Anime Meta-Review
Maze, OAV Series
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Title Info
- seen: 1-2 of 2
- type: OAV
- grade: watchable
- made: unknown
- Review created: Sun Dec 3 20:42:11 EST 2000
- mod: none
Have you seen maze TV? Well, if you have you'll love the opening to this short OAV series. Even if you've haven't the opening scene setting, done in super-deformed hand puppet style, is really cute. If you haven't seen Maze TV then be aware that this has all the mark's of a test-drive / pilot and you might find the TV series a much more complete experience.
In any case the (kawaii) opening introduces us to a hunted princess, the attractive but strange young girl who rescued her and the other maze characters. And this girl is really strange, for one thing she's got an other-worldly (literally) way of looking at things, she's a powerful wielder of magic and she' turns into an incredibly lecherous male every night. This is convenient because it means every one of the cast can be attracted to her at least 12 hours of the day. They're all trying to escape the evil, but magically powerful, Jaina cult. And to do so they have to cross one of the many kingdoms of this land. But it seems the Jaina cult has got ahead of them, and maze and her companions are walking in to a trap. But given the amount of power available to this group trapping them is an exceedingly dangerous occupation.
In other words it's a tiny event in the much larger story that became the TV series. Thus my recommendation that you start there. This series effectively takes the characters and personalities, that one assumes were fully developed, and puts them through their paces. Thus we have an opening combat that shows the various powers and abilities of the team. We also get enough events to show their individual style and personality. And then to extend the show we have a fairly basic story, a goodly slice of action and more ecchi fan-service than you can point a nipple at...sorry, shouldn't have tried to write a review so soon after watching it. For two short episodes there is an awful lot of nudity. For example in the TV series there's a small female fairy who lives in female mazes shirt...but I must admit I never expected to get to see things from her point of view. In other words, lots of it and quite aggressive. Whether you consider this a problem is up to you. On the other hand those who want to see male maze achieve his dream, after failing during the whole TV series, should be delighted.
But combined with an awful lot of humor it really does make it feel like the creators aren't taking it seriously. And, like the ecchi, the humor is aggressive. Some of it's quite cool, like jokes about when the OAV series will finish or the authors personal habits, but it reduces the possibility of taking the show seriously. Even the action itself is quite fun and full of impressive `signature' moves. So, if you want some fairly light action and humor stuff, in a fantasy environment, you might enjoy this. But it has none of the depth that made the TV series interesting. It also doesn't really conclude, or even cover much ground, so it probably doesn't have lasting appeal.
Mind you there's obviously a bit more money in the animation. The characters are a bit more fancy in their appearance but very familiar. This is what suggests so strongly the `pilot' element. The action is good fun and quite impressive, but flows a bit strangely. This being most obvious when a princess (naturally nearly naked) does her dance. It looks interesting and weird at the same time. The main change in the animation quality being that the coloring and linework is much cleaner and the backgrounds more detailed. This gives a good opportunity to see what the designers wanted the mecha to look like, as opposed to the sort of confused appearance of the TV series. The voices sound like the same as the TV, are still fairly agressive as there, and the music is energetic guitar stuff.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:22 WST 2009