An Incomplete set of Comments

Index (Title List)

Reviews (Alphabetical Order)

Adventure Duo (Kiseki)
Budget edition of Adventure Duo #1-3 on one tape; cert 18, 105 mins, £12.99.
I saw some of this a while back; a dubious mixture of sex comedy (very funny) and the sort of nasty stuff that makes one entirely sympathetic to the censors. The version you see will be somewhat snipped.

Armageddon (Manga Video, 86 mins, cert.12, £13.99
Manga Video's press agents sent me a copy of this with a press release. The most interesting thing about Armageddon is that this isn't an anime at all, but a Korean animated movie. This is almost the first opportunity for UK fans to see what the Koreans can do on their own, when not subcontracting Japanese animation work.
Sadly I have to report that while the animation, a blend of cel and computer techniques, mostly isn't bad, the script is awful. I don't think I've ever encountered such a blend of hackneyed plot elements, nonsense, and factual errors outside a fan publication. Even the opening credit sequence, with a galaxy fizzing like a firework, looks very amateurish. If Manga Video are correct in thinking they can market this kind of cack, it makes me wonder if there is any point in writing anime video reviews.

Blue Sonnet Mission 1&2, (Manga Video), 66m, cert.12, £12.99
I saw the preview of this; you mightn't guess, but I think this is adapted from a shoujo manga. Sonnet, a cyborg girl controlled by an evil scientist, has some startling powers. As a rival, she has a Japanese girl whose powers are purely psychic. Will Sonnet break free from her controller and stop being nasty? Not great, but interesting. Some school scenes.

Blue Sonnet 2cert. 15, 90min, £13.99.
Violent ESP fantasy.

Burn-Up W #2 (AD Vision) Cert 15, 35 mins. RRP £12.99.
I assume this is dubbed as sales of the subtitled releases here were very poor. I saw #1 which didn't impress me much - very silly.

Crying Freeman- Box Set (Manga Video), 3x100 mins, cert 18, £39.99.
For confirmed fans of the series (& live-action movie), this is fair value for 6 OVAs. Otherwise just buy the 1st OVA, which is by far the best.

Detonator Orgun (Manga Video), 150 mins, cert.15, £13.99.
Intriguing science fiction anime. A pacified earth faces a mysterious alien invasion. One of the longest animated films ever made, if the claimed length is correct. Not great, but watchable.

Evangelion (AD Vision) vols 01,02,03,04,05, 60min ea, £12.99 ea.
AD Vision are still churning out the releases. Just got loaned the preview of Evangelion tape 0.5 (=eps 9&10 of the TV & OVA series). I hear that Asuka Soryu Langley is a favourite character with fans in some countries. Hardly surprising considering how catatonic some of the other chars. are. Of course Asuka is brattish, over-confident and annoying, but you'd have to be flinty hearted not to be won over by a girl who faces apparently certain death so bravely in episode 10.

Fly Peek - Peek the Baby Whale(Kiseki) (subtitled) 80m, cert. U, £5.99
Re-released in Budget range at £5.99. A boy rescues a baby white whale. "Won widespread critical acclaim" (including from me). See the original review in the earlier Year.

Grappler Baki (Manga Video),45mins, cert 15, £9.99.
Bloody martial arts stuff. Quite entertaining, but I wouldn't want to watch it more than once.

GUNSMITH CATS #3, (AD Vision), 30 min, dubbed/subtitled, £12.99.
More of the Chicago guns 'n grenades girls, and just as much fun as the first two episodes.The dubbed version is very acceptable, besides it has an American setting.

The Hakkenden(Pioneer) vols #1-#5, 90m or 60m, cert 15, £8.99 or £12.99
PIONEER released THE HAKKENDEN in the UK, starting with 2 tapes of 3 episodes each on January 27 1997. These were followed by three more volumes of the 'new' Hakkenden episodes.
The dubbing of the first episode is rather so-so, compared with the US subtitled version, which I also own. However the dubbing seems less intrusive after one has watched a few episodes. The story takes some following, as there is a large cast of male warriors, all with complicated Japanese names. Persistence is rewarded, however.
The first half of the 3rd volume is just a recap of the story so far, and the "new" Hakkenden continues with the single episode in vol.3. Vol#3 (£8.99) contains a digest of the first six eps. plus one other episode, while vols 4 & 5 (£12.99) contain three episodes each.
On the whole, the "new" Hakkenden is just as good as the first 6 episodes made some years ago, and episode 10 is particularly striking, being made in a beautiful art style which defies description; you have to see it! Recommended, particularly if you like art or historical anime.
All 13 episodes of this historical fantasy drama are now available.

Macross Plus - Part 4 (Manga Video), 35 mins, cert 12, £9.99.
Long - delayed conclusion of series. Manga Plus! A very well produced video, with some excellent animation including striking battle scenes, and the sort of dubbing that banishes any thought of a Japanese original. As for the soundtrack, though neither the press nor the sleeve mention "surround", the tape has just about the most prominent surround effects I have ever encountered. It's essential that the tape be auditioned in Surround, as the difference between the linear mono track and the hi-fi/surround tracks is the difference between "average" and "awesome". However, the male characters are unsympathetic and rather cardboard.

Macross Plus, the movie, (Manga Video), 114 mins, cert PG, £13.99
Reworked version of the 4 OVAs, with additional animation. The preview tape is subtitled!! - so presumably it will be available in dubbed and subbed versions. A surround sound setup will be essential to audition this as the makers intended, and without it most of the impact is lost. It also contains some very fine animation.

Makyu Senjo #1, (Manga Video), 48m, cert 15 £9.99
Demonic forces, powerful corporation...fill in the rest yourself.

Makyu Senjo #2 (Manga Video), 51m, cert.15, £9.99
More cyborg stuff.

MD Geist (Kiseki), cert. 18, £12.99
KISEKI announced a UK release of MD GEIST with an additional 5 minutes of "director's cut" footage. I saw the preview, which is quite entertaining in a very gory and violent sort of way, but the story is purely an excuse for the aforementioned gore and violence.

MD GEIST 2 (Kiseki), 48 min, cert.18, dubbed, £12.99.
An effective sci-fi thriller about a world being overrun by exterminator robots, and two soldier cyborgs out to destroy each other. The plot is largely an excuse for a lot of on-screen bloodletting, but that is what a lot of fans want.

New Gall Force #3: Earth3 (Manga Video), 58m, cert. PG, £9.99
New Gall Force: New Era One (Manga Video), 45m, cert.12, £9.99.
New Gall Force: New Era Two(Manga Video), 45m, cert.12, £9.99.
Not seen, but doubtless unexceptional.

Phantom Quest Corp (Pioneer) Vols #1, #2, 60m ea, cert.12, £12.99 ea.
"The Phantom Quest Corporation is run by Ayaka Kisaragi - a headstrong young woman with a penchant for designer clothes. She employs a weird collection of people with psychic powers who spend their days chasing ghouls and ghosts." Quite so. She also gets drunk a lot. The episodes are rather uneven, but my favourites are File 02, in which Ayaka gets drunk in a karaoke taxi-cab, and File 04, in which she tangles with a dodgy group of monks. I bought vol #2, so I must have liked it. The opening credit animation of each episode, which sweeps round and around, gradually revealing what Ayaka is standing on, is worth seeing.

Red Hawk (Manga Video)
I only got a clip tape. It's another of those Korean animations, of interest mainly to martial arts obsessed boys.

Return of the Overfiend Episode 1 (Kiseki) (subtitled) cert.18, £5.99
Re-released in Budget range at £5.99.
There's enough decent anime available for you to avoid this dodgy stuff without feeling deprived.

Roots Search (Kiseki), 50 min, cert. 18, £12.99.
About a psychic girl, Moira, on a space station where an unknown alien is entering the minds of crew and killing them one by one. Bloody, but sadly not very good.

Shadow Skill (Manga Video), 50min, cert.15, £9.99
It'a about a brother and sister who are trained in a special martial art. She loves to fight; there's some monstrous bad guys in it too. Violent martial arts fantasy, tolerable if you like this sort of stuff, otherwise avoid. A dubious celebration of violence.
Shadow Skill - the Movie (Manga Video), 75 min, cert. 15, £12.99.
More dubious celebration of fighting and combat skills.

Tenchimuyo (Pioneer) vols 5,6,7, cert.PG, £10.99 or £12.99 ea.
Tenchi Vol.#5: contains Tenchi #8 "Hello Baby" & Mihoshi Special.,56m,PG, £10.99
Tenchi Vol #6: contains T#9 "Sasami & Tsunami", T#10 "I Love Tenchi", T#11 "The Advent of the Goddess", 84m, PG, £10.99.
Tenchi Vol. #7 (90m, £12.99) contains eps 12 "Zero Ryoko" and 13 "Here Comes Jurai"
I can't remember what happens in each of these but I think they include the "bringing up baby" episode. "Tenchimuyo" is great fun but after a while one finds one has seen enough. How much is enough for you?

Urotsuki Doji IV banned!

Zeoraima (Manga Video), 60 mins, cert. 15, £11.99.
Battling robot stuff, c/w secret conspiracy, without wit or intelligence, and needing a voiceover to explain it. (= first two episodes of Zeorymer). Avoid.

Notes

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Subtitles

Pioneer video releases, UK