Back to the Grindhouse for more lost anime.
The story revolves around a planet featuring a band of mercenaries who discover a sacred weapon that can wipe out their inorganic foes but take the planet with it, the whole feature is basically them running from these mechas but the only thing anyone will remember about this feature is the unique art and the space girl Rasa who has the most well drawn butt in animation and they spare no expense in showcasing these assets, otherwise you will barely know what's going on, the manga is an artistic master piece but doesn't translate nearly as well to animation, it's best saved for the art books unique to the 80s anime era, the dub is nothing to write home about either but at least it's competent.
Final Verdict: I haven't a clue for this one, it's history is far better explained by an actual anime historian than me.
More PC-Engine trash.
Known by the subtitles as Galaxy Cougar's Trap, Cosmic Fantasy is a cheesy space series about intergalactic crime fighters.
Yuu and Saya are on their day off when their comrade Nyan messes it all up by sending a distress beacon, while Saya sulks in her room, a real alarm activates and Yuu is in battle with a lady space pirate, when Yuu gets injured, Saya steps up to fight but fails to defeat the pirate, Yuu releases his hidden power and ends the battle saving Saya as the pirate vows to return.
The game series is popular enough for a modern re-release, it's anime however hasn't done enough to convince me it's worth playing, for all it's universe building, it really fails in trying to make me give a crap about Yuu and Saya.
Yuu is clueless and one dimensional while Saya is very petty and selfish, if I don't like the leads, it's already a bad start.
If Yuu and Saya were allowed to actually go on a full date, I probably would've got more out of them but I get the sense that Nyan the cat mechanic is the type of character who is going to cock block every scene, whether we want him to or not.
Dub is non existent.
Final Verdict: An underwhelming sci fi space action with a little bit of cheesy music thrown in.
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.
