This will be a unique experience for everyone.
Hiroshi, an employee from tech firm ZIC has just developed a device that allows his body to ignore the laws of physics, dubbed the MOL-Unit, this allows him to play Superman for a short time, 666 seconds to be exact with the added condition of not being able to wear clothes for the transformation. When his sister finds out what he's been doing she adds her own feminine touch to the program making a female version of the hero form. Unable to use a female body to fight, Hiroshi lends superhero duties to Mirai so she can fight the androids of mad scientist Dr Machinegal who keeps stealing 20th Century artifacts. Adding to Mirai's dilemma, her crush is off to space to discover the universe beyond.
In six episodes, Moldiver packs more into it's anime than shows that last longer than 50, it's an intriguing plot that celebrates 20th century culture with a unique and scientific version of making Superman. It's a quirky OVA with a retro style sci-fi feel backed up by a likeable cast of characters. It can be corny on occasion and little brother character Nozomu's motives are questionable when such high stakes are present but is nonetheless a solid OVA.
Dub is very basic with Dr Machinegal stealing the show and Mirai sounding more like a Nickelodeon protagonist.
My biggest takeaway from the anime is how much care it takes in presenting 20th Century artifacts like the Six Wheeled Formula 1 car, the Battleship Yamato and the Apollo 11. Keep in mind it's set only 25 years from now so the events are mostly plausible. These types of Sci-fi stories just work better.
Final Verdict: A solid Sci-fi story with a slice of cheese to go with it's already well packed six episode run.
This isn't on my review list but it has an interesting place in anime history.
Kazuto is an average kid until a close encounter with an alien leads him to Narue, a cute girl with her own alien heritage. This encounter ends with them becoming a couple but Kazuto will find that said alien heritage of Narue will come at him in many forms testing his love for Narue.
Now the interesting bit, over a decade ago this was the worst rated anime on Anime News Network, today much worst anime has come and gone with World of Narue no longer on the list. So is that title deserved?
The worst I can really say about this anime is that it's bare bones basic but I'll break it down.
Characters: really generic but at the very least there is character development and it at least made certain characters better later but far from groundbreaking.
World: It has the same problem as Onegai Teacher, it forgets how to Sci-Fi but while that show can back up it's romance with mature subjects, Narue is bland in comparison.
Animation: Forgettable, doesn't do anything that makes it stand out, it has the early 00s problem of the colour palette feeling bleached with only Bathyscaphe standing out among the cast who should be in Tenchi Muyo.
Plot: The fact that Narue is an alien gets forgotten very quickly and they tend to over complicate the plot with weird sub plots like Narue's older sister being younger than her or whatever the hell the android girl was trying to accomplish by mind controlling everyone.
Dub: I cannot un-hear the Pokemon cast but they do a good job despite some really bland dialogue.
So to sum up, characters are fine and they at least have development, the world doesn't know how to Sci-fi but it's romance is too bland to compensate, the animation is forgettable bar a couple of characters inspired by Tenchi Muyo, the plot makes you forget Narue is an alien with subplots that create more questions than answers and finally the dubbing feels very 4Kids Pokemon era, not surprising given that the voice talent consists of Ash, Misty, Jessie and Gary Oak.
So is it the worst? No, not even close, it's biggest offense is being too generic.
Final Verdict: it's just a bland forgettable series that doesn't do much with it's alien theme but it's far from being the worst anime.
Let's get back to the grind then.
Translated as "Stupid Italy" Hetalia is the personification of World Nations, most notably Europe which mark out events in World History including America's Independence, the Holy Roman Empire and of course World War II with North Italy (yes Italy was split once) being the main character these events revolve around. It's done as a gag comedy that takes light hearted punts at Historical Events mostly for laughs but sometimes can be heart warming or even tearjerking depending on the event.
The dub went the extra mile and added accents which is as cringy as it sounds but the narrator wins purely on her sense of humour as well as the script itself being fun.
Each episode is barely five minutes long so it doesn't out stay it's welcome however some segments particularly cat-talia really scrapes the barrel for comedy, it also works against the series to have some notable nations missing as well as failing to really dig deeper beyond the Allies and Axis Powers. Also the movie was dreadful, proving that they lack the creative process to come up with original storylines relying on historical facts and country to country relations only.
Final Verdict: When done right Hetalia can really be insightful and fun but it's clear the writers are working from a very limited well of ideas when the best original storyline they can come up with is the same characters as cats.
I ain't done with you yet Ghibli.
The story is from the point of view of Sho who explains the story of the Borrowers from a week during summer at his mother's childhood home.
The Borrowers are tiny people who live in the floorboards of houses and as the name suggests, borrow things from humans but their society is a closely guarded secret so any form of discovery and they move on to another place, this version could be seen as just another house they visit. Being British and the story being British written, this is the weakest version of the Borrowers, mostly because I expected more from such an idea in anime format be it film or TV series, yet what I got was a version so watered down it lost it's whimsy and became boring.
Dubbing is better but lacking still.
Final Verdict: This film lacks whimsy, imagination and adventure, it's just so boring to sit through that reading the Borrowers would actually be easier.
So Tales From Earthsea.......Yeah?
The world is no longer in balance as the Black Dragon kills a White Dragon, an event believed impossible signalling the decline of the world. We move to Prince Arren who after slaying his father, wanders the world until being picked up by Sparrowhawk, an Archmage and also tagging along is a girl freed by slavers named Therru. Sparrowhawk aims to restore balance to the world, but danger is never far away.
I really don't care for this, even my synopsis ends so abruptly, Tales From Earthsea is the worst movie Studio Ghibli has ever done which is a shame because it looks amazing with it's animation.
The story is hard to follow, the lead character gives me no reason to like him, the action is bland, the dub voice acting is monotone and barely anyone sounded invested in their performance and finally it barely adapted the original Earthsea book at all.
Final Verdict: I can't tell if Studio Ghibli got complacent, lazy or simply didn't care, either way this is easily the worst anime film I've ever watched
