Anime Meta-Review
Armor Hunter Mellowlink
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Title Info
- seen: 1-4 of 6
- type: OAV
- grade: worthy
- genre: mecha
- Series state: Can't find any more to watch.
- made: 1988
- Review created: A while ago, i'll revise it eventually.
- mod: none
This one can go after VOTOM's, because as far as I know it was a later production set in the same world. The main difference is that having built the AT battlesuits up as the fashionable thing to wear to a battle we are confronted with a guy who enjoys taking them out while on foot. The other difference is that whereas VOTOMS had a sizable `adventure' element this one is strongly combat oriented. The story is largely an excuse for the fighting, apparently at the end of a war a whole bunch of brass came up with a get rich quick scheme. Sure it involved stealing from their own side, and wiping out a bunch of armor hunters, but no one will mind will they? Well, the quite seriously capable Mellowlink takes it somewhat personally and starts hunting down those involved, giving them a dog tag as his challenge. As was mentioned armor hunters do not have battlesuits, but Mellowlink gets by with a big 20mm AT rifle, a whole bunch of skillful moves, a couple of other toys and a whole heap of strategy and luck. This combines with the fact that the fights happen in different environments and have different ambiances, such as arena, jungle and crashed spaceship (ep 2,3 and 4) to make for some very interesting combats each with their own micro-story. There's also an intelligence officer hunting down info on the betrayal who basically acts to introduce us to the villains (since Mellowlink doesn't have much to say to them) and a female gambler, who might have been meant to be a romantic interest, but this is all secondary to the fighting.
Like VOTOM's the technical design and sense of realism is quite high. The weapons, equipment and environments are very well designed and, as mentioned, Mellowlink has the moves to demonstrate them. Sure a guy weilding a 20mm cannon is pushing the bounds of physical reality, but this weapon gives a feeling of realism. It only holds three shots, is heavy and ungainly and you can see it is a pig to fire. Certainly does look impressive though, and since he's often fighting battlesuits you can see why he keeps it. The animation is older, although it looked better than VOTOM's, but is solidly done and sufficient to represent the action taking place. As can be seen story and dialog take a back seat for a very healthy serving of suprisingly interesting action.
The only review I have is from Anime Movie Guide which really likes it, stating, "This is non-stop, slam-bang action at close to its best. It doesn't just suspend belief, it stuns it". I don't really know what that means, but it sounds positive to me.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:15 WST 2009