I've been writing a monthly column for the local anime club, reviewing
various bits of anime. Having collected several month's worth, I
decided to post them on my web page. But I thought I'd run them by you
folks first and see if you have any thoughts on them.
The following is, of course, my opinion only.
801 T.T.S. AIRBATS
OAV Episodes 1-3
Distributed by A.D. Vision
85 Minutes copyright 1994
RICHARD'S REVIEW: Good Characters Overcome Mediocre Plot
When Private Isurugi ("Is a rookie"; get it?), Maintenance Support,
reports for duty for the 801st Tactical Training Squadron, we begin to
fall into the time-honored "let's meet the cast" antics. The evil base
commander hands our hero over to the first of the four female pilots of
the 801st. Sergeant Sakura Saginomiya is a soft-spoken compulsive
gambler. She abandons him so that he can do the time-honored gag of
stumbling into a room with a naked women inside. He manages this feat
twice to get all the fanservice possible out of it. In this way does he
meet the two women destined to play a large part in his life: Sergeants
Miyuki Haneda and Arisa Mitaka.
Both of the women are standard anime cute, including being
large-chested. So far, this series is not doing anything to excite me.
We meet the other members of the squadron, including the male Captain
and the C-ko-cute pilot with the pet bat, Chi-chan. Both of these
characters seem quite superfluous, and play no significant part in the
story at all.
The story begins to finally gel when more of the backstory comes to the
foreground. Turns out the 801st is a dumping ground for troubled female
pilots to put on a show once in a while, not to ever be a serious
fighting unit. The pilots don't like it; our hero, Isurugi, is quite
enthusiastic about being a part of an aerobatics display squadron. In
the process of expressing his enthusiasm, he begins to establish
something with the "goody-two-shoes" Haneda.
Isurugi's character also begins to take shape. He is quite eager to be
friends with everyone, even the self-proclaimed "witch-with-a-b" Mitaka.
He also indulges in Walter-Mitty-type fantasies involving him and his
fellow squadmates that somehow always end with one or more of them dead.
These flashbacks are humorous in an overly-melodramatic way.
Isurugi's sincere desire to try and see the best in everyone somehow
worms its way into Mitaka's heart. She begins to feel an attraction for
him almost despite herself. Since Haneda also is quite interested in
Isurugi, this leads to real friction between the squadron's two best
pilots. Twice this almost leads to mid-air tragedy that only brilliant
flying by the two gets them out of.
This is the basis of the series: the triangle between Isurugi and Haneda
and Mitaka. In the background, almost superfluous, is a continued
effort by the base commander to get the 801st disbanded. As cliched as
this plot seems, it works because the characters display real signs of
pain and real signs of conflict. This is no friendly rivalry between
Haneda and Mitaka, no "underneath-it-all-we-like-each-other" banter.
They honestly dislike each other and say mean things to each other,
which makes the triangle seem all the more real.
While Isurugi is ostensibly the "hero" of the series, the one who gets
the most character development is Mitaka. She's the one who feels the
most pain and conflict, and she's the one who instigates most of the
friction. I found myself liking her almost begrudgingly; she's a good
hero - or anti-hero, it's hard to tell which. She also gets the best
lines.
The worst part of this series is its dependence on plot cliches and the
predictable climax. People overhearing key conversations, people
gaining favors by saving lives, etc. However, the very good
characterizations of the key players and the somewhat realistic way
their emotions were portrayed were enough to win me over. I rather
enjoyed this series, and hope the second and third series of OAV's make
it over the Pacific soon.
Sorcerer Hunters
TV Episodes 1-3
Distributed by A.D. Vision
90 Minutes copyright 1996
RICHARD'S REVIEW: A Bit Of Humor And That's It
With only a little in the way of introduction, we meet our intrepid
band. Carrot, a young, enthusiastic man who wants to date every
attractive woman he meets, despite having the affections of two other
members of the band - Chocolate and her younger sister Tira. We also
have a man who rather looks like Ranma 1/2's Mousse by the name of
Marron, Carrot's younger brother.
We also meet Dotta, a buxom angel with wings who is apparently the
avatar of a goddess by the name of "Big Momma" - don't look at me, I
didn't pick the names. We discover their calling in life - destroy the
sorcerers, evil people with the mark of a triangle on their foreheads.
How exactly they got roped into this task is not yet explained.
Each episode sees them take down a sorcerer. Each episode also seems to
be a showcase to introduce the unique fighting styles and powers of the
Sorcerer Hunters, one by one - Chocolate takes the stage first episode,
Tira the second, Carrot the third.
There are some nice bits of fairly standard humor, slapstick and other
stuff. They made me chuckle once in a while, even outright laugh. The
characters are rather one-dimensional and not very interesting. The
humor occasionally slows down for the occasional tender or sad moment,
none of which I found particularly effective.
The climactic battles also prove to be far too easy for the Sorcerer
Hunters - often a minute or two of battle suffices to defeat the
sorcerer in question. There is a hint of a greater evil to come;
perhaps it will prove to be an actual challenge.
All in all, I just didn't enjoy this anime. Nothing to keep me
interested, in the plot or the characters. I got a smile once in a
while out of watching this, but it wasn't worth the effort of watching
the rest of the episodes. I'd recommend passing this one by.