Amon Saga

I give a better rating for this movie, and although there are flaws left and right with some animation drops, i like it, Time consuming in this today´s rushed world or not i like it. Not the most Original anime story from 1986 and not the best one , but its enjoyable enough without the digitalized anime, all of it ws handdrwan ofc and have sort of slight ´a la vampire hunter D scent´ with the medevil fantasy background and mystical monsters. >The development and designs for our heroe´s and villians is shoddy compared to todays standarts LIKE I CARE, but could do ... better in interacting and personal story background , some more focus would do good. Potentially it held back a bit what dissapointed me and as a lone and short project i would like to see more. Production wise there was not too much money put in the project, but hey, for me its an acceptable oldskool anime that missed some good chances nevertheless

For such cool looking cover art the anime itself is quite ordinary. MC is looking for revenge and helps some people along the way. Not much more to it than that. It's a little scifi but mostly it's just Conan the Barbarian. It does have some nice violence, but there's nothing over-the-top like some other OVAs out there. The animation quality is kind of a question mark. The issue is that it only exists on Laser Disc or a HORRIBLE quality DVD, so I'm left wondering what this would look like given a proper remaster. It's definitely worth watching, but also disappointing in that it ... doesn't stand out at all.

- ANIMATION -
Let not the cover art fool you, Amon Saga is from 1986 so the animation is very basic (yet typical of that time) and might not appeal to most audiences accustomed to modern illustration styles. Having said that, the sequences are fluid but do occassionally seem to stall with frames where animation was done against still background shots. This anime does not show much attention to image detail or definition but this is probably due to budget constraints. It seems evident that Amon Saga did not recieve a digital remastering when issued into its DVD format leaving the images blurry and the colours ... with a 'faded' feel to them; which sadly has hampered the viewing pleasure.

- SOUND -
Regretably the soundtrack is not a memorable one as it lacks a gripping opening score. Dialogue is limited specially from the main character who is a silent reserved figure. English narration is not to modern standards with a varied lipsync.

- STORY & CHARACTER -
The storyline is simple and relatively easy to follow without much prior knowledge of the title. Fantasy and vengence are very much the main themes but it allows for some romantic elements to develope between Amon and the captive Princess Lichia. Amon, the main character, shows little development and does not stray far from the stereotypical quiet, lone warrior who is tormented by violent past memories. It is interesting to note that he is not without flaws, since he is not the best fighter within the cast and relies on his comrades throughout his quest - strangely atypical for the genre.

- VALUE & ENJOYMENT -
I was not impressed by Amon Saga as I felt it was too basic in all respects to leave any mark on the viewer. It might however appeal to fans of Vampire Hunter D or Fist of the North Star as the main characters share the same traits, and more importantly have the same art director. I have tried to be impartial to its flaws by trying to relate to how the anime scene was back at the 80s. Yet even taking that into consideration, when compared to other titles from that time, Amon Saga still falls short.