Sometimes it's better just to stick with the trailer.
In the 1920s, Inaho revives the vampire Mosquiton alongside his servants the fire demon Honoo and the snow woman Yuki.
Inaho obsessed with the anaemic Mosquiton desires the O-Part, an artifact said to grant immortality so she can stay with the scrawny vampire forever, drawn to a mysterious pyramid in London, Inaho goes after the O-Part, what begins is a quest to discover the true meaning of the pyramids as well as the unwelcome return of Mosquiton's first bride Camille.
Yeah my disappointment is obvious that I really didn't like this anime, it's not totally unsalvageable as the TV series takes a different path but this OVA is just painful to watch.
Inaho is the most selfish brat in all of anime, not that we haven't seen this type of character before but no where is it explained why she loves Mosquiton nor have we seen any feature in her that makes anyone want to support her, I'm kind of glad that Camille shows up as a rival and that Honoo and Yuki aren't so willing to put up with her shit unless Mosquiton says so which considering he dies nearly every episode its impressive the two servants bother to stick around, I've completely lost control of the plot by the end and I'm actually happy Inaho never got her way.
The dub just made Inaho even worse due to no indoor voice as well as Mosquiton sounding way too goofy to be taken seriously as a vampire. It's a shame really, the trailer made this anime look way more interesting.
Final Verdict: Horrible protagonists become so annoying that the plot is lost in frustration, the TV series may save it but I'm not looking forward to it, especially if nothing changes with the tone.
While researching, I've come across anime that never followed the trends at the time of their release, this could be a number of reasons, they were ahead of their time, they missed their time, can't be described as matching any trend or missed the point entirely.
10. Sakura Wars
The Steampunk genre never actually caught on as an anime trend despite many fans liking the aesthetic for costume design. Period piece anime often covered drama, romance or popular masterpiece stories and even those stories set in Britain were more based on British myths and legends. Sakura Wars was popular but didn't last.
9. Saiyuki
Journey to the West has been covered dozens of times but not in the way Kazuya Minekura did, the band of four males led by a disgruntled priest more resembling Final Fantasy 15 than anime. Way ahead of it's time.
8. Fancy Lala
Adapted from the prototype Fashion Lala, Fancy Lala is a magical girl series where the lead character uses a magical item to become a young adult to either solve problems or become a star, they were very popular in the 80s but died off thanks to Sailor Moon, Fancy Lala missed the boat by a decade.
7. Yokai Watch
Much like Fancy Lala, it arrived a decade after it's trend had passed, for Yokai Watch it's the Pokemon clones, although it had reasonable popularity, it was really short lived.
6. G Gundam
While every Gundam series is an epic war space opera, G Gundam is a testosterone fueled robot battle tournament, as I consider Gundam it's own trend, this one really feels out of place.
5. Angelic Layer
You make an anime about fighting toy dolls but don't make it an actual toyline at a time where toy anime was in fashion. Another poor decision from Clamp.
4. Stop Hibari Kun
The anime itself was trendy as a romantic comedy in the early 80s when Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku were king. It's themes on Gender Identity were 40 years ahead of it's time.
3. Tenchi Muyo
More of a Western perspective on this one, why introduce a sci-fi romcom that popularised the harem genre on Toonami among shows like Gundam Wing and Dragonballz? Yeah it had action but not that much, most episodes of Tenchi were very sitcom like in presentation, it's alternate name No Need For Tenchi is a quip on lead character Tenchi's lack of presence despite being the lead.
2. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is an 80s manga franchise that took 20 years to see an anime adaption that came in as a force of nature no one saw coming that ignored all the trends and could never be imitated, only one older series surpasses it.
1. Lupin the 3rd
Lupin the 3rd has been in every era of anime since 1967 and has never had to change anything, it's never been imitated, it's never followed trends, it's the most original IP in all of Anime next to only Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
This will be the final review of this month.
Lina Inverse is quite the well known sorceress whether it be for taking out bandits, claiming treasure or causing destruction where ever she walks, she one day crosses paths with a swordsman named Gourry who possesses the sword of light, something Lina seeks to take but the two end up as travel companions, later joined by the justice loving princess Amelia and the shrine maiden Sylphiel.
When Lina's group cross paths with Zelgadis, a plot unravels involving the blind priest Rezo as he attempts to revive the demon ruby eye Shabranigdu, with Zelgadis switching to Lina's side and the fate of the world on the line, Lina and her party must put a stop to Rezo the Red Priest's demonic plan.
For a first season, Slayers is incredibly rusty with it's story telling but it's a strong fantasy franchise with a deep lore and a protagonist strong enough to fit the setting, I still get goosebumps everytime Lina unleashes the Dragon Slave, one of the strongest regular attacks in anime history, and while she is supposed to be on the side of good, I like that she's more chaotic than most, I'm also glad she has more characters to play off of, something Slayers lacked in the prequel OVAs.
I'd say it's the weakest of the original trilogy as it's only a taster of the world on offer and the mid 90s humour is kinda cringy in places, not helped by the dub as you cannot unhear the Pokemon dub casting for the main cast.
Final Verdict: A slow start to an otherwise great fantasy franchise with the promise of more to come from the original trilogy.
We're almost at the end now, next up is a nice surprise.
Moka along with her companions Buruman the cat theif and Kiriman the kangeroo/dog mute mage are adventurers for hire but don't have the best success rate, after a scuffle with a few thugs, they get scouted to retrieve the dragon's head at the fire temple, after destroying the temple, freeing it's people and obtaining the dragon head, the head speaks to them persuading them to go to the water palace to obtain armour and finally to the tower of wind where their employer reveals their true intentions, aided by Moka's sentient sword Espre, Moka and her party must stop a major catastrophe from happening to the world.
I went into this expecting nothing but got way more than I thought, the setting reminds me of Dragonball's world where humans seemingly co-exist with animal people, in fact it looks directly inspired by Dragon Quest so the comparison is relevant.
It's not that refined but I find the rough story telling one of it's biggest strengths, while nothing else was taken from the manga, the stuff they did take was a good starter and I wouldn't mind seeing this again.
Dub I don't think would be necessary, one of the characters is mute, so it really would be an empty gesture to try one.
This comes under hidden gem and I'm happy to have seen this, every now and again you need a reminder of why you like anime so it's always good to dig out something only a select few know of and just enjoy it without having to deal with the baggage and that's the strength of a good OVA, if it's bad you haven't really lost anything, if it's good then you have that good feeling inside knowing that you discovered a lost treasure, there's more to anime than just Dragonballz, Pokemon and Sailor Moon.
Final Verdict: Very rough around the edges but works in it's favour, a pleasant fantasy adventure with a decent soundtrack, great setting and likeable characters.
I have alot to say about this one and not a lot will be good.
Makoto arrives in Tokyo to study under the famous magician Mamoru Hoshisato, as well as reuniting with Mamoru's daughter Hatena, his childhood friend, no sooner does he arrive when Hatena reacts in horror as Hatena didn't realize that Makoto was male, hostile at first Hatena grows to rely on Makoto as a reliable partner when she becomes a phantom thief to steal back her mother's artifacts, items imbued with magical properties such as Hatena's sentient muffler and Makoto's own magical wand. With Hatena's mother stuck in her family's unreasonable demands, an aunt who were still not sure is a villain of not and a younger sister battling social insecurities and her own developing powers, the unity of Makoto and Hatena will need everything to complete their task.
I'll get the good out the way quickly, it's nice looking animation wise, Yumemi, Ema and Jeeves are superb characters, everything else, is just terrible.
Start with the pacing, three episodes spent on abusing Makoto, three episodes spent on Yumemi's social issues, three episodes spent on training to be worthy and the final three episodes on plot already wasting a good chunk of time there.
Even though I mentioned three characters being good in reality the entire cast are all offbrand versions of better characters, none of them felt unique to say that they only come from this anime.
Hatena is just not likeable, she reacts worse than most twitter users if someone dares to argue with them, I was almost tempted to drop the whole thing after two episodes because I didn't sign up to a romantic comedy of bitch slapping the male lead for existing when he doesn't deserve it but like a good reviewer I soldiered on and while that element doesn't stick around, Hatena doesn't really improve her attitude much, kinda feel bad for Makoto as I don't think he signed up for this either, a late character introduction gives him a rival who hates him for no reason.
This anime was released in 2020 and I'm guessing it didn't live up to anything as I was able to watch it on youtube perfectly without any edits which was uploaded just after it finished airing in about June 2020, stuff like this gets hit with the copyright bot straight away but I only finished this anime today, it's so bad no one will even claim the copyright for it on YouTube.
I avoided the dub but considering how characters act, it's probably not good.
Final Verdict: Poor pacing, offbrand of better characters and a lead who is unlikable in any sense, I was lucky not to waste any money on this.
