance the rather poor plot-building scenes. Only the third and last episode gets away with it by offering slightly more crisp animation and a decent pace to it's simple "save the kidnapped love interest" plot (the characters even begin to show some likeable traits during this episode), and a good dose of those action scenes with lots of moments lifted right out of the games. Episode three is the only one I can actually fully recommend as it's quite a fun way to kill an odd hour for a Gradius fan and suffers less from the flaws of the other episodes; it rises to the level of being unspectacular but decent.

Those who are not familiar with the Gradius games have hardly any reason to check this out, as there's far better out there if it's some space shooting you want. And even die-hard Gradius fans are advised to thread with care, and possibly better avoid the very poor second episode. As a curiosity and collector's item, this will probably appeal to them, and the game-style moments are good fun, but there's really no more to it than that.

Considering the large following and high reputation this series has, one imagines it must be quite good. Oddly, it never struck me as mind-blowingly fantastic as the fan hype makes it out to be, but I did quite like most of the series.

Many praises are sung about the soundtrack, and those are very true indeed; great rock songs with very good pace and vivid vocals accompany the action. They work a treat, and a lot of the songs stick with the viewer for very long.

Alas, the raving over the music is probably the only point where the hype got it right. For the rest, the actual series seems a bit underwhelming compared to what one might expect. For example, the supposedly excellent character development is a much-trumpeted point that falls a bit flat. Not to say that the characters are poor by any means. They're very likeable, and they do have their own distinct personalities, but they don't seem all that revolutionary. Our four heroines, Priss, Nene, Sylia and Linna basically consist of respectively the tough rebellious youth, the pink-haired girly "cute" computer whiz, the mysterious and only -really- interesting one, and...err, the other one (yup, poor Linna is badly under-used and shows very little distinct character traits). It's true that this is a cast formula that was innovative for it's time, and that it has been copied very often, but maybe that's exactly why the whole thing sometimes seems a little below it's reputation. There are tough, rebellious youths and pink-haired squeaky cute computer geniuses all over the place on the anime market. The fact that they're all female is hardly a novelty anymore either.

That might be the main problem here; time hasn't been too kind to Bubblegum Crisis. Those who first saw the series and became loyal followers in the 80's had every reason to be impressed back then. Alas, by now, the same formula has appeared so often, be it under different guises, that there's little left to be amazed about for one watching this series for the first time now. Somehow BGC doesn't really manage to hold up a feeling that it's the founding father of a whole generation of anime series.

Animation quality has aged a bit better though, with only the first episode looking genuinely old hat by now. Episodes seven and eight are still lovely to look at (probably due to the nice and somehow "softer" color palette used for ep. 8). The mecha action scenes -another highly hyped point- are indeed fast and furious, and have some very intense moments. The mecha designs as well are admirably intricate and innovative sometimes. But like most over-hyped elements of BGC, the fights have flaws as well, namely that they are sometimes cut short a bit. The way the main villain in the sixth episode (who is utterly brilliant, by the way) is finished off struck me as rather too sudden, as was the end of the battle in episode 5. It's supposed to be a very dramatic moment, but it went a bit too fast and thus didn't have all the punch it -could- have had.

There still is lots going in favor of BGC, however. Several minor characters are very likeable and amusing, and manage to actually be more entertaining than the four heroines. The adorable Daley springs to mind, not exactly because he's gay -homosexuality is very common in anime- but because during his few moments in the spotlight he's always delightful (and damn it all, he's -cute-). Most of the one-shot characters that only appear in one or two episodes are also handled with style and become very vivid. A very nice bunch, basically. And that goes for the minor nasties as well. The four heroines are also entertaining enough, despite not being all that full of surprises.

The storyline also manages to present some interesting themes. Revenge is one of them, as is the blurred borderline between machines and living beings. There's also a very intriguing triangle between Sylia, minor nasty Mason and more impressive nasty Largo. There are also hints that Sylia might be more than meets the eye. All these themes and possible subliminar messages are only established in the background and hardly ever mentioned in so many words. One could very easily miss them altogether.

Subtelty is all very well, but it's a shame that none of these possible deeper plot threads are ever tied up; the end of episode 8 is -not- a proper ending. The series was supposed to continue on for a few more episodes, but alas the project ran into murky waters at that point. And that's why BGC is so tricky to judge; it's an unfinished piece (a sequel tried to sort of tie everything up but didn't really succeed). It's as if Return of the Jedi was missing from the first Star Wars trilogy, for instance. And that's quite a shame, as the -promise- certainly is there.

If the series had lived to see it's originally planned ending, it might have become the masterpiece it's -said- to be. As it stands, it's a good, solid series with plenty to enjoy and a few flaws that don't get in the way too much. Give it a go, see what you think. You probably won't be blown over with amazement, but chances are high you'll have a very plain good time all the same.

(just note that you should avoid the dub if possible. It's tolerable, but the songs are dubbed as well, and as a result suffer overall. Besides, dubs are always inferior to the original)

You either love or hate ol' Van Damme and his movies. For me, it's not quite possible to dislike a muscular male who gets off his kit once or twice per film. And if that's the sort of thing you're after, you'll be spoilt with Kickboxer, who's lengthy final battle is fought with both brawlers in mere beige loincloths.

But onto more serious matters. If ever there was a blatant copy of another film, this is it. The whole thing is almost exactly the same as Bloodsport, right down to the singer who croons out the insert songs. But in Thailand. There's a nasty and brutal local champ who beats up a loved one of Van Damme, his brother this time. Note that, just like in Bloodsport, the beaten-up big bro of Kickboxer is a rather irritating blokey with unsightly facial hair, who's just too full of himself (there's a lesson in there... don't wear a 'tache on a fighting ring, probably). J-C v D goes out for revenge against the mean champion. And this is where the only real difference between Kickboxer and Bloodsport shows; here, Van Damme is still lacking experience in the domain of martial arts, and needs to undergo a long training before he'll stand a chance against the big nasty.

This then leads to a big dose of scenes where the Damme-man undergoes harsh and slightly unusual training under an old master. Pretty much 2/3 of the movie are made up of these initiation scenes, and thus it seems like a much more slow and calm film than Bloodsport. It may also seem much more boring than Bloodsport to others, as there is fairly little actual fighting until the end of the film. Just a lot of long scenes where Van Damme strengthens himself, or scenes where we see some pretty Thai scenery. It's not that bad, really, and certainly less dull than it sounds, but this more sedate pace won't work for everyone.

In the end, the film does sort of make up for it's lack of zest by throwing in a long and very intense final battle (and the nasty here is a good deal more genuinely evil than Chong Li was in Bloodsport). Thrilling as though the final scene may be, it is sort of hard to believe that the hero could've gone from being a mere beginner to an expert strong enough to beat a highly feared champion so quickly. It somehow doesn't quite feel as if Van Damme has really undergone many months of agonising training, gaining fighting experience...exactly because we haven't seen him fight all that much up to the last (and pretty much only) battle. Where did he get the experience in practise from? Reading a handbook?

One thing to point out; the idea in this film is that Jean-Claude, unlike his badly shaven big bro, is the shy and sensitive intello of the two. Okay, so this point is only mentioned very briefly, but it still raises a lot of eyebrows. Jean-Clause Van Damme as the educated wuss in a family is about as plausible as Louis de Funès would be in a Swan Lake ballet (still, who knows...).

With it's flawed pace and blatant cloning of Bloodsport, this movie isn't ideal. It's not exactly horrible either, and remains watchable enough, but only total fighting film junkies will really enjoy it. The whole loincloth scene also makes it commendable to fans of male skin-showing (errr...right, brothers?). Others don't really have a reason to check this out.

This sure looks very 80's-style by now. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, and there are some elements to like in Madox-01, but unfortunately there are a number of flaws as well that just make it fall in the average category.

For starters, the video seems to have trouble deciding whether it wants to be serious or silly. The box will probably promise non-stop hilarity, which is really just a lie. Anyone expecting an all-out comedy will be badly disappointed. There are one or two chucklesome moments in the film, but they're pretty mild. As such, the only real "joke" is that a highly powerful military mecha ends up in the hands of an average joe, and he gets stuck at the commands of the machine despite himself. Granted, such a set-up has ample opportunity for comical moments, but very little of that actually happens, apart from a bit of fumbling around with the mech. It's more light-hearted than some other mecha films, but it's not of a purely comical nature such as Urusei Yatsura or the Tenchi Muyo series, for example.

Instead, it's mainly light action fluff, with a good deal of explosions, chaos, and millitary devices. The story is actually not as daft as it sounds, and works pretty well. Alas, this being just a short 45-minute OAV, it never delivers -quite- enough to really satisfy the viewer. The battle at the end is quite intense, but otherwise, this is rather thin on the ground in the action department as well as in the comedy department.

In an action romp, it doesn't matter that the characters are rather flat. And one-sided as though they may be here, they're still enjoyable to watch. It's just a shame that they don't get to do -quite- enough exciting things to give this film any kind of impact. Also, the mecha somehow seemed rather bland in design. The idea was probably to make them look more like realistic warfare engines, but it doesn't quite work. The Madox lacks any kind of spunk to it's design, it could just as well be one of those police mechs from Bubblegum Crisis. Oh sure, it's supposedly the most advanced combat tool ever made, but then again, don't they say that about each and every mecha in a Japanese film?

So, while it has a certain charm (and the music's nice), Madox-01 is pretty much entirely disposeable. There certainly is not enough in here for you to go out and buy the tape at full price, but it makes a nice rent if you want an odd hour's worth of light blasting action. But after watching it once, there's nothing more to remember about it. You might as well forget you've ever watched it.

One can tell why people often say this is "the very best martial arts movie ever made" (que exclamation marks and over-use of caps); quite simply because this is a solid, fun movie to watch as a whole.

Fighting films should be about fights, obviously, so it would be a good idea to just keep the rest simple, which is just what Bloodsport does. The story couldn't be more basic; there's some kind of underground tournament going on in Hong Kong, famous for it's brutal, everything-goes nature. And our Man with the Dodgy Accent (c) goes off to compete in it to do justice to his sensei, despite the dangers and the officials wanting to stop him. Along the way, one or two more characters are thrown in, and our hero ends up taking on the deeply unpleasant current tournament champ who savagely beat up a friend of his (the friend in question is a fat hairy bloke named Jackson who -really- gets up one's nerves, so it's actually pleasing to him getting thrashed. Justice at last).

It's a plausible, simple excuse for lots of loud fights, that works well. Big, complex plots would just hamper a film like this and distract from it's main purpose. Bloodsport delivers where it matters; the battle scenes are all fast, slick and exciting. An very nice touch is to see some of the background characters in action, some with very exotic fighting styles (an agile black blokey who moves around like an animal on the ring is especially groovy). The film also seems to try and bring up a point about the honor of combatants, and while such a thing is usually difficult to take seriously, it works well enough here.

All in all this is pleasing to watch. Nothing deep and sophisticated, just a good little burst of adrenaline. And it's done with enough flair to make it enjoyable even for non-machos or viewers who aren't fans of the genre. The simple story, with all the traditional elements in there is fleshed out in a smooth and rapid fashion that keeps it from getting dull (and it's filmed with more style than one'd expect). If you've ever read a fighting manga for boys and liked that, you'll feel right at home here.

My only gripe is that in typical Hollywood fashion, there's a "romance" in there that's not so much romantic rather than "He looked at me! Let's hit the sack!". At least not too much time is spent on a really needless element like this (and since it gives them an excuse to show Van Damme's butt it's not all bad).

It's still plain good fun in the end, even if you're not an affictionado of the genre (or, like me, just completely ignorant about the genre...but you read too many manga). Just let yourself go and enjoy some mindless, but well-crafted boysy fighting fun.

Anyone with a fondness for videogames is bound to be familiar with the Street Fighter franchise. Those who grew up or were around during the big home console boom have even very probably played some version of Street Fighter 2 to death and know the characters quite well. And to those, it will be blatantly obvious how -wrong- this choppy adaption of the game is. People bad-mouth the Super Mario Bros movie for being too loosely based on the games, but the Street Fighter film is much worse in that department. So much in fact, that this almost looks like an alternate universe version of the Street Fighter saga, and not a very pretty one either.

As usual with videogame adaptions (especially fighting game ones), one shouldn't really expect anything of earth-shattering levels. Most of us will be satisfied just to see the characters from the games fleshed out on the screen and strutting their stuff for a bit. Well, not so here. There's some kind of silly plot going on about rescuing a bunch of hostages from flipped dictator wannabe M. Bison. Oh well, any excuse would be good enough to have the characters from the games appear and beat each other up, but the movie starts to do everything frighteningly wrong almost right from the start.

Primo, some bright spark decided that almost all the characters had to be completely changed from their game selves. I'm all for originality, but this just ends up looking embarassing. The grim and mighty Sagat from the games turns into a dopey-looking smuggler of sorts, Ryu and Ken are cast as bunch of semi-outlaw ruffians instead of the worthy warriors we know (also note that the Yank actors don't even know how to pronounce Ryu's name. If I was called Ryu, I'd slap the face of someone who called me "Rai-yoo"), and it goes on and on. To fans of the game, a lot of this will seem terribly clumsy, if not downright insulting to the characters they know and love. Beefy Russian Zangief was never a faithful servant of Bison's, and neither was Dee Jay (Balrog the boxer has also changed sides suddenly and is one of the goodies...and a news reporter at that). The whole shebang just seems like a total mess, thrown together after just playing the game for two minutes. The way Blanka and Dahlsim were turned into complete farces speaks volumes.

It's doubly painful to see how shoddy this has become when you consider how easily all these mistakes could've been avoided. Unlike a number of other game adaptions, there is some simple, yet solid base material for a film to be found in the Street Fighter games. The movie could've taken on a more linear path, describing a big martial arts tournament just like in the games, where everyone has their own (sometimes slim) reasons for competing and taking on Bison. It would perhaps have been unoriginal, in a Bloodsport-on-acid kind of way (side note; Bloodsport actually reminds one much more of the Street Fighter games than this film, with a "world warrior" flavor clearly present in there), but at least it would've done it's job of turning a game into a film properly.

The way it is now, the character's names and costumes are the only slight similiarities to the games (plus a few teeny-tiny references). Overall it's just a messy and corny film, that's more like a trippy action movie for young children rather than a film based on the games. It doesn't even resemble a martial arts movie very much. Sure, there are fight scenes, but they're not quite Bruce Lee (Fei Long is missing from the movie, by the way), and are hampered by cheesy lines and dumb hampering around. Most of the action you get here would feel more at home in a standard "run around and blow everything up" kind of film. This is not so much a Street Fighter movie as just a forgettable action/warfare film on caffeine.

Although the cast features some big names, one really has to wonder who came up with the bright idea of casting Raul Julia as a flipped dictator (who's even supposed to be a grandissimo martial artist. No, seriously). It's nice to see Van Damme again, though the day-glo yellow rinse they did for his hair won't go down well with everyone. And seriously, if you're going to star him in a film, at least have him strip off large amounts of kit at some point.

In a nutshell, this is a travesty. The film fails miserably at everything it tries to do. Still, at least there's an anime version of the game (several ones, in fact) that does a more faithful and overall far better job, I'm told. Just goes to show you that Japanese games are better off being adapted by Japanese studios. Or studios who have some kind of clue, for that matter.

There'll never be enough space to describe how special this series really is here, but maybe it can't be said with words as it is. Saint Seiya is very much a visual experience, after all.

The story, in a nutshell, is about five young boys who's task it is to defend the modern-day reincarnation of Athena against several threats. This translates into loads of very theatrical duels between these five Bronze Saints and their rivals, who happen to all be pretty boys with groovy armors and hairstyles. At a glance, it sounds terribly daft, but there's so much -more- in here than in your average boys-oriented battle series.

For starters, the overall quality of the presentation is quite a surprise. Of course, for such a long TV series there are always one or two episodes that look a bit drab. But taking in the big picture, Saint Seiya has an immediately recogniseable visual style of it's own that really leaves an impression. Long, fluttering strands of hair (in some very groovy colors) surround faces with dreamy eyes, and the fine, stylised bodies of the characters are shot from many inventive angles and animated with lots of flair. Kudos also to the one behind the backdrops; Saint Seiya sports some of the most gorgeous background paintings I've ever seen. From ruins of Greek temples to snowy wastelands, every setting is painted with rich and exquisite detail.

The music would really deserve a full review of it's own, as composer Seiji Yokoyama has done a marvellous job. Rousing, dramatic themes are the order of the day, who fit the scenes wonderfully and amplify the impact of the series no end. They also stick in your head forever, as do the punchy rock songs in the opening credits (it's the music that drew me into this series to begin with, actually. One listen of "Soldier Dream" and you're marked for life).

The plots and structure of the battles have their own "typically Saint Seiya" style as well. What is remarkable is how much cruelty and sadness shows through here. Not just meaning that the fights get rather bloody at some points (Hyoga's duel against Milo of Scorpio), but also that a lot of the characters have painful pasts and deep traumas. This makes for a rich, and very interesting cast. The opponents of our heroes aren't plain "nasties", they usually have their own ways of thinking which pushes them to fight for their cause. They're often misguided, or being used for someone's other dark means, which makes it all the more tragic to see them bravely dying in a battle to the limits, after they've shown such rich and fascinating personalities. There are only one or two truly "evil" characters among the enemies (and even they are very captivating to watch).

The five young heroes have equally likeable and deep personalities (with the exception of mister big hero Seiya, perhaps), and develop distinct styles of thinking and of fighting throughout the series. It makes for a gripping experience, full of rich and very dramatic moments.

Another interesting touch is the clever use of mythologic references. Each character is affiliated to a constellation, and often to a mythological figure as well. These are usually well-researched and very clever references, and it's probably the best job I've ever seen of bringing ancient myths up to date again, all while respecting the tone of the original myth.

With such a long series (114 episodes), there are ups and downs, inevitably. Particularly during the first "Sanctuary" series, Toei larded on a big dose of filler episodes and soulless extra characters, purely for marketing purposes, who just hamper the series as a whole. The later "Poseidon" episodes are also rather dull and empty. The best of the series is concentrated in the latter Sanctuary episodes, and the tremendous Asgard series. Next to the TV series, there are also 4 short movies, worth watching just for the eye candy (the Abel movie is really wonderful to look at).

All in all, Saint Seiya is and always will be one of the greatest works Japan has produced. It has gathered a huge lot of very faithful fans, simply because once you've gotten into the flavor of Saint Seiya, you'll never be able to forget it again. Some may be put off by it's delicate visual style and baroque touches, but this was never intended for those who can't appreciate beautiful stories in the first place. Just a shame this is hardly known on the English-language market.

Every plot element of a typical magical girl series is in here; a perky young girl who gains magical powers, complete with a cuddly talking animal and funky costume, a nasty rival and lots of silly monsters to fight. The difference is that this series if based on the famous Tenchi Muyo universe, and thus re-casts all the Tenchi characters in this new setting, with Sasami taking on the role of the young heroine. The result is a series of highly entertaining videos that are a cut above most other Sailor Moon wannabes.

The Pretty Sammy series is cute, bright and fluffy, but with a pretty zesty kind of humour behind it. For instance, the second episode features a great parody of Bill Gates with world-dominating desires as Sammy's enemy. Other running gags such as Ryoko and Ayeka's violent rivalry to get their hands on Tenchi, or the completely freaky character of Sasami's mother (and her junkie-like addiction to karaoke) make this seem like a slightly more sharp and thought-out comedy than the standard, child-oriented magical girl shows. Also note a lot of in-jokes and references that anime die-hards will surely appreciate (such as an Evangelion pastiche in episode 3 that is laugh-out-loud funny if you get it). The plots of each episode are also more intricate than a run of the mill magical girl filler episode, and this being OAV-quality animation, it also looks much better than most TV-based shows of this genre.

It's cuddly and innocent enough to draw in very young children, who will feel right at home with the bright and cheery characters but the more intricate humour can and will appeal to many older viewers. As such, it makes very good "family viewing" (though I utterly hate using that term), and proves once again that all of anime is not made up of Akira-style gore and violence (because there are -still- people out there who haven't gotten that point).

Overall highly recommended to fans of cute and comical anime, and those who can appreciate Japanese-style fluffy and funky nonsense. The character designs are lush and colorful, with good, solid animation to go. Adorably cute as well as hysterically funny, this series is always very entertaining to watch.

I'm all for supposedly intelligent films and series, that contain hidden meanings you have to search for. And it's only on the Japanese market that one can find some good examples of these. I've greatly enjoyed pondering over Evangelion, Jin-Roh, and many others. So why can't I be bothered to do the same for Akira? Simple; Akira is just so... ugly.

The big mistake Akira makes is that, if a movie wants to make people think about it's "hidden meaning", for people to try hard to understand it's point, the film should at least offer something to draw the viewer in. Likeable characters, interesting concepts, or at least -something- just plain nice to look at. Some positive elements that can make one grow to like a movie.

Akira does none of this and is, from start to finish, deeply detestable. It may be just a matter of personal taste, but the character designs struck me as especially repulsive. The film is populated by doughy-faced goblins with bad dressing habits. Ugh. How can one possibly be interested by such a cast of characters who look like radiation-deformed Hiroshima toddlers, let alone remotely like them?

Even worse is the way the film hurls a constant slew of sickening and really needlessly gory images at the viewer's face. Sure, violent gore-fests can be fun in a mindless way if you like that sort of thing, but they seem badly out of place here. If it's supposed to be a deep and intelligent film, how come it feels as if you're watching something from Troma studios? These two sides of the film co-exist in a very uncomfortable way. As if Fellini was trying to direct Attack of the Brain-Eating Zombies. Bottom line; the exaggerated bloodlust of a random violent horror film doesn't go hand-in-hand with anything remotely refined.

Still, deep beneath all the tasteless violence there's the kernel of some kind of -point- to all this carnage. Trouble is, it's terribly patchy and impossible to make sense of. Every now and then, there's a small flash of lucidity and a few brittles of a deeper meaning are thrown around, but it seems so random and rushed that it ends up just adding to the confusion and the unpleasant overall feel of this film.

The overall impression one gets from watching Akira is about as pleasant as staring at a badly-treated, crusty fleshwound dripping with pus. And very few people will want to stare at something like -that- several times in order to be able to make sense out of it (all for a deeper meaning which doesn't even look all that interesting from what I can make out). Sorry, but no way am I going to willingly watch such a repulsive film again, I've been put off for good. Akira is not "gritty", "haunting", "menacing", or any other cool word the marketing bods might want to slap onto it, it's just ugly.

And for some reason, there are still people out there who claim that this is the be-all and end-all of the Japanese animation industry. Let's just be grateful that it's -not-. If every Japanese production was this dreadful, we'd have been denied the joys of the most graceful and aesthetic animation in the world. The way Manga video marketed Akira gave a bad, and lasting first impression of Japanese series in general to occidental audiences, which qualifies as a valid enough reason to hold a grudge against this movie in my view. You're better off watching Macross Plus, Honneamise, Gall Force, Jin-Roh, or even Saint Seiya instead of this sick and messy effort. Simply because those, and many other films are thought-provoking as well as plain enjoyable.

(fans of mindless and truly disgusting gore will love Akira, though).

Adapted from CLAMP's popular debut manga, this is mainly aimed at fans of said manga. As such, it holds little interest for people who aren't familiar with the manga. To them, this will probably seem like a nicely stylised sort of LSD-induced X-files episode. If that sounds like your kind of thing, then give this a try, as it's a really rather nice video. But keep in mind that the second video (with the killer in the subway) is far superior and a better buy overall.

The story revolves around a building project where several mysterious deaths have occurred. Subaru is called in to have a look, and eventually meets a young woman out for revenge on the man she believes to have murdered her brother. However, the man in question seems to be able to avert any disaster that may be drawn to him, and abuses of this ability, making him a very dangerous force indeed. Subaru and Seishiro eventually have to face off with the human disaster repellent atop the nearly-finished building.

What we have here is mostly typical Tokyo Babylon fare; Subaru apologises a lot and Hokuto shouts at him. Only Seishiro is different from the Seishiro we know from the manga. His "dark side" is never explored, and instead of rampantly flirting with Subaru, he shows more inclination towards Hokuto in the videos. No doubt many fans will feel the video version of Seishiro is rather...wrong (a large part of Tokyo Babylon -is- a homosexual love story, learn to live with it). Instead of a proper adaption of the manga, these videos seem more like extra filler episodes to go alongside the manga.

Nevertheless, it's good fun, with pretty character designs and backdrops (even though the overall animation quality isn't really breathtaking), a well-paced and interesting story, and some cool psychic fighting at the end, backed by a very good music score. The appeal of this video will only be very limited for those who haven't read the manga, and they'll also miss out on a lot of the finer points of the story. But even for them, this can still be quite enjoyable as a little something different, or as a way to sample some CLAMP-style artwork. Give it a go, and you might find yourself growing very fond of this elegant little psychic romp.

It's hard to begin describing this, but I can only recommend it. Taking place in a bleak, and fully believeable alternate version of post-WW2 Tokyo, Jin-Roh accomplishes all the things that other anime cinema movies who were hailed as the holy grail of anime didn't accomplish, or at least never accomplished so well. And Jin-Roh does it with style.

The animation is very impressive, without even really trying. No overly flashy effects are hurled in your face in a "lookie here!" fashion, instead we get sobre, lifelike and extremely realistic chara designs that move with wonderful fluidity through some very beautiful backgrounds. The "less of you is more" effect is used to it's full extent here to create a foreboding and terribly tragic atmosphere.

The story, at it's most basic is a doomed lovers tale. Jin-Roh doesn't try to shock or disgust (though there are a few very frightening violent scenes in there), but wants to make you cry genuine tears of sorrow, and succeeds in every way.

The movie's approach is subtle, slow and delicate, and leaves a huge impact, exactly because it plays on a smaller scale. The fairy tale of the Little Red Riding Hood, and the image of the wolf (or "the beast" in general) are used throughout the movie with the same sobre flair. Apart from the main doomed lovers theme, there's also a very impressive story of betrayal and political intrigue in there, which adds a dash of suspense. Kudos to the great designs of the Panzer armors as well, who look powerful, and in some moments truly frightening.

In short, Jin-Roh is a wonderful piece of work, full of beauty and intelligence. It's not quite possible to make clear how strong this film is on paper, but watching it will leave an unforgettable impression. It's a stylish tragedy that makes you think as well as makes you cry. Don't hesitate to seek this out.