This series is really the most bizarre of the 80s and that says alot.
Rem is a young looking girl who works as a private detective able to jump into dreams and nightmares in order to stop demons from draining the life force of it's victims, her default form being a short woman with a gun who could easily be mistaken for a child yet drives a car while her battle form is more akin to a warrior girl in a battle bikini or for the sake of it, aerobics leotard in her more adult forms, despite being brutally murdered in many gruesome ways, Rem always seems to escape unharmed, a testament to her abilities of being able to take charge in dreams.
Dream Hunter Rem is hard to categorise as the jarring whiplash in genres can range from thriller to fantasy to graphic horror in the space of one scene, the addition of mascots, a monk and detectives along with child characters makes this one of the 80s most bizarre anime, it really doesn't know what to do with itself.
Dub's existence is questionable, I've no knowledge of one.
Final Verdict: It doesn't know what it wants to be, nor does it know what main character Rem is supposed to be? It's too bizarre to work as anything.
I heard someone categorise this as Grindhouse, yeah I can see that being used to describe the often confusing old anime era.
Dr Watson is a brilliant scientist who brings to life a humanoid called Antoinette. Arriving to meet the scientist are duo Eric and Alan who are returning to the planet mostly to meet with Dr Watson's daughter Sheri, but plotting to takeover is Governor Proud who seeks to claim an ancient spaceship who has a pretty easy job of it considering how easy it was to overthrow the princess and Watson's friend, however said spaceship could devastate the planet, so it's left to Antoinette to jump into action to save the day backed by a cheesy 80s soundtrack.
This OVA really clutches at straws to form a basic plot relying heavily on the Star Wars text crawl for exposition dumping, the so called title character probably has the least screentime bar maybe the princess and lacks much development bar being able to jump into action and trying to work out the concept of love, if not for the soundtrack this would be a bust, dub is pretty mediocre but not terrible, although I think coffee is brought up eight times in the whole 45 minute run time.
Final Verdict: It's not great but there's enough of a curiosity to at least see it as another 80s inspired grindhouse anime that isn't as violent as it's contemporaries.
This isn't going to end well.
In a world torn up by flames, it's survivors of the Great Cataclysm are constantly at risk of spontaneous combustion turning would be victims into infernals, monstrous looking demons of fire, to combat this, several organisations form the Fire Force, a group of individuals made up of a mix of Fire Fighters and Pyrokinesis wielders, focussing on Company 8 of the Fire Force, we have Shinra, a hero wannabe known as the Devil's footprint for his fire feet who is out to discover the circumstances behind his mother's death and brother's disappearance as it becomes clear that one or more groups within are behind the spontaneous combustion incidents.
This is by the same creator as Soul Eater and is implied to be in the same universe as well, the nature of how the subject of fire is used can create some disturbing, horrific moments considering that no one in universe is safe especially when it becomes apparent what the actual cause is, so the setting really creates a high stakes environment and the blue coats of the Fire Force are the best uniforms in all shonen anime beating out Naruto's jackets and Bleach's robes.
But as a Shonen series, it's weak in execution as it can really make the use of fire seem painfully dull and uninspired as Shinra alone is basically a fighter with rocket shoes as a main power and the personality to match, Sanji can do that without Pyrokinesis while other prominent fire users like Ace and Natsu are much better wielders in Shonen anime, even ninja in Naruto use it better.
I hate using this term because Soul Eater was much better made and it's a term that gets thrown around on Twitter too much but Fire Force is painfully mid.
I would've appreciated it alot more if it were all Fire Fighters without Pyrokinesis as it ups the risk factor and gives more weight to the struggles, it could improve later but I'm not confident beyond season 1.
Dub maybe okay but expect some familiar casting.
Final Verdict: A painfully mid shonen with a good setting and the potential to do better if it went a different direction than what season 1 offered.
A quick crappy anime from the earliest days of ADVFilms.
Akihiro finds an interesting rug on his walkabouts which he decides to take home in the hopes of impressing class mate Miyuki. Mistaking a back handed comment as benevolence, a pink haired girl emerges from the rug called Malon and immediately declares undying love for the hapless twerp as in a space of a few minutes manages to ruin Akihiro's date with Miyuki, magically convince Akihiro's mother that she is his cousin and get kicked out of the house for using magic to manipulate everything in her favour.
Malon is from Phantasia, a place we never see as the budget only allowed us to stare at Japan, an exile named Roll chases after Malon to eliminate her but Malon refuses to fight back as she has no free will of her own to ignore Akihiro's comments, it takes two of Malon's friends to get Akihiro to take back his comments to save Malon's life and what will start as a relationship if the series was actually picked up, it obviously wasn't since this is a sad rip off of Urusei Yatsura but instead of the lead being the godmother of tsunderes, she is a pathetic naive door mat to an ass hole who will dump her for a better model; I'm with Roll on this one, probably would've ended better if he burned the rug.
I don't even want to think about this being a dub.
Final Verdict: A clone of a better anime with no redeeming qualities.
The full title is Banished from the Hero's Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, but I'm not writing that in the title.
In a world where divine blessings decide your path in life, the heroes party is formed to eliminate the Demon Lord, but the sage of the group banishes Gideon for being a liability despite his sister Ruti being the hero.
Changing his name to Red and settling down in the countryside opening an apothecary and later being joined by Princess Rizlet "Rit" in a very believable loving romance, but among the quiet is a drug problem threatening to disrupt Red's new found peace.
I don't think an overarching plot of drugs and backstabbing is really necessary, I'm here for the romance between Red and Rit, probably the most adorable couple in all of anime and proof that romance in anime isn't dead.
I can quite easily ignore the more serious elements just to watch Red and Rit buy a bed together, it's very much a bare bones budget fantasy anime otherwise.
Dub is serviceable at least, Ruti especially is unexpectedly hilarious when she bitch slaps Ares in a very bloody manner.
Final Verdict: A stale fantasy series with a beautiful romance within the tired plot of fantasy tropes.
