I'm pleased I get to review this one.
Kenichi is a frequent victim of bullying until he meets Miu, Miu being the granddaughter of a martial arts master introduces Kenichi to the martial arts dojo Ryozanpaku in which he is trained brutally by the dojos eccentric masters. After defeating his bullies he is then targeted by Ragnarok, a group of tough fighters who keep order and target anyone that breaks it.
This feels more grounded than most shonen which I welcome because after a while, super human exploits can wear thin, especially if it boils down to repetitive fights with the same few actions, Kenichi avoids this by mixing up his martial arts styles and the fact that it's not always him doing the fighting, the variety feeling much closer to fighting games than fighting game anime itself.
While the story is basically a bounty list of people to fight, there is an endearing quality to what goes on especially with the masters who teach some very useful techniques.
Dub is really good with many standout performances.
Final Verdict: This is what I expect from a good fighting game anime even though it isn't one, a well rounded Shonen series with a great balance of action, characters and solid martial arts.
Now here's a title that could use the love.
Yusuke is just your typical delinquent until a heroic act saving a child ends in his death; Koenma shocked by Yusuke's act means that neither Heaven or Hell can accept him so he gives Yusuke another chance of life by making him a Spirit Detective to catch rogue demons leading him to meet future allies Kurama and Hiei. Yusuke's notoriety leads him to the Dark Tournament where he must fight the strongest demons. With training from Genkai along with Kuwabara, Kurama and Hiei, Yusuke must win the tournament but the more he discovers the demon world, the more demon he becomes.
I'm in two minds about this, I always found this anime started slow and the plot was meh but then the Dark Tournament gave us some really great action, it's a frustrating mix that extends to Hunter X Hunter. Yu Yu Hakusho fairs way better and easily compares well with other Shonen Jump titles but it's story really didn't draw me in as much as Naruto, One Piece and at first initially Bleach.
Dub is fair for the time, nothing to write home about.
Final Verdict: I wish I could say more but other than decent fight scenes, there really isn't much to grab hold of in Yu Yu Hakusho. It does it's job fine but I find that the story is so lacking that it can't keep my interest.
Now for a trip to the 80s.
2032 Tokyo, the city having recovered from an Earthquake has given rise to a growing gap in rich and poor allowing megacorp Genom to do as they please including it's development of Boomers, cyborgs built for jobs and war but these cyborgs have a nasty habit of going rogue. The AD Police assigned to tackle this are under funded, under equipped and likely held back because of political meddling. Enter Sylia Stingray who forms a team of vigilante women in power suits called the Knight Sabers, made up of AD Police Hacker Nene, Night Club Singer Priss and Aerobics Instructor Linna. Even if the boomers are being stopped, the conspiracies behind their creation deepens as to why they came to become rogue.
If there's any show which encapsulates 80s then it's this one, the creators took plenty of inspiration from Japan's new fondness of American film back in the mid 80s including most notably Blade Runner and Streets of Fire. Being an 80s child myself, I can appreciate the references on display.
The anime itself works well in it's setting and can pull off some decent action but the story is somewhat moot as disputes between it's owners caused the series to end unexpectedly with sequel Bubblegum Crash only barely scrapping an ending. It wouldn't be the only issue plaguing the story. The villains are written in a way that never sees them punished for their actions and even when one of their own turns against them they don't seem to do much about it. The Knight Sabers themselves are a mixed bag with Nene being a genki airhead, Priss starting bad ass then becoming one note by Bubblegum Crash, Linna who I always feel was never really suited for this and Sylia lacking an edge to her character. It's frustrating to see especially when the actresses added more drama behind the scenes with contract disputes affecting the episodes at the time.
The dub was remarkably good for it's time even going as far as to translate all the music which is a mixed bag at best in English but in it's original Japanese it's argubly one of Anime's best soundtracks.
Final Verdict: A fun cyberpunk series heavily flawed by it's troubled production history. The plot struggles to stay grounded but I find it admirable that they still pulled off a good series in spite of the story.
Let's add another pointless OVA to the list as I look at Baby Love.
Seara makes a love confession to older childhood friend Shohei, four years later and much taller, Seara moves in with Shohei's family because her parents are moving to America, this gives her the chance to prove her love to Shohei but she's in for a rough time.
Honestly this is what Marmalade Boy should've been, there's alot less bull shit to comb through but it's still pretty bad; Seara goes to some pretty big lengths to make sure she's still the first choice for Shohei but seems to get out of situations much easier than other heroines in her position. The OVA doesn't really give me much more to work with which is a shame because it might become a solid love story.
No dub, this is one OVA that didn't get released with a more popular title.
My only other issue is with age and Koharu. This might be the fan subs fault but it's never really made clear how old Seara is supposed to be, at one point 15 was quoted but I don't know if it was aimed at Shohei or Seara. If it's Shohei then Seara is 12. Also until it was pointed out, I didn't know Koharu was female. Leave it to the art style to confuse the hell out of me.
Final Verdict: Less bull shit than Marmalade Boy but not nearly as memorable as Marmalade Boy. Had it made TV series status it may have been better but that's something we'll never find out.
This is what research gets you when you track down bad anime.
A giant squid appears and an elite team of busty women piloting mechs to defeat them, that's pretty much it. I'd make more effort but this anime clearly didn't so it only deserves this much.
For more context this was a PS2 anime game and the OVA was meant to create more interest but it was poorly edited, did very little with the characters on screen and tried to cram an obviously planned 12 episode series into less than 15 minutes, the icing on the cake, the same people made Mars of Destruction, so one company is responsible for two of the worst anime in history.
Even when taking the game and what it should be into account it's still terrible, it reeks of bad design choices in regards to mecha, premise and character design.
A dub would improve it, only if it took the piss out of it.
Final Verdict: Severe lack of effort from all parties but is it the worst? No, it's status as a one episode OVA reduces it to failed pilot episode status so it was already looking to be rejected. To really be considered the worst in my book, you'd have to fail at making an effort.
