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Master of Mosquiton 99

       
                 
                 
 

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Title Info

  • seen: 1-4
  • type: TV
  • grade: flawed
  • Other elements of this title:
    • This title replaces the earlier series.
  • source: fansub
  • form: sub
  • made: unknown
  • Review created: Sun May 13 23:39:46 EST 2001
  • mod: none

I was always planning to revise the review for this title when more than the first four episodes became available. However the title seems to have generated such a storm of apathy that, even if more has been fan-subbed, I don't expect to run into it. In addition, whereas last time I watched this after the OAV from which it derives, and found it lacking on that basis, this time I could watch it fresh. Sadly, it still looked like a very average title at best.

Synopsis

The story begins at a prestigious school full of bright, young girls. And amongst them a young girl known as Inaho stands out. She's intelligent, gentle, kind, well-mannered and an important person in the school both socially and financially (seeing as her family owns it). However, once in her private rooms, the truth comes out. Actually she's aggressively energetic, awesomely greedy and ready to explore the mysteries of the world for stuff she can sell to extend her fortune. When, for no clear reason, a vampire (with his loyal elemental power wielding servants) enters the school via trans-dimensional gate all she can think of is binding him to her service.

Sadly this vampire's plenty powerful and seemingly immune to both the normal counter-measures as well as some more modern variants ( sub-machine gun and incendiary grenades). At the last moment, when she has no tricks left, the vampire is distracted by the memory of one of her ancestors, and as a result actually does find himself both defeated and bound to the whims and greed of Inaho, much to the disgust of his `loyal' servants. At the same time Inaho also discovers an O-part, a valuable relic full of magical power, which is potentially the key to the greatest treasure the world has ever seen. Needless to say, she's going for it, and her loyal vampire servant mosquiton will get dragged along for the ride.

Review

Hm, the first thing I must do is desperately try not to remember the original OAV from which this material derives. The stories are different, and unconnected, so it's not because of spoilers. It's simply because the original OAV was cool, clever and original....and this, well, definitely isn't.

Likewise if you were hoping for dark and brooding vampire horror, angst and mysteries of the world prepare to be disappointed. The plot is paper thin, with Inaho basically being given the quest to hunt O-parts. Thus, with the convenience of their own teleportation gate, they're free to visit a different location every episode where characters and stories from mythology are butchered for our entertainment. There's an almost complete lack of substance, atmosphere or depth to the episodes.

It would like to be funny (something the original OAV managed) and there are some occasions that are mildly amusing, but the humor is very simple and fails often. The vampire, Mosquiton, is actually a laid back, self proclaimed pacifist, semi-willingly enslaved to Inaho's mindless enthusiasm. It's an interesting twist to the vampire story, and it still gives rise to some novel scenes and dry humor. However with the simple writing, lack of personality and absolutely no `life' in the interaction between Inaho and Mosquiton a lot of it falls flat. Then again, Inaho's character itself is woefully unsubtle, and as a result hard to be interested in. Meanwhile the attempts to fill in the gaps with `manic' humor are not terribly successful.

And the production does little to help and much to hinder. The animation quality is quite low, and visibly drops even during the first few episodes. It's a very open and simple style, with little complexity and simple coloring and backgrounds. It really doesn't look impressive at all. And the action scenes, remembering that manic action is meant to be a part of it, are often poorly staged and have clunky movement. The opponents look silly, mosquiton suddenly fights with a `vampire whip' and there's far too many still frames. The dialog is flat and lifeless, and while mosquitons voice is okay it needs good writing to bring out his cool and reserved humor. It's still better than Inaho's voice which is forced to work much too hard to fill up the void. The opening music is reasonable while the ambient music was minimal and of little interest.

Other Reviews

  • Lord Carnage review It's actually a review of both mosquiton series, and as an advantage there are comments by both Carnage and Herself the Elf (who I suspect would love to have a mo-chan of her own). Carnage is relatively positive, saying that while it is `paler' it still amuses. However Herself found that the more she watched the less she liked, especially the character simplification that takes place. Personally, I agree with Herself entirely (2.5/5).

       
                 
                 
       

Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:22 WST 2009