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Feb 8, 2025
Kiss Dum is an easy anime to get sucked into. It's got airplanes and transforming vehicles designed by Shoji Kawamori! It's based on the Lovecraft mythos! The anime director stormed out after finishing the first episode, so the team had to make things up as they went! Though Kiss Dum has infamy for its troubled production, it's easy to expect that it will, at the very least, be an entertaining, unpredictable trainwreck and that it will keep things interesting by peppering lots of Lovecraft references and vehicle action throughout -- but it does none of that past the first three episodes.
Kiss Dum's first three
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episodes leave a great impression. It's a hopeless battle of humanity's forces against an incomprehensible alien threat -- and in the midst of it, a young man freed from death and granted amazing powers via the misleadingly-named "Book of the Dead" to be humanity's messenger and saviour against the conspicuously-named "Hadean" aliens. It's nonstop mecha action anchored by melodrama and betrayal. It even implies a cosmic scale for the story since it shows Hadeans in space. However, that all goes away after these first three episodes. It's obvious this is when the show's production began to suffer; the fourth episode is a recap. While one may expect this to mainly affect animation quality (which it does), it also affects the story quality in a really big way as it devolves from a promising Lovecraftian mecha show to post-apocalyptic Pokemon with the pacing of One Piece. The emphasis on vehicles and mecha disappears -- to drive home that this show is now a battle shonen and not mecha, one of the few episodes past the initial three that's what one would expect from a mecha show is a dream sequence, and in real life the only mecha pilot of importance is killed! The Lovecraft stuff is irrelevant as well aside from a few monster names and unimportant artifacts; the backstory isn't explained until much later, and the monsters are only there for pointless fight scenes that do nothing but distract viewers from the anime's sluggish pace and failure to follow its initial premise.
The story the anime decides to stick with is very bad as well. It's mostly the main character searching for revenge, angsting, and fighting monsters, but the monster-fighting parts are totally undercut by the fact that the main character is told what to do by a pseudo-harem of three ghost anime girls that follow his every move. On top of that, the main villain that gets introduced a while later is ALSO an underage anime girl! The main backstory and plot twist isn't worth sticking around for either; it's nothing Kamen Rider hasn't done before.
Kiss Dum is a testament to how anime's worst tendencies -- moe girls, endless filler, pointless fights, brooding, nonexistent worldbuilding -- arise from rushed production. This show had the potential to be one of the most memorable mecha shows of the 2000s, but it wasted that potential thanks to the producers leaving the story on anime autopilot while scrambling to present something, anything, for broadcast. The true cosmic horror Kiss Dum presents is that so much anime since its production has done the same thing, yet it gets applauded if it has enough loud comedy, fanservice, and self-insert bait. If you want to watch Kiss Dum even after all this, just watch the first three episodes and pretend it's an OVA that got cancelled afterward -- because the story presented by those first three episodes sure did get cancelled.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Feb 6, 2025
AWOL: Absent Without Leave is a solid space anime with a reputation preceded by lots of infamy. AWOL is allegedly so bad that it was only released on home video in the West via AnimeVillage.com while Japan got an edited OVA, but it is actually a decent show bogged down by obscurity and a slow start.
The most notable issue with AWOL's TV version is the pacing. In the first half, almost nothing of importance to the overall plot happens, and the events are very predictable and slow. The show is beset with a bunch of pointless dialogue and boardroom scenes as it spins its wheels,
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waiting for the main plot to begin. However, certain episodes, such as the third episode, stand out as good stand-alone plots, so there are some bright spots in this first half that make it worthwhile. Viewers who follow a three-episode rule or decide to stop watching the show before its seventh episode should beware because in the second half, the actual plot begins. The show proves itself to be a very cool space anime in its second half as it offers rare anime space fleet battles, great chases, a long-range battle through an asteroid belt, and an ending so grand in scale that is matched only by the likes of Wrath of Khan.
Another appealing aspect of AWOL is that it is grounded, mature, and respectable. All the characters clearly look and act like adults, and the anime focuses more on the overall plot and the characters doing their jobs competently rather than pet anime topics like how the characters accept their responsibilities in the world and the characters' internal thoughts. The anime understands the concept of "show don't tell", unlike most other anime, by developing the characters via showing them in action rather than setting aside lengthy scenes for emotional expression and discussing the characters' internal feelings. Anime cliches like fanservice, gore, child/teenage protagonists, self-insert characters, coming-of-age/hero's journey tropes, melodrama, existentialism, internal monologues, and pseudointellectualism are absent, so this show is very respectable and, at worst, inoffensive.
At the same time, AWOL's inoffensiveness and groundedness translate to the ship and vehicle designs. Aside from a few cars and random spaceships (the most notable of which are ships that look like the Enterprise but with round side sections like the White Base), the main vehicles are very boring. The protagonists' ship is a generic white spaceship, while the enemies' ship is a dull orange tube, and the enemies' laser ships are pyramids with light sci-fi detailing. However, the action makes these bland designs easy to overlook.
AWOL: Absent Without Leave is an excellent anime that requires patience, yet ends up paying off in offering good action and a story that is freed from anime's tiresome and unnecessary cliches and allowed to be mature and respectable.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 24, 2024
Digimon Dreamers feels like it was intended to be a crowd-pleaser, and it succeeds at that. Initially conceived as a manga adaptation of Ghost Game, it became a separate story and continuity, even though it keeps the human character designs and Digimon from Ghost Game. At first, the manga mainly focuses on comedy with the story relegated to the background; the comedy is typical quirky anime/manga humour, but there are some funny jokes. However, as the manga progresses and the chapters lengthen, the comedy remains, but the story takes precedence. The story is filled with fanservice -- the good kind, not the sexual kind --
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as it poignantly puts the themes of classic Digimon (growing up and helping your Digimon evolve) front and centre, but not in an unnecessarily melodramatic way -- perhaps the comedic tone of the manga prevented this mistake. In this more story-focused section, fan-favourite Digimon and Digital Worlds show up, and the explanation/plot twist behind the events in the manga is very creative and interesting.
The characters are high-quality too. The protagonist's flaws are exploited for comedy at first, but as the manga goes on, these flaws help create a compelling arc. The Digimon who appear in this manga are good too; the main Digimon is a good foil to the protagonist, and his traits also tie into a good backstory. Espimon is especially cool, and a particular magical fan-favourite Digimon appears too. The manga's art is surprisingly nice to look at -- it is clean and simple, and it doesn't try to be too overdetailed or wacky.
Overall, Digimon Dreamers is a great manga and one of the best Digimon stories in recent memory. Its story is memorable, and it feels like a proper spiritual return to the glory days of Adventure and Tamers.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 28, 2024
Imagine, if you will, that Michael Bay decided to make a movie adaptation of Exkaiser. Now imagine that, in addition to the usual Bay staples (explosions, lots of military vehicles, Christian references, oversexualization of female characters), this movie is light-hearted, self-referential, and intensely homoerotic. Such is Bang Bravern, the first TV anime directed by legendary animator Masami Obari in over a decade.
Without a doubt, Bravern is one of the better seasonal anime in recent memory -- probably the best one since Reconguista in G from a decade ago. However, like a lot of the better seasonal anime, Bravern's story is more suited to a
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1-2 hour OVA, which is evident in the sheer amount of filler in the anime. There are episodes where slideshow animation abounds and a lot of meaningless conversation is had. Filler character interactions don't have to be a bad thing, but in Bravern, they are, and that's because the characters are neither pleasant nor complex. An attempt was clearly made to make the characters seem complex to engage more "mature" audiences, which means that the characters all fall into basic anime tropes -- Smith is a Gary Stu, Isami is a self-insert, all the female characters are moe, and the Deathdrives' personalities are over-the-top and centred around one trait. The most fleshed-out, likeable characters are Bravern and Superbia, but their interactions are too few to support the show.
The story of Bravern is very silly -- Earth is being invaded by alien robots who love death, and the last hope of humanity is another alien robot who loves being a hero. It's the type of pulpy silly that could have worked in a 90s OVA, and it still works here. However, the story is certainly not remarkable enough to justify sitting through all the filler and otherwise grating moments in this anime. The anime is not even nice to look at. The 2D animation is eye-burning and feels like cheap plastic. In addition, all the mecha animation is done in CG, which is especially egregious since Masami Obari is one of the few animators able to direct hand-drawn mecha animation in the current anime industry. The mecha designs, save for Bravern, Superbia, Cupiridas, and a few of the military mecha, tend to feel overdesigned, uninspired, and thrown-together, as if they were designed by an AI. The only thing that makes this anime stand out are its explicitly male homoerotic moments, which are notable for being in a mainstream sci-fi/mecha anime and for involving masculine, muscular men rather than the typical yaoi soft bois who look no different from actual women.
Overall, Bravern is a typical disposable seasonal anime, with nothing to make it particularly notable except its particular brand of homoeroticism. One would be better served watching an actual Yuusha series since they have everything Bravern lacks -- good animation, engrossing stories, and likeable characters/character interactions. However, if you want to watch a gay sci-fi anime that's non-pornographic, Bravern will serve you well.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 15, 2024
Combine the Brave series with an edgy mecha OVA, and you get D-1 Devastator. D-1 Devastator is an anime adaptation of a video game by Takara, the company behind several transforming vehicle toylines like Transformers and the Brave series. As such, the OVA contains several mecha that transform from vehicles; however, these mecha are not sentient and are piloted from within by humans.
The story is reminiscent of 80s OVAs like Zeorymer and Detonator Orgun in that it features a young man in the near future who is involved with a defense organization to save the world from eldritch monsters -- in this case, aliens
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from another dimension that can be reached by traveling at 300 km/h -- by piloting a piece of experimental technology. There's a lot of corporate/bureaucratic drama thrown in for an aura of mystery. The first episode is a slow-paced, stereotypical story about fighting beastly monsters as the mysteries and overarching story are introduced; however, the second episode gets quite interesting as it builds up to an over-the-top ending, involves a lot of strategy, and the corporate drama becomes more pronounced. Characters remain shallow, though, which is typical in these types of OVAs.
The anime is quite good design-wise, as it applies realism to its transforming vehicles. For example, the main mech has a transitional mode where it becomes a torso on a car body, similar to Macross's Gerwalk. The main mecha also have realistic heads that don't necessarily resemble faces; the main mech's head is reminiscent of Dragonar's, for example. Additionally, large command bases and screen-heavy control rooms abound, which is never a bad thing. There are quite a few mundane futuristic vehicles, such as a train and fire trucks, which gives the anime a sense of realism. The monsters are the weakest design in the anime; they feel quite generic. The animation is typical 90s OVA cel animation, which is always high quality.
Overall, D-1 Devastator certainly isn't a bad anime, even if it has a slow start. Between its designs, satisfying ending, and mysterious worldbuilding, it's a very good mecha OVA, a genre that is always high-quality.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 7, 2024
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam are both wonderful works of art, among the best that anime and manga have to offer. It should follow that Zeta Gundam Define, which is apparently a combination of the two in that it's a manga retelling of Zeta Gundam with extra context, should also be excellent. Unfortunately, Zeta Gundam Define is more like a combination of Zeta Gundam and a generic shounen battle manga, as it strips Zeta of much of its good writing.
Because Zeta is a TV show, each episode is based around a sortie that gets resolved within the episode. Though many
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audiences would be quick to write this structure off as "filler" or "formulaic", the sorties provide opportunities for characterization and fleshing out the story of the conflict. In this manga, the sortie structure is abandoned for long, drawn-out battles that greatly expand certain sorties (such as the Jaburo trap) to the detriment of other VERY important ones, such as the Colony 30 sortie, several sorties based around preventing the Titans from gassing colonies, and even the Titans' colony drop! These omissions greatly downplay the Titans' cruelty and how they are repeating Zeon's worst mistakes. The colony drop is an act of Zeon, and the use of gas evokes certain real-world atrocities to which Zeon's acts were compared in 0079. The sorties also help develop the characters as they are challenges the characters must overcome, something that big monumental battles cannot do. This means that the manga never develops the characters with the same meaning and depth the anime does. Kamille becomes a generic shonen protagonist with attitude rather than the kind, well-meaning boy being abused and misunderstood during the war. This also means Fa's kindness isn't shown as effectively and that the crew of Argama isn't portrayed as a "found family" (even with the less-significant characters) like in the anime. Other well-written Zeta moments, such as the reveal of Quattro's true identity and Amuro's first meeting with Quattro, are completely upended in the manga for something that fails to live up to the original. These two anime moments in particular are good examples of "show, don't tell" -- a principle the manga completely ignores. For instance, it chooses to spend time in shadowy rooms deliberating rather than out on the battlefield, giving the characters the opportunity to react to events and develop naturally. It also explains why each character joined the Argama, which also makes the manga feel like a shonen battle manga (e.g. One Piece) assembling its characters. The manga also heavily downplays the Newtype aspects of Zeta. Though controversial, the characters' emphasis on Newtypes in Zeta reflects the attitudes of this time in the Universal Century and provides rationale for certain characters' behaviour. Removing this emphasis on Newtypes means that the story is removed of its important message that understanding Newtypes cannot be counted on as a path to peace.
Despite its many removals, the manga makes quite a few original additions to the story. Some of these, such as Frau's first appearance and the discussions with Sayla, work well. However, many of them fall flat. The latter point is most apparent in its original characters, who are barely characterized and are generally a waste of space. It's also really obvious who the original characters are based on art style alone. Yasuhiko's character designs are beautiful and realistic; the designs of the new characters are stereotypical moe designs, which are distracting and unwelcome in a manga like this. It gives the story a childish, unserious atmosphere. The design issues are also apparent with the unrealistic, "animefied" clothing many of the new characters wear. In general, the art of this manga is very generic and unimpressive, save for a few mechanical details.
Ultimately, Z Gundam Define does nothing but alter a classic for the worse. Though it has a few good moments and some things that may appeal to certain audiences, its changes and writing style fail to live up to the original anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 5, 2023
Even though the Super Sentai tokusatsu series has quite a bit of worldwide popularity under the name of Power Rangers, very little Super Sentai manga has been translated into English. One of the few English-translated Super Sentai manga is the manga for the original Super Sentai series, Gorenger. Unlike the familiar Power Rangers setup where the enemy is an alien invader, the enemy in this manga is a corrupt Earth organization, the Black Cross Army. This is similar to Shocker in the original Kamen Rider series, another Shotaro Ishimori creation.
While this may seem to be a simple fighting manga, it does get into a
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bit of character depth, complexity, and more serious themes; however, the manga remains more action and plot oriented. The actual plots are fairly entertaining, if not simplistic, toku plots. If you were expecting mecha, there is very little of that in here, since the Rangers fight in their suits and travel in a cool retrofuturistic flying vehicle that's hidden underground and comes out of an ordinary smokestack! There is, however, a pretty cool dino mecha. I also found it interesting that there was a glutton character in this manga, similar to Musashi in Getter Robo. There was also a robot reminiscent of Robby the Robot from the 1956 film Forbidden Planet.
The character designs are good. The humans have typical 1970s manga character designs, which I enjoy, and the costume designs are nice as well. If you're familiar with Power Rangers, the costumes' design motifs will be familiar to you, and that's not a bad thing in my opinion.
As is the case with these older action manga, especially those intended to advertise a TV show, the ending may feel abrupt to some readers, with no real conclusion. However, if you view this as an anthology of Gorenger stories, the ending will make more sense.
This manga has good fights, cool retro designs, and interesting plots, with a bit of weightiness in terms of themes and characters to keep it grounded. It has no fanservice either. I highly recommend it if you enjoy tokusatsu or are curious about the genre, like action manga, or want a manga with no fanservice.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 29, 2023
Made in the same vein as another Sunrise mecha show, Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru, Madou King Granzort is a child-friendly show about chibi characters fighting in super robots on the moon to save the world. The plot of each episode tends to fall into a monster of the week format, where the protagonists explore a new part of the moon, encounter a villain, and defeat it; however, this structure is abandoned in the later episodes as the plot gets concluded, as is typical for children's shows of this nature.
There are plenty of light-hearted, comedic moments, but they manage not to be mind-numbingly dumb. Additionally, since
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this show is aimed at young children, the humour is not ecchi, which is a plus. The characters are the typical optimistic, happy-go-lucky shonen protagonists and evil, snarly villains who must be defeated to save the world.
What this show stands out in is the visuals and worldbuilding. The worldbuilding is rich and detailed, as the pre-attack segments of each show focus on exploring the goofy, strange world. The animation is quite excellent, with the bright, vibrant colours and crisp cel-animated aesthetics typical in better-animated 80s/90s anime. There are plenty of reused transformation and attack sequences, but the animation in these sequences -- especially the transformation sequences -- is very smooth and colourful, so seeing these beautiful sequences multiple times isn't necessarily a bad thing. The world is a magical fantasy world with a few modern or sci-fi elements thrown in, such as mechs and vehicles, which makes the world feel very similar to Dragon Ball. The similarities to Dragon Ball are furthered in the villains wearing uniforms very similar to those of the Ginyu Force, which I found neat, as well as an attack that involves throwing an energy ball, much like in the Kamehameha. The similarities to other anime continue in that the mechs are giant heads that transform into mechs, much like in Gurren Lagann. Additionally, the interiors of the enemy mechs are reminiscent of the interiors of the Gunmen, and the exteriors of the enemy mechs are similar to the first enemy mechs encountered in Gurren Lagann. Since Granzort seems to be quite popular in Asia, despite having flown under the radar of Western audiences, I wonder how much inspiration Gurren Lagann took from Granzort!
Overall, I really enjoyed this anime. I loved the animation, the comedy, the fusion of mechs and fantasy, and the exploration of the world the most. I was rarely bored watching this anime and found it very interesting. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys childish anime, retro anime, or mecha anime. It is wholesome and has has cool fights/mechs and wonderful animation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 13, 2023
In 2011, Subaru got legendary anime studio Gainax to create a web anime called Wish Upon The Pleiades, which turned out to be a nice little gem successful enough to warrant its own TV series. Honda, having seen this, must have wanted a piece of the pie, so they got famous director Junichi Sato to create a similar anime for them: One Off.
It would be remiss to say that One Off wasn't inspired by Wish Upon The Pleiades. Aside from borrowing the idea of "cute girls teach us about life to sell vehicles", one of the characters in One Off has almost identical glasses and
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facial structure to a character in Wish Upon The Pleiades. Wish Upon The Pleiades did have commercialism and product placement, but they were well-integrated into the anime so that you didn't feel like you were being told "By the way, buy Subaru!". One Off completely fails to do this, with Honda logos plastered everywhere and dialogue that is purely commercialistic, doing little else.
Then, there's also the trouble that this has fanservice. Cynthia is unnecessarily sexualized, and the girls also wear unpractically short skirts. I don't understand the purpose for this, as the original Wish Upon The Pleiades shorts didn't do this sort of thing.
The story itself, however, was a nice little story about following your dreams, with great character development that would normally take place over several episodes in other slice-of-life series but takes place over only an hour in One Off. That said, there was little to distinguish this from other slice-of-life series, as it is incredibly generic and derivative of both K-On and Wish Upon The Pleiades. The soundtrack was very forgettable, but still serene. Finally, the best part of the series is the amazing motorcycle animation, which is obvious given that the reason for One Off's existence is to sell motorcycles.
There are better things to watch in an hour than One Off. There's a reason this wasn't made into a TV series like Wish Upon The Pleiades, and that's because it's just too generic. Girls on highly detailed motorcycles gets pretty boring after a while. Let that inform your decision about whether or not you want to watch this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 31, 2023
In 1998, Bandai released their Dinozone toyline as a direct competitor to Takara's Beast Wars. To market the toyline, Bandai made this OVA which were distributed on video tapes packaged with the Dinozone toys. This OVA would also form the basis of Dinozaurs, the Fox Kids cartoon made when the Dinozone toys were imported to America in 2000.
The OVA is almost entirely CGI, save for still 2D drawings that serve as establishing shots and live-action toy commercials. The CGI makes it really obvious that Dinozone is a Beast Wars competitor, since a similar style of CGI was used in the Beast Wars cartoon. The CGI
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is pretty rough in the first couple of episodes (below Beast Wars quality), but as the episodes progress, the CGI gets better and better. The last 5 minutes of the first two episodes were entirely live-action toy commercials, but this stopped by the third episode, which is around when the animation quality begins to improve.
The story is a generic good vs evil battle (I watched it raw in Japanese since there were no English subs, so perhaps I missed something). The fights, which I were able to understand, were fairly engaging for me. Unlike in the 2000 cartoon, there are no human characters in this OVA, which is good because it focuses more on the war between the dinos, with no human character filler that is common in children's robot shows like the Transformers Unicron Trilogy.
The sound is good, with engaging, epic music and an intro that uses only instrumental music, something rare in anime (I never skipped this OVA's intro, which is uncommon for me).
If you want to watch a weird robot show with ancient CGI, I recommend Dinozone. I enjoy obscure mecha and sci-fi OVAs, so this was right up my alley. If you aren't interested in those things, you will probably get very little enjoyment out of this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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