Hametsu no Mars

Several months after a probe returning from Mars burns up during reentry, strange creatures dubbed "Ancients" begin to appear throughout Tokyo. Aggressive and dangerous, they cannot be killed with ordinary weapons. As scientists struggle to find the cause of their sudden appearance, the monsters wreak havoc across the world.

Humanity finds hope in the form of the MARS suit—a new weapon developed to take down these enemies. The suit, however, can only be worn by those with specific DNA. Enter Takeru Hinata, an ordinary teen with a troubled past and one of the few capable of piloting the only weapon against the Ancients. With the help of the AAST, a special police force established to defeat the dangerous creatures, the young man battles against demons both personal and global whilst trying to discover the true nature of Earth's new aggressors.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hinata, Takeru Main

Taiga, Nozomu Japanese

Unno, Yamabuki Main

Aizawa, Asuka Japanese

Nakahara, Tomoe Main

Nakayama, Erina Japanese

Kurita, Aoi Main

Chihara, Minori Japanese

Isono, Shizuka Main

Nazuka, Kaori Japanese

Girl from AAST Supporting

Scientist Supporting

Kawagoe, Kyouko Supporting

Kawabuchi, Yukari Japanese

Satou, Yoshiteru Director

Nagamura, Shinji Episode Director

Fujisawa, Tsunekiyo Script

Takeuchi, Kouji Script

Reviews

Jan 21, 2009

zStorm_Dukez

Recommended

After watching this, I just felt that I simply HAVE to write a review for this masterpiece. Why is this a masterpiece, you ask? Simple, because it's the only Sci-fi/Horror anime which ever made me laugh so hard.

Story:
The story... Wait, what was the story again? Apart from whatever that was said in the synopsis, there is pratically no storyline at all, it's just about a bunch of girls working for the police fighting off the 'Ancients' alongside a guy who was forced to wear a suit developed by his father to fight the 'Ancients', and how much killings they saw on the way while delivering ... the bits from the wrecked Mars exploration ship to America, and how they eventually found out that Martians were Earthlings and Earthlings were Martians.

Art:
The art is simply amazing. It's old for a 2005 anime, and the animation is just so stiff. I think even 1980s anime/OVAs like Gunbuster and Mobile Suit Gundam has better art and animation than this. The only saving grace is how bloody the massacres were.

Sound:
The voice acting was horrible. The only thing I found nice to hear were the moanings of dying people, and the growling of the 'Ancients'. And as for the music, I could've sworn I heard a few classical pieces in the background.

Character:
It would be difficult to identify the characters if not for them having different genders and looks, for there is no distinct characteristics for the different character. The only distinctive traits the characters ever have are their looks and their voices. They might as well make every single character look and sound the same, since it would save them the trouble from having to think of how each and every character would have to look and sound.

Enjoyment:
This is where this OVA shines. The enjoyment factor. As I've said before, never has any sci-fi/horror series made me laugh as hard as this did. I laughed when the ship at the beginning blew up, I laughed when the girls were so stupid that they stood still and didn't run as the 'Ancients' charged up and fired their beam at them, I laughed when one of the girls got her head blown off, I laughed when the policeman was torn apart, I laughed when the main dude in the suit didn't know how to use his other free hand to attack the main 'Ancient' when his sword arm was stopped, and then later broken and dislocated by the 'Ancient', I laughed when the professor in the US said that the DNA found on Mars belonged to Homo Sapiens, I laughed when the 'Ancient' began to speak, I laughed when he said that Earthlings were Martians, and Martians were Earthlings. I was laughing throughout the entire show.

So overall, all I have to say is, if you've got about 20 minutes of your life you would like to waste away, please, PLEASE, do catch Mars of Destruction. :D

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jan 19, 2014

albinochocolate

Mixed Feelings

Mars of Destruction's storytelling has the subtlety of a scorched, bleeding rectum or a tumultuous car alarm. "Plot refinement" is clearly a foreign concept to the creators of Mars of Destruction. Its premise is more derivative than a Syfy TV movie. Its characters are empty and lack many elements of characterization one requires in order to genuinely understand and distinguish them apart from each other. Honestly, they're so bad they made me appreciate the company and personality of torn cardboard (which is quite colorful and substantial compared to these characters). The writing is poorer than the typical Haitian family. It only took roughly four minutes after ... finishing this anime to conjure up about fifteen extremely scathing insults I could call someone involving comparisons of said person and Mars of Destruction; each insult ended with the inevitable scenario of the person telling me I had "went too far, man".

To put it lightly, its visuals are as attractive and appealing as steaming, moist, chunky shit from a Great Dane. Eight minutes in, I was actually flabbergasted to not see flies buzzing around my screen because the appearance was so uncanny. Budget problems were really blatant from the get-go, and the animation is quite below even modest standards (awkward movements and stiff characters galore). Direction and action are abysmal, and the cinematographic technique known as shaky camera is overused and utilized awfully. The main character designs are generic at best, and the villain designs are severely pathetic. The villains' powers are ill-conceived as well (mouth beams are not, nor will they ever be, cool or clever). 

The sound design is, as one might assume, sub par. Voice acting was definitely not a priority (so far it seems nothing during the production of this anime was); weak and humdrum performances fill up the entire OVA. Sound effects were ridiculously cheap and goofy, and its use of music isn't much better. Classical music is hamfistedly stuck in a multitude of scenes, and the transitioning from one song to another is, of course, crude.

Interestingly enough, it seems Mars of Destruction might have been a deliberate Neon Genesis Evangelion parody. Several similarities and possible pokes at the influential series appear throughout the OVA, including: their primary enemies being called Ancients (Angels in NGE), the use of religious symbolism, specifically with the cross, the usage of Classical music, the involuntary use of a powerful mecha by the main character due to his father forcing him to, the main character going through a rampage while being inside the mecha (similar to NGE's berserker mode), et cetera. It's plausible that the creators wanted to seriously lampoon the Neon Genesis Evangelion series, or perhaps they are merely unabashed thieves that felt the need to borrow various elements from a well-known series, without giving due credit, just to make their project "work". I'm not sure which one I believe is true yet.  

In any case, all of of the inept qualities that Mars of Destruction shamelessly flaunts culminate humorously due to The Tommy Wiseau (or Ed Wood) Effect. In other words, its striking amount of inability in just about every area result in a decent amount of chuckles and a protracted smile. Most smelly, putrid garbage in anime generally manage to just be grating and intolerable, but Mars of Destruction managed to use its flaws to its benefit and invoke non-well-earned laughter from it. I doubt the creators desired it to turn out the way it did (something tells me they thought they were creating their serious, dramatic magnum opus), but this anime is fairly funny, albeit not throughly hilarious. It is most definitely not the incredibly emotionally-resonant, thrilling, and profound piece of art the director and producers may have wanted it to be, but it is, in a most likely unintended sense, entertaining and gratifying. And hey, that's enough of a reason for me to use nineteen minutes of my oh-so-precious time on it.

Six Squeaky, Unconvincing "Takeruuuuu!" Cries out of Ten.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 10, 2015

Blood_Diver_A

Not Recommended

[Death of an Anime Viewer]

Ivan was your average, everyday, normal viewer, he had just finished his latest anime series, and was searching for a new one to watch. While, reading the reviews of several shows on MAL, he came across the infamous Mars of Destruction.

He had heard many horrible stories, regarding this particular animation. He read the reviews and noticed that many people called it "the worst anime ever.”

He thought to himself, “This can’t possibly be true. Even the worst anime has one redeeming feature. I have to see this for myself.”

He immediately typed in the words “Mars of Destruction” in Google and ... found a video of it on Youtube. He clicked the video and it began to play.

Little did Ivan know that clicking and playing the video would be the biggest mistake in his entire life.

As soon as the video started, he noticed the shoddy animation/art such as, the lack of facial expression on the characters, the awful character designs, the camera shaking, and the undistinguishable characters.

The sound was uneven some parts being loud and some being soft, the Beethoven music felt out of place and distracted him from the fight scene, and the voice acting was subpar.

The story was filled with many unanswered questions, like why did these ‘Ancients’ attack, who developed AAST, who is Takeru’s father, why choose Takeru of all people, why do the girls seem ill-trained for combat, why use shitty weapons against the aliens, etc. The questions were endless.

And, all the characters were undeveloped, their intelligences level were equivalent to that of a rock, their emotional levels were nil and their dialogues were laughable, especially when the doctor stated that the headless girl wasn’t going to survive. No shit, doctor! No shit!

Once, the video was over, Ivan’s eyes were closed and his ears were covered with his palms. He tried to not remember the horrible anime, but it was too late.

His brain began to recall the shitty characters, the shitty animation, the shitty story and the shitty sound. He could feel his brain melting, it was slowly turning into a puddle of slush. Suddenly, the slush oozed out of his ears and nose, and trickled to the floor. He felt the slush in his hands and on his face. Then, immediately, he lost all feeling in his arms and legs, and fell to the floor.

He was dying, albeit slowly. At first, he panicked, but soon realized that it was better to die than be tortured by the images and sounds of Mars of Destruction.

He thought to himself, “Damn! There really was no redeeming feature in that show. That truly was the worst anime ever! The world needs to know of my fate!”

He went onto MAL and wrote a short review, and then submitted it.

Afterwards, he died, but before he passed away, he hoped that somebody had read his warning review; a warning, for those who are curious, that Mar of Destruction will literally melt your brain.

The End

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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