Video Backlog: "Riding Bean"

Publisher: AnimEigo (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 48 mins
Production Date: 1989
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Story Outline: In Chicago’s underworld, Bean Bandit is the man you need to make a quick getaway. His customised Roadbuster car has numerous special features including armour plating, bullet proof windows and the ability to drive sideways. After a bloody robbery, Bean states he no longer wants the crook’s business as he used a child as his partner in the robbery. The next day Bean is woken by his partner Rally Vincent and the pair soon discover a client at their door. A man claiming to be a family guard for the Grimwood’s, a rich family who owns a large corporation, brings in an unconscious Chelsea Grimwood, daughter of the president of the company. He claims that she was kidnapped and asks them to return her to the Grimwood estate. However before they can leave, Bean and Rally’s hideout is shot up by gunmen which in the process kills the guard. Both of them decide to return the girl and claim their deliver fee, however when arrive they are fired upon by the estates guards, some with really heavy artillery. Bean and Rally soon discover they have been framed for kidnapping Chelsea and even the police are after them. Bean realises it was the two robbers he he worked for the previous night, Semmerling and Carrie, and sets about getting even and settling the score.

Mini Review: I originally bought this on the dual Madox-01/Riding Bean laserdisc many, many moons ago. I don’t actually recall liking it all that much. I think I thought it was just another violence filled piece of trash. The kind that Manga Entertainment (UK and Australia) were pushing back in the 1990’s. I think over time I’ve grown to appreciate it. Sure, this is Kenichi Sonoda doing “The Blues Brothers” mixed with a bunch of B-grade 1970’s and 1980’s car chase flicks, but it is entertaining as hell. The story goes that this was meant to be a OVA series, but Sonoda had a fallout with Toshiba EMI and everything fell to bits. He even made a manga about “Riding Bean”, but it got shelved and was never completed. However we did get the “Gunsmith Cats” manga and OVA series out it. Semmerling is obviously a prototype of Goldie and Rally is of Indian decent in Gunsmith Cats, however Bean remains the same. This OVA has some really B-grade and exploitative elements to it such as Semmerling’s not so subtle paedophilic overtones, but it’s still quite fun. Really over the top and quite bloody as well as some great action sequences and a good plot. I’m really surprised at how I really like the OVA this time around. 7 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 21 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "Metal Skin Panic: Madox-01"

Publisher: AnimEigo (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 50 mins
Production Date: 1987
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Story Outline: An experimental robot co-developed between the US military and the Japanese Self Defence Force, is being transported on a highway. Unfortunately an accident occurs on a overpass destroying the truck transporting it and flinging the robot into the back of a tech student’s truck below. When the student returns to the garage he is working in, he shows fellow student and friend Kouji Sugimoto the strange box which he has found in his truck; actually the untransformed robot. Kouji convinces him to help him take the metal unit back to his apartment. After discovering the manual, which he doesn’t read, the box suddenly unfolds into a robot and stupidly Kouji ends up trapped inside the robot and ends up riding around the city occasionally destroying stuff. Before Kouji stupidly got trapped in the robot, called Madox-01, he received a note from his former girlfriend, Onose Haruo, whom he recently broke up with. She wants meet up with him at the observation deck in building downtown before she heads overseas to study. Pity he’s stuck in the Madox-01. Still he plans to see her, robot and all. However the military are on to Kouji and wish to recover their robot. In particular Lt. Kilgore who wants to blast the hell out of the machine as he lost to it in practice run. He doesn’t care if a civilian is in it or not. Luckily for Kouji part the Japanese/American developer of the robot project, Ellie Kusumoto, wants to save Kouji and the machine.

Mini Review: OK, let’s face it, this mid 1980’s OVA which isn’t all that original. You have the stupid kid with the “appropriated” military mecha, hot girlfriend, battle in a city environment and loonie military man who wants to destroy it. Now essentially isn’t that the plot to “Megazone 23”? I really don’t think the creators of this OVA thought they were making anything substantial. It’s fun, nothing more. The only real problem I had was that I wish Kouji was a fraction brighter, and that Kilgore wasn’t such a cliché. Shinji Aramaki who unfortunately is now known more for those soulless “Appleseed” CGI films than his old work, wrote the story of this OVA as well as directed. The character designs look really familiar, however they come from Hideki Tamura who really hasn’t done anything else besides key animation in OVAs such as “Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko” and the fantastic opening animation from “Prefectural Earth Defense Force”. Hideaki Anno was also a key animator on this OVA. Not brilliant, has aged substantially, the plot has some holes and it’s silly. But it is fun. And as I have the 15th anniversary edition from AnimEigo (15 years since they released the original subbed VHS back in 1989), it comes with really funny interview with CEO Robert J. Woodhead who’s a complete laugh. When asked “is there anything you want to share with the fans”, he pretends to take down his pants! Great little extra. Also included is the original video extra from the Japanese release which has the JSDF going through mock combat exercises. 6.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 21 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "Jikuu Keisatsu Wecker D-02"

Publisher: DVV (Kobi Co Ltd, Japan)
Format: Region 1 and 2 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with English Subtitles
Length: 9 Episodes total; 3 x 50 mins (Episodes 1, 4 and 9), 6 x 25 mins (Episodes 2, 3, 5 to 8)
Production Date: 2002
Currently in Print (as of writing): No

Story Outline: Due to crimes being committed by time travellers, a future Earth government set up Wecker, an organisation which deals with such crimes. In several time periods dating back to the feudal period, Dimension Detectives are placed undercover to deal with disturbances which may alter history. Kana Godoh has recently arrived from the future as a Dimension Detective and takes her place undercover as a high school student. However Mei Sakaki, also a Dimension Detective undercover as a high school girl, takes a dislike to her straight away. Despite their rocky relationship, they team up together to stop a dimension crime where someone is sucking the blood out of young female victims. However not all goes to plan as Mei disobeys orders and dives in through a porthole to stop the criminal and ends up have flashbacks to the death of her mother, killed in the same way as the current victims. Kana saves the day and after the case is solved both of them become friend and are drawn to each other due the fact both of their parents met violent ends.

Mini Review: As you may have guessed by the cover of the DVD, this show is all about the girls. There’s six leads and they all wear uniforms with short skirts and high healed boots much like this;
Let’s see, pretty Asian girls, uniforms and boots. Gee, why was I attracted to this show, I wonder? Before we dive into descriptions of the lovely creatures which inhabit this world, I should probably talk about the history of the show itself. This TV show is a follow up to a 2001 direct to video independent show called “Wecker”. It pretty much has the same plot as this except there were two girls and it was much more your traditional Tokusatsu show with tons of effects, a transformation sequence and fighting sequences. A couple of sequels were also produced in the following years including “Jikuu Keisatsu Wecker Signa” which has more in common with the original show than “D-02”. This show focuses squarely on the girls rather than any traditional Tokusatsu show elements. There are six girls in total;
Kana Godoh, who is played by Yui Ichikawa, now a big star in TV dramas. Kana’s cover is a high school girl. Her parents were dimension detectives too, but died while on a case. Also she’s a damn babe.
Mei Sakaki, who is played by Manami Ono, is apparently a popular model. Mei is a rather surly and rough detective with a mysterious past. Her cover is also a school girl. Also she’s a damn babe.
Saki Hyuuga is played by Yuuko Nishimura. Saki is the team leader and surprisingly sees a lot more action than other cast members. Her cover is a TV news reporter. Yuuko seemingly does all her own stunts and can be seen frequently doing cartwheels in action sequences. Notably she is the only member of the cast who wears pants. The other five girls have short skirts or short shorts. While possibly the least attractive of the six girls (despite having an amazing bottom), she’s still a damn babe.
Ami Murata (or Amu-chan) is played by Yuuko Ogura. Yes, her cover is a maid for a wealthy politician. See, all otaku are catered for here. Amu is apparently some sort of genius. I know, it’s a long stretch. Ami is constantly eating snacks. She even eats some dried dog food in the very first scene she’s in. Though I’m not much into the childish kind of character presented here, she’s still a damn babe.
Haruka Nozomi (on the right, Amu is on the left) is played by Sayaka Morimoto. Haruka’s cover is a nurse (see, a fetish for everyone). That’s about it really. Oh, and she’s a damn babe.
Lastly we have Erre-2210-e played by Sakuragi Chikako. Erre is an android and is firmly in the Ruri Hoshino mould. Except that Ruri at least has some sort of personality. Erre’s a bit of a blank slate. Most of the time she is hooked up to a computer and rarely goes outside. Despite this, she’s a damn babe.

We also have Kent Kiba played by “Kamen Rider 555” star Kohei Murakami. His cover is a police officer, but since he’s male, no one really cares. OK I’m joking. But hey let’s face it, it’s bleedingly obvious this show is all about the girls, most of whom are indeed models. The show for the most part is pretty cheap, so special effects and even the transformations in battle suits have been cut (which was a key element of the previous show). So at points it ends up looking like some lame Japanese TV drama with a bit of sci-fi and cute but poorly acting models mixed in. As a result some of the early episodes really suffer. A two part arc which is nothing put a battle in front of two 44 gallon drums and a CGI spaceship really tested my patience. However as the series progress it becomes a little more than a half way decent show. The ending was surprisingly quite good. The acting is pretty bad at times and a lot of the action sequences involving girls (expect Kohei Murakami as she is really quite athletic) are lame as hell. Probably the only thing keeping this show from being dreadful is the quality of the latter episodes and naturally the pretty girls. A lot of the writing is particularly awful and at times I couldn’t figure out what was going on or why. Things are never explained properly early on, and it’s only well into the series that the audience is told where the girls are from.

The Japanese DVDs not only have rather good English subtitles, but are coded for region 1 and 2. Obviously they were going for the US market here, however the show never materialised there. In fact it was licensed by Cricket Productions back in 2002, who also have the US rights to “Masked Angel Rosetta” and “Vanny Knights”, similar Tokusatsu shows with girls (according to August Ragone), but with higher concepts and bigger budgets. Unfortunately they could never find any distributors for the shows, so they’re just rotting away in vault somewhere. Apparently they tried to get Media Blasters to release all three, but they weren’t interested. The Japanese DVDs look a bit cheap with rather bland rental type cases (despite the fact it says “Sell Only” on the slicks) and they also come with collectors cards (one for each volume, six in total, I’m missing the card for volume two) and messages from the girls on each volume. Unfortunately unlike the episodes, the messages aren’t subtitled.

Seeing as the show was out of print, I bought the discs second hand, at about less than a third of the ¥5,800 price tag as well. Not sure if it was money well spent. However it is pretty hard to find any commercially released Tokusatsu TV series on DVD which are subtitled or dubbed. I think I can count the number of titles on two hands. Anyway, this one gets 6 out of 10 from me. Not all that great, but it has its moments.
By the way, did I mention the cast were complete babes?

Remaining Backlog: 21 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2"

Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 25 Episodes x 24 mins
Production Date: 2008
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Story Outline: A year after the events of the final episode of the first series, seemingly everything has returned to normal in Area 11 and Ashford Academy. The Black Knights have been dispersed, killed or captured and is Zero is dead. Oddly enough Lelouch is still alive attending the academy and he ant eh other students apparently have no memory of the previous events. Several students are no longer at the school and Lelouch now has a brother, Rolo, which no one seems to question and it is as if Nunnally had never existed. When Lelouch goes to win money through one of his chess games at the casino, the Black Knights attack and C.C. confronts Lelouch in attempt to make him remember his past. Eventually he does, and vows to get his sister back as well as resurrecting his dream of taking down the Britannian regime. However he is being watched by Britannian soldiers planted within the academy, including Rolo. Lelouch vows revenge on his father whom he discovers has the power of Geass. He also declares war on the organisation called the Code of Geass who do experiments on those who have Geass. Lelouch also declares to make Japan an independent nation with the help of the Chinese Federation. However his plans go awry when it is announced that Nunnally is to be the viceroy for Area 11.

Mini Review: For the most part, this sequel (which is more the second half of the series than a real sequel) is just as well written as the first. However Sunrise has decided to “reset” the story rather than continuing on where everything left off in the last episode (a major cliff hanger). I think some of the devices used in this “reset” are very connivent and require a great deal of suspension of disbelief. There’s also rather melodramatic “reveals” towards the end of the series which I just could not accept. It was all a bit too daft for me. The ending too was rather disappointing. Not just the rather absurd conclusion but the “and they all lived happily ever after” post script. It was all a bit too conventional and I think a bit lazy on the writer part. It’s quite disappointing, considering the strength of the writing in the first part of the show. And despite C.C.’s dilemma and the reason she chose Lelouch, seemingly all is forgotten and irrelevant by the last scene of the last episode. How odd. C.C.’s brief change in personality really served no purpose at all and despite all the hints in regards to Geass, nothing is ever really explained or their origin or anything, which is really annoying. While researching the show on Google, I was rather amused to find that one of the poplar search terms was “Code Geass Season 3”. Seriously, how the fuck could they make a third series? It’s OVER. There is no way you could resurrect this zombie. God, people are freaking dense. Despite the fact I’ve grumbled a lot here, the show was still really good fun due to the character development built up in the first season and the battle sequences. There’s also a slew of new and rather well written characters which add a lot to the series. I’m still going to give it 8 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 21 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion"

Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 25 Episodes x 24 mins
Production Date: 2006 - 2007
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Story Outline: In August 2010, the Holy Britannian Empire invaded Japan. In the aftermath of the battle, the country was renamed Area 11 and its citizens reduced to a lower class over the Britannian people who rebuilt the country and settled in it. Some seven years later, Japan gives the impression it is a wealthy nation, but the original inhabitants are designated to ghettos and are the oppressed working poor. 17 year old Ashford Academy student Lelouch Lamperouge may be part of the elite, but has a social conscious and enjoys participating against bourgeois men in chess games for money. Riding back to the academy with his friend, Rivalz, they both witness what appears to be an truck accident. Lelouch rushes to help, but discovers that the truck was stolen by the Japanese resistance. Britannian soldiers wipe out Japanese citizens near the scene of the accident to retrieve what is thought to be large capsule of stolen poison gas, however inside is a girl who gives Lelouch the power, called Geass, to make people obey him, just before she is shot in the head by soldiers.

Lelouch is incensed by the Britannian soldier’s actions and commands them to kill themselves. Shocked at what he has done, nevertheless he regains his composure and commands a pilot to hand over her Knighmare robot and manages to command the Japanese resistance forces to force the Britannian soldiers to retreat. With this power, Lelouch begins to realise his dream of destroying the Britannian Empire and making the world a peaceful place for his beloved crippled sister Nunnally. He creates the masked persona Zero to command the Japanese resistance forces to realise his dream. However he has to deal with the fact that Kallen Stadtfeld, one of the resistance fights, leads a double life at the academy, and he has to keep secret his Zero persona and the fact he is the exiled son of the current Emperor of Britannia. Unfortunately his long lost friend Suzaku Kururugi has now joined his class at the academy, but keeps his past identity secret. But Lelouch doesn’t realise that Suzaku is now an elite Knightmare pilot with the Britannian Empire. Suzaku begins to have suspicions that Lelouch could be Zero. Lelouch has enough trouble balancing the downfall of the Britannian Empire with school work, however yet another spanner in the works appears with the arrival of the girl who gave him his Geass powers, C.C. (pronounced as “Cee-two”), who has apparently come back from the dead and decides to move in with him, despite Lelouch’s protests.

Mini Review: Well yes, this is the big series from a couple years back. As I generally only buy anime now rather than obtaining fansubs (which I haven’t done since the about 2000 when fansubs became digital downloads) I am horribly behind the times when it comes to anime (and don’t really care that I am). Anyway as the last volume for the second series of the show recently came out in the US, and the original series had finally made it to the top of my backlog pile. Immediate impressions of this show is that a LOT of money, time and effort has been poured into this series. The animation is fluid, highly detailed and extremely well done for a TV series. You can see where Sunrise has used a lot of elements from recent shows, most notably “Gundam Seed”. It’s influence is pretty apparent in terms of style. The plot is really well thought out and sucks you in. Due to the Geass power it’s not much of a leap to believe that Lelouch could possibly bring down Britannian Empire, and it’s reasonable to believe that he could command a group resistance fighters and lead in battle due to his royal heritage and his chess skills. Plus the guy is a complete megalomaniac. I also like the fact his Geass power has limitations. Scenes where he has used the power on some people but not others, and where he needs to us his power on everyone to get out of the fix he is in, makes for tense drama.

I think the core part of the show which makes so good is the intricate relationships between the characters and the depth of them. Everything suddenly becomes so complex and intertwined, you’re just on the edge of your seat waiting for everything to come down crashing in a spectacular heap. Secondary, but also quite important, is the visual look of the show. CLAMP did the initial character designs, and although they’ve been cleaned up and slightly changed for animation purposes, their style can be clearly seen. A lot of characters look very similar to those in “X”, “Magic Knights Rayearth” and even “Cardcaptor Sakura”. Admittedly you could just say “Tsubasa” and be done with it... Also fantastic in the design category are the robots, the Knightmares and the main robot of the show the Lancelot, which I think looks a lot like the mecha in “Eureka Seven”.

While I liked most of the show, there was a number of niggling little problems I had with it. While a lot of the plotlines where believable, sometimes it just goes into bizarro land melodrama. The product placement, mostly Pizza Hut, was made worse in the English version where a clean version of the animation sans the Pizza Hut logo was used. So we occasionally end up with in frame shots of totally blank pizza boxes which looks rather strange. While we were told that the removal was due to copyright issues (despite Pizza Hut in Japan paying for the product placement), the other notable product placement, Biglobe, remains prominently throughout the show. I also had some problems with what happened to the character Shirley Fenette. It’s completely illogical what Lelouch does to her and would raise more suspicions than solve problems. There’s also too many characters and too little time to use them effectively. For example I thought Villetta Nu was underutilised, however she has more of a bigger role in the second season. I also was a bit disappointed at the use of clichés and fan service in the show. It was like they had a check list and ticked off the elements they thought they had use to get the fans in. However this is not such a big problem in the show. The ending was also rather abrupt and annoyed me. It’s obvious from the start they intended to make a sequel. But despite all of this, I really enjoyed the show. Not a classic, but extremely well made entertainment 8.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 21 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "Black Cat"

Publisher: Funimation (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 24 Episodes x 24 mins
Production Date: 2005 - 2006
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Story Outline: Train Heartnet, designated number XIII in a team of assassins known as Chrono Numbers, finds his personal moral code changing and running against his employer’s views. Instead of killing his targets as ordered, he only wounds them and takes them out of action. This inevitability causes a lot of friction, which leads to Train abandoning his post. This is rather a gutsy move as his former employer, Chronos, runs a third of the world. Train befriends a young female sweeper (bounty hunter) named Saya, whom he befriend and only strengthens his moral code due to their friendship. However her life is snuffed out when Creed Diskenth, another Chrono Numbers member who has left the organisation, blames her for changing Train after Creed’s attempts to recruit him to bring down Chronos. Greif stricken, Train joins up with sweepers Sven Vollfied and the bio weapon Eve (a young girl they both rescued) as a sweeper himself. The group are occasionally joined by female thief for hire Rinslet. Sven does his best to protect Eve and keep Train out of trouble. However Creed’s plans to destroy Chronos are put into high gear and soon their paths meet.

Mini Review: Yet another show which really surprised me. I bought all six volumes and the collectors box nearly two years ago for an extremely cheap price (well I suppose that’s one good thing about the arse falling out of the anime market) and didn’t expect to like to show at all, seeing as the Shonen Jump logo is plastered all over the DVD covers. Yes, it does have a lot of Shonen Jump-esque clichés, but the show is really quite entertaining. The characters are fairly well developed and the show is pretty fun. It always amuses me that people almost always criticise Gonzo shows, but I’ve enjoyed their stuff a lot more than current fan favourite Kyoto Animation. Yeah there are lapses of logic here and Train has four doughnuts on his vest, but I don’t care, the show is good fun. Not a classic by any stretch of the imagination, but great entertainment. 7.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 21 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).

Video Backlog: "009-1"

Publisher: ADV Films (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 13 Episodes x 24 mins
Production Date: 2006
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes (Funimation re-release)

Story Outline: In an alternate world, the Cold War has continued on for 140 years. In this world, countries are divided up between the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. Mylene Hoffman, code named 009-1, is a female cyborg who is a spy for the Western Bloc. Part of the Nine Number Group, one of the ten groups in the Zero Zero Organization, Mylene is ordered to take on various counter espionage missions, some of which involve the killing of other agents or other morally ambiguous tasks such as using her body to gain secrets. Though Mylene chose this profession without any pressure, she sometimes wonders if it was the right choice and has difficulties dealing with some of the moral dilemmas the job raises.

Mini Review: In recent times I have discovered the back catalogue of works by Shotaro Ishinomori. In particular “Cyborg 009”, “Kamen Rider” and “Kikaider”. This show is based on a short manga series which began in 1967 and is a kind of successor to “Cyborg 009”, though in name only; it’s not really related to that manga. I didn’t really have high hopes for this one, but was really surprised by the quality of the show and how mature it was. Although rather James Bond-esque, it mostly forgoes the gadgets and goes for the “morally ambiguous dilemma” angle. This comes to a head towards the end of the show with Mylene disobeying orders and even her superiors questioning her methods and if she is really suited to the job. There’s also a very nice origin episode for Mylene. Number of the other girls from the Nine Number Group are featured, but unfortunately we don’t get much information about them (albeit some info on ADV’s liner notes). The designs are quite nice and it’s a real surprise to see the character designs for all of the women look so “chunky”. In other words more like real women. While the majority of the show is rather good, I found some parts of episodes dragged a bit. There was also a tendency for standalone episodes rather than any real arc, but by the three episode finaly you realise that there has been a thread weaved though most of the episodes. Surprisingly actress and model Yumiko Shaku (“Sky High”, “Princess Blade”, “Godzilla X Mechagodzilla”) plays Mylene, the only anime character she has ever voiced. And after watching the 2006 “Sasami” series, I am so glad to hear some excellent voice acing. The ADV version of this series looks quite impressive. Not only did it come with full colour booklets in each volume, but the “series box” was a metal suit case. Seriously way over the top for a series like this. I can’t imagine they sold all that many copies. While the content of the show was reather good, I can’t see why ADV thought this show needed special treatment while other shows they released didn’t. 7.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 21 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).