Hon Ran

DISCLAIMER: this OVA contains a few scenes of nudity and sex, and while not graphic and admittedly somewhat goofy, they are there, so if that is not your thing, skip out on this one.

well then, this was certainly an experience. its a 1 hour OVA with surprisingly decent animation for its time (although sometimes inconsistent), has a decent but flawed plot and decent action scenes. overall, i thought it was okay. it definitely would have worked better as a 90 minute film or a 3 30 minute episode OVA. instead we get an overly ambitious plot crammed into a simple hour, which results in lack ... of context and plot points coming out of nowhere; often there is minimum to no build up leading to a confusing and somewhat lackluster experience of a plot that could have been competent if given more time to develop. the characters are pretty 1 note, not really worth mentioning; i mean they're not really a focal point of the OVA so its not a huge deal but I would have liked to see more effort and care put into developing them (especially Mizuho, who is the stock damsel in distress archetype). the story takes place primarily in China, with plot points based on a more fantastical version of Chinese history which I thought was cool. overall, its not a super long time, it has good points to it and I didn't think it was all that bad, especially with the added inclusion of some admittedly surface level, but still cool political messaging about China. I would recommend it if you are up for watching a weird, somewhat disjointed 90s OVA and are prepared for some lackluster points.

Rate a 6
English dubbed

Okay! Is a good sum-up reaction to my stand on the show. A good mixture of Indiana Jones and Charmed(American television show). As the movie progresses i don't think you will find the movie to be easily to anticipate. Which opens a lot of room to surprise and excitement. On some occasions when a movie becomes unpredictable the writer uses easy(cheeky) explanations with the audience. Throwing the general idea of magic, illusion or dream to explain the unexplained. Here when you are surprised you become educated. While the education i can't be certain is 100 percent certain it is at least phrased ... in a convincing manner. Such example would be the plane scene. Not only does the writer/director keep you interest with curiosity there are a couple moments of misdirection. Perfect if watching with family or friends or playing a bet. Don't you just hate it when someone states out loud what they think to be true only to shortly find out it does. Hate those moments. Probably why i tend to watch movies solo. As for the ending i suppose it is okay. While a true end is not finished it ends in a psychological manner which is good. A true end is where the bad guy loses or wins and the other side moves on. But with a psychological stand for an ending it provokes thoughts and questions. Which in terms opens the possibility for a later on sequel.

If i were to state one drawback the movie didn't fully cover each character. It stuck with the ones the audience would care for and said screw it to the rest. Even with one character being just as vital in the show as the main couple.

One of the more bizarre OVAs to come out of the 1990s Crimson Wolf may at first glance be more of your standard throwaway nonsense to come out of this era however there is a little bit more to it than that.

The plot as one would expect is a contrived blend of mysticism, martial arts and gangsters though looking beyond the superficial silliness there is a deeper underlying political and philosophical message to the whole tale which is actually a fairly delightful layer of depth to the hour or so of your life you may feel you’ve just wasted. Throw in the obligatory cringe worthy ... sex scenes and you know you’ve got vintage OVA on your hands.

The artwork has definitely not aged well and it is hard to escape the feeling that this is pulp produced anime, the soundtrack similarly is your standard mix of synths and orientalism which doesn’t really either add to or detract from the whole experience. Even for someone like me who is a bit of an aficionado for this type of less well known 90s OVA I can’t really describe either as a selling point. The English Dub is laughably bad as one would expect, for some this is simply part of the charm of this era of anime but if you’re actually wanting to watch this in any way aside from as a curiosity then I’d definitely recommend the subbed version if you can find one.

In summary this is definitely an OVA for someone who’s interested in watching the more obscure end of the spectrum perhaps even just for that reason. There is definitely something in this however unless you’re really willing to just go with the flow the lacklustre artwork, plot and soundtrack make this something not worth the time to find.