Burn Up!
A 1-episode OVA from 1991. I have to say, it's pretty bad. Fan service, violence, overkill, shoddy plot, some poor acting. Of course, I have nothing against with violence and overkill in anime. When it's done right, it can be operatic and epic, like in Black Lagoon or Hellsing. Here, it's just cheesy. Nothing about the setting is ever explained, although one can surmise that it's set in a near-future Mega Tokyo type scenario. The plot isn't much to write home about either: the police are trying to get the goods on a crime boss who's been kidnapping young women and selling them into slavery. Yuka, the pink-haired ditz of the group, is captured by the baddies, leading her friends Maki and Remy to bust in with the overkill ordinance.
A few comedic moments here and there help to ease the pain, but overall this is one of the worst things I've ever seen. As for the poor acting, admittedly I watched the dub, but I doubt watching it in the original language would have done much to save it.
Ghost Hunt ep 1 - 3
Mai Taniyama is an ordinary high school girl who likes telling ghost stories with her friends. One day she meets Kazuya Shibuya, the teenage boss of Shibyua Psychic Research, and ends up assisting him in his investigation of alleged spirit activity at and abandoned school. In short order, a whole slew of people show up to investigate: a Shinto priestess, a Buddhist monk, a Catholic priest, and a spirit medium. Are there spirits haunting the old school? Or is there some logical explanation?
I remember watching these first three episodes last year, and I enjoyed them at the time, so I'm glad to finally have the chance to give the whole series a try, since I like exploring the horror subgenre of anime.
As a whole, this arc of the series is more mystery than horror, as the group attempts to find out what is causing the disturbances. Kazuya claims it can all be explained by subsidence, as the school is sinking due to unstable ground, but the others remain unconvinced, although each attempt to exorcise whatever spirits may be there fails.
I like the varied cast of characters. Each brings their own strength and personality to the mix, livening up the episodes. John Brown's Australian accent does sound pretty lame at first, but I eventually got used to it. Having such a mismatched bunch of lead characters is always a recipe for entertainment if it's played right. Another aspect that I enjoy is the series' theme, which makes me think of the 90s revival of The Outer Limits. It helps set the mood much better than if the show had been stuck with a random pop song.
Silent Mobius ep 18 - 20
Katsumi and Roy get put through the emotional wringer. While Roy wonders if he could ever have the strength to kill Katsumi if she went bad, Katsumi herself wonders if she can ever be happy and live a normal life. Their relationship teeters on the edge several times: will they break up or will they pull through? There's a lot of talk of "the power of love" and how this great human emotion is more powerful than the Lucifer Hawk imagine, and it quite often spills over into melodrama in my opinion.
Stirring things up is Ganossa Maximillian, the one who perverted Project Gaia and nearly destroyed the world. He does his best to torture Katsumi and Roy, hoping that Roy's death will turn Katsumi to the 'dark side', as it were. After the couple prove how powerful their love is, things begin to look brighter until Ganossa comes in and flat-out murders Roy anyway, so all the pain and angst of the last three episodes comes to nothing in the end. Katsumi gives in to her rage and releases enough power to level several buildings. Things have taken a decidedly dark turn now, and the AMP may have to potentially face Katsumi as an enemy.
ep 21 - 23
The show time-skips six months ahead, and Katsumi has been missing the entire time. Meanwhile with no more Lucifer Hawk activity, the AMP officers have drifted off to other positions in the force. But then Katsumi suddenly returns, although it's obvious that she's not the same as she once was.
There's a scene in Ep 21 that bugged the living hell out of me. Kiddy thinks Katsumi has attacked Yuki, but Katsumi plays innocent and everyone blames Kiddy for overreacting, and she even blames herself... despite the fact that just a minute before Katsumi did a wild flip and threw her dagger right at Kiddy! Did everyone suddenly get selective amnesia? Plus nobody seems to notice that, following a lunar ecplise, the moon is now red. All of this left me horribly confused to the point where I was yelling at the screen.
So Katsumi rejoins the team, but of course things aren't what they seem, and it's revealed that she is possessed by the Demon Sword Medium, a sentient weapon just like Grospoliner, and under the control of Ganossa. Things look even more bleak when the police department heads and financial sponsors vote to dissolve the AMP, but Rally pulls a great switch on them, revealing that she's bought out the police force. As bad as things have been getting, I was afraid it might be one of the baddies, so it lifted my spirits and gave me a smile to see that the AMP wasn't going under after all. Now all that remains is the final battle...
You're Under Arrest! ep 25 - 31
First up, Sena (Ken's stepmother) gets her cousin to try and help her get Ken and Miyuki to admit their feelings to each other. The relationship between Miyuki and Nakajima has been one of the major plot thread of the series since the beginning. No matter what schemes everyone has planned, Miyuki and Ken continue to remain too shy to ever say anything to each other.
Other adventures include a bomb threat on a department store; the return of Saori, a girl Natsumi and Miyuki met early in the season, who manages to find trouble again when she finds herself in the middle of a case involving stolen bacteria from a bio-lab; Natsumi totals her new bike and buys a car from a con artist, but Miyuki merges the two vehicles to build Natsumi a super bike-car; and the gang tries to bring down an egotistical star who doesn't care about breaking the law.
Finally there's a 2-part story in which the Chief and a kid are caught outside on the Tokyo Tower with high winds threatening to blow them off. I enjoyed this story particularly, partly because it was the first 2-parter in the series, and also because it's the first one that actually has a feeling of real peril and danger in the midst of a show that is lighthearted almost all of the rest of the time.
