Goku Midnight Eye - Part 1

Judging from the various films and animations I have reviewed for this website, you would be right in assuming I am an advocate for the anarchic, exploitative days of the 80's and 90's where anything seemed to pass and noone played safe. Now, especially so with animation that trend has reversed. I admittedly hope I am not the only one who is somewhat exasperated by the glut of flashy 3D CGI toons chock full of inane pop culture references, yawn-inducing kid underdog stories and animation that no matter how detailed each polygon looked made me rather admire a gorgeously shaded cel crafted by hand any day.

Furthermore, practically no animation director seems to want to make the decision to create movies that tackled dark, unconventional narratives all while wrapped in worlds draped with hues of blue and black. Where women were not ungodly bobbleheads voiced by washed up celebrities, men were charismatic badasses with laser magnums and cyborgs fought psychics in battles that would bring multiple dimensions to their knees. Good thing Yoshiaki Kawajiri is their to delight me with his warped spins on reality. Kawajiri is mainly well known for his 90's gorefest Ninja Scroll as well as his recent take on the Highlander franchise in The Search For Vengeance; I myself was actually introduced to his work through Lensman, his debut in 1984. Eventually I also saw 1987's Wicked City which to me is honestly one of the finest animated films I have seen (something which I rarely say about most animations) with it's creative blend of horror and film noir supported by gorgeous animation and character designs along with a wonderfully macabre atmosphere. 

But out of all of his works, the one that seems to have slipped through the cracks is his two-part OVA series from 1989 Goku: Midnight Eye. This short lived animation was adapted from a three volume manga by Buichi Terasawa famously known as the creator of the kitschy space opera Space Adventure Cobra. So what happens when Terasawa's kitsch blends with Kawajiri's demon-encrusted imagination? The setting is a futuristic Tokyo, extensively rebuilt after a second great earthquake nearly wipes the city from the map. In this crazy world teeming with reprobates and criminals is the leather jacket sporting, no shirt on underneath (but still has a tie), hardcore private detective known as Goku. Immediately off the bat we know this guy is no ordinary cop (his dress sense notwithstanding) when he tangles with a cyborg accountant whose arms can stretch out like bubblegum. Goku with the help of a tiny metal rod, bashes one of the man's arms in half and stabs him through the stomach, all to retrieve a small key for the guy's turquoise haired girlfriend. The woman offers to repay him (*cough*sex*cough*) but Goku being a man refuses politely and requests for a payment to his account. 

Goku cruises into the brightly lit city ahead, driving the point home that no matter how many times Japan rebuilds itself it will come crashing down again one day. Naturally this leads to the title card. We cut to a bar featuring possibly the craziest looking erotic dancer known to mankind; a woman with motorbike handlebars and a gearbox protruding out of her back while an engine revs in the background with the music. Just for effect her breasts our jiggling too, just to make the place more 'adult.'

An observer in the bar stares in the direction of a shady looking man sitting motionless with a glass of red wine, his reflection clearly showing in a window next to him. The other man prepares to strike when all of a sudden, peacock feathers with glowing pink eyes stretch from behind the two way window. The glow transfixes the man who consequently commits suicide through a shot to the head. Is your mind boggled now by the way? It turns out that this is just another in a string of mysterious deaths that are decimating the ranks of the police's Special Investigations Section. Goku is informed by the police chief that the possible next target is his former partner Yoko, naturally Goku immediately disregards the chief's order to stay out of the investigation. Meeting up with Yoko at the firing range, Goku proceeds to catch up with old times and learn about who might be behind these obviously suspicious deaths.

While cruising across the city highways, Goku learns from Yoko that these deaths are most likely related to a notorious arms dealer by the name of Genji; if you havent guessed that the shady bar dude with wine was Genji, you clearly need to watch more 80's action movies. We are also shown that Genji also actually owns that same bar hidden insidea skyscraper with a design aesthetic akin to two massive glowing testicles. Manly indeed. Two other Special Investigation members are seen playing peeping tom on Genji's fortress, noticing straight away a voloptuous black-haired woman baring her shapely chest. With the two officers distracted, the woman (who bears a striking resemblance to Wicked City's female spider demon) bears a smug grin and shock horror, unleashes her peacock feathers of doom stretching out of her back; Genji certainly has an odd fetish for unnatural female protrusions.

One of the guys decides that before killing himself to chuck his friend out the window, plunging down to a bloody death on a car window. His eyes gleaming white, the second dude also takes flight to the streets below. Convenientely enough, Goku and Yoko turn up to watch the second guy splat against the sidewalk leaving our resident Kawajiri female protagonist the last one in the unit alive. Goku decides to take action and with scuba gear in hand proceeds to inflitrate Genji's abode, Yoko is left behind to provide support (in other words, nothing to taint his manliness). Soon after being flushed into the system, Goku rips his gear off to reveal he still refuses to conform to a sensible dress code. Alluding a few guards, Goku is a few minutes later cornered by a giant who bashes his face into a piano, as well as Genji and his growling (no joke) woman/motorcycle pet. Genji warns our wounded hero that his interference will cost him dearly and tests his latest weapon on him, a mosquito that paralyses humans after absorbing their carbon dioxide. This anime makes Metal Gear's technology look plausible. Goku faints, waking up dazed in his car and drives straight ahead; but out of nowhere, Goku's bad luck strikes again as the evil peacock lady hypnotizes him. In a desperate bid to escape, Goku proceeds to stab out his own left eye and promptly crashes into the sea. Now thats what I call a 'Riki-Oh' style getaway.

Goku slowly begins to return to consciousness, lying naked in a dark blue void. An ominous voice outlines that Goku now has a few alterations to his body inluding a new left eye. But this is no ordinary left eye, it's the most advanced computer terminal on the planet. What this means for Goku is he now with just a thought can access any computer system from any location as well as perform scans on anything and anyone. Goku has now officially replaced Bruce Wayne as the world's greatest detective. Adding to his omniscience, Goku also receives a new crime fighting tool of badassery. A metal pole that can extend to any length and can fire lasers, by decree I think this weapon should become a standard household accessory. Goku then proceeds to wander about the city testing out his new toys on various thugs throughout the city until realising that he left Yoko behind like a dimwit. He breaks into her apartment with his god-like eye, Yoko naturally not questioning where he went and proceeds to want to shag him, cue lots of boob shots and groping. Surprisingly with this wonderful erotic display in his lap, Goku refuses the sex (twice he has done this now) instead seeing to an invisible thug he spotted a moment ago with his eye.At the same time, Yoko tries to stab Goku after briefly spotting the peacock lady and is promptly knocked to the floor by his rod. I can't keep track of all of the 'rod' euphemisms I have used thus far. 

The thug is promptly blasted by Goku's thick rod laser (homoeroticism has just gone off the charts) and he tends to bringing a still nude Yoko to her feet. The nightmare hasn't ended yet though as the evil paralysis mosquitos swarm into the room and knock our hapless female out cold. Goku grabs her and rushes to the nearby elevator holding his breath to avoid the mosquito's deadly weapon. Kawajiri not wanting to stick to being remotely classy deicdes to also do a full on panning shot of Yoko's naked body in Goku's down to her crotch. Goku and Yoko leave the elevator in time to be immediately confronted by Peacock Lady who in the nick of time is blasted through the stomach by Goku's laser pole killing her instantly. Yoko is soon rushed to a hospital but due to the numerous mosquito bites, she does not make it though the paralysis and dies leaving Goku a solemn loner out for revenge. The police chief now forbids Goku entirely from taking down Genji knowing fully well the damage he may cause. Ignoring this entirely, Goku takes control of a television satellite broadcasting in the middle of the city his threat to kill Genji in cold blood.

Our villain rushes back to his base to finalise a new arms deal on a weapon with some shady businessmen. This weapon is beyond ludicrous and keep in mind this anime already has a lady with mind bending bird feathers. Genji's diabolical plan is to inject swans with a virus that is secreted from hormonal glands during sex. So that when the swans migrate and mate in the spring season, the virus spreads over the country they are in. At this point, I think any plausibility with this show is now completely non-existent. Oddly enough the businessmen agree to this bizarre weapon choice wihtout much questioning. Goku in an equally stupendously implausible entrance controls a helicopter (no build up to how he got it) and with his pole, vaults over an ENTIRE city block and crashes into a window on Genji's base alerting his guards. Genji is confident in his victory over Goku though despite his entire detachment of troops being battered and eluded by Goku's gleaming metal stick of awesomeness. Why is he so confident? Well moments later Goku is attacked by the crazy motorcycle woman now complete with pink mouth laser and an armoured midget driver. To be honest, nothing surprises me anymore with this show.

Goku defeats this concoction of WTF-ness by zapping the woman's head off. Controlling the disembodied head he scorches the midgets head as he cowers on the floor. Genji now can't stand Goku winning so he floods the entire floor hoping that he drowns and proceeds to finalise the deal with the businessmen over the swan virus (two words that shouldnt go together). Long story short, Goku uses his eye to direct the water through the building corridors and into Genji's office creating a tidal wave that sweeps Genji and his cohorts out of the window and into the sea below. Not just yet though, Genji still has a little fight left in him. He clutches for dear life on the window edge and aims his golden gun (subtle bond reference for the win) at Goku; in return Goku shows no remorse in using the motobike lady's severed head to blast a hole right through Genji's head. After making a good old fashioned cheesy death cry, Genji falls into the water below his headquarters and business in ruins. Goku regrets in a monologue how he can never love a woman without her being killed and pole vaults into the city to dispense some more manly justice.

Phew, you thought that was crazy? Well that was just the first half. Check out Part 2 for more insanity.

M.D. Geist II

The M.D. Geist Overview article, which launched this site, was effectively a work-in-progress as it was one of the first things written here, I didn’t really entirely imagine how things for this would run. While I think it’s still a valid article, I felt some things in it could have been evaluated upon, such as the actual core OVAs; I have already written about the 1986 original, so I think it’s time go in depth about the sequel that technically shouldn’t exist, Death Force. As we all know, the original title was achingly characteristic of the 80s OVA scene, from Geist’s mullet to the amazing soundtrack, it was cheesy, a bit poorly made but fun with a few genuine hints of awesomeness, and was well-liked when shown to the right people. As a massive M.D. Geist fan though, I will say the title’s status as a genuinely good classic was forcibly raised and held high for many years, which is what earned it so much animosity from others. CPM head John O’Donnel’s love for the title got him a Redux of the anime, in which it went from being laughable and awesome due to age, to being halfway between something you could take seriously and something you could laugh at (if you were watching the dubbed version, then all chance you had of taking it seriously was gone from the outset). This director’s cut did away with the gloriously exaggerated 80s sound effects that were like an additional layer of the OVA’s incredible soundtrack and replaced them with more hard-hitting realistic ones, beneficial no doubt, and made the story just a bit more cohesive. Personally, all I would have wanted was the 1986 version without the animation errors.

If a sequel for M.D. Geist did not come out in the 80s, what chance did it have of coming out in the 90s? A sequel to an OVA that ends with a man effectively dooming all living things on the planet he’s on sounds haphazard at best, it’s something you can’t really do. Regardless, ten years on, a sequel was produced to John O’Donnel’s undoubted happiness with a perfectly concocted plot that could be tied easily to the original; the only thing was the massive gap between both OVAs, in which many things had changed since then. M.D. Geist’s strength was in the fact it was a ludicrous 80s title, and none of those elements really carry over; there’s no mullets, no Mad Max-inspired biker gangs, and no lambently good guitar work. What is in Death Force, is an attempt to create something serious, that is restricted by budgetary constraints, a limited runtime woefully typical of OVAs, as well as perhaps even a shaky history, and to lengthen this list out, one of the worst dubbing jobs ever.

Death Force is not so much about Geist this time, who is living in his own world wiping up the same Death Force robots he released on the soil of Jerra, as it is about Krauser, another super soldier of the same category as Geist. Instead of being a mindless killer, he has a god complex, and is shown ferrying survivors to his mobile fortress while giving faux-religious speeches of the “steel demons” outside. Like any religious fanatic, he’s a bit ignorant about certain things, for him it’s Geist, who he refuses to believe is out of his satellite prison, and trouble stirs when Geist gets involved. Krauser and Geist’s creator, Dr. Breston, is essentially Dr. Frankenstein, with his two creations being the polar opposites of each other and their existence ultimately lead to his and their own destructions. Other characters include Eagle, a cyborg created by Breston who functions as his Igor, Vaiya is also around, but doesn’t do much of anything, other than suffer from a repressed fear of Geist and share a small romance with Krauser (in one scene she’s naked while he’s shown buttoning up his uniform).

There is a scope to this sequel that is never touched upon, so the plot never really makes any advances, even the original at least went forward and onward, this one just seems to sit around until something happens. There is a great chance for Krauser to give his people the god delusion, but it only really happens in the background, we never see into his regime or the propaganda he could feed the people of a world that is ready to give up. Such a decision would have given Geist more purpose in this, rather than have him be an aimless villain, as if he takes on someone who is controlling his subjects and dividing them between believers and non-believers, then he would have technically been something of a hero come the end of the feature (after all the blood spatter). At worst, expository dialogue appears at every turn and Geist’s signature armour (the one thing that really connects this to the original) seemingly comes out of nowhere at the end, but I guess Eagle built it in preparation for him. The ending is also a confusing mess, in which I can only guess it’s meant to be Krauser faltering between reality and his own delusions about whether he’s winning or not.    

Adding to this OVA’s serious approach is its soundtrack, which is a major departure from the outrageously cheesy (yet fantastic) soundtrack of the original, and has gone for something a bit less contemporary and a bit more evocative. It’s an excellent soundtrack and fits the OVA well, but falls on its face just a bit because of the title’s sloppy execution. Animation often takes a backseat to money-saving still shots and pans that really hurt the overall production, it doesn’t entirely make the thing feel static, but it does make it feel very slow and stiff. It’s far from being the worst animated product to come out of Japan (especially for standard domestic anime) and it’s saved just about by the pleasing artwork; commendable background details abound, along with decent character designs and excellent mechanical designs (as to be expected of Ohata). Visually, it’s a hell of a lot better than the first Power DoLLS OVA, but could really do with looking like the sequel. Besides, it could be a lot worse...

For all its faults, the OVA is watchable when watched in Japanese, solely because the English dub is painfully unbearable; terrible voice actors read from a disjointedly translated script that makes for an awkward listening experience, it’s not even funny to hear as well, everything about the dub brings the title’s average state down to an even bigger level of mediocrity. At best, there’s a decent amount of creative gore to be had, with squishy parts getting chopped up beneath machinery, but that’s all really. Death Force tends to have even less fans than the original M.D. Geist and is a good reason why the character as a whole is so loathed, but if you’re like me, you just have to enjoy the fact the naysayers of Geist got a second helping upon the world. For something that was never really supposed to get a sequel, the concept is good enough to work; it’s just that it’s held down by other problems. There’s plenty of other average-ranking anime I’d watch this over, people who will enjoy this know who they are.

Just make sure to watch it subtitled.

• Animation: 2.5/5
• Music: 4/5
• Infamy: 5/5  

-James, 19 March 2010 (original date)

Review source: US DVD

Screenshot source: US DVD

Title information

• Production company: Zero-G Room
• Year of release: 1996

Alternative titles:

• 装鬼兵MDガイスト2 デスフォース, "Sokihei M.D. Gaisuto 2 desufousu" <Soldier-garbed demon/Demon in soldier's skin: M.D. Geist 2 Death Force> (Japan)

Makyou Gaiden Le Deus

As we've seen through such titles as Baoh, M.D. Geist, The Humanoid and others, the Original Video Animation was a sub genre of anime that usually worked to promote a manga or to act as a vehicle for artists and vocalists alike, very often they were no more than one-offs that had enough budget to make for a decently-animated 40 minutes or more, which typically jeopardized story in many cases. OVAs were a bit like mini-movies in that regard, and were much more digestible than full-fledged anime series, they were good for the video crowd. Cybernetics Guardian left me wanting more, while The Humanoid simply embellished the fact some OVAs could have done with being much longer, let's see which of these the 1987 release Makyou Gaiden Le Deus/魔境外伝レ・ディウス falls into.

Opening to an abstract depiction of water ripples and a neon outline of a tree, we learn that we're looking into the Eye of Zalem, an ancient lens that has fallen into the hands of treasure hunter Riot and his two twin female companions, Spica and Seneca. This lens is needed for a treasure called Rido, that lies in Zalem, however, there's another Eye of Zalem, that someone in Zigoa is holding on to. Cue what must be the most simplistic title sequence ever, which is nothing but the Eye of Zalem spinning on its axis, at least the shading on it is utterly gorgeous, and it's set to a catchy song. Riot meets his target, a girl called Yuta la Caradeen, the granddaughter of a man called Randall, who he got the first Eye from. However, they are hounded by a group of demons known as the Demsters, who previously murdered Randall, and are the foot soldiers of Kaiser, a heavyset brute who wants to use the powers of the Rido treasure for evil (obviously). During a break at the beach, Riot tells Yuta that Rido is the treasure left behind by the Quall civilization, and it has the power to rejuvenate life. Riot is only searching for it so it doesn't fall into the hands of Kaiser and his Demsters, plus, he wants to use its powers to bring his sister out of suspended animation.

The next morning though as they arrive at the ruins of Zalem, they are ambushed by the Demsters and their giant robots, who successfully kidnap Yuta and steal the two Eyes of Zalem. With Yuta in the grasp of Kaiser, Riot makes it his mission to rescue her and to stop Kaiser from abusing the power of Rido as he gains access to it. However, he's too late, and Kaiser's damage is too much to be undone as the underground realm of the Zalem collapses in on itself, Spica and Seneca call for Riot's giant robot, Le Deus, to combat the last of the Demsters in their own giant robots.

Directed by Hiroshi Negishi (the same animation director who worked on Roots Search of all things) and penned by Hideki Sonoda, Le Deus is a decent little piece that is very characteristic of late 80s Japanese fantasy, but with a myriad of problems. Like with many OVAs, Le Deus suffers from a case of having too much in too little time; the world the title takes place in feels more deserving of a bigger exploration and the sci-fi elements feel tacked on to give this thing more advertising power, as the giant robots have only been added in to give this thing some fanservice for the mech crowd, the titular Le Deus robot not appearing until the final ten minutes, making it feel very useless. Additionally, this same robot appears to be docked inside of some kind of giant alien whale, without so much as a few words on why. Worst of all though is how the subplot with Riot's sister is completely painted over after it's mentioned, and Kaiser's unknown boss essentially has no reason for appearing at all. I'm all up for Riot's magical bandage though, which he can even turn into a sword. Characters themselves are derivative with Riot being the fiery and cocky young adventurer and Kaiser being bad for the sake of being bad (at least he's not Governor Proud of The Humanoid, who took the archetype to stupefying levels of badness), but that's not to say they're unlikable, though much like the sci-fi element, the Demsters are near-pointless additions, with the three most important ones not even being named.

Voice acting is all well and good with the casting containing among its ranks Norio Wakamoto as Kaiser because he was in just about EVERYTHING in the 80s, and Kazuki Yao as Riot who has quite a list to his name, as does Yuko Mizutani as Yuta (she was the Japanese dub voice for Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Like with just about every OVA, Le Deus feels more like a pilot that is a giant compressing of every idea that was meant to go into a longer series, it's not bad at all and it's frankly nice to watch with its brightly-coloured, decent artwork and animation, music is not outstanding but it does contain three good J-Pop songs. It has to be said though the cover is a bit of a lie, showing a naked Yuta, when there's no real in-your-face nudity at all. It should be noted that this title was only released in the UK in 1995 and was called "Ladius", same thing phonetically really. Recommended for lovers of 80s anime, there's far worse that's been done with OVAs.   

• Animation: 3/5   
• Artwork: 4/5
• 80s shading: 5/5

-James, 04 March 2010 (original date)

Review source: Japanese Laserdisc

Screenshot source: Japanese Laserdisc

Power DoLLS

Power DoLLS: Detachment of Limited Line Service (パワードール) is a Japan-only series of turn-based tactics videogames released for PCs, the last sequel was released in 2004 while the first game came out in 1994, given how it's already enjoyed ten years of sequels, it can be assumed that the series is now dead. As with lots of videogames in the 90s, there were anime spin-offs made to promote them in the form of OVAs, usually the best of these OVAs were only just good, while the rest were typically bad. As I've never played a Power DoLLS game in my life, I can't really judge this two-episode OVA in similar contexts as I would with its games, as I have no familiarity with the characters, story or representation. With that out the way, let's see if there's anything good we can say about this.

As our text prologue states, in 2535 AD the Earth Government has been declared war upon by the colony world Omni because of their oppressive immigration regime. Omni converted their Power Loader work labour machines into combat units for use in the war, these adapted weapons would be picked up in 2540 AD by the elite all-female task force, DoLLS (in case you didn't notice earlier, it stands for "Detachment of Limited Line Service). This 27-minute episode primarily follows one of the DoLLS, Commander Yao Pei Lui, who rescues two kids from enemy territory because of her bleeding heart ways, despite the by-the-book ideals of her ally Phan. While this OVA by no means reaches any deep cinematic level, it pays a fair bit of attention to the opposite attitudes of these two characters, and we learn that Yao's empathy for the war orphans stems from how she grew up in an orphanage herself before going straight into the military.

After being behind enemy lines, Yao and the DoLLS are given their next mission; the recapture of Bukaju City from Earth Forces, which are using it to manufacture weapons. However, Phan's tactic does not involve going near the city, instead her plan is to explode a nearby dam to cut off all power to the city. However, in the path of the dam and its river is the evacuated Chateau Village, where Yao grew up. The DoLLS are ordered to launch their operation at midnight and drop into an enemy area to clean up and secure the dam, before going into the hot zone, Yao recalls back to how her father died in the construction of the dam after promising it'd keep them both safe. Phan teases her over how her kindess is likely to get her killed in combat, what a nice friend.

As they touch down in a small town, Yao's Power Loader crashes and loses mobility, but insists they continue the operation while she makes a break for it, leaving a present for the encroaching enemy forces. As the rest of the DoLLS go to detonate the dam, Yao finds her old to reminisce on the good times. Thinking she's an awful daughter, Yao decides to stay in the cabin to let the flood from the dam take her away. Her commander however, saw this mission as a good opportunity for Yao to put her personal problems aside, and knows where she is, instead of being at the rendezvous point. Just as the dam explodes, the DoLLS pick Yao up from her father's cabin and head back home.

This first episode actually isn't too bad, for what its worth with its short run time and limited cast, it squeezes in some decent characterization; Phan is not as cold as she first comes off and shows some real concern and warmth to Yao, and the commander (Captain Hardy) isn't a bad character herself. We don't see much of the other characters, they were probably just stuck in to please fans of the games with cameos essentially, but Yao is a decent focus character. However, the artwork falters a bit at times but isn't ugly, though the animation is fairly average and slightly awful at times. The music is nothing special either, but the dub is actually quite good, featuring dialogue that's better than the original Japanese script as well as including a few slightly funny moments (I like how the Power Loader's computer says "goodbye" just before it self-destructs, I also like the surreal nod to Arnold Schwarzenegger, which I'm not sure as to whether it makes this thing feel a bit more reality-grounded or whether it takes it out of its own world). For an anime with an all-female cast, I like how it doesn't go down the pathetic route of forcing fanservice down your throat; a bit of a disappointment for those into that, but it certainly helps the overall quality of this thing. 

The mecha and character designs aren't bad but probably aren't best depicted here and probably look better with the games' artwork, this is not a must-see. If you do watch it, make sure to watch it dubbed, it will make it more enjoyable.

• Art: 3/5
• Mechanical design: 3/5
• Action: 2/5

I would make the ratings for this one humorous, but there's not much to say...

-James, 26 January 2010 (original date)

Review source: US DVD
Screenshot source: US DVD

Mars of Destruction

In our quest to disprove M.D. Geist as the worst anime ever like the biased fans we are, we have been looking for some of the truly worst that Japan has to offer for their animation medium. Among Roots Search and The Humanoid, as well as a number of others we are yet to review, we have another addition to the list; the blinkingly short 20-minute Mars of Destruction/破滅のマルス. At the very least, our aforementioned examples of brain-achingly bad anime at least had production values, Mars of Destruction on the other hand? It's not 20-minutes long for nothing you know.

Taking place in the far distant year of... 2010 (wow it feels weird when you're reviewing something like that now), we're treated to a static shot of a shapeless space ship re-entering the earth's atmosphere. Of course it doesn't really move, it just seems to hover above the earth as the pilots chat about unimportant things. Apparently this ship is the Mars Exploration Vessel (if Koichi Ohata was behind this in his 80s mindset it'd probably be called "MARS PENETRATOR"), they're apparently taking some artefact back to earth because it holds secrets, somehow. Unfortunately, their ship burns to a crisp unspectacularly.

A text crawl reveals to us that several months have passed since the debris of the ship fell to earth and strange incidents have been happening in Tokyo, it then cuts to three VERY badly-drawn girls in unimaginative uniforms pointing guns at two creatures covered in black with red glowy bits, they're apparently called "Ancients". Why? This anime is too half-assed to give a reason. The Ancients fire yellow energy beams, and take one of the girls' heads clean off, but it's just a hilarious-looking geyser of static blood shooting upward; anime often gets a lot of shit for its highly-unreleastic depictions of the human body spurting too much blood, but this one just takes the cake, the fucking thing doesn't even arc out or rain down, it just keeps shooting up! But enough attention to pathetic detail, the two remaining girls take on the Ancients in a pretty un-stunning fight thanks to how the limited animation makes M.D. Geist 2: Death Force look big budget. Suddenly, an armoured being called Takeru appears to try his hand at dispatching the Ancients (the muffled voice of Takeru inside the armour sounds really pathetic).

He's wounded and taken into the hospital, as is the girl who just had her head blown off, to which the doctor says "this one is totally gone" and puts a blanket over her, gee I never would have guessed that a beheaded person could still be alive. The anime takes this opportunity to give us some expository farting around and reveals that the armour Takeru was wearing was called "The MARS" (as ordered by his dad, but this is never referred back to), it's never mentioned why it's all in capitals by the way (another parenthesized mention is that Takeru's unseen dad apparently hits him in his flashback but we only hear the sound of his arm swinging, no connection, and he still feels pain it seems). Takeru and the girls work for AAST, the "Anti-unidentified Ancients Special Team" (because that rolls right off the tongue and makes perfect sense right?), which is made up of various police organizations (so I guess in 2010, police forces are made up of teenage girls), this extra bit of sloppy exposition still doesn't tell us why the monsters are called Ancients, instead it just shows more embarrassingly-dull clips of the girls trying out different weapons. Takeru is mentioned that he used to be a "typical high student" (I'm groaning just at how lazily this is written) before he joined ASSED, but for some reason, no one knows why he wears MARS or why he fights with them, because when you're in a special task force, you don't keep note of your squad mates, correct?

ASSED have to escort the remains of the ship or something, we get a solid minute of filler until one of the police cars is blown up by an Ancient's laser. Takeru steps into some crucifix-shaped chamber (because I bet that totally represents something relevant to the story) to get suited up in the MARS armour and is dispatched while some cop is torn up by the Ancients. Their leader is with them, and so joins in on the fun of killing characters as nameless and as faceless as they are. Takeru joins in at failing to do anything against the enemy, until it's defeated thanks to a gun being pulled out of the big hole of Deus ex Machina. Elsewhere in America presumably, some doctor with a crazy hairdo and a wrinkled guy talk about how humanity's development was influenced by the DNA of the homo sapiens that originally lived on Mars, the wrinkled guy says something about humans originating from Japan, I have no idea. Meawnhile, the alien leader gets up and tells Takeru that "no Takeru, YOU are the invaders", because he was one of the original earthlings released by the virus that wiped out the martians (it's not specified, I don't know what you should expect). He's shot to shit by the other girls, which makes his top half explode, and it ends.

In all fairness, this OVA was made to promote an equally low-budget PS2 game that never left Japan, but if you're going to make something so risible and uninteresting, why bother? Unless I have a dire need to learn about the terribly dull and air-thin characters, this thing would not persuade me to pick up the game, nor does it intrigue me about the mystery of the enemy. The animation is only a step away from being entirely static and acting as a slideshow, with much of the visuals being made up by garish digital effects that just make it even more of an eyesore. The character designs are the epitome of generically done anime characters and have to be the most un-fascinating pieces of artwork ever, with each female character lacking any real charm other than how they're just a lazy stab at trying to appeal to the crowd who like 'cute' 2D girls while Takeru himself even looks like a girl. The music is unnoticeable except for a few (a few is the entire soundtrack) that are just MIDI versions of classical pieces and the voice-acting is plainly bad.

• Animation: -1/5
• Sound: 0/5
• LOOK IT'S FUCKING BAD OKAY?

-James, 20 January 2010 (original date)

Review source: Fan-subtitled Japanese DVD
Screenshot source: Fan-subtitled Japanese DVD

Dog Soldier: Shadows of the Past

I love Tetsuya Saruwatari, the man has consistently provided some of the most imaginatively violent manga ever with great artwork, and has never succumbed to the ilk of cute art styles, he's very underrated, and I almost like how the standard anime and manga fans don't know of him. The man did the artwork for the manga Violence Hero Riki-Oh, which is most famously known for its Hong Kong movie adaptation, Riki-Oh: Story of Ricky. Saruwatari has a great mastery of surprising the reader simply with how outrageous his depictions are, and if there's ever a moment of bad writing, good god the man can be forgiven for his works being so supremely awesome. The best part is, he still works today.

Perhaps his third most well-known franchise in the west is Dog Soldier/ ドッグソルジャー, and that's only because of the vaguely known 1989 OVA, so yeah, not a lot of people really even know it. It also doesn't help that searching for it online will most likely bring up the horror movie Dog Soldiers, or if you're lucky, another movie called Dog Soldiers about actual soldiers, which is also known as Who'll Stop the Rain. The manga has never been translated but I have been looking through it in its original Japanese; while I can't really decipher the plot, I can tell it's about two elite soldiers known as John Kyosuke Hiba and his friend Masami Fudou being routinely hired by a guy called Takechi to do little dirty jobs all around the world, Takechi regularly gets punched in the face by the two and they usually provide comic relief together when things aren't being serious. The manga is extremely violent and follows a bit of a villain-of-the-week format, and is also quite stupid. It contrasts a bit to the predominant seriousness of Riki-Oh (even though that manga is fucking crazy), it's still highly enjoyable.

The OVA on the other hand? It's a disappointment, and I really wouldn't care for its flaws if it was overly violent, but it really fails to emulate the energy of the manga, and Saruwatari's token extreme violence is nowhere to be seen. In fact, the whole thing is a mess; a cheaply-animated, uncompelling mess that really knows how to make a basic story sound difficult to follow.

The story is about a former green beret called John Kyosuke Hiba and his friend Fudou who are trying to make a living as blue collar workers, but they're called back into action when an American scientist is kidnapped along with her briefcase that contains the cure for AIDS by an arms dealer. The scientist is an old friend of John, a woman called Cathy, but his interest is really sparked when he learns that the arms dealer is a man called Makoto Allen Takamura; in "the slums of LA" when they were just children, these three all stuck together. How Cathy and Makoto ended up in such high positions with this background I'll never know. Makoto, going under the pseudonym of Phantom, sets John and Fudou up on his island while he attempts to auction off the cure for AIDS to all atendees representing third world nations. John and Fudou of course, beat everything Makoto throws at them, but the Americans arrive to start levelling the island, so the representatives attending Makoto's auction all make an escape.

This of course rubs Makoto the wrong way, who makes his own escape with Cathy and the vaccine, only to be halted by John (no Fudou here). Makoto and John engage in a knife duel, but to stop Makoto killing John, Cathy in traditional tragedic character fashion, runs in front of his blade. This leads to her giving a dying monologue on how the two were apparently both the objects of her affection. Being the speech-giving villain, Makoto laughs maniacally and tells them both that the vaccine was a fake all along. Furious, John charges toward Makoto while being fired at, leaps and lands on Makoto's shoulders to thrust his knife into his forehead. It is at this moment Makoto makes a hilarious noise that makes it sound like he's being sick. John pulls out the knife and walks away, only for, Makoto to start talking...

In a dying monologue that's flat-out unbelievable compared to all others, Makoto tells his old friend that he became an arms dealer because Americans killed his Japanese mother and white father, so his plan was to make it look like the Americans have a real vaccine, in hopes that it would turn all other countries against the US. In all honesty, the plot to this is not all that bad, but there's so much going on in the space of 45 minutes it's all been ham-fisted together, and is therefore a bit difficult to all take in at first, especially when it feels like there's just way too many holes in this thing. It's really begging to provide some intrigue and character depth, especially with the history the three central characters all share together, but it just can't. I'm not sure whether to blame this on Saruwatari or the writer of this OVA, Shou Aikawa, as I have not gotten very far into the manga. Aikawa has apparently been accused of being anti-American over this, and I can see why, but still, I'd rather clarify first. The fact that John is meant to be the very best of the best is barely touched upon in some overly unimpressive battle sequences, and Fudou is almost entirely purposeless. Oh yeah, "death merchant" must be a real occupation as Makoto is referred by it ALL THE TIME.

The whole thing is wonderfully dated as it is, what with the whole theme of AIDS being something that will kill us all and Cold War, and how John Hiba is such a blatant copy of John Rambo (as if the name wasn't enough). As well as the richly stereotypical idea of him growing up in America's rougness overlooking the glamour of Beverly Hills. Of course, a lot of this all comes from how Saruwatari used to be in the 80s with a fairly amusing view of America, it should also be noted that stupidity like Makoto's death was also a trademark of Saruwatari, in fact Makoto's body should have just given away if he was holding the full weight of a man on his shoulders. By the way, Fudou's stupid haircut originates from the manga, in which it's sliced down the middle by a bladed boomerang. Clearly, this was aimed strictly at Japanese fans, but due to a possible lack of regulation when things like this were being released overseas by the likes of CPM, background research probably didn't happen, meaning things like this were sold to an uninformed crowd.

The animation is very bad for 1989, recycling several pieces many times over and looking generally lifeless, even the colouring is bad, everything seems to have a pale, blue-ish or washed-out tint to it (notice the running theme in these screenshots already?). Fight scenes are poorly laid out and are not eye-catching, and even though violent things are happening, they just don't feel violent. They lack the gore and 'HOLY SHIT' factor that were both quite abundant in the manga. Much of the music is not memorable, some of it is good but the best piece is the end credits song that kinda fits the solemn mood established at the end. The voice cast of this features some notable stars of the anime business, such as Akira Kamiya and Norio Wakamoto, a dub of this exists and if you are interested enough you can purchase it here, I have never seen it myself but am somewhat interested to do so. Dog Soldier is a title that has been completely swept under the rug and will most likely stay that way, it is an extremely weak OVA, but as a Tetsuya Saruwatari fan, and someone who just loves older anime, I can't bring myself to fully hate this. By all means check out the manga online even if it is untranslated, it's highly recommended for fans of things that draw heavy influence from Rambo.

• Music: 3/5
• Knife usage: 3/5
• Being as good as the manga: 0/5 

-James, 13 November 2009 (original date)

Review source: US Laserdisc
Screenshot source: US Laserdisc

The Humanoid

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of modern anime; the fascination I had with how anime was it all seemed so new, dark and more inspired in the 90s, it's something of a nostalgia trip. Hence why I prefer older anime in general, plenty of classics and nothing as embarrassing as the content that's pumped out today to feed the scary otaku stereotype of modern times. That's not to say all old anime was good though.

The Humanoid was shit, is shit and forever will be a load of shit, much like Roots Search, but I'll be damned if I let this festering piece of trite go to waste without giving it the attention it deserves, because it has a charm. Let it be known that there is nothing good about this OVA, but it's not like the bland title was an indicator of anything good, if anything it was something of a herald of the crap in store (ザ・ヒューマノイド 哀の惑星レザリア apparently translates to "The Humanoid: Sorrow of Planet Lazeria", a step fancier).

Opening up marvelously is a prologue text crawl that's done in the style of Star Wars, at least my ears have not been assaulted by obnoxious trumpets. This useless bit of exposition tells us that on the planet Lazeria, humans live alongside this race of people called the Megalosians, this plot point is pretty purposeless however as the Megalosians are pretty much just humans and the fact they're Princess is there is not touched upon at all, at best these people sound like an old genus of shark.

We're soon introduced to Alan, a guy whose intro tells us he may as well have been in charge of coffee commercialism because it's pretty clear throughout that he fucking loves coffee, enough to put it on a philosophical pedestal. Alan is part of the two-man crew of ship unknown with a mullet-toting guy called Eric, the two of them are bringing supplies back to a scientist called Dr. Watson who resides on Lazeria and Eric can't wait to see his girlfriend there.

Upon this, I'm attacked by what may be the most hilariously garish multi-colour title card ever with mundane footage set to the epitome of generically uninspired 80s pop songs with equally bland gratuitous English. We're introduced to more characters we'll never care for, it doesn't help that their designs are appallingly dull, with all the male characters looking as realistic as can be for this thing's artwork while all the girls have this Magical Girl look about them in which their eyes are unattractively huge. It's distracting and opposes the art style of the male characters, because it makes it feel like you're watching them in a separate world of exaggerated cartoon women. Oh, more coffee fetishism to end the scene.

After remarking like idiots at how temple ruins apparently shouldn't exist in the jungle, Alan and Eric are chased by fighter planes as they leave their ship as it plummets to make a crash landing, it's funny that one of the planes breaks its wing by hitting tree foliage. Meanwhile, some evil brooding asshole called Governor Proud reveals that he wants to dig up an old ship known as the Ixion to one of his ministers called Libero so he can use it to travel back to Planet Megalos, the bald old Libero tells him that last time he explored the ruins of this ship all life was destroyed in the area because of a disaster, even though he's still around to talk about it.

Alan and Eric eventually reach Dr. Watson's lab on foot and we finally meet Antoinette, the robotic star of this snoozefest. She's meant to develop human emotions and have a personality but she's really just pushed aside, also, there's quite a lot of bickering scenes between Eric and his girlfriend Sheri that hardly moves the plot at all.  

The next day, Alan and Eric leave to repair their crashed ship in the jungle. Eric, being a curious gimp, leaves to go check up on the ruins only to find they're occupied by General Proud's robot forces. He's taken prisoner, as is every other character in this because Proud is a dick and wants nothing to get in his way of re-activating the Ixion (which appears to literally be a load of blocks from these ruins). With this, it's up to Antoinette to save the day. Proud makes a getaway to the ruins of the Ixion with the two keys he needs to activate it. Unfortunately, the moment it is activated, all hell breaks loose and he dies, it's all up to Antoinette and the only good 80s song in this OVA to shut down the Ixion. Doing so (sadly, I guess) kills her, and all the characters who aren't dead go home. The thing ends with some poppycock read by Dr. Watson about how machines have life too.

It baffles the mind how so many OVA directors simply slipped up in telling a good story, but the odd 40-minute time frame that appeared to be the norm for these features must have definitely been a drawback. The Humanoid's story however, is a meandering mess that could have been a good tale of a robotic creation learning how to be human with it only to end in tragedy. It doesn't though, thanks to the very vague and incredibly sluggish plot, so Antoinette is essentially a side character. It's almost hilarious how Eric breaks into tears at Antoinette's death, as if we're meant to have accepted these two really knew each other when they hardly spent much time on screen together. Oh yeah, Antoinette cries somehow too. Proud himself is the stockest of stock villains complete with an evil cackle and a motivation that's never really explained other than to be a bitch for everyone else, the most compelling character in this is Alan with his coffee obsession. 

This one is not as outright atrocious as Roots Search, but it's near there. The artwork varies from being interesting to being overwhelmingly dull; none of the locations are intriguing or eye-catching, the shading and the mechanical designs are probably the best thing about this, and even then, the latter of the two still isn't very captivating. Antoinette is the best-looking thing in this, being designed by Hajime Sorayama of robot pin-up fame, whose art is generally excellent. There are a few moments in which the animation is smooth, but for the most part, it's incredibly rough. Colouring is never consistent, as the tints of scenes repeatedly change, much like the oppositional character designs, it's very distracting. Worse, you will often see black borders, largely at the top of the screen, where the animation cuts off with the badly adjusted framing, it reeks of sheer poor quality. The music excels in how average it is, with the song during Antoinette's final scene being the only good thing on the soundtrack, in fact, there's not even a lot of music in this, which would explain the apparent absence of any OST release (I actually found out there was one, interestingly it contains early artwork of its characters). The dub of this however, isn't too bad, but it's pretty much the only thing making it really good.

This thing apparently had the distinction of being "released for the first time in the UK" when it got its Region 2 release as if it was a good thing, it's also funny how the back states that footage of this anime was apparently used in Madonna's Drowned World tour, so I guess it got lucky to be used in such a way, too bad no one seems to remember it. Upon doing some digging, The Humanoid was actually pretty fortunate to get quite a few follow-up releases in the form of books, particularly art ones, I would strongly suspect this thing looked a lot better in its conceptual stages, as bad as it may be, at least it's still a good step above Roots Search.

• Mechanical design: 3/5
• Story: 1/5
• Coffee: 5/5 

-James, 12 December 2009 (original date)

Review source: US DVD
Screenshot source: US DVD

M.D. Geist (original)

You might be wondering why I have chosen to write a separate M.D. Geist review, when already I have written an article that talks quite thoroughly about the entire series. I didn't really review anything, and for a while I've wanted to. If you really want information on this title, go check out my other article, as this is going to be a straight-up review of the untouched 1986 version, warts and all.

Our story begins with a text crawl stating that the "Christian Era" (AKA Anno Domini) has come to a close,  additionally, humans have taken over many planets, but political unrest is still alive, especially on the planet Jerra. It's comforting to know such thought has been weaved into this story already, but let's stop for a moment and skip ahead; M.D. Geist is a 40-minute one-off OVA in which setting and scope has had to be compressed to allow some of the more exploitative elements run freely. Given that, the thin plot is almost entirely acceptable, but let's move on.

The title opens to a bombed-out road literally strewn with skeletons, much like in The Terminator. An aircraft patrols overhead, later revealed to be part of the Nexrum forces, its crew are a bit nervous about the next battle. Suddenly though, a grappling hook attaches itself to the hull of the aircraft, and the pilots find they have an unexpected visitor hanging on. It is of course, Geist, who hurls himself up to the cockpit (funny thing is they make mention about the area being haunted with ghosts, and all of a sudden a man with the German word for ghost as his name pops up to say 'boo' with a rocket launcher). Yes, Geist, grinning, fires a rocket into the cockpit, decapitating one of the pilots (actually his face is probably just being consumed by the blast, but isn't it funny to think of a rocket taking someone's head off?) as it shoots through the ship, blowing up a load of passengers and then he starts blazing bullets into the falling wreckage! Did he really have three guns in one or is it just bad continuity? The reality is something most people miss, and it's that Geist had the rocket launcher on his back all along, it's just seen too briefly, the machinegun also had a grappling hook attachment. The ship starts blowing up and descends while Geist falls freely through the air, the ship eventually becoming engulfed in fire as it crashes. Walking out of the flames is of course, Geist, but with a bullet wound in his head. Either he's just that invincible or he used some sort of make-up. What has to be noted here is the close-up of him is quite obviously just an animator sliding a cel of him up and down until his expression changes, oh dear.

As Geist grins at the camera, synth music and some guitar begins to kick in, as a fairly stiffly-written English display reveals that Geist is a super soldier as created in a genetics experiment, and even though the whole purpose was that he was meant to have extraordinary fighting ability and to be the most dangerous, he was just more hardcore than all the other soldiers and had to be imprisoned in an orbital satellite. This opening is written better than most Engrish eccentricities in anime, but still comes off as a little silly. For whatever reason (probably because of Jerra's undoubtedly eroded atmosphere), Geist's satellite is falling to the surface after the many years he's been away, all the while the awesome Hironobu Kageyama song "Merciless Soldier" plays in the background, its lyrics summing up Geist fairly well. What an entrance this guy has gotten so far; first blowing the shit out of a plane in the most insane way possible, and then by us being shown to his naked ass.

Cutting from that is a biker gang cruelly chasing down an armoured soldier and firing chained spikes through him, before their leader, a huge, nameless Barry White-lookalike hurls a spear through his throat. By the leader's side is his honey Vaiya, but we'll see differently in a minute. The gang want the dead soldier's armour, but stepping out of the blue to claim ownership like any predatory beast, is Geist, who has probably already killed someone to get his clothes. The big boss of the gang offers to let him in or let Geist beat him in a fight. In a single move, Geist slices off both of the guy's hands before shoving the knife into his opponent's skull, he even has enough energy left him to spit out a shocked "you bastard!" before falling down (I actually really like the small details here, such as how the boss [who is actually called Golem according to the comics] is so stiffened with shock that his upper body doesn't move as he falls on his knees, I genuinely mean that too).
Geist helps himself to the armour, only to catch the attention of Vaiya, who offers him a place to stay; yes, she has no time to mourn for the loss of a companion and instead kicks him in the head, she's all about electing the new tough bastard as leader. Geist is swayed by how she has contacts with both sides of the army (the other side being the Regular Army, that Geist was part of), but it's probably obvious that his leadership of the gang is the last thing he gives a damn for. Later at night, the rest of the gang don't like the guy at all, for Vaiya it's different, as she tries to bed him. Interestingly enough, it's quite evident that Vaiya does not see attachment through feelings and more through physical strength, so with Geist's sheer invulnerability, she can't resist herself. This is seen throughout, and in particular a bit more in the Director's Cut, I actually do consider it a good character point and that it reflects Jerra's current social standards among the hoodlums who have no restrictions and just need to stay alive. Despite her attempts to arouse him, Geist has gotten what he's needed out of her, and promptly hurls her off the bed.

Moving onward, Geist is now clean-shaven with freshly cut hair, but looking badass as usual. A massive Regular Army landtank is under fire from Nexrum mechs and Vaiya's plan is to help out either side in hopes of them receiving some money, so it looks like there is at least still a surviving economy on Jerra. Vaiya thinks Geist should go side with the Nexrum's new machinery, but he thinks they can get more out of helping the weaker party, and opts to aid the Regular Army tank. Heading the tank is Col. Krutes who is trying to fight off the enemy machines that are clinging to his ship and ripping it apart. Geist zooms past on his motorbike and shoots down a few of the Nexrum mechs, and just as he passes Krutes' turret, the old colonel seems to recognise Geist immediately, particularly by spotting his dog tag. After knocking a female biker off her bike for no reason, Geist pretty much abuses all the other gangmembers to see to it that the Nexrum machines are destroyed, be it with spears being thrust their cockpits or by breaking in and stabbing the pilots with knives that have grenades attached to them. It's crazy, gory and the music is awesome.

Krutes invites Geist and Vaiya on board to thank them, but refuses to give them any money, which is only a blow to Vaiya as Geist couldn't care less. Krutes actually doesn't want Geist helping them as he tells his men about the MDSes, a.k.a., the Most Dangerous Soldiers, and that they were just too much to handle. Regardless, the men see Geist as a massive boon to them and Krutes has no choice but to bring him on to the mission. In a fairly strange sequence, Krutes explains that the men must invade a complex they apparently built to shut down a doomsday programme that has initiated thanks to the assassination of a president on Jerra; with this, I can only assume the complex (unforgettably known as the Brain Palace, sorta like a mangled translation of "headquarters" to me) went into total lockdown mode and wanted to ensure that no one could stop it. The doomsday weapon is Final Program D: DEATH FORCE.

In all honesty, as much as I love M.D. Geist, it feels like it falls apart a little at this point, but then again it's just trying to be an entertaining 40-minute OVA, my problem is that even for its own standards, things start slipping apart and continuity goes to shreds. Geist seems to have fully customized and gained new parts for the armour he took off the dead soldier so it looks nothing like it did previously (and looks like one of the coolest suits of armour ever), and the battle at Brain Palace is just an excuse to make quick use of his weapons, as his polearm promptly disappears after one use and he only ever uses the grenade launcher on his rifle, sticking mainly to his rocket launcher. Then again, it's most likely things were just cramped in the running time so they had to be used, that, and all those weapons like the polearm may have caused a problem for Geist. I can't fully complain though, it's an entertaining sequence with kick-ass music and Geist in his armour is so cool, it's just a shame he never got to do more with some of his weapons.

Krutes' men all die in the battle, and in a bizarre exchange between him and Geist (it's perhaps the subtitles), Krutes claims that "they're all dead! Again!", is the "again" meant to allude to something from the past? Anyway, Krutes reveals that he set up Geist up and pits him against an unstoppable robot while he goes off to be the hero, it's an interesting fight scene as the robot goes through three phases like the Final Boss of a game, and all of its forms are nicely designed. Geist defeats the last form of ripping off the power cables to his suit's engine and burying them into the robot's circuits, causing it to explode. Krutes shuts off the countdown in time, and is the big hero, he is even greeted by the smouldering, trembling robot he used against against Geist, only for it to fall over and reveal... Geist! Suspenseful this title is not. Geist crushes Krutes' face and is embraced by Vaiya, but as most people might already know thanks to the Internet, he re-activates the countdown, just to see the world burn. I have to admit, this ending is handled a little nicely, it's fun hearing the alarm sound as Geist's eyes twitch scarily when the announcement is made that the Death Force robots are being released.

Okay, I've discussed most of what I liked about the entire M.D. Geist series in my other article, so I'll just talk about the flaws with this one; the biggest of its problems is that it's obviously a woefully low-budget production, with very little revision to certain areas of animation. Some pieces are even recycled more than once. It also doesn't help that this was director Koichi Ohata's first ever feature, who was only 23 at the time and was a mechanical designer, not a director. This original episode was released with director credit being paid to Hayato Ikeda, who was apparently brought in just to assist Ohata, and that the company behind it didn't want to look bad. To me, Ikeda may as well have been a pseudonym, as he had done no work previously and he has never worked after, so it can only be assumed that he was just someone with a smidge more directorial knowledge than Ohata. There's actually a fair amount of background detail in some scenes and the animation is not too bad, though it does get ugly at a few parts.

For the record, I don't view anime any different from how I view other entertainment mediums, so I have no subconscious need to rate this one lowly just because the rest of anime is "high art", it really isn't at all. 
Amidst his fledgling ability and lack of refinement, Ohata's apparent aim at the time was to create the antithesis of typical anime, and it would appear that he's succeeded; Geist is stoic and designed to kill, thrown into the role of protagonist while being incapable of caring for anyone, therefore rejecting the token damsel and dooming the world. Vaiya is a jackal and Krutes is just barely holding together a failing platoon at the end of the world. No one is sweet and innocent; Geist kills because he was made to, Vaiya exploits and Krutes is part of the reason why Jerra is in such a mess. It's egotistical to the character and Geist's antithetical behaviour of typical heroes is celebrated; when the ending kicks in, the Kageyama song "Violence of the Flame" pretty much glorifies his beligerant style, contrasting to what should be dark. Vomited back into a nuked-out world where biker gangs kill remorselessly against a backdrop of two dying forces just killing each other for domination's sake, with only what the military programmed him to do inside his head, is there any reason for Geist to try and save it? Compared to everyone else, he's just vying to keep himself occupied. He's not so much evil, he's just killing whatever gets in his way, and with no military instituion holding him back, he may as well just make more battle for himself until he has completely ran his course. If you scratch the surface a little of its limited characters, you can find a lot.

If you love 80s OVAs, you've probably already seen this and made your opinion, but if you do like these dystopian stories set in the desert that share similarities to many exploitation movies of the 80s, of if you just want a 40-minute actioneer, check this out, it's miles above the standard of modern 'cute girl' anime today, trashy as it is.

M.D. Geist - An overview

I am probably the biggest M.D. Geist fan in the world.

I own a Japanese poster that was packaged with its original soundtrack release on vinyl, the US release of the sequel's soundtrack, an autographed version of the graphic novel by artist Tim Eldred, the US and UK DVD releases, a Japanese book that "comic-fies" screens from the OVA, the original Japanese making-of book, and a drawing of Geist signed by its creator, Koichi Ohata himself. Now I am writing an article on it.

I am probably very much obsessed, and my love for the series is probably second only to John O'Donnell, the man who made M.D. Geist known (I am still convinced he is the only owner of the unreleased Geist resign statue). To those entirely new to the name "M.D. Geist", it has been long considered the worst anime ever, but let me explain that.

To the uninitiated, Sokihei M.D. Geist/装鬼兵M.D.ガ イスト ("Soldier-Garbed Demon") was a prominent title in the OVA boom in both Japan and America, the latter more so than the former. When it was being introduced to the west, “Japanimation” kicked the doors down upon entry and shoved animated nudity and violence in your face, to a lot of people it was fairly new stuff. For better or for worse though, Akira set the standard for anime to westeners, meaning that most titles following in its wake fell very, very short, M.D. Geist being one of many in an eager catalogue by now-defunct Central Park Media.
M.D. Geist was originally released in Japan in 1986, other than perhaps kicking off Hironobu Kageyama's singing career, it wasn't too special, being the directorial debut of Koichi Ohata, it was essentially just a vehicle for him to show off his mechanical designs with a story sewn in (as it was with almost every OVA). Even though I am a big Geist fan, I will admit that this original version is very poorly made; the animation lacks revision in some areas and some of the sound effects feel off (a metal pole falls to the ground and makes a sound like a pencil), and the music (while KICK-ASS) just about misses the mark with some faulty cue timings. To release it five years on in the west, which had already seen Akira by this point, was a bit of a recipe for disaster, regardless, M.D. Geist sold as CPM's flagship title. The reception was polarized however, with the negative slowly outweighing the positive as time went on, yet M.D. Geist was one of the most popular-selling videos in the US.
Many of the arguments against Geist nitpicked the animation, the lack of characterization and the wafer-thin story that was made up of trimmings of what felt like a bigger plot. For the most part, they have a reason to be angry, but they took it to the heights of anime elitism, which is overly a bit annoying and anally retentive. M.D. Geist's conistency for being the worst-reviewed anime seems to stem from how heavily the title was promoted, as many far worse 80s OVAs were released but never got the same amount of attention at all. It probably didn't help that Geist's presence was a bit force-fed, appearing as CPM's mascot everywhere.

John O'Donnell was the head of CPM, and his love for the title is probably what made and broke it at the same time. If it wasn't for his US release, Geist would have remained an obscurity, possibly appearing as something cool to only those digging deep enough for rare, internationally-unreleased OVAs. O'Donnell pretty much raised it to appear as if it was more than a 40-minute showcasing of violence made for the home format market; in 1995, he got the funds together to produce a tidied-up version of the original title, as well as produce a sequel. A prequel comic was created with illustrations by Tim Eldred, expanding the world of M.D. Geist just a tiny bit, along with a comic adaptation of the original OVA, that served to refine the story a bit more. They're mostly overlooked, and are fun reads with decent artwork, nothing outstanding in either areas though. The revised edition of the original, known as the Director's Cut internationally and as the Perfect Edition in Japan, contained a new prologue and epilogue, tweaked animation, as well as some entirely new minor scenes, as well as more realistic sound effects and some improved music cues. The results are technically-speaking much, much better than anything in the 1986 version, and it looks like Geist may have gotten away with a better reception.

Perhaps if O'Donnell did not commission a dub of it, because no matter his love for the title, it wasn't enough to make this dub good. Really at this point he should have just avoided making Geist seem like high art.

The Japanese re-dub that was actually done for this edition was actually terrific, with its new voice actors putting in a lot more effort for their roles, while the only good thing to really come out of the US dub was Jason Beck's awesomely deep voice. The dub uses the same script as the translated Japanese one, and therefore sounds extremely awkward. They were better off doing a whole re-write, just as long as they were getting the same message across. It also doesn't help that many of the lines are mismatched and none of the voice actors were actually conversing with the dialogue, so it just feels uneven. That said, the dub is terrible, Manga Entertainment should have really turned out something for it.

The dub only got worse however, in the sequel; M.D. Geist II: Death Force. Along with some bad casting, it uses the same directly-translated script, so all the dialogue just sounds strange coming out of an English-speaking character's mouth; there's too much emphasis on the demonization of Geist that it all sounds like old-fashioned Japanese talk, along with how the odd utterance-structure only adds to this. Whereas the original is stupidly fun, the sequel's dub is actually painful to listen to.

Death Force itself is a completely different can of worms than the original, it is usually regarded as worse, because it is mixed between Ohata's grindhouse stylings and some total pretension brought on CPM's marketing. Death Force actually has a good concept, but suffers because of its run time; it feels as if the story it is trying to tell is too big for forty-five minutes. There's a lot of characterization and plot development to be had here, but none of it really gets off the ground, and the end of it feels very rushed. At the least, Death Force visually looks brilliant throughout, with fine backgrounds along with character and mechanical designs that bring the series into a new world, and in still shots, it looks really damn good. The biggest problem with Death Force is that it was funded on scraps, and the animation really suffers from it, to the point it's almost non-existant.

Why do I like M.D. Geist so much though? I went into watching the first one expecting the very worst, but never got it, and even though I still found it to be quite poor, many of its elements were so cool. Because it was largely victim to many anime critics and there was so little over information on it, I chose to research it as much as possible. Primarily, I liked it because of the imagery it's steeped with; looking at certain promotional artwork is like looking at heavy metal album covers, Geist is an armoured bringer of death, armed with brutal weaponry and ready to send anything to hell. I wouldn't call M.D. Geist so bad it's good, because the bad elements I actually dislike, but I like it because it's so ridiculous, so atypical of anime and because its title character is so damn cool.

Furthermore, I absolutely love all the designs in this entire series, be them character or mechanical, all look good. It has to be mentioned too how the first OVA's mechanical designs appear to be a mix of different themes in a sci-fi setting; Geist's customized armour is reiminscent of a knight's suit, with a look that fully embodies Geist's barbaric nature as someone who wears the armour exclusively to celebrate battle. The Nexrum battle mechs are also worth mentioning, for how functional they appear, almost like massively heavy versions of the Scopedogs from VOTOMS. Leaving industrial territory are the likes of the robots guarding the Brain Palace, being very streamlined and looking a bit more alien in comparison to previous designs, and being overly bird-like, and the final guardian robot's three forms all look radically different, going from ornate and imperial-like to appearing alien and finally appearing skeletal, with some unique features in each form. It has to be said too that both OVAs have brilliant music; the original is fueled by blood-pumping rock that is so damn good to hear, and features two fantastic songs by Hironobu Kageyama, the mysterious-sounding and mellow "Merciless Soldier" and the crazy, hot-blooded "Violence of the Flame", a song that perfectly glamorises Geist's battlefield habitat. Death Force on the other hand feels welcomingly new, with certain tracks feeling more animalistic and its songs contributed by Yoshiaki Ohuchi fit excellently with the mood and imagery of the OVA.

M.D. Geist is far from perfect though, but it's still far from being the worst anime ever, and it does make me wish Koichi Ohata and Riku Sanjo spent a lot more time when they originally working on it to produce something much more memorable; with enough refinement, both OVAs could have probably been very good stories. Recently though, the character has seen a slight popularity resurgence, notably with him being used as a counter against the likes of K-ON and moé anime. As pretentious as CPM's promotion for the title was, it's still cool that it was the first anime to have motorbike shows advertising, along with being the first anime in the US to have phone cards produced for it. It is awesome that they also released one of the best DVDs ever because of it, but they really could have laid off of making Ohata seem like a genius auteur, realistically he was just a good artist with a penchant for making things spray blood exotically.

That said, CPM's DVD is easily the most complete source of M.D. Geist, packaged with an overwhelming amount of special features, and containing an incredibly entertaining and insightful commentary by Ohata and Sanjo themselves. ADV's DVD re-release toned down the pretension given to it by its former US distributor (their blurb is a hoot) but unfortunately, it's a very barebones release, so just get yourself the old CPM disc. It's funny that ADV picked it up anyway, as if the character has become too prominent to be allowed death yet, and now Manga Entertainment seem to hold the rights to it (even if all they've done is just host both OVAs on YouTube in their awful dubbed forms).

M.D. Geist is a charmingly memorable piece of OVA trash, but its prominence has really been a double-edged sword.

-James, 08 August 2009 (original date)