Anime Meta-Review
Kotetsu, The adventures of
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Title Info
- seen: 1-2 of 2
- type: OAV
- grade: watchable
- made: unknown
- Review created: A while ago, i'll revise it eventually.
- mod: none
Would someone please inform ADV (the distributors) in forceful terms (ie. with a mallet) that two OAV episodes on one tape is not a movie? Anyway, this story was advertised as having a kawaii young girl with a Katana in a contemporary environment, and that's enough reason for me. What emerged was the promised young girl, Kotetsu, being a young and highly trained swordswoman, complete with named demon-katana, who has been trained since age 5 by a brutal and cruel brooding hag. At least that's the story she tells the female detective she ends up living with, but it could also be that she wants to see a bit more of the world than training in the Japanese wilds can deliver. Of course to fill the action quota she's arrived in the middle of a fight between said detective and various enemies with spirit powers. It is also worth saying that there is a sizable ecchi (soft porn) element, with lots of fights while bathing, or otherwise partially clothed. Given that this plot feels awful familiar it must be said that the tape is actually quite good fun, with even the ecchi elements being bearable and somewhat integrated into the story.
The action is bloody and serious looking, but quite fun to watch including the quite cool opponents, one of whom becomes an ally. Likewise the characters are above par for this sort of show, the street wise and tough female detective, the bumbling male assistant, the lively but quite intense Kotetsu (complete with archaic speech patterns) and the newfound ally are quite well handled and sufficiently interesting (although experienced anime watchers will be tempted to identify other series with similar characters) and the dialogue is quite acceptable. The animation is a bit dated, but energetic and sufficient with the action scenes being ambitious in how they interact with the environment. This is an enjoyable action romp, with some promise of good things developing in the future, which is part of the reason why I was so annoyed when this `movie' ended without a conclusion.
The ever reliable Lord Carnage is right into this sort of thing, as seen in this positive review, but he also delivered the sad news that there are only two episodes.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:20 WST 2009