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Title Info

  • seen: 1-2 of 3
  • type: OAV
  • grade: watchable
  • genre: magic_war
  • Other elements of this title:
    • This title has been commercially released in Australia.
    • This title may offend the sensitive.
  • made: unknown
  • Review created: A while ago, i'll revise it eventually.
  • mod: none

I believe Japan has a very low crime-rate, but you would never guess it from anime, and especially not from anime like this. This is filled with high school gangsterism, including violence and murder, of the most brutal sort. Where does this influence come from? I've got no idea, but if the idea of violent cruel schoolgirl gangsters seems believable and appeals to you then you are in luck, otherwise you might be better off missing this one. The story follows a young female, Saki, who is released from both solitary confinement and jail on the basis that they need someone to investigate `school' crimes. The very capable Saki has a great response, "I like being here with people I can relate to", but given that her mother is on death row she eventually surrenders. She is given a yoyo (her favourite weapon) and sent back to her old school to investigate three very corrupt and evil sisters.

In time, and over much violence, she begins to realise that while she doesn't like the police the evil three piss her off far more. There is a reasonable helping of martial arts in this film, with Saki being very capable (measured at about .5 ranma units) as are some of her opponents. Indeed while the combat is fun to watch it is well beyond any believable level. In addition, despite being an uber-badass, Saki is not a bad sort and makes some few friends, who of course get dragged into the events. Some of the writing and dialogue is quite reasonable, but your enjoyment will be dependant on how well you accept the entire concept of the show. If you don't believe in schoolgirl gangsters and martial arts masters then you could easily find this pretty corny. There is also a serve of tragedy, and the three opposing sisters are truly evil, so while the violence is not amazingly graphic it does have a `nastiness' that could bother the sensitive.

The production is clearly budget constrained with relatively simple backgrounds and animation and minimalist action, but is quite acceptable. I saw episode 2 dubbed, and I must say that some of the voices on the dub are distinctly average, not one of the better dubs. This has clearly got a commercial release on the basis of schoolgirl violence, which is not really the greatest reason. Negative points for the `police' yoyo, which is an easy target for criticism. Note also that these OAV's are longer than the 20-30 minute average (50,40,40 respectively). Also no suprise this is released under the Japanese name, as one translation is, `bad high school girl cop'...extra cheesy, albeit honest.

       
                 
                 
       

Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:25 WST 2009