NG Knight Ramune & 40

Lamune is an ordinary 4th grade boy who loves playing video games. He buys one from a peddler girl and helps her sell the rest. At home, he plays the game called "King Sccasher" & beats it. The peddler girl then comes out of the TV screen and asks for his help, calling him "The Blood Relative of the Chosen Hero Lamuness". She is Princess Milk and takes him to Hara-Hara World where his role is to revive the Guardian Knights. To do this, he had to find an unlock the shrine which held Tama-Q, a robot who became Lamuness' Advisor Robot, and key to freeing the Guardian Knights. All of the Knights are free-thinking mechas except for King Sccasher which is piloted by Lamuness. Opposing Lamuness is Don Harumage and his minions Da Cider and Lesuka.

(Source: ANN)

Da Cider Main

Yao, Kazuki Japanese

Arara, Cocoa Main

Tamagawa, Sakiko Japanese

Baba, Ramune Main

Kusao, Takeshi Japanese

Leska Main

Matsui, Naoko Japanese

Arara, Milk Main

Yokoyama, Chisa Japanese

Kiriman Main

Narahashi, Miki Japanese

Hebimetako Supporting

Tarako Japanese

Yamazaki, Tatsuji Producer

Negishi, Hiroshi Director

Tanaka, Hideyuki Sound Director

Takenouchi, Kazuhisa Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Mar 28, 2022

Wary_Wolf

Recommended

"There are just some things little boys never grow out of." - Wakka, Final Fantasy X.

Two questions that get asked upon looking at the show:
-What does NG Knight mean? Next-Generation Knight - Essentially, a knight from the future.
-And what's the 40 mean? The 40 Warriors of Light. I am assuming.


To start with, I'll admit to my biases here. 7/10 is just borne from my personal enjoyment of the ending, cute elf girls, and the overall journey. More objectively, it is very likely nothing that you haven't already seen in more competent shows. Which isn't to say it is bad, however, it is ultimately a kids ... show/Shonen aimed at the younger boy. Not that some can't be a good bit of fun, and there's a good chance some oldtaku out there has fond memories of the show as a kid. It's just it's very likely they can't remember much of the plot. Mostly because it is non-existent.

Whole show can be summarized with: Monster of the week affair, where the protagonist has to search out and collect the magical McGuffins in order to stop basically Saruman reviving Sauron (I shit you not), but the hero's rival tries to stop him every step of the way. Hardly original. Add onto it being set in a fantasy video game that the protagonist gets isekai-ed into because he happened to finish it in one night, the entire premise is hardly new, even in the '90s. That said, the world does feel like an actual JRPG in some sense: Go to town, get quest, fight boss, get piece of McGuffin, party interaction.

Much of the fun does come from a fair bit of charm put into the characters and a reasonable amount of redblooded mech action. Even if it is a little wonky at times. Additionally, the show has some very basic comedy that mostly still holds to this day, given it's largely of the slapstick variety. And bad puns, which I attest is the lowest form of wit. Although it does occasionally throw in a little bit of cheeky adult humor just in case there are any dads are watching with their kids.

If I had to give an age it's aimed towards, it's probably about ten, given that's the seeming age of the protagonist, Ramune. He's nothing too special, and is a sort of generic '90s heroic kid with attitude and an eye for cute girls. Standard fare, and fills his role well enough and he becomes semi-badass by the end. His rival, Da Cider, is a little more interesting, he mostly comes across as an edgy teenager but ends up playing the comic relief for the most part.

Say what you will though, he gets the best girl. Actually, she's a snake, but let's just ignore that for now.

Eventually Da Cider actually becomes a threat once he gets his own mech to fight in. Like most shonen-esque shows though, he eventually comes to join the hero in a sort of reluctant alliance by the end. Although a certain rivalry always remains and Da Cider continues to be a bit of a dick, but is generally fun to watch.

Mechs are varied to a degree. Ramunes' and Da Cider's mechs both transform from humanoid to animal, and naturally have a combination attack that can defeat everything. The rest look a little chonky, but have their own rather basic personalities. Action is largely pretty generic, although it did vary things up a bit here and there and an effort was made to make each fight relatively unique. Even if the finishing move mostly was the same each time. I personally found certain designs interesting, as they mimicked some of the studio's earlier work in Dancouga, and Da Cider's mech looks eerily similar to one used in the later Macross 7. Both shows I greatly appreciate.

Ultimately what pulled me into the show however was a search for the specific tags: Red_Hair and Pointy_Ears.

Milk, being the main love interest, has the red hair and the pointy ears. She is a complete brat, gluttonous and has a hair trigger temper. But, she does have her odd moments of being a courageous little munchkin and her eventual feelings for Ramunes coming through was kind of sweet.

Opposite of sweet is Da Cider's love interest, Leska, who is essentially a femme fatale who flits between boredom, vain expressions of self interest and pure unadulterated rage. But occasionally will act nice, that is if she wants something from her victim. Great character, constantly gets assaulted, and her dynamic with Da Cider is somewhat akin to Jessie and James from Pokémon.

That leaves the last girl, Cocoa, unclaimed for the rest of us. She's a bit of a dork and an airhead, but I won't complain. Every now and then she completely steals the scene and is the actual cute one.

Admittedly, the three girls don't add a lot to the fighting and are essentially cheerleaders, although their interactions with each other and the boys adds to the fun. They are somewhat important to the underlying story and come into their own by the end.

There's also Da Cider's sex doll. Let's not talk about her.

The overall pacing of the show is admittedly marred a little by it's length. So many jokes do get repeated ad nauseum. Although an argument can be made that the runtime makes the final fight against the big bad all the more cathartic. Each episode however does show a certain imagination (except the two recap eps.), and while simple, occasionally weird, are charming enough.

Music, as always, is subjective. But certain tracks are chosen well to fit the energy and tempo of the show, and the final fight is bolstered by a rather cheesy, but enjoyable track that crescendos in the main villain's death. This studio knows its stuff to be fair. OP and EDs are catchy and fun. And as for voice acting, the reason Cocoa can sometimes steal scenes is because her VA knows exactly what she's doing. Otherwise, it's fine.

There are two OVAs that follow on from the show, and are pretty average.

First has the cast follow Ramunes back into the real world, because Saruman has somehow revived (again) and is going to cause mischief there. Didn't think the final fight was as good there, but it had more of the three sisters being cute, and Da Cider really hams it up. Gives a slightly more "happy" ending to the series as well.

Second is more a parody. Clearly of Sailor Moon. But it also revisits certain episodes from the series, which is a bit weird. Essentially Ramunes and Da Cider head out to get their rocks off, and the girls don't take kindly to that. Bit of silly fun, but generally both OVAs can be missed.

Overall, the show is a little hard to recommend, but it does have enough charm to offset it's juvenile feel. As mentioned, same studio as Dancouga and Macross 7, so if you enjoy those shows, there's something here. That's a pretty niche market, so I'll suggest that if you enjoy the sort of mech shows that the 80's and 90's produced, Ramunes certainly has the bare bones of such shows and does it relatively competently.

And hey, it's something that has gone completely under the radar of most people, so one can feel somewhat contrarian by watching it. It's not a hidden gem, rather, a hidden marble. Not really worth anything, but hey, you probably would have had fun with it as a kid.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jun 28, 2023

Bim40

Recommended

Spoiler

Nekketsu Isekai Shonen Slapstick Comedy Fantasy Mecha Space Adventure serious parody !

This is a fast paced adventure for 10 years old. But it's great for anybody who likes to laugh with great characters, stories and LOT OF BURNING SUPER ROBOT ACTION !

10 years old Lamuness is isekaied through a famicom game to Harahara world and got to save it from an Evil character.
At the start he is looking for some mechas.
They are sentient or piloted, there are both.
The pilots have a "computer" on the elbow. It's a sort of funny mascot. They help their pilot and do many funny things.
The story is good enough but ... the characters steal the show.
Most of them are well designed, attractive, have creative distinctive traits and ... are burning with A LOT OF ENERGY !

It's like an anime especially for people with adhd. People talks fast (except cocoa :)), make many funny jokes all the time and, sometimes, at the worst moment but it's still funny.
They are constantly on the look out for something and move to some place . There are pumped up dramatic stories in various places with a lot of creativity.
Due to this, the show is a bliss to marathon. The previews feels a bit like the Dragon Ball (without the Z) ones. Fast pumping synth renditions of the 1st opening (even in the second arch) with a catchy voice over. You absolutely want to see the next episode !

There's comedy during the whole 38 episodes. It's mostly lowkey wordplay or aburd situations.
This anime as a whole feels like a parody taken seriously. There's a main story and some sides adventures at the beginning but everything is streamlined.

This is not the technical details that makes this show, it's average plus.
- The animation is average but good enough to enjoy. There are great dramatic/comedic still frames. Some sakuga are really great !
- Character design is in the early 90's style. Colorfull round mid-sized characters. Thus they are easy to animate well.
- BGM soundtrack are diversified and well used.
The two openings are NEKKETSU BANGER ! Enough said.
The two closings are mellow melodic songs with funny lyrics.

It's great as a whole and the animators knows when to animate great action scene when needed.
There are numerous small background details showing that the staff was enjoying working on this anime.

The ratings where not good enough to conclude the anime in the 52 episodes initially allocated.
So it ends at the 38th but it don't seems rushed. Two 3 oavs series follows the TV Series. They are more laidback.
Maybe the amped up, speedy tone of the series was too much for most people ?
But there were enough viewers to make 2 OAVs series: Ex and DX.

The violence is mostly hidden, mecha explode, there's no schrapnel nor any blood on screen.
But there are impact frames and serious action during the whole arcs.
The transformation scenes used and reused are short enough and great. They evolve regularly. The Da Cider mecha scene evolve to a Yusha heavy metal guitar riffs track. At the start of the anime it was more a sort of cheesy cheerful synth track.

There are some funny hidden references to other anime (Fushigi no Umi Nadia many times).
There are some sex jokes but only the adult will understand. There's no fanservice at all.
It's not the main point of the show but there's some sweet romance.
I think it's the more Nekketsu TV anime ever made up to this point in time.

Contrary to Wary_Wolf review I think this is an hidden gem.
There's no such show that blend these genres as well as this one.
It is pure cheese but it's a wonderfull kid friendly anime with a lot creativity.

KO Seiki Beast Sanjuushi (KO Century Beast Warriors) was originally intended as a successor. It was released as an OVA.









LIGHT SPOILERS LIGHT SPOILERS LIGHT SPOILERS LIGHT SPOILERS LIGHT SPOILERS LIGHT SPOILERS LIGHT SPOILERS
The first arc is about the search for 7 mechas (like the dragon balls !) in the Harahara world.
The second one takes place in the Doki Doki Space. There are a lot of worlds and most of them are wacky.
END SPOILERS END SPOILERS END SPOILERS END SPOILERS END SPOILERS END SPOILERS END SPOILERS END SPOILERS

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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