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Mar 29, 2025
It's Street Fighter but know as we know it.
Following on from the success of the Street Fighter II Animated Movie in 1994, animation studio Group Tac and director Gisaburō Sugii would return to Street Fighter in 1995 with Street Fighter II V, or Street Fighter II Victory as it's also known, a 29 episode TV series (the show's title being a play on this as 2 V sounds like TV) that unlike it's movie predecessor which was a somewhat faithful adaptation of the Street Fighter II video game would take many liberties from it's source material, particularly with the characters in terms of their
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designs, personalities and back stories.
For example, Ryu is 17 years old who is more happy-go-lucky and simple minded as opposed to his more stern and stoic personality he's known for. His design has also been significantly altered with his trademark headband now being traded for a prayer bead bracelet and he now sports spiked up hair which makes him look more like Akira from Sega's Virtua Fighter.
Ken, also 17, is a red head instead of blonde and Chun Li is now a tour guide instead of an Interpol officer seeking revenge for her the murder of her father, who is very much alive in this series.
Like the Street Fighter II movie, Street Fighter II V is primarily based on the game Super Street Fighter II Turbo and features most of the game's roster of characters. Only Blanka, E.Honda, Dee Jay and T.Hawk do not appear in the series. Though Akuma does make a few background cameos here and there.
The series follows Ryu and Ken who after suffering a brutal defeat at the hands of Guile after a run in with some U.S. Air Force officers at a bar one night, decide to go on a globe trotting journey to improve their martial arts skills, meeting various other characters from the Street Fighter game along the way such as Chun Li, Fei Long, Sagat and Dhalsim, eventually leading to a run in with the organisation Shadowlaw and it's mastermind, the evil and enigmatic M. Bison.
Story wise, Street Fighter II V isn't anything all that special. Most of the first half of the show's episodes consist of Ryu and Ken getting in some situation, a fight happens and the situation is resolved. That being said there are some good storylines in the first half such as Ryu being framed for drug possession while in Thailand leading to him being imprisoned with Sagat who has also been framed for the same crime while Ken tries to prove Ryu's innocence.
The characters aren't boring but they aren't anything special either as they don't really have much in the way of development and are rather one note (Ryu is the cheerful goofball who like a challenge, Ken is the cocky American rich kid, Chun Li is the peppy girl who can kick ass when she needs to, etc.). That being said the music in the series is nothing short of a masterpiece and contains many great music tracks that can easily be listened to outside of watching the show and the opening theme song, Kaze Fuiteru (The Wind Is Blowing) by Yuki Kuroda is a joy to listen to and oddly fits the series. Incidentally, the song was composed by J-Pop musician Ryo Aska who performed a song with his now defunct band Chage and Aska for the 1994 live action Street Fighter film.
The animation is also very well done with some fairly fluid fight scenes. Naturally it doesn't hold a candle to the Street Fighter II movie given that it's relegated to TV budget but it's certainly very well done.
Interestingly, the series would receive two different English dubs. One dub produced by Animaze and Manga Entertainment which would be released in the U.S. and Australia that used a new instrumental theme for the opening and ending and a dub produced by ADV Films that was released exclusively to the U.K. that used the original Japanese opening and ending songs. Both of which where released on VHS in 1997. The Animaze/Manga dub even has many of the cast from the Street Fighter II movie return to reprise their roles from the film.
However, only the Animaze/Manga dub would see re-release on DVD with the ADV dub not receiving any kind of re-release, making the ADV dub something of a lost commodity.
Do I recommend Street Fighter II V? Absolutely! Especially if you're a fan of the Street Fighter franchise as a whole. However the changes made to the characters may throw some fans or people familiar with Street Fighter off as they are pretty drastic changes. All I can say is try to look past the deviations from the source material and try to look at it from the perspective that it's different to what you already know and just roll with and who knows, you might just find yourself having a good time with it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 10, 2025
Before Jojo's Bizarre Adventure there was Baoh.
Published in Weekly Shonen Jump from October 1984 to February 1985, Baoh is one of Hirohiko Araki's many pre-Jojo works and was the first to display his signiture amount of ultra violence and gore.
The OVA produced by Studio Pierrot and distributed by Toho (yes THAT Toho) in 1989 is your typical OVA that's ment to serve as a blatant advertisement for the manga it's based on.
Not to say that such OVAs are all terrible. In fact, the Baoh OVA is actually quite good.
Ikuro Hashizawa, a seventeen year old young man is turned into a human bio-weapon after the evil
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Doress Organisation infects him with a parasitic worm like creature named Baoh, which allows him to turn into a more monstrous form with superhuman strength and other abilities such as emitting corrosive substances and electrical discharge.
Ikuro manages to escape one night with a young psychic girl named Sumire and the two live on the run. The evil scientist who infected Ikuro with the Baoh parasite, Dr Kasuminome naturally isn't pleased that the product of his experiment is now roaming free and dispatches various assassins to seek and destroy Ikuro to cover his and the orginisation's tracks.
The OVA would receive praise from Hirohiko Araki as it faithfully adapted his original manga if making a few changes and omittions from the source material and felt that it was very well made.
He did however have some grievances as he felt that adapting the manga in it's entirety into a single OVA was a bit of a waste and would have preferred if it was adapted into two parts.
And to be fair to Araki, his grievances aren't wrong as the OVA does feel like it's trying to cram as much of it's source material into 48 minutes and even feels rushed at times, which is pretty much the standard for direct to video anime that is basically made to advertise the manga it's adapting.
Inspite of it's short comings, the OVA does have a lot of good things going for it.
The story is intriguing with two very likeable lead characters that we are made to care for right from the get go while the villains who hunt them are unscrupulous to the point of being outright detestable making them the perfect baddies we love to hate while rooting for the heroes and the art style, character designs and animation are beautiful to look at.
Baoh may not be a perfect anime by any means but it's definitely a well made and well written little film that I recommend seeing, especially if you're a fan of Jojo and are interested in some of Hirohiko Araki's other works or if you're a fan of ultra violent action titles like Guyver.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 22, 2025
There's really not a whole lot I can say about this anime. At least not what hasn't been said about it already.
The story starts off pretty standard sci-fi stuff with a rag tag space ship crew crash landing on an alien planet and banding together for survival before turning into what I can only describe as a messy hodge podge of ideas with psychic humanoids, gorilla like super soldiers and military dictators vying for dominance while a small band of rebel soldiers seek to take down said military dictators. Oh, and there's something about a robot super weapon as well. At least, that's what I
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got from it.
The characters aren't exactly any better either. The film has a large cast of characters but they're all just bland and uninteresting. While the animation is... passable at best.
As for the English dub, it's pretty much Central Park Media at it's worst with terrible acting and some laughably bad dialogue.
Hyper-Psychic Geo Garaga is a forgotten anime that is honestly best left forgotten. It's a dull, boring hour and a half long movie that pretty much tries to throw every idea at the wall and sees what sticks resulting in one great big boring mess that is just an absolute chore to sit through.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Feb 1, 2025
I've got to be honest, I actually went into this anime without having played the video game it's based on. Sure, as a Sega fan I certainly knew about it and had seen pictures and some gameplay footage but I had practically no knowledge of what the game was about other than it being a rail shooter with a dragon.
Which ment that for the purpose of this review, I had to go and do a little bit of research on the game's story.
In any case, the OVA follows the basic plot of the game but with some changes such as giving the protagonist Kyle (originally
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named Keil in the game) a girlfriend who is kidnapped and forcibly fused with the main antagonist Black Dragon, making for another cliche "hero has to rescue the girl" plot which proceeds at a break neck pace leaving very little time to breathe or go into any further depth in terms of world building.
The animation is a messy hodge podge of 2D and 3D thanks to the use of mid 1990s CGI backgrounds while reusing some of the same animation cycles over and over.
And while I can't speak for the original Japanese dub, the English dub by ADV Films is just plain awful with stilted performances and some laughably bad dialogue.
Oh and the characters? There's not really a whole lot I can say about them other than they're just not interesting at all.
Panzer Dragoon the OVA is honestly not an anime I would recommend. The story is dull and cliched, the animation looks and feels cheap and the characters are just plain uninteresting.
This is another one of those animes that you're better off skipping altogether. The average anime enjoyer will likely find it an underwhelming experience while fans of the game it's based on will likely be disappointed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Nov 11, 2024
Let's face it, the only reason people remember this anime is because of the English dub produced by ADV Films written by Steven Foster, which is known for it's raunchy, self aware humour that features fourth wall breaks and politically incorrect jokes (which they likely couldn't get away with today).
Other than that, it's basically just Scooby Doo with ghosts from Japanese folklore and less of the charm, which makes for a boring experience that I'm afraid not even the dub could save it from even with talent such as Hilary Haag, Chris Patton, Greg Ayres and Rob Mungle behind it.
The series is pretty much episodic
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in nature with the only semblance of any over arching plot being an evil spirit posessing a cat belonging to one of the protagonists who is basically there to talk shit to them as they try to defeat whatever evil entity they face in that particular episode.
Ghost Stories is an anime that I honestly can't recommend to anyone, especially those of the easily offended disposition. It's dull, generic and there are plenty of other horror titles out there that are worth your time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Sep 29, 2024
If you're at all familiar with the name Masami Obari, then you probably know what to expect from just about any anime his name is attached to.
Dangaizer 3 pretty much ticks all the Obari boxes. Sexy girls? Check. Giant robots? Check. Copious amounts of shameless fan service? Check and mate!
If you've seen Voltage Fighter Gowkaizer and thought that was bad, then hold on to your beer because when it comes to schlock Dangaizer takes the cake. Literally, if you know what I mean.
The plot is practically wafer thin and nonsensical, the characters are dull and uninteresting, and any action scenes are just plain boring.
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Much of the anime's focus is on the fan service which is in plentiful supply from your typical panty shots to full blown T&A and some ludicrously skimpy outfits.
The animation is decent enough though that is to be expected from an OVA from the late 90s and the design of the titular Dangaizer is certainly impressive showing that Obari certainly knows how to design a good mecha.
In conclusion, Dangaizer 3 is a shallow and just outright soulless little series that I can only recommend to the lowest denominator. The kind who couldn't give less of a shit about plot and characters and are only interested in the fan service. For anyone else I can only recommend spending your time elsewhere.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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May 5, 2024
If for some reason you ever wanted to see an anime that showcases the absolute worst of humanity, look no further than Genocyber.
Based on an unfinished 1992 manga by Tony Takezaki, this 1994 cyberpunk/biopunk OVA is an unapologeticly brutal gore fest that relishes in nihilism, human suffering and body horror.
With Koichi Ohata, who brought us such dregs as M.D. Geist and the Ikki Tousen series in the director's chair and Sho Aikawa, who is now best known for writing Martian Successor Nadesico and Full Metal Alchemist as well as various tokusatsu shows as the series writer, Genocyber is another of Aikawa's early works in anime
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that consist of immature, edgy, nihilistic themes with unlikable characters as seen in the likes of Legend of the Overfiend, Violence Jack and Angel Cop.
And Aikawa's raging hate boner for humanity is on full display here.
Genocyber just feels like it was written by an angsty teenager who is angry at the world. Most of if not all of the show's characters bar our protagonist are written as insufferably evil scum buckets with absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever to people who are just one mental breakdown away from falling into insanity. Or in some cases both. All while gleefully relishing in over the top violence and gore that would make Fist of the North Star, Violence Jack, Berserk and even Elfen Lied weep.
So what's the anime about? Well, the first episode goes something like this:
At the dawn of the 21st century, all the nations of the world have pulled together to form a new one world government while in Hong Kong, scientists under the direction of mad scientist Kenneth Reed have begun development on an ultimate bio-weapon dubbed Genocyber by combining the minds and powers of two psychic sisters, Diana, a born cripple who uses a cyborg body to move around and our protagonist Elaine, a girl born with the nervous system of an animal who escapes from Reed's lab and befriends a bullied street urchin while on the run from Reed, who acts as surrogate father to the two girls. To make matters worse the Kuryu Group, the organisation funding the Genocyber project have sent a trio of sadistic cyborg mercenaries to find and capture Elaine no matter the cost.
After a violent run in with the Kuryu Group's mercenaries followed brutal and unnecessary massacre at a hospital at the hands of Reed's masked henchmen, a scuffle with her sister Diana well as a brief fight with the Kuryu cyborgs, the inevitable finally happens where Elaine's lifeforce merges with Diana. The titular Genocyber is finally born and all hell breaks loose.
Manga Entertainment UK would realase and localise the first three episodes of Genocyber before it would see release in Japan, where it would become part part of Manga's Cyberpunk Collection alongside Cyber City Oedo and A.D. Police. And if you're at all familiar with Manga's early days as a distributor and localiser of anime you likely know what to expect from the English dub, cheesy voice acting laced with superfluous amounts of profanity.
However, it wouldn't be until Genocyber's licence was acquired by Central Park Media in 1999 that the final two episodes would see a release in English with Manga Entertainment deciding not to release it at all. And likely with good reason as it's pretty much the most boring part of the series.
In all honesty, Genocyber is not an anime I can recommend to anyone. Not even the most die hard gore fan. The series revels in absolute cruelty and hatred to the point where it's as if the writer and director want the viewer to suffer. The violence is so over the top that it's just outright uncomfortable to watch and the anime makes sure you see every grizzly detail when the blood and entrails are splattered across the screen.
It's not just the adult characters in the show who get brutally slaughtered either as the anime has absolutely no shame in killing children in full gory detail as well. The first episode even goes out of it's way to show the young street urchin Elaine befriends being molested by two of his bullies while another attempts to have his way with Elaine.
No joke, the anime even shows full on child molestation just to show how irredeemably evil the bullies are in order to make their eventual karmic retribution more deserving.
The animation is actually really good for the most part and not just for the gore scenes. There are many scenes where the animation is smooth as butter, especially during the action scenes and there is some great attention to detail in the background settings and character designs, especially the Genocyber itself which straight up looks like a demonic version of The Guyver.
However, the first episode is pretty notorious for using scenes of photorealism in some parts which just looks jarring and sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the rest of the animation.
As for the story... it tried. The first episode at least has some decent ideas but is just so poorly executed and relies on exposition dump after exposition dump with it's character dialogue. Parts 2 and 3 follow the cliched man's creation going out of control trope as an experimental super weapon goes on a bloody rampage after an encounter with the Genocyber while the final episodes are just a boring chore to sit through.
If I were to say anything good about Genocyber it would be it's music.
The soundtrack has a very good music score with many memorable tunes such as the theme that plays over the Genocyber's rampage and action scenes and the ending theme song Fairy Dreamin' by Sayuri Shimizu is a somewhat romantic yet somber hard rock track that fits the overall tone of the show and I garantee you'll be searching it up on YouTube once you've heard it.
In conclusion, Genocyber is an insufferable trashy mess with very few good things about it. It's a bleak, miserable little OVA that oozes nihilism, hatred and despair at every turn and I'm sure anyone who has already seen it would rather forget about it.
For anyone who hasn't seen this series already I can only say avoid it at all costs. However, if for some reason you want to see it for yourself, don't expect to have a good time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Mar 20, 2024
At the time of this review, it has now been 18 years since Gamera, the rocket powered flying turtle kaiju had made any form of on screen appearance. 2006's Gamera the Brave, which received generally unfavourable reviews, would be the last time the franchise would receive any new iteration for years.
With the triumphant return of Godzilla in 2014 and the kaiju renaissance started by 2013's Pacific Rim now being in full swing, many fans of the kaiju genre, myself included, clamored for the return of our favourite turtle.
Unfortunately, Gamera Rebirth would end up not being the great return we were hoping for.
Firstly, the series is
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directed by Hiroyuki Seshita who co-directed the atrocious Godzilla anime trilogy and the series is also animated in the same 3-D style which doesn't look good and comes across as stiff and janky in most places. The characters aren't particularly interesting as they just feel dull and the story definitely leaves much to be desired.
Gamera Rebirth was definitely a series that had a lot of hype behind it prior to it's release due to the fact that Gamera hadn't been seen for many years but just ended up being a disappointing series that left a bad after taste.
And honestly, Gamera deserves better.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Mar 20, 2024
I can pretty much describe this anime in one sentence: The biggest load of crap I have ever seen in all my years as a fan of anime!
And believe me, I've seen my share of garbage anime.
Okay, so the basic premise of a group of people trapped on a deserted island with giant creatures, in this case giant insects, isn't exactly anything original. It's a trope that's been used many times in movies but at the same time it can work as a plot device if done well.
Kyochuu Rettou a.k.a The Island of Giant Insects doesn't just take the same old same old cliche and
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just run with it but it does it in the sense that it knows it's cliche and just doesn't care or even attempt to do anything new or different.
The characters aren't any better either as they just come across as bland, annoying or just outright insufferable.
Add to this disgusting scenes of the giant insects killing people in a way that I can only describe as torture porn and the anime even throwing in a bathing scene where characters get off with each other in a pointless attempt to keep it interesting. The key word here being attempt.
Now you're probably asking at this point if the animation is any good.
Well, the 2-D animation is decent enough but the movie also utilises CGI animation for the giant insects which just looks awful and practically sticks out like a sore thumb.
In conclusion, all I can say is avoid this shit sandwich at all costs. It's honestly not worth you're attention.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Mar 14, 2016
Okay, let me begin by stating that I am certainly no prude when it comes to the ecchi genre. I consider it to be a guilty pleasure.
However, I've often found that anime in the genre are something to go into with low expectations as more often than not the fanservice basically takes priority over the actual plot. That being said there are ecchi anime that do at least make the effort to tell a good story such as the brilliant and hilarious Kill la Kill while some have the potential to tell a good story but just throws in so much fanservice that it distracts
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from the story such as Senran Kagura.
Which brings us to Freezing. And when it comes to low expectations, by God did I have them for this series. I remember reading a review in a magazine once that gave it a negative review with a one star rating out of five. Nonetheless I went into the show and decided to see it for myself.
And I ended up coming out of it feeling unfulfilled.
To cut a long story short, the series is set in the far future where giant aliens called NOVA threaten humankind. The only way to fight the threat is by sending in female soldiers called Pandora whom are trained by a school/training facility named Genetics and are backed by male partners called Limiters who cast an ability called Freezing to trap the aliens and supply power to their Pandora partners while they handle the fighting.
At least that's what the series is suppose to be about. Instead we get another school fighting anime where many of the female characters are absolutely hateful, big breasted brats who's sole intention is to bully and kick each others arses rather than focus on dealing with the alien threat because there so caught up in fighting each other.
And the male characters? HA! Talk about a joke! They practically do nothing but hide behind their Pandora partners while casting their Freezing spells and empowering them. Other than that they do practically nothing and might as well not even be there.
Now your probably wondering where the whole "alien monsters bent on destroying humanity" plot point come in to this. Well, sadly it doesn't. Oh it's brought up in the first episode and a few other times in the series but it never comes into the story until the final three episodes.
And it's unfortunate because this is where the series had potential! Instead we get an other Ikki Tousen clone (so to speak) with plently of clothes shredding fight scenes of women hating each other for one reason or another with male characters that might as well be redundant.
Okay, so I should probably move on to what was actually good about the series.
Well, the animation and art are fantastic, the fight scenes are certainly entertaining and the music is decent.
To conclude, Freezing is a well animated series that had the potential to be pretty decent but ultimately falls flat due to bad story telling and bland characters. But somehow I can't bring myself to call it terrible, more like something that needed more work. A lot more work.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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