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Title Info

  • seen: 1-3 of 3
  • type: OAV
  • grade: watchable
  • genre: magic_war
  • Other elements of this title:
    • Contains excessive fan service.
  • form: sub
  • source: fansub
  • made: unknown
  • Review created: Tue Mar 6 11:30:55 EST 2001
  • mod: none

I'd love to pan this anime. It's one of the most obviously exploitative examples of the `battling babes' sub-genre i've ever seen. But it's made more difficult because, surrounding this, there's some reasonably good, albeit violent, content. Although, in some ways, this makes it even worse. Oh, and it's also probably based on some console game i've never seen or played.

Anyway, try and put your mind at idle speed and your primitive urges at maximum while I unveil this most suspicious of plots. In the future the world is, seemingly, dominated by the VG competition. It never says this, but when every section of the city can be transformed into a match ring when presented with a fighters card it's fairly clear. Naturally enough, this being anime, this fight is restricted to beautiful, chesty, young women. The opening intro suggests a battle between waitresses, but even this show can't take that element seriously.

Thus, at any time, these fighters may find themselves in a challenge match. And considering they've got near magical physical abilities, and downright magical `aura' powers, this can be both impressive and deadly. Sounds familiar? we've certainly seen fighting young girls before, but here's the novel (ech) twist. The loser is forced to humiliate herself to various degree's, such as stripping or even public masturbation. fortunately even this show seems a touch embarassed at this aspect and it fades out fairly quickly. But there's still lots of nudity and clothes shredding attacks to keep this one firmly in the extreme fan service range.

In the background a more serious plot gives a darker tone to the show. It seems that an organisation is also interested in the VG competitions. Not so much for the fighting, but more for the power and aura of the fighters themselves. And given that our lead, and her best friend, exhibit extremely potent aura's, they're high on the shopping list. And, since the leads friend is in need of money, and perhaps not without some suppressed hostility, she is vulnerable to the lure. Finding out the how and what of the plot is actually quite interesting and, while not too clear, even a little novel.

So, it's exactly the sort of obvious set-up I would love to slam. The extreme fan service, the nudity and many of the elements are really a bit too much. Combine this with some quite violent contact, although not too often fatal, and you've got violence and lust showcased for the non-discerning OAV buyer. It's simply too corny and obvious.

However it also (curse it) has some strengths. The characters, while shallow, do have a sort of energy and charm that can draw you in. The lead is good fun, the companions she gains amusing and the perils of her best friend intriguing. And the more complex plot in the background means that the `true' enemy is not immediately obvious and presents slightly more complex situations. Although, to be honest, this might also be so we can draw more characters from the game into the anime.

But, like it or not, these anime depend on the action component. And, well, it's not too bad. There's some nice and inventive physical moves that are quite well animated. The arena's are interesting and some of the opponents are a little bit spooky. Even the energy blasts are done with some sense of style and originality. The violence is fairly serious, there's some pretty intense damage dealt to cute young girls, but in some ways that makes it feel more serious. If you can enjoy fighting girls, then you might well enjoy this.

The animation quality itself is quite reasonable. Apart from the unreasonable proportions of some of the characters they do look attractive and cute. Although, actually, they're split up into the hero's, who are brightly colored and cute, and the villains who are often dark and shadowy. Corny perhaps, but it does work. The actions is smooth, clean and generally quite interesting to watch. The world is fairly well represented, but we don't really get to find out why the VG tournament is so important. The voices were quite good, which probably explained why some character did come through, and the music was fairly minimal.

Other Reviews

  • Lord Carnage review Lord Carnage knows more about the background, and while his review is short it is quite positive. Apparently both commercially released and quite rare? what a shame (3/5).

       
                 
                 
       

Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:26 WST 2009