CX anime reviews

[CX]

Dirty Pair
(26 episode series)

This series is basically your average '80s buddy cop show mixed with Charlie's Angels. In fact, the title pair of women actually call themselves the Lovely Angels. Despite being the show's excuse for almost constant fan service, the two women actually do prove to be quite intelligent and quite capable. The problem is that they tend to go a bit overboard at times, and even if they don't mean to, they tend to cause a massive amount of damage for a good chunk of the jobs they do, hence the "Dirty Pair" nickname they are more commonly known by, much to their chagrin. This is the basis of most of the comedy in the series, which really doesn't take itself seriously at all. Not even when they accidentally blow up an entire planet.

The series is very episodic in nature, and there was only one story which apparently turned out to be long enough to split between two episodes. The missions the Lovely Angels go on tend to be very random, and each episode isn't always ended in a very conclusive manner – we're just supposed to accept that they made it out of whatever situation they were in at the end of a given episode. Like in one episode they rescued a bunch of engineers being held in a prison. The engineers made it out okay, but the Lovely Angels missed their ride and the episode literally ended with the two of them blasting away at all the guards from the top of a prison wall. It wasn't even a real job and was set up by Kei, the red-haired Angel as a favor for Yuri, the dark-haired Angel, because she believed an old flame was one of the engineers being held. Naturally, in the next episode, everything was normal and it was just the usual banter between the Angels' boss and the pair before being sent on their next mission. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, but this should give you an idea of what you're getting into as far as the story goes, because there is no overall plot for the series.

Actually in some ways there's a little similarity to Excel Saga in that there are some occasional in-jokes that show up during an episode depending on what the theme of an episode is. For instance, in a treasure-hunting episode, the Angels are trapped in an ancient booby trap and at one point a skeleton dressed like Indiana Jones and impaled on a set of spikes just like out of one of those movies briefly appears. In another episode, a model of the original Enterprise briefly appears on screen.

I can see why this series is considered a classic by some, and to be fair, it hasn't aged all that poorly from what I can tell. It isn't what I would really consider a good series, though. Don’t get me wrong, it isn't really bad either, it's just that at times it can get a bit boring. It might not be so bad if all one ever saw was one episode a week, but since I tend to watch series and OVAs all at once, random episodes of the week can actually get a bit repetitive when viewed back to back. And that's my biggest complaint when it comes to this series. The other, much more minor complaint is that a disproportionally large amount of humor seems to be derived from the Angels being sluts. Which is to say it doesn't bother me all that terribly much, but having them constantly go one about how they have so many boyfriends or how they hope men they work with or even men they are sent after to capture are young and attractive got old very fast. On the plus side, when the random male douches show up and try to force themselves on them, the Angels tend to beat the crap out of them instead of being helpless. Actually, when they get captured, which doesn't happen a whole lot, they tend to be able to get out of it on their own instead of relying on others to rescue them. Of course they are supposed to be the protagonists, so that helps.

Oh, and despite one of them being actually named Yuri, if you're thinking that the two of them might be partners in more than one way, I'm just going to disappoint you now. Actually, for that matter, most of the fan service consists of them being in their normal revealing outfits, or a towel immediately after a shower with the usual discretion shots you'd expect of something that aired on TV. So being the pervert I am, that was something of disappointment for me, too. What? You've got your tastes and I have mine. So what if I like seeing cartoon boobs? (BTW, watch episode 24 if you're into that kind of thing too. )

Anyway, the series managed to have just enough charm to keep me watching through the whole thing. After about six episodes, I was tempted to just skip to the last two, which apparently never aired originally on TV with the rest of the series, but was instead released on DVD as part of it. To be honest they aren’t much to talk about. The characters were a likable kind of goofy, and their "pets" tended to be kind of interesting too. One was a small robot that sounded a little like a dog's chew toy, and the other was a giant genetically engineered cat that actually looked more like a bear. They were also somewhat capable and competent, although the cat was a wuss, but they also did double duty as the comedy relief of the comedy series. Overall, this was an okay series. I'm not sure if I'd really recommend it, but if you liked Excel Saga there's a chance you might like this, too, even though it isn't nearly as over the top. 6/10.

[CX]

Dirty Pair: Affair on Nolandia
(single episode OVA)

If you've seen the series, this OVA sequel is pretty much just more of the same. About the only new thing about it is that it has an English dub available, and that the giant cat, Mughi, has changed colors. Also both Mughi and Nammo, the title characters' pet robot, don't play nearly as much of a role as they did in the series. Oh, and the Lovely Angels have a new ship, apparently.

The story focuses almost entirely on the Lovely Angels and their antics once they've been assigned to a case. Of course it might only seem to be a bit more than usual because this OVA is longer than a standard episode despite following essentially the same format. Basically, something odd happens and the Lovely Angels are called up by their boss to resolve the situation. We don't really see the boss this time, and the Angels are already on the way to the planet of the week. In this case we have two seemingly unrelated situations developing, namely that a woman the Lovely Angels were hired to help out has been killed and her daughter has gone missing, and a space plane has crashed on landing due to some kind of telepathic interference from a little girl. It really isn't all that hard to figure out that the little telepathic girl and the missing daughter are one and the same. From there the pair goes through the typical difficulty with corrupt local officials while being helped out by some honest ones. In this case, though, the mission, which looked to be successful, actually ends in failure, with everyone on the planet being killed. In this particular case, only a large plateau area of the planet was habitable, and the telepathic girl had a hand in basically killing everyone by collapsing the plateau. The Angels even deliberate a bit somberly for all of a few minutes as to whether this instance of mass deaths was their fault or not. And then the OVA ends with the typical light mood that really isn't all that appropriate considering what just happened.

The characters are the same as in the series. The Lovely Angels are still the same shallow yet capable women. On the plus side, there's a bit more in way of fan service in this OVA, so hurray for OVAs.

As for the dub vs. sub, really it's just going to be a matter of taste. From what I understand, the same actresses portrayed Yuri and Kei for everything except the latest reboot of the franchise. I just happen to prefer not having to read subtitles while I'm watching. That being said, the dub isn't really bad, but it does sound a bit awkward and unnatural in places.

Overall, I feel very indifferent about this OVA. You could probably go without seeing it unless you're just desperate for the full Dirty Pair experience or something. 5/10.

[CX]

Dirty Pair: Project Eden
(1986 movie)

Being an actual movie and all, one might hope for an increase in animation quality and maybe even a somewhat more involved storyline. Well, do not look to hope, it has forsaken this movie. Now the animation isn't horrible or anything and neither is the story exactly, it's just that everything is pretty much on par with the original TV series. What that translates into for this movie is a long drawn out storyline that actually made it a little difficult to remember what the Lovely Angels were originally sent to do when the movie was finally getting close to being over. The movie tried to make up for this a little by filling up time with musical action sequences, some of which were in slow motion and none of which had any dialog. Basically it was like someone had made some AMVs and stuck them in the middle of the movie.

As for that actual story, it revolved entirely around some strange lizard creatures attacking some kind of unobtanium plants, killing everyone in sight, and running off with the unobtanium. There are two main factions on this planet, one of which is capitalist and the other communist, and both sides are convinced the other is behind these destructive attacks. The Angels are sent in to figure out what's going on. It doesn't take that long for the movie to reveal that some mad scientist type is behind it all, apparently seeking some kind of next stage in evolution or some crap along those lines. These creatures are basically the result of him zapping some kind of a fossil with a weird-looking vagina eye energy ray.

While the Angels take a brief side trip to one of the factories that had been ruined in one of these creature attacks, they meet a thief who very obviously is also supposed to double as a love interest. Naturally this happens when the Angels are taking a bath, since there were conveniently a couple of tubs available right next to each other in some completely ruined room whish also apparently had hot running water available to them. As you might expect, our thief/love interest, Carson D. Carson, falls into the tubs, both of them. He even manages to feel Kei up. And for me, this is where mediocre started to go downhill, because from this point on the Angels suddenly aren't as capable as they always otherwise have been, basically just so this thief can prove his worth to the Angels. It's a classic example of making one character look better at the expense of others. They also do that whole love/hate thing between Kei and Carson, where the two act like they don't like each other even though it's really obvious that they're supposed to have a thing for each other.

As it turns out, Carson is looking to get back at the mad scientist and his butler for stealing some very rare wine which he stole himself fair and square. The movie then quickly becomes a fight between the mad scientist, his butler, and the lizard creatures against Carson and the Angels, which is why it became somewhat difficult to remember why the Angels were even there to begin with. The movie, being oh so stereotypical in pretty much every way imaginable, manages to have its cake and eat it too by having Carson not only make the heroic sacrifice, but live through it so he and Kei can get their kinky thing on. Of course, this wouldn't be an episode of angels without things ending in disaster, so the movie ends with the Angels having unwittingly unleash a ton of those lizard creatures on the entire planet.

When it comes to the characters, there really isn't a lot to say. The Angels are pretty much the same as in their previous outings, except that in this movie they become somewhat less capable after Carson shows up. Mughi is the only other character from the original series to show up in this movie, and his role is very limited. Nammo didn't even turn up at all, which disappointed me a little because I always liked her better than Mughi anyway. Carson is a very stereotypical sympathetic thief archtype who we're just supposed to like. I have to admit that I liked some of his responses to the Angels, but otherwise he was somewhat boring.

As for the fan service, well, it's pretty much like the TV series, which is again disappointing if you're a perv like I am. Pretty much all of it was the teasing type that didn't really allow you to see anything, except for the very Bond movie-like opening and one scene where Yuri gets her makeshift shorts torn. To make things worse, there is plenty of fan dis-service, mostly from the lizard creatures. The thing about them is that their long neck and lack of a distinct head was somewhat phallic-like, which wasn't helped much by their tendency to spew some kind of white sticky substance from their mouths. Later versions of these creatures all had some nice racks and asses, but with the typical anime anatomy, though in this case it wasn't a bad thing. Aside from being lizard creatures, they also lacked a typical head, and had something resembling a head nestled where the breast bone would normally be on a human, though their mouths were where the neck would normally be.

I don't hate this movie exactly, and I don’t even regret seeing it, it's just that it's not an experience I ever intend to repeat. I can honestly say that this is the worst outing of the Dirty Pair franchise that I've seen to this point. The only fun to really be had in watching it is in how very riffable this movie is. 3/10.

[CX]

Dirty Pair
(10 episode OVA)

While this OVA is listed as a sequel to the original series, with all the differences from the series, I'd say that this is closer to a reboot. The 3WA building is different, a new ship, and a distinct lack of Nammo highlight the main differences. Other than that, it tries to be very much in the spirit of the original series, with the two lovely Angels, Kei and Yuri, going on random missions every week while trading the usual shallow jibes at each other. It also tries to be funny, but most of the time it doesn't succeed.

I'd honestly compare this OVA to the Slayers series that I saw recently. It has lousy voice acting that accounts for most of the laughs to be had while watching it, and while at times it seems like it's intended for a more mature audience, most of the time it comes off as a lame Saturday morning cartoon aimed at kids. The vast majority of the humor also comes off as forced, and I honestly feel that while the series wasn't exactly all that great itself, it certainly had a kind of charm that this OVA lacks. It also actually managed to be funny from time to time on purpose. Just as an example, in the series the Angels managed to destroy a planet completely by accident and through no real fault of their own, and this was actually somewhat funny. In this OVA, the Angels destroy no less than two planets and it manages to not be funny at all, even though the OVA was trying to play it up as funny. Of course at its start, the OVA also really tried to play up the James Bond aspect of the series by featuring a Dr. Q who comes up with random spy weapons which usually fail to work properly. Again this was supposed to be funny but just wasn't.

This OVA is boring and very skippable, and I recommend that you do exactly that. 0/10.

[CX]

Dirty Pair: Flight 005 Conspiracy
(single episode OVA)

After watching the other OVAs and the movie, this OVA is like a breath of fresh air. While it seems to be a continuation of the 10 episode OVA, it isn't nearly as corny, except in the beginning when the Lovely Angels, Kei and Yuri, are getting their traditional beginning of the episode briefing. Once again the joke is supposed to be how horrible the "Dirty Pair" are, though in this case their boss and the Angels almost seem like they aren't all that familiar with each other. In any case, the joke, which wasn't really all that funny, ends up falling flat because the way the story unfolds, the Angels are shown to be competent and the destruction of a large military station is the fault of a person they rescued, not their own. And for once this isn't really played for laughs either. Actually, outside from some comedy relief early in the OVA, this outing is a lot more serious in tone than pretty much any of the other Dirty Pair animes I've seen.

The story itself seems to be a bit of a rip-off from the only two-part episode from the original series. A space liner explodes and while it was supposed to have been fully loaded, there is no crew or passenger manifest available, and either no one on board had anyone to miss them, or all of their families for whatever reason never bothered to file any kind of legal or civil action as a result of the "accident." The Angels are sent to investigate both this, and the disappearance of a scientist and his family, and as you might guess the two incidents are connected. Where this becomes a bit of a rip off of a previous episode is that it turns out that no one was aboard the liner to begin with. That aspect aside, the story actually was marginally interesting, with the Angels investigating and people trying to kill them almost every step of the way. Oh, and as an added bonus, there are space Nazis.

Naturally the Angels manage to successfully complete their mission, and while there ends up being a significant amount of collateral damage and loss of life, as I mentioned before, this isn't played for laughs. Actually this outing seems more like a traditional space opera than the light-hearted girls with guns action comedy that it's always tried to be. I'm not saying this is a negative thing exactly, but I am noting the difference in tone from the rest of the franchise that I've seen up to this point. The ending actually underlines this difference because while usually an episode would end on a light note, even if it wasn't entirely appropriate, this time the Angels lamented the loss of people who had helped them along the way while the people they'd rescued mourned the loss of a loved one who had died to save them.

There isn't a whole lot to be said about the characters in this one. The Angels' boss is seen only in the beginning, and he's pretty much the same angry police chief stereotype that he's always been. The Angels start out about the same as they've always been as well, teasing each other and going on about men they find attractive. Of course even early on there were some differences I noted, like Yuri being more of a wuss and the Angels not getting nearly as upset about their "Dirty Pair" nickname as in the series. As the story progressed, they became a lot more serious themselves, and stopped taking the usual gibes at each other. There also wasn't nearly as much of the usual fan service from the Angels or any of the other characters.

I wouldn't say this OVA was especially good or anything, but it was definitely an improvement over the other OVAs and the movie. It might be worth watching if you liked the series. 5/10.

[CX]

Dirty Pair Flash
(16 episode OVA)

This is probably a great example of what a bad reboot looks like. Reboots are pretty much just an excuse to take a basic concept but change details, and that's exactly what happened here. This isn't always a bad thing, and in a lot of cases the reboot can actually be better than the original. This isn't one of those cases.

On the surface, making Kei and Yuri hate each other at first isn't really a bad idea per say, especially in light of the comedic nature of this anime. It isn't even all that far off from the way the original characters tended to trade barbs occasionally. But this, like so many other things in this reboot, are amped up to eleven, and manage to not actually be funny. It also doesn't help that they used some voice actresses with some of the most annoying voices to play the main characters, because a joke that might have actually managed to get a chuckle becomes irritating when told by a voice that sounds like nails on a chalkboard. Actually the fan service is probably the thing I found most amusing. You know, the standard stuff. Like Yuri being in a sailor outfit when she's first introduced, and their clothes being torn to just a few gravity and physics defying shreds that manage to just barely hide the bits they aren't going to bother drawing in anyway, which we actually get to see thanks to the magical girl transformation sequence which dissolves their clothing and forms new fan service outfits over their naked bodies. Don't worry, no nipples to traumatize us with. I do kind of like how they had their cake and ate it too, though, because not only did they get the transformation sequence, but they lampshaded it by having a group of dirty old men enjoy the stripperific display. Of course the somewhat disturbing thing is that both Angels are actually 17, which would make them both under-aged, which is a little worse seeing as how Yuri is obviously supposed to be a slut. Okay, they aren't that under-aged, but still, oh Japan...

Gone is the very episodic nature of the original series. Which is to say that while there is more than one unrelated mission, they stretch out over several episodes, and they'd only make sense in sequential order since the OVA follows all the team-forming stages the Lovely Angels go through, even if the "storming" stage tends to stretch on somewhat indefinitely. Somewhat unfortunately, also gone is the level of competence the Lovely Angels had in the original series, and as a result their "Dirty Pair" nickname is somewhat more deserved.

Another area this anime suffers is in animation quality. Normally this isn't a huge deal for me, but in this case the quality is noticeably worse than the original, which came out a decade earlier in the mid-80s. I'd actually make the comparison to Slayers again.

So to sum it up, The stories and characters aren't particularly interesting, the comedy isn't all that funny, and the animation quality is pretty bad. It does manage to revive some of the spirit of the original series, but really it has a lot more negative about it than positive. To be honest, after the halfway-point of the series I basically just started skipping through the rest of them because I started to get bored. 1/10.

[CX]

Divergence Eve
(13 episode series)

This series started things off by doing something that really annoys me – it started at what was actually pretty much the end of the story and then jumped back to what was superficially supposed to be the start of it. That style of storytelling has been done so many times that it just grates on me whenever I see it. This isn't helped by the fact that while suddenly finding myself immersed in the midst of what's going on is supposed to make me interested, in this case it just left me wondering what the hell was going on.

Even as the story went back to what was basically the beginning and I learned more, the series still tended to be kind of hard to follow. I could tell that it was trying to mess with my head and trying to be something in the vein of 2001, but no, sorry, didn't work. While I did find some of the aspects of the conspiracy developing in the background interesting, the plot constantly skipping around just tended to ruin my enjoyment of what little there was to enjoy, at least of the story, anyway. Not a lot in the story made sense.

For instance the existence of the massive station, Watcher's Nest made a kind of sense as it was vital to Earth's faster-than-light flight capabilities. But when the 10 million civilians who are there because of overpopulation on Earth, the point tends to be lost somewhat since if overpopulation is a problem, why are all these civilians on the station and not colonizing a new planet? Since the station is under constant attack, there aren't a lot of ships coming from earth bringing even more people, but the need for keeping those attacks secret from the civilians was entirely based on the fear that they would all want to head back to Earth, which is overcrowded.

Which brings me to my next example. One of the four female pilots the story focuses on decides she's no longer up to the task she finds herself facing, so she apparently has to have the last two years of her memory erased in order to keep the big secret of the attacks. Why so much when she hasn't been there that long is never explained, especially since while this pilot may have washed out in this "elite" area she was training for, she still would have theoretically had promise as a regular officer or even as a regular pilot who didn't have to kill monsters from another dimension for a living. Well as it turns out, they didn't just erase two years of her memory, they erased all of it and reprogrammed her to be some random janitor on the station. There is never any explanation as to why, and the matter is never even discussed after it is brought up.

Of course, I wasn't expecting all that much out of this series to begin with. Pretty much the only reason I watched this series was the fan service. In this case pretty much all of the women had massive breasts, with the type of exaggerated physics you'd expect to go along with that, and there was even some occasional nudity. Actually maybe a bit more than occasional. From what I've read, this apparently caused some butthurt from a lot of people. I can't say that I had a problem with any of the fan service, but then I usually actually like fan service. When it comes to shows like this, I pretty much like to make fun of it. You see the same kind of focus on breast size in a lot of other sci-fis, like the last two Star Trek series, which both featured large-breasted women in skintight "uniforms". I've criticized Star Trek for that, but I guess when it comes to most generic sci fi or action movies I just recognize it for what it is and laugh at it. Go figure.

Anyway, I guess if you like seeing large animated breasts that move around a lot more than they should in a generic sci-fi atmosphere, this is definitely the series for you. Anyone looking for something exciting or the least bit serious, don't even bother. 3/10 (1 for story and 2 for breasts, get it? ).

[CX]

Divergence Eve: Misaki Chronicles
(13 episode series)

The sequel to Divergence Eve was actually a little more interesting than the original, probably because there was more focus on the plot and characters. Oh, the fan service was still there to enjoy, though it was toned down a bit. Instead of showing the main characters naked at every opportunity it was only almost every opportunity.

The plot this time wasn't the mixed up jumbled heap that the first series had, or at least it wasn't as mixed up and jumbled. This is in spit of a story that revolved almost entirely around time travel and the concept of multiple parallel universes. Which is to say that at times it still didn't make all that much sense, since at the bottom of it all was that the title character, Misaki, was trying to get back to her friends. Mostly the point of all the time travel seems to be to tug at the audience's heart strings a little, but since I don't have many of those left it didn't really work for me.

Since this series picks up right where the last on left off, the same evil secret plot is there in the background, only this time it revolves entirely around the main bad guy, Jean-Luc LeBlanc. I still don’t really get this character, who apparently has gone through a lot of convoluted planning and effort to destroy the universe because he hates science ("Of course!"). There's a revelation about his creation and his relationship to the rather odd female scientist Prim Snowlight (who also happens to have a huge rack). It doesn't really make all that much sense to me, particularly in light of his position of power aboard Watcher's Nest that allowed him to carefully plan and carry out his evil secret plan.

As for the characters, well, I hate to say it but I never really found any of them all that interesting. I suppose I could find some of them somewhat sympathetic, though mainly that would be Misaki because she's been trapped in the weird alternate universe/time, and Suzanna, who's had her memory rather unjustly erased. The thing with the later case, which I mentioned in my previous review, is that it is never really addressed beyond trying to tug at our heartstrings of how horrible it has to be for the busty British chick to have had the last two years of her life erased and false memories implanted in their place. But never once are the ethics of it discussed, and one of the people who was involved in it, Lyar Von Ertiana, never talks about it with Suzanna, much less apologizes for it, even if for the supposed necessity of it, and she's basically become the de facto protagonist of this series since Misaki is trapped in time. Actually having Suzanna participate at all in the important mission that takes up the last half of the series really doesn't make sense, because while Suzanna does recover some of her memory along the way, for all intents and purposes all of her military training has been erased and she's now just a janitor. A janitor who knows how to fly a spaceship and a mobile armored suit, apparently.

Overall, Misaki Chronicles was an improvement on Divergence Eve, even if it wasn't much of one. I'd say that the same conditions apply to this series as with the original if you want to enjoy it, mainly that you aren’t expecting all that much out of it. As this series continues right where the last one left off from, it might be a little difficult to skip the first series and dive right into this one, but there is a little flashback/explanation, so it might be possible. 4/10.

[CX]

Dominion Tank Police
(4 episode OVA)

For a while there, I wasn't entirely sure what age group this OVA was aimed at. The only thing that was clear was that this was meant to be a comedy romp. Initially I thought that this was meant for kids due to the immaturity of the humor and just the way the voice actors were treating it, not to mention how the tank squad commander freaked out when the tank squad had been assigned a "gooyal". Then again there were things like the twin cat girls doing a strip show to distract the police (and it working), giant inflatable penis and ball sac mines, the occasional cuss word, all the fan service, and just all the lame sex jokes in general. Then again there wasn't much cussing, no actual nudity (unless it was artwork) and no one actually died (on screen), so I suppose this actually could've originally been aimed at kids in Japan.

Okay, I suppose I should pause a bit to actually introduce this OVA properly. Really it's just a basic dystopian future sci-fi, which looks like it was inspired quite a bit by Blade Runner. It's set in a city with very organic-looking skyscrapers that is being shrouded by a poisonous bacterial cloud that forces everyone to wear respirators if they go outside (except as it turns out humanity has had to deal with it for long enough that the masks aren't really needed anymore). There are also androids, though it doesn't appear that they only get to live 4 years or that there is any restriction against them living on Earth. The reason there is a tank squad within the police force is that there has simply been so much escalation from the criminal element that it was a controversial way to give the police a definitive advantage. Of course they seem to cause a lot of damage no matter where they go, including tearing up the road the way a real tank with tracks would ... except these are tanks of the future that roll around on big plastic-looking balls.

Cool, so a bunch of police cruising around town in tanks. Sounds awesome, right? The only problem is that this is an over-the-top comedy and not an over-the-top action piece like Black Lagoon. Admittedly, over-the-top action is usually funny, too, but in a different way that doesn't involve giant penis mines (usually). There's also the guy who talks like a medieval monk they all call "chaplain". Why'd I make a point of bringing him up? Because he's annoying and not funny, at all. Actually I'd say that most of the humor fails, either being too immature (coming from a pretty immature guy), or being just plain unfunny. Example: apparently it's supposed to be funny for the police to torture criminals and to mock violating their civil rights to whoever wrote this. They even had Leona Ozaki, the resident "gooyal" dress up in a bunny suit to turn it into a kind of game show for the tank squad on one occasion. Personally, I wasn't amused.

As an aside, I have to admit to some pleasant surprise that Leona was actually dressed the same way as all the male officers (usually), as opposed to the typical stripperiffic "uniforms" that seem to be standard issue in sci-fi in general, let alone in future cop shows like this. Kind of ironic, too, seeing as some of those are actually supposed to be taken seriously, and this show was completely fluff. Of course Leona is still treated like the stereotypical klutzy, initially semi-cowardly, eventually extra gung-ho woman one tends to find in anime comedy cop shows like this, so I suppose it kind of balances out.

Anyway, back to the story, it seems that there's some kind of evil secret plan involving urine and Greenpeace, which sounds hilarious, except that it's about creating a green-haired fairy chick, whose significance is left unknown by the end of the OVA. So basically there isn't a lot of plot, except something secretive about the poisoned atmosphere and their fairy chick.

I'd say that this OVA was decent enough. I honestly don't mind mindless fluff on occasion, though in this case it still wasn't particularly good, it just wasn't horrible. 6/10.

Oh, did I mention that it had a catchy intro theme?

[CX]

New Dominion Tank Police
(6 episode OVA)

This OVA seems to follow the same basic continuity as the first OVA, though it seems to skip over an awful lot. At first I actually thought that this was just a rehash in the same style as the Burn-Up franchise, where each new incarnation has its own separate continuity even if they are all based on the same source material. I thought this because while the story still took place in the same alien-looking city and both the characters and the tanks looked pretty much the same, there were some slight differences in appearance and characterization. For instance, the android cat girls twins from the first OVA weren't nearly as criminally minded, to the point that they were appalled at the suggestion that they might have killed someone, not to mention that they worked a lot with the police. That's pretty much the opposite of how they were in the first OVA. The poisonous atmosphere also doesn't seem to be as much of an issue, and the storyline with the fat criminal and the green-haired fairy girl from the first OVA seemed to have been dropped. Doing a little reading, though, it turns out that the first OVA was a prequel to the original manga and that this OVA was a sequel to it. That's a little different from most anime I've seen, which is usually just a direct adaptation of its source. Mostly, though, I'm a little disappointed because it seems like a lot went on that I missed out on, such as the resolution of the Greenpeace plot started in the first OVA. Yeah, I could just read the managa, but when it comes to movies and TV shows, I shouldn't really have to read something else separately in order to understand everything that's going on.

Moving on, this OVA seems to be at least somewhat more mature, and it's definitely more serious in tone. There is a much more obvious evil secret plan going on from pretty much the beginning of the OVA, and really overall this OVA comes off more like a typical "buddy cop" show. That's not to say that there isn't still plenty of fluff, but the change in tone is pretty apparent. Speaking of a change in tone, I have to say that I kind of missed the theme song they came up with for the first OVA, which was a lot catchier than the generic guitar riff theme they came up with for this one.

Anyway, what was once just mindless fluff turned fairly serious, unfortunately. While the end goal of the evil secret plan was never really made all that clear, what was made clear was that corporations, and especially corporations that make guns are evil. So, basically the storyline got ruined by the injection of contemporary politics, using the same basic plot and clichés of movies like this that have been being put out since at least the '80s. The whole issue with guns was apparently so important that no one bothered to give the evil corporation an end goal for any of its actions beyond making guns and "expanding". The mayor of the fictional city this all takes place in was also given what amounts to presidential power, as she was somehow able to get a bill passed banning the private sale and production of firearms, which would be kind of pointless if the ban was only for within the city limits, which is as far as an actual city law would go. Of course there's a police tank squad in this city, so it's not like this OVA was really going for realism.

So basically this OVA was a bit worse than the first one. The serious subject matter really dragged it down for me, so I'm going to have to rate this a 4/10.

[CX]

Tank SWAT 01
(single episode OVA)

This OVA seems to be unrelated to the others, aside from sharing some of the same characters. Having read about it, it seems to have a connection to what is essentially a reboot of the Tank Police story. Leona and the twin cat girl Puma sisters are still there, as is the little tank Bonaparte, but here Bonaparte isn't unique and things aren't quite as wild or exaggerated as the other OVAs, at least not in the same way. Instead, this comes off as a pretty typical future police show that at least tries to take itself seriously. I say tries, because at one point there was a fat android using a golf club against the police the same way Sauron used his mace against the men and elves at the beginning of Lord of the Rings.

The visual style has been significantly changed, not only bringing things up to date from the old '80s style the other OVAs had, but by using computer animation. Basically it looks along the lines of the more recent Appleseed movie (not the sequel), with computer models and texturing meant to give it an animated look. Here it doesn't really look very good, probably because they just didn't have the kind of budget Appleseed probably did.

As for the plot, well, there isn't much of one. There seems to be something involving discs that contain the identities of everyone in Japan on them that some evil corporation stole, and the police are sent in to retrieve them. There are some other AI controlled tanks they have to fight and the android somehow sets up a bomb that manages to wrap itself around the neck of the cop who is carrying the discs. Most of the "drama" is derived from whether the android is lying about disarming the bomb or not in exchange for the discs. You can probably guess how this turns out, which is to say that this isn't an angsty show with a downer ending. We never do learn anything of significance, like what company is actually behind all this, or to what end.

As for the characters, this is only one short OVA, and most of it is focused on action, so there isn't much of a chance for any of them to develop past whatever cliché they happen to fit into. One of the more annoying ones was the female cop who had the bomb around her neck, mostly because of how completely useless and pathetic she was. I know some might argue that having a bomb wrapped around her neck might've made her that way, but I just didn't get that feeling from what I saw as I was watching this.

I almost feel like it was a complete waste of time watching this OVA, mostly because not a whole lot happens in its 25 minute length, and there don't appear to be any kind of continuations for it, at least not anything that isn't manga. If you really want to see this as part of your Tank Police experience, well, it's there I guess. Otherwise, it really isn't worth it to bother watching. 2/10.

[CX]

Dragon Half
(2 episode OVA)

Pretty much the entire premise of this OVA is to make fun of anime clichés, particularly those associated with the ones set in a medieval fantasy realm. I haven't seen many of those, mostly because I just have no interest at all in that genre, so I might actually be missing out on more than what I caught. Of course, there's plenty of other stuff to laugh it, including the portrayal of anime fangirls. A stereotype to be sure, but definitely based on something, as I've had the misfortunate of witnessing myself. Of course that also makes this OVA a bit annoying, mostly because high-pitched squeals just have a way of annoying the hell out of me.

Visually, it's pretty average, or at least as average as low budget anime goes. Actually one of the things about this OVA is that it bounces back and forth between a more typical visual design, and something more like a super deformed chibi style. It was trying to be so cute that I wasn't sure if I wanted to vomit rainbows in disgust or just laugh at it. Given the context of making fun of cutesy anime, I pretty much just decided to snicker a bit, though to be honest I probably would have anyway if it'd been played straight ... right before I turned it off and tried to forget about it.

Naturally, this OVA also makes fun of fan service, or maybe it just used it as an excuse to have some of its own. It's probably a mix between the two, as there was a little lampshade hanging, but that doesn't stop it from throwing in some animated boobies at the very end. I guess that's a perk of being an OVA instead of something aired on TV.

There actually was a plot hidden in amongst all the fluff, but it really wasn't much of one. What plot there actually is just parodies any anime where a female character has to go on some convoluted quest in order to change herself so she can be desirable to the object of her affection. In this case, there's the kind of long-haired effeminate warrior type you've seen in every anime like this who kind of pulls duty as a singer/star/celebrity. He's supposed to be a dragon slayer, too, which I guess is supposed to be funny since the main protagonist, Mink, is the title half dragon who he is on a mission to slay. There isn't much in way of plot resolution, though, as the OVA stops short of finishing the manga it was based on.

The characters are actually kind of annoying, but then they're supposed to be. All of them are based off of some stereotype that's showed up in pretty much every show like this and played for comedy. The downside to that is that none of them are particularly interesting. The brainless muscle character Damaramu was probably my favorite out of all of them, though I can't really explain exactly why.

This was a fairly fun OVA overall, and it is mostly just fluff. It isn't the best parody anime I've seen by a long shot, but it isn't bad or boring, either. I wasn't bored either, and I did find myself chuckling from time to tome. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it or not, but if you do decide to watch it just know going in that you can't expect a whole lot out of it. 6/10.

[CX]

E's Otherwise
(26 episode series)

This was one of the most boring and pointless series I ever bothered to watch all the way through. It is entirely my own fault that I did, though. I can't even really explain why, either, other than being mildly interested in what the big evil secret plan was, and the continued hope that things might pick up and that something important might happen. It pretty much takes more than half the series for that, though.

The series takes place in a kind of dystopic future that is run entirely by competing mega-corporations, which almost seems like something out of the '80s. It follows Kai Kudou, a psychic who works for ASHURUM, one of the twelve mega-corportations I mentioned. The term "psychics" is used a bit more loosely here to mean anyone who is either telepathic or who can use telekinetics, which is apparently way more common here. Of course they also tend to be referred to as "E's," which gives the series its name. In any case, Kai is caught up between the conflct between humans and psychics because it turns out that Ashrum wasn't what he thought it was, and neither was the mission it sent him on.

As cool as the premise of the series sounded, it really didn't turn out to be much about this conflict or whatever these evil corporations were up to. Occasionally the series would touch on something, but mostly it seemed like a distraction from the somewhat typical slice-of-life anime that had developed following Kai being found by some random girl and brought to the home she shared with her adopted brother, you know, instead of to a hospital. Well, in this case there's a kind of reason for that, but still, it kind of turns into this thing where Kai is the fish out of water and the two people who took him in have fun, wacky adventures, like dressing Kai up like a chick and finding a lost cat. Oh yeah, there's this rebellion thing going on, too, but it isn't entirely clear who the rebels are or who they're fighting for quite a while into the series because apparently the adopted family thing is more important, or something.

Eventually we find out that Ashurum is brainwashing psychics in order to use them as weapons, and that both it and Kai's boss, Eiji Sagimiya aren't what they are initially supposed to appear. Shocker. Oh, and the big secret evil plan involves basically destroying the world as we know it by killing pretty much all of humanity. Of course! Just like so many other anime outings I've watched, including Code Geass just recently.

So you might say I'm a bit disappointed, mainly in that I didn't follow my initial instinct after the standard 3 episode trial and just stop watching at that point. I would have spared myself from the cookie-cutter plot, all the attempts at cuteness and being funny, the annoying asshat of the series's antics, and the lame sequel hook. Oh yeah, we never do find out what happens to good guy Kai, bad guy Eiji, and a few other characters after the big battle at the end. The series just sort of ends, while making a very lame attempt at suggesting that there might be more to follow. Honestly, this series was mostly filler, and it could have done everything in 12 episodes and probably still had plenty of filler to make the big evil secret plan still feel like it was falling into place over time. Maybe the quality of the animation would have been better then, too.

Probably the most fun I got out of this series was unintentional. The series opens itself up for pedophile jokes way too easily, all though part of that is thanks to the character design. I don't know how old Asuka, the girl who found Kai is supposed to be, but at one point a feminine man shows up and wants to marry her. He also has a thing for candy, so one of the first things he does is to ask her if she likes candy. Seems legit, right? Then there's also the standard Catholic Church pedophile jokes when it turns out some cardinal is keeping a bunch of children locked up. So yeah, it's safe to say that the only fun I really had out of this series was unintentional, because lord knows the running gags of Asuka not being able to cook and all the cross-dressing crap wasn't funny.

I honestly would recommend skipping this series if you're thinking of watching it. About the only way you'd probably enjoy it un-ironically would be if you're a fan of the adopted family hijinks type shows, and even then you'd probably lose interest when the plot finally kicks in and people try to kill each other 9and sometimes succeed). It's sad, but I actually enjoyed Divergence Eve more than I enjoyed this series, and by that I mean the actual plot of it. 1/10.

[Distracted]

I'm out at our camp with the kids (meaning my 25 year old and his cousins) and last night they were watching some anime. I have no idea what it was. It was hopelessly confusing because the characters, who were supposed to be junior high students, kept morphing from tall thin impossibly beautiful looking androgynous teenage supermodels with these shadowy masks where their eyes should be (both males and females, although honestly it was hard to tell the difference) into these short round little weebles looking characters according to their mood. The two forms didn't look at all the same except possibly for hairstyle and color, so I couldn't tell who was who. Even their voices changed. My son said that was normal. What's with that?

[CX]

I have no idea. It sounds like it might be some kind of magical girl anime, but I wouldn't be able to tell you unless I knew the title if it was a parody or not.

In the meantime, quick, show your son Cowboy Bebop or something, stat!