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Harbor Light Monogatari - Fashion Lala Yori is a slap in the face to pretty much all common sense in story telling. From the opening you can tell this anime is having a serious identity crises. The opening consists of assorted jumble of scenes from 1980’s jazzercise to some really fairly odd science fiction space shots. This mishmash pretty much sums up a lot of this anime as it tries to mesh together a whole lot of things that just don’t work. It also features more conflicting moods then a temperamental two year old.

On one hand you have a pseudo Cinderella ... story about the main character Miho who is living with her ill-tempered Aunt and her three snide cousins while her father is away. This part of the story seems the most fairly tale like, and with Miho wondering around a seaside town with her dog delivering packages for her Aunt’s business and hoping to make a dress for her one cousin to wear in the upcoming Disco Queen contest. This part of the anime has an almost dreamy like quality to it and has the most potential to be something cute to bad it's all lost in a giant flushing toilet of bewilderment.

Then there is other plot of the town Mayor’s son coming back into town. At first he seems the typical bad boy who is just a little rough around the edges and with a soft spot in his heart but then he transforms in to heartless terrorist. Seriously, I am not kidding! They bring him in to a place in the story where you think it a might creepy but not insanely out of place (for an anime) love interest for our little Miho, but it just turns out he is a cold hearted bastard and gang leader. Who was so scared by his father and sister, he now must blow up the town’s Disco Queen Contest. Really, still not kidding! His character is never really fleshed out more then that, and what starts out fitting in the dream like quality of the anime ends up being so over the top and out of place it’s just amusing.

There are several other mash ups fitted into this short OVA that never seem to get there fill of screen time. Several places early on in the story seem like it’s going to take it some where else then it ends up going to, they would have been far nicer places really. It almost seems like the creators wanted to do a longer story but got stuck with forty-five minutes and decided to fit all the bits and pieces they liked best into it.

The art used in this story is also a jumble of 1980's anime style. Most of the characters are pretty normal looking with natural hair colors except for Miho's which is purple, uh ok, sure she has the rare purple hair gene. Style wise though up to a point everyone looks like a normal person from a small town, from the 80's, but still they still conform. It isn't until the mayor's son picks up his fellow town misfits/terrorists who look like bad rejects from a discarded Streets of Rage game. Sure they still look 80's but they look more like Fist of the North Star or Mad Max then fitting in a cute story about a young girl who wants to do fashion. I also have to mention something I really did like was the background art, it was very charming and pleasant feel to it, with lots of nice detail showing the town off. Sadly it wasn't used in a better anime.

All that being said, I still really enjoyed this anime. Don’t get me wrong, it’s terrible, it really is, but I couldn’t look away and while I was watching it. It starts out with a kind of cute 1980’s charm but then turns into a insane schizophrenic mess at the end it’s hard to look away. I can’t recommend this for everyone, but for anyone who likes something that is so bad it’s good, I think they will get great enjoyment out of this.

I cannot say if one should like or dislike Crying Freeman, this title starts out with such great potential but ends up being a pile of swill. In fact if Crying Freeman began and ended with the first story arc, then I would say it was a manga classic that all should read. From this great high point does this title fall, and fall hard it does right into a murky pit of crud.

The story its self starts out semi-realistic, it’s not crazy or over the top for this genre of story, but slowly the inclusion of crazier and silly elements ... are added making it feel slitted. One can tell the author must have been looking though a murky puddle of muck as the story ends up going no where and seems rather piecemealed together. The characters are also a disjointed mess. Some are refreshing and interesting, while others are painfully irritating.

The art here stands out here as a strong point as it features the wonderful line work of Ryoichi Ikegami. Who’s style is much more realistic then the manga norm, which features a lot of detail and cross hatching. This is one of this older works so the art is a bit dated by today’s standards but still comes though very well.

I enjoyed Crying Freeman but over time less and less so. The first story arc is stand out piece of work but by the third arc the story just seem silly and ridiculous. I enjoyed the first story arc so much though, that I would at least say I over all enjoyed the story.

I’d say it is at least worth picking up the first volume of Crying Freeman for the first story arc, as that story is a stand out piece in the mobster genre.