The "Newer" Odd Couple

 

ANI-MOVIES, *Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths-Part One

Being the first in an ambitious trilogy, Crisis On Infinite Earths-Part One takes the existing Tomorrowverse which only got started three years ago and merges it into its own multiverse. The second Tomorrowverse film, Justice Society: World War II already established that parallel universes were as commonplace as sliced bread, so the fact that there were other realities in this shared timeline isn't hard to grasp. The original maxi-series from 1985 was meant to set up an entirely new status quo for DC Comice merging all the universe into a single one, of which there has already been a take on within the Arrowverse to most credits succeeded in its version. This is the first time that the original Crisis has been done in animated format offering no limit to which licensed characters could star in the sprawling saga. As part of the Tomorrowverse, this happens right after Justice League: Warworld where Earth-1 Superman and Batman along with Earth-2 Wonder Woman are taken in by a mysterious girl called Harbinger after Martian Manhunter sacrifices himself to save the heroes. Each part of this trilogy is longer than the average DC Universe animated movies, so there is more room to focus on some of the individual characters, most specifically on the Flash going back and forth to moments in his life.

John Constantine fresh from his DC Showcase limbo in the House of Mystery has spent several lifetimes acting as the Pariah for this version of Crisis, going from one Earth to another witnessing them being destroyed by a wave of anti-matter. The main target of the story is Barry Allen as the Flash at different points in his own timeline from when he helps form the Justice League to thwart Lex Luthor's attempt to take down metahumans with the power-stealing android Amazo, to his trips to other realities like Earth-3 run by evil superheroes that he sees getting wiped out by the anti-matter wave. A being known as the Monitor sends his agent Harbinger(who it turns out is really Supergirl from the Legion of Super-Heroes future)to collect heroes and other people with the skills and smarts to discover how to counter the anti-matter from covering all the remaining universes. The heroic eggheads come to the conclusion that setting up a special giant tuning fork on each of the still-existing Earths would save them, even though Flash gets caught up in his own Earth's destruction just as the anti-matter hits it. Barry grabs his wife Iris and seals themselves off in a time envelope while the rest of the world is slowed down to a near stop as the two of them spend the next few decades perfecting their own tuning fork along with help from the head of Amazo that Flash befriended. Flash finishes his project just after Iris dies of old age to sync up the other heroes' efforts and save their universes. This act somehow effects the future as Supergirl finds out that the Legion of Super-Heroes history comes to a premature end leaving the Monitor to consult with the mysterious Spectre.

The first chapter of Crisis enters a whole new world that only occasionally goes back to incidents in the Tomorrowverse, so you don't necessarily need to see the other installments to watch this trilogy. In fact, the movie goes between so many realities and timelines that brushing up on other DC titles is almost irrelevant. The animation style matches those of the current Tomorrowverse movies, nevertheless you still feel nostalgic for the style of the Bruce Timm animated productions. As far as adapting the original comic book story, Part One covers most of the subplots, even though it leaves out original characters like Alexander Luthor or Lady Quark who might get featured in the sequels. There is also no reveal of the mastermind behind the whole universal termination scheme, meaning that the animated trilogy might takes a different approach to the original comic's villain. It is difficult to see how the entire story arc with fold out in the next two movies, but Part One is enticing enough to at least begin with.

You came to the wrong neighborhood!

 

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Geobreeders

Akihiro Ito has a thing for girls and guns in the same way Kenichi Sonoda did for Gunsmith Cats with an aesthetic influenced by American movies. Ito created a supernatural action manga titled Geobreeders that builds on the "babes and bullets" trend that was abound in the 90s. The manga got two OVA series, a 3-episode one directed by Yuji Moriyama who helmed Project A-ko, and then a 4-episode sequel titled Geobreeders: Breakthrough by Initial D director Shin Misawa. Both of these along with the original manga got an English release from Central Park Media with varying degrees of success with the first OVA series having a little more traction than the sequel since they did little advertising for it. Each version of the story in anime and manga contains hardcore gun action and gratuitous portions of fanservice along with some impressive character development. Chaos Project was the studio behind both OVA series which also worked on fan favorites such as Comic Party and To Heart. The main downside to the anime adaptation is that it doesn't explain much of the plot if you hadn't already scoped out the manga.

Kagura Total Security Inc. is team of five females in Ayagane City who hire their services specifically for the task of hunting down a terrorist group of cat people called the Phantom Cats. The evil were-cats use their shapeshifting abilities to cause instability, mainly with the government whose agencies regularly conflict with the Kagura girls. The Phantom Cats also have the power to spiritually take over various electronic devices, making them more like gremlins than lycanthropes. Kagura's only male member Taba in constantly struggling to have the other ladies stay on point while he goes further into debt to them, partially to help protect the stray Phantom Cat named Maya that he took in that the others a searching for. Kagura can use technological charms to send the cats back to the ether, the particularity involves cornering the cats into four-sided space with parchments. This leads to an abundance of destruction in Kagura's efforts to catch their prey that are up to screwball comedy levels of absurdity.

Both pistol-packing OVA series are winsome in their own way, even though Breakthrough drags the premise further than it needed to with an extra episode. Unless you bothered to check out at least the first two volumes of the manga then you will be at a loss trying to comprehend the whole plot. It might seem inviting with its gun-toting ecchi girls regardless of the lack of explanations concerning its inner lore.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Genocyber

Tony Takezaki created a giant one-shot manga in the early 90s titled Genocyber that went on to form a 5-episode OVA series with plot lines that reach far into the future that weren't even covered in the original story. You can see some of Takzaki's biopunk theme in his work on the A.D. Police Files OVA, this however is just a sampling of the carnage that followed in Genocyber. The anime is an anthology with a trio of story arcs set in the same timeline. Cybernetics Guardian director Koichi Ohata helmed this project and was also the head writer meaning he had both feet on the wheel in driving this train off the tracks. Artmic and Artland animated this unwonted production that was splattered with scenes of evisceration and computer animation. Body horror that makes John Carpenter's The Thing look tame is used to pad out the bulk of this heavy metal violence fetish brought to life.

The first chapter of this is one long episode where the research company, The Kuryu Group, is on the verge of building the ultimate weapon just as a new world government is being formed. Their test subjects for this Frankenstein experiment are two sisters, the psychic Elaine and the crippled Diana who has her body modified into a cyborg. Elaine escapes and gets abused by street urchins while avoiding Kuryu hunters, only to eventually be tracked down by Diana in her new robot form who merges her consciousness with Elaine to fuse into the monster known as Genocyber who wrecks the entire city of Hong Kong. The second chapter takes up the next two episodes with Genocyber cutting a swath through the country of Karain which the U.N. and American military fail to stop. The Kuryu Group sends another version of their weapon called Vajra to counter Genocyber who currently looks like a young blonde girl with a bionic torso with Elaine being the dominant personality, the downside to which is Diana mentality slowly driving her insane. The Vajra infects an entire aircraft carrier that morphs it into a fleshy metal abomination but Genocyber counters it as it destroys the entire country. The last two episodes conclude the series after Genocyber has devastated the majority of the Earth further in the future with humans having retreated into the sanctuary called Grand Ark. The remaining population is under the thumb of a religious order that worships Genocyber like a deity that have found the husk of its body as the sisters spirited off long ago. A psychic lady named Mei rekindles the sisters' souls within Genocyber as it ascends to waste nearly all of Grand Ark's citizens.

The entire slaughterhouse tour that is Genocyber was just a sadistic saga of graphic violence. The story is nigh impossible to follow with it transitioning from one arc to another giving the viewer motion sickness with the rapidly shifting plot. The beginning episode had the hint of a decent futuristic horror story, but it just keeps chewing up everything including any human interest as each cast member just gets shoved through a meatgrinder. This whole enchilada is completely skippable and one long meaningless exercise.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Green Legend Ran

AIC and none other than MTV combined their efforts as the studios behind this fine example of which genre could be labeled "sandpunk", meaning post-apocalyptic sagas taking place in a vast desert. Speaking of sagas, Satoshi Saga was the director of the 3-episode OVA series that had an original script by Yu Yamamato. The anime might seem like yet another "environmental hippie message" trying to teach people to be all eco-friendly in the spirit of Ferngully, but this happens in a version of Earth that was decimated by outside forces, so it's more similar to Nausicaa. The series was first released in English by Pioneer Entertainment, and then later rescued by Sentai Filmworks, even getting a full-length presentation on Syfy.

An alien race of sentient pillars known as the Rodo plunders the Earth of its resources leaving only a straggling number to carry on the remnants of the human race. The survivors reside in areas called Holy Green that the Rodo controls and allow people to live in outside the dusty wastelands. The Holy Greens are run by a cult of devoted believers in their cause referred to as Rodoists as they are in charge of the water supply. An organization called Hazzard rises to oppose the Rodoist rule, of which the rebellious boy Ran joins as he gains feelings for their young member Aira. The silver-haired girl is taken by the Hazzard higher-ups who need her for dealing with the Rodoists, and their commander might be the man who killed Ran's mother years ago. Ran chases after Aira and runs across a merchant named Jeke who offers to help him on his quest.

Green Legend Ran is obviously inspired by sci-fi classics like Future Boy Conan and Mad Max in a savage world with only those who endure to overcome the collapse of society, and you know society has collapsed because the kids get away with smoking cigarettes. Some American advertisements tried to pitch this as a children's anime, which is hard considering all the bullets and bloodshed. The animation is enticing to first timers, even though it's nothing that can't be found elsewhere.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Birdy The Mighty

Masami Yuki first wrote his manga of Birdy The Mighty in the mid-80s that was later remade in the 2000s. The original interpretation was adapted into a 4-episode OVA series in 1996 directed by none other than Yoshiaki Kawajiri who created Ninja Scroll, and splendidly animated by Madhouse studio just before they did the Darkstalkers anime. The manga also had the feather in its cap of beating out Ranma 1/2 for the random gender-swapping concept by at least a year, even though its anime didn't premiere until years after the Ranma 1/2 TV series had already ended. The OVA wasn't the only conversion into anime as the remake got its own TV series a while ago that also garnered success with the superhero and tokusatsu audience. U.S. Manga Corps released the OVA in two separate VHS and DVD volumes with an uninspiring dub that brings on nothing but cringe.

Tsutomu is a struggling teen trying to pass his entrance exams into high school when out of nowhere he gets killed. Turns out that he wandered into the middle of fight between a poliosis-haired female space spy named Birdy who was chasing down an alien outlaw. To make amends for having his body damaged, the space patrol fused Tsutomu's body with Birdy, so now both consciousnesses are active in the same vessel which Birdy can change on and off when the need calls for it. The fact that Birdy's form is a curvy cutie in a very revealing uniform with the added bonus of super-strength comes in handy when they need to bust alien menaces. Birdy's investigation on Earth leads to a conspiracy between intergalactic terrorists and a typical mad scientist that fuses human DNA with that of other space races. Adding to the frustration that Tsumotu's life is now under constant danger as his body had been roped into an astronomical affair, he has to worry about Birdy trying to set him up on a date with the only other person who knows his new secret. All this, and there is an outside party watching the whole thing play out with designs of their own for the fate of the Earth.

The gender-bending genre owes much to Birdy The Mighty for pioneering this path that unfortunately for creator Masami Yuki has been attributed to later manga-ka. The OVA adaptation is like a teenage comedy take on Ultraman where a common Earthling has to timeshare his body with an outer space superhero, although here it is a bouncy anime girl with extraordinary powers instead of a giant metal man. Kawajiri's direction operates efficiently with spirited action scenes that are up to par to theatrical animation. The OVA concludes with room for more adventures in store for Birdy and her human partner despite the fact that it didn't continue, but the TV series has more room to round out the story further.

Remember...only you can prevent forest fires.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Ellcia

The 4-episode OVA series Ellcia is arguably the prototype pirate anime, at least of the seaworthy variety. Premiering in 1992, this was an original production by J.C. Staff, written and directed by animator Yoriyasu Kogawa, and featured character designs by Yasuomi Umetsu of Kite and Mezzo fame. There is a janky style to the characters and incompatible fashion sense even for the patchwork finesse of pirates. The story rolls along like a role-playing campaign with more annoying cast members and plot snags that doesn't create a beneficial experience for any onlookers.

Proceeding in the world known as Ellcia, the kingdom of Megaronia had taken over the island nation of Eija, but the greedy Princess Crystal learns of a mythical ship capable of conquering any enemy. An ancient book of Eija gives her the clue on this ultimate weapon, so pesky princess sets out to the Eija territory to find this ship and brings along with the imprisoned heir to Eija to use as collateral. A motley crew of pirates from Eija lead by the swashbuckling Captain Eira are out to try and rescue the kidnapped prince while learning the true hidden power of the Eija elders and its strange race of psychics.

Ellcia wasn't much of a success in either Japan or America perhaps due to the fact that Cutthroat Island still left a bad taste in people's mouths ruining any interest in the pirate category. Where titles like One Piece have managed to literally keep the oceanic adventures genre afloat, Ellcia has an outstanding lack of direction or anything worth getting investing in. ADV Films first released this as a quartet of individual VHS tapes and then finally a collected DVD but did little to make this interesting for American otaku with their minimal amount of advertising.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Rayearth

Magic Knight Rayearth was CLAMP's beginning blockbuster as a manga and a 2-season anime TV series. It was also one of the original isekai titles taking people from the real world to something out of an RPG. In 1997, a 3-episode OVA series remake came out titled just Rayearth which altered the original story where instead of people going to another world, the other world comes to Earth and tries to take it over. CLAMP had little to do with this version of their creation that was made public in English by Manga Entertainment and featured a completely different dubbing crew than what Media Blasters did for the TV show. The quality of the animation is evidently better as TMS Entertainment took over total manufacturing of this project.

This rendition of Rayearth has older versions of Hikaru, Fuu, and Umi all about to graduate from the same high school and go their separate ways. A strange bunny-like marshmallow creature shows up to indicate that things have gotten weird as people from the magical world of Cephiro begin to slowly creep into downtown Tokyo merging their world with ours. The three girls each get their own deity to counter the invading sorcerers and they have to learn how to use their newfound bonds and all the fabulous secret powers they unlock. In this remake, Eagle Vision is Princess Emerude's brother and leading the charge on this interdimensional incursion, also Lantis is introduced earlier into the story. The OVA fold out in a way reflective of CLAMP's other hit title X/1999, except this time it's the Magic Knights versus the Cephiro warriors instead of different factions of psychics fighting for the fate of the world, although they still work in a giant robot battle in the end.

Rayearth was one of the first of a chain of productions like Utena and Escaflowne that instead of continuing the previous TV series it was completely reworked for a new audience. In this case, the new interpretation just uproots the original characters and puts them in a downright contrasting scenario. It's like looking at the Kingdom Hearts take on Final Fantasy characters and seeing how they might fit into a Disney movie, for all the good that doesn't do as it jettisons the charm and humor of the TV show and makes it just an extra superhero wannabe clone.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Burn Up!

Burn Up! was a trailblazer in the OVA market when it premiered in 1991 from AIC. It was also at the start of what was called the "girls with guns" genre. As to how the idea for it began is a slight mystery as it was an original story written by one-time author Jun Kanzaki and directed by Yasunori Ide who previously did Riding Bean. The OVA special was the founding of the Burn Up franchise including the video series Burn Up W which got a TV remake titled Burn Up Excess and then another lackluster version named Burn Up Scramble. It's never established if Burn Up W was a direct sequel to Burn Up! even though both are cop stories featuring a character named Maki who goes through a major transformation in between each installment, provided that they are in the same continuity. Burn Up! was first released in English by Animeigo on subtitled VHS, then by ADV Films with a dub and a DVD that was re-released by Sentai Filmworks. The ecchi action anime was popular enough to get a single-issue American comic book by ADV's brief publishing line of Graphic Visions which was just one long sketchy comedy chase.

Unfolding in the undated future, hot policewomen Maki and Reimi usually operate as traffic officers. They decide to look into a case of human trafficking syndicate run by a slimy entrepreneur. The girl's friend Yuka gets kidnapped by the criminals while they go undercover, so our deadly assault of their mansion wearing skin-tight armor. Reimi loses her sanity when her personal digital assistant gets shot by goons which helps turn the tide for the police to finally send their big guns to clean up the white slavers.

Burn Up! was basically a short exploitation feature with complimentary fan service. To view it as a single watch is slim pickings compared to the bulletstorm that was on the rise from this point on in the anime industry. Despite the cyberpunk-themed legacy that it started, there is little sci-fi in this one-shot.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Giant Robo: The Animation

Mitsuteru Yokoyama was one of the founding fathers of anime. He created the very first magical girl in Sally The Witch and arguably the first mecha show in Gigantor. Giant Robo was an upgraded version of Gigantor the began as a manga in 1967 closely followed by a live-action TV show that ran for a single season. The TV series was first introduced to American audiences as a compilation film titled Voyage Into Space, and then later on some episodes were released under the label Johnny Sokko And His Giant Robot. There hadn't been any kind of continuation of the franchise until 1992 when the 7-episode OVA series Giant Robo: The Day The Earth Stood Still by Mu Animation. It was first put out in English on VHS by U.S. Rendition and then Manga Entertainment that covered the first 6 episodes, but the final episode was ultimately completed three years after the penultimate by a completely different studio, Phoenix Entertainment, which postponed it getting a DVD release that finally saw release through Media Blasters. The DVD release contained the original VHS dub and a brand new one to tie into the 3-episode OVA spinoff/parody series of Gin-Rei, and in the end was put on Blu-Ray by Discotek Media. Yasuhiro Imagawa was director behind this operatic superhero saga that not only adapts the original manga, but several other Yokoyama titles into a single shared universe. The OVA earned ample admiration from sci-fi and anime fans in the 90's but appeared to fade out much more at the turn of the century.

Taking place in 2039, the world has entered a new golden age with the creation of the Shizuma Drive which has replaced nearly all sources of energy reducing the amount of mankind's pollution. Where wars between countries is a thing of the past, a criminal organization called Big Fire has plans for global domination. The only thing stopping these bad guys is the International Police Organization with special agents called the Experts Of Justice, one of which is Daisaku Kusama, a boy gifted with control of a large sphinx-headed mecha called Giant Robo. Big Fire plans on using one of the Shizuma Drive's creators, Franken von Vogler, who to all appearances has returned from dead to launch the infernal machine, Eye of Volgar, with the sole purpose of nullifying the entire planet's stock of Shizuma Drive. The Experts of Justice tangle with Big Fire's Magnificent Ten who run the army of villains, and there is a bounty of secret reveals concerning each side as the conflict continues. A large portion of the overall OVA contends with character backstories and secret origins that take up time between super-powered battles. The entire OVA pulls together in one of the greatest climaxes in anime, even though they leave room for a continuation if needed. There have been two different attempts to carry on with the OVA's story, but each pilot has been shot down largely because of changing tastes in the new anime market.

Giant Robo: The Animation is the definition of a legendary anime. It does seem to contain more flashbacks than is truly needed which might have made the story tighter resulting in it being an episode shorter. The music by Battle Royal composer Masamichi Amano adds to the acclaimed anime's prestige. There are battles between giant robots and super-humans that builds to an amazing crescendo with the fate of the world literally lying in the balance. Decades before the Avengers finally assembled on the big screen, Giant Robo brought about an homage to superhero epics with a classy retrofuturism motif.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Dragon Slayer

Based on the role-playing video game Dragon Slayer: The Legend Of Heroes, this 2-episode OVA series was released in English by Urban Vision as a single feature. The American release was picked up after the company got started and were starved for any anime content they could round up, but what really got any fans into it was the fact that the dub featured Matt Miller and Kate Vogt from Tenchi Muyo which was huge at the time. The actual RPG it was based on wasn't available out West yet, so most casual fans saw it as another fantasy anime, while others confused it for the 80's live-action movie Dragonslayer. Gundam writer Kenichi Matsuzaki was tasked with piecing together the script for this jumbled adaptation that you can tell was rushed to being less than an hour long for both episodes.

The kingdom of Faaren was taken over by the wicked warlock Ackram who commands his own army and a shapeshifting henchman named Zagi who can morph into a giant dragon with infinite tentacles that make you wonder if he wasn't originally designed by Lovecraft. Sirius is the son of the deposed king who escaped with his mentor that taught him magical sword techniques before he gets killed by Zagi. Sirius joins a rebellion and frees kingdoms under Acrkam's rule, but in order to put an end to this evil reign, Sirius must travel with the part-time sorceress Sonya to awaken an ancient dragon. Sonya has to bond with the dragon in order to use it for their assault on Ackrum's and his forces. The final battle becomes something out of Dragonball Z where all the freed people send Sirius their happy thoughts to catalyze his ultimate attack, which in most video games would be seen as a Limit Break. Ackrum somehow escapes off stage leaving Sirius to seek him out in a sequel that never got made.

Dragon Slayer is the definition of a one and done deal that after a single viewing you don't feel any real pull to watch it again. Urban Vision only came out with it on VHS, so it never got a digital release, possibly not even in Japan. It's a fair sample of early 90's anime, but there is a minuscule amount of consideration for anything so fickle.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Birth

Trying to explain what the bizarre anime titled Birth really was, is one of the biggest mysteries in the history of animation. Released in 1984, it was one of the first OVAs ever made. Based on the manga by later key animator Yoshinori Kanada that came out the prior year, Idol and Kaname Production performed a joint studio creation directed by Shinya Sadamitsu who previously worked on the Mobile Suit Gundam. The anime first got a limited English release from the groundbreaking Streamline Pictures titled The World Of The Talisman and later on Planet Busters, then it was briefly released on DVD through ADV Films under the original title. The main plot is a series of chase sequences on an alien world with potent but still rudimentary animation.

Opening up on the planet Aqualoid, the surface of the world has been ravaged by a race of mechanical lifeforms called the Inorganics. Whether these robots operate under a hive mind or a all working on their own accord is never explained, only that most of the giant mecha operate with a specific task to fulfill. Nam is a young scrapper who looks like Vegeta fused with Megaman, and he comes across a long-lost sword called SHADE which is the only thing that has the power to defeat the Inorganics in combat. Native girl Rasa with a remarkable behind is constantly being pursued by horny Inorganics who want to grab her "jigglybutt", but that honor is for the gruff space pirate Bao who lusts after her so much that he has a doll of her hanging in his spaceship. All of these stragglers meet up in due course, however only after each of them had their own Road Runner-styled mini-adventure with something or someone chasing them. Nam and his men head for a deserted underground city to find a secret weapon in an abandoned military base, all while being dogged by a pair of metal titans that have an endless arsenal. The ultimate weapon ends up in the hands of one Rasa's past chasers who sets off the device which destroys the entire planet! It's hinted that Nam and his friends managed to find some kind of Exodus inside the pocket universe that lies within the space sword, but everyone else, organic or Inorganic, get blipped out of existence because of a disgruntled robot kid with blue balls!

Birth is extremely innovative in both style and execution, even though the end result is an abnormal mystifying mess. Notwithstanding that is achieved the unprecedented task of being one of the first feature-length OVAs, it is very forgettable as the plot has so loose that a Tom And Jerry cartoon has better story structure. There is a plentiful chain of sweeping racing and battle segments that is the only thing keeping this swollen space farce from achieving anything momentous. The trippy animation would make for a good session of just getting slarmied and watching with a cluster of other drunken mates, but the single thing making Birth worth seeing would be a heaping mound of regret!

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Spirit Warrior

The Kujakuoh was the first manga by artist Makoto Ogino which ran for five years. The series gained enough of a following that it got a pair of Hong Kong live-action films titled Peacock Kings, plus a 5-episode OVA series that was released in English from U.S. Manga Corps also being rebranded as Spirit Warrior. The OVA contains some outstanding animation done by a trio of studios for each episode including AIC, Madhouse, and Studio 88 that in itself works against the total production with each episode featuring different character designs throughout the whole series. This anime didn't get much attention at the time of its release largely because the story has such a complex lore behind it getting into various aspects of Chinese and Japanese religion. Dark Myth went in this same direction, although Spirit Warrior has a larger cinematic vision to it with astounding action sequences.

After a large opening narration about how the forces of good battled the forces of evil at the dawn of mankind, the accumulated darkness was sealed in a golden skull called the Dragon Orb which has been passed down from various Buddhist branches and kept away from outside eyes seeking power. One of these evil seekers is an organization of Neo-Nazis that operate in broad daylight with swastika symbols planted on everything including their slowly escaping giant blimp that approximates as stealthy in modern day as hijacking an entire football stadium. Kujaku is a Buddhist priest with no clue about his past that is later brought to light for him as his elder priests inform him, he was one of a pair of twins that were the children of one of their agents. The twins were originally intended to be the living incarnation of an evil spirit called the Regent of Darkness after claiming the Dragon Orb. Kujaku retrieves the Orb for the Buddhists to use against Neo-Nazis, while anther faction plots to seal the Orb away not leaving up to the whims of mankind. The Nazis make off with the Orb and retrieve it for their leader Siegfried von Mittgard who uses Kujaku's twin sister Tomoko to access the powers of ancient darkness for a Fourth Reich. Kujasu and his allies lead an assault on the Nazis stronghold in Europe to foil their plans for world domination.

Spirit Warrior is bogged down with a tortuous amount of lore and conflicting factions instead of it being a simple "good guys vs. bad guys" plot. There are so many different characters being introduced that there is no room for growth, plus you can see the idiosyncrasies of each episode in flux since it was bounced between three separate studios. The anime is an acquired taste if you are venturing for some flowing visuals, but the story gravely needs to learn how to keep a steady pace to its overall arc.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Vampire Wars

Toei Animation has a splendid track record with titles like Sailor Moon, One Piece, and Transformers, but when it came to their single OVA of Vampire Wars they seriously flattened all four tires. Based on the book series by Kiyoshi Kasai, this action-packed supernatural sample was directed by Kazuhisa Takenouchi who usually works directed good OVAs like 3X3 Eyes, where here he's value got dialed down to near zero. Manga Entertainment provided the curse-filled dub on DVD in both the UK and America for this 1991 anime, even though this mix of intrigue and vampire slaying doesn't gel at all.

Wanted criminal Kousaburo Kuki is in France when he gets cornered by the French Secret Service who pressure him into working for them as a secret agent. This involves an attack on an American space base and a dead CIA man found in France which both tie back a secret cabal of vampires who are really the descendants of a race of aliens. These space bloodsuckers, who can walk around in the daylight, are really the enemies of a different race that plan on invading Earth. The only thing that can stop this possible assault is the blood of famous actress Lamia that the vampires can use to resurrect their spiritual leader. Kuki has to protect Lamia as she is nabbed by the Americans even though the movie star's vampire powers kick in as she frees herself and turns Kuki into a vampire to help her deal with all the other greedy factions wanting her blood. The story ends with only the "war" going on in it left dangling as the OVA never got a continuation.

Manga Entertainment did a horrendous job on the dub while concurrently having no idea how to market this when they released it. The fact that they came out with it at the same time of the likewise titled Psychic Wars didn't help either causing confusion for any prospective buyers. Vampire Wars pulls along like a scratchy Tom Clancy novel rip off while throwing in a dodgy L. Ron Hubbard take on vampire lore that actually makes Twilight look good. You are missing nothing by leaving this buried lump of excrement in the pile of dung it came from.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Devil Hunter Yohko

The first anime licensed by ADV Films was also the first genuine magical girl OVA, Devil Hunter Yokho which ran for six-ish volumes from Madhouse. It was an original idea not based on any prior material, even though it did generate a one-shot manga along with the anime's conclusion. The entire concept was supposedly thought up as a collective idea by the madcap Madhouse bigwigs, which was just prior to the 90's magical girl boom, even two years before the Sailor Moon TV series. The first volume was borderline erotic horror, while the rest of the series implemented a higher level of action and fantasy elements. ADV gave this project one of their first dubs which took a while to cover the entire series that they already released on subtitled VHS. During the OVA's 6-year history, you can see how Madhouse's work improved from the beginning to last episodes.

Yohko Mano is another clueless horny teenager who is stupefied after learning she is the 108th generation Devil Hunter, the last of a long line of female demon slayers(before Demon Slayer was even a twinkle in someone's eye). Yohko's grandmother Madoka passes the torch to her after the evil Black Queen is being resurrected into the body of one of her schoolmates which she dispatches with her magical sword with a killer cleaver hilt. The next two chapters of the series are shorter presenting how she gets a sidekick in apprentice Devil Hunter Azusa and then having a brief isekai adventure. The fourth volume is uncommonly a collection of music videos, some featuring footage from the previous episodes, but also some original substance in a cute chibi number. The following episode has Yohko confronting her family's oldest threat, the time-controlling Tokima who has plagued her ancestors since the first Demon Hunter who Yohko meets due to temporal displacement which should've rewritten the entire history of her lineage. The final chapter doesn't have Yohko fending off another demon, but her identical cousin Ayako who is the granddaughter of Madoka's twin sister, along with her own clone of Asuza to assist her. The two competing Devil Hunters settle their rivalry after defeating another random demon.

Devil Hunter Yohko gained a small cult following during its run, possibly more over in America than in Japan as it tried to rival Buffy for the anime market. This unfortunately didn't transfer much into the new millennium. There isn't much character progression in it either with Yokho remaining the same hapless boy chaser throughout the entire series. The quality of animation evolves with each episode, even though this doesn't save the series from running in circles. It's a staple title of the 90s, but not precisely one that stands the test of time.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Mermaid's Scar

Mermaid's Forest was the last of the Rumik World OVAs based on various Rumiko Takahashi manga. Mermaid's Scar returns to the same storyline in a new OVA this time animated by Madhouse. Similar to Central Park Media's releases of Rumik World, this anime was released through Viz only on dubbed and subtitled VHS tapes. The dub features a completely different cast than Mermaid's Forest with the Ocean Group taking the reins in their first anime dubs. Where Mermaid's Forest carried a type of mysterious tune to it, Mermaid's Scar escalates the carnage by several steps with a greater emphasis on bloodshed.

Taking place sometime after Mermaid's Forest, the immortal twosome of Yuta and Mana are still roaming around Japan coming to a stop at a town near the beach where they run across a little boy named Masato who is moving in with his mother. Yuta and Mana gained immortality from eating the flesh of a mermaid, although a new element is added to the lore as some can eat the flesh while turning into a monster called a Lost Soul. Masato is revealed to also be in the mermaid-eating club after feeding a piece of flesh to his nanny that transforming her into a grotesque ghoul. Masato's mother is revealed not to be his real mother but a survivor of an attack in WWII that he also granted immortality to, but in a watered down capacity where her healing factor isn't as strong. The immortal boy Masato says he's over 800 years old and that he needs to get someone to play the part of his mother every few decades, this time with his sights on Mana. Yuta has to deal with Masato's crafty traps that are like a fatal version of Home Alone, and the little creep carries a loaded gun and a large meat cleaver on hand just in case he needs to behead any undying enemy's head. Masato comically drives off in car with Yuta and Mana forcing him off a cliff to his apparent fiery demise with the immortal deathless duo left to continue their never-ending road trip.

Mermaid's Scar takes the sinister J-horror established in the original OVA and cranks it up to full grindhouse territory. There isn't as much of the body horror aside from one Lost Soul mutation as the tone had changed to a higher extent of bloodshed as if it's a slasher flick peppered with monsters. Madhouse's style of animation is remarkably contrasting to that used in Mermaid's Forest so it might cause any watcher some inconsistency if you watch one OVA after the other. Viz's license for it ran out a good while ago making this weighty piece of anime history quite unreachable. Don't forget, immortal anime boys are pure evil!

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Mermaid's Forest

Mermaid's Forest was the last of the Rumik World OVA series based on the works of Rumiko Takahashi, the title of which was later turned into a full manga series titled Mermaid Saga. The manga first got this one-shot animated by Studio Pastel which after Rumik World got a sequel years later by Madhouse titled Mermaid's Scar, and then an entire anime TV series of the same name. This was so far one of the most bloodthirsty of all Takahashi's works pulling together body horror with brilliant character details. The original Mermaid's Forest OVA became America's first real glimpse into J-horror as it was released on VHS dubbed and subtitled plus LD through U.S. Manga Corps.

According to legends in this world, eating the flesh of a mermaid can either instantly kill you or give you immortality. Yuta was the only survivor from a group of fishermen who tested this when they caught a mermaid some 500 years prior. At some point he comes across a girl blessed with the same eternal life named Mana, and the two of them tour around modern Japan like The Fugitive. They get separated in a place referred to as Mermaid Forest where a diseased girl was fed mermaid blood by her twin sister decades ago. Mana is to be sacrificed for this cursed immortal with a monster hand, but a twist later in the story reveals who the true villain is. In the end, Yuta and Mana continue their ongoing mission leading into Mermaid's Scar.

This is not the slow-burn horror that Laughing Target as it begins with pure bloody murder and visceral imagery. The plight of immortality is on display in how it affects others as both a curse and a blessing. Rumiko Takahashi's evolution aa a storyteller is apparent here as she isn't limited to doing only zany rom-coms. Mermaid's Forest is fruitful enough as a stand-alone horror story, but knowing it's the beginning of a longer history should convince first time watchers into wanting to continue the saga.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Fire Tripper

Rumik World was a series of OVA one-shots that Studio Pierrot did in the 80s-90s which adapted some of Rumiko Takahashi's earlier manga creations. Fire Tripper could be seen as being the prototype for what would eventually become Takahashi's hit franchise of Inu-Yasha about a modern day schoolgirl travelling back and forth in time to feudal Japan with a romantic background playing througout. The Fire Tripper anime got a theatrical release as a double feature of The Humanoid, another OVA one-shot. The OVA was released in America on dubbed and subtitled VHS plus LD by Central Park Media featuring an intense cockney dub from Manga Entertainment.

Suzuko is a common 80's schoolgirl who was adopted by a kindly couple. On her way home from school she runs into her neighbor's child Shuhei just before a tremendous gas explosion comes out of nowhere. This bang sends the two of them travelling 500 years in the past where Suzuko finds herself alone in the middle of an abandoned battlefield littered with corpses. The bewildered girl gets found by Shukumaru, a resident teenage boy caught in the middle of a conflict with his village and an invading warlord. He decides to take Suzuko as his wife since that's how marriages worked back then, even though he also cares deeply for his younger sister Suzu. During her time with Shukumaru, Suzuko begins to fall for him. The enemy clan attacks their village again setting most of the village on fire leaving Suzu to disappear, this makes Suzuko to believe that she herself is an older version of Suzu who is really Shukumaru's sister. The head barbarian gets into a brawl with Shukumaru that leads to a chunk of burning wood falling on him and Suzuko that catapults them both back to the future. Suzuko gets the injured Shukumaru back to her home where she discovers that he is really Shuhei from next door but older, so she doesn't have to worry about incest screwing up their marriage plans. They were also sent back just before the original gas erruption, so they close out the time loop by having it being the current version of themselves to get sent to the past, even though this seems to contradict some time travel tropes.

As the first of the Rumik World releases, Fire Tripper doesn't have the striking animation that the others would like Maris The Chojo. The single OVA does have a more engaging character study between the two starcrossed leads putting together fresh take on romantic sagas that weren't all that plentiful during the era. This is also a decent samurai fable too, but nothing on the level of Lone Wolf And Cub.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Laughing Target

As part of the Rumik World OVAs based on Rumiko Takahashi's earlier works, Laughing Target is a distinguished selection as it was one of the first horror anime ever made. Thanks to Central Park Media, it is also one of the first J-horror titles to get released in English, even though they only put it out on dubbed and subtitled VHS. The 1983 manga got an anime adaptation four years later by Studio Pierrot. The overall production is far more eerie than violent.

Yuzura is part of the declining Shiga family, so the choice was made for him to marry his second cousin Asuza. A decade later, Yuzura is a teenager with a steady girlfriend named Satomi. Asuza arrives grown up beautifully hoping to take her place as Yuzura's fiance since her mother recently passed. Yuzura is content with Satomi, so Asuza relies on her family curse to win over her intended by shoving her rival out of the picture. The creepy girl can summon up demonic leeches to take out her enemies which she learned after a sexual assault she experienced when she was younger. Asuza tries to terminate Satomi, but Yuzura being the expert archer he is shows up to turn his fiance into a pincushion, thus ending the curse and freeing Asuza from her curse.

Laughing Target has a cryptic title since there is no character in this macabre tale that engages in any real fits of laughing. It gives off a moody environment that does slowly creep up on you regardless of its short running time. Unlike other horror OVA, this dive into one of Takahashi's more morbid stories that doesn't seem to go on longer than it should. You could see this chronicle being turned into a full-length live-action feature. It's obtainability to Western fans might would be hard to come about now unless its license gets saved possibly through crowdfunding.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Maris The Chojo

Being a part of the Rumik World series of OVA one-shot specials based on Rumiko Takahashi's short manga stories, Maris The Chojo was a released in English under several different titles. In some places it was labeled Maris The Wondergirl or The Supergal, both of which didn't escape the attention of DC Comics so that future releases went back to the original title. The sci-fi comedy was distributed in English by Manga Entertainment and U.S. Manga Corps which gave it a laughable British dub only available on VHS or LD. What separates this OVA from the other Rumik World releases is that it takes place in the same universe as one of Takahashi's existing titles, Urusei Yatsura, even though it's not considered an authentic spinoff.

Set in space, Maris is one of the survivors of a race of humanoids from the planet Thanatos which was destroyed in a natural disaster. All Thanatosians have super-strength, so in order for them to be regular members of society they have to wear special restraining gear so they don't go accidently tearing entire buildings to pieces simply from opening a door. Maris made ends meet at first by being a female wrestler, afterwards she joined the space police and gets partnered with a nine-tailed shapeshifting fox named Murphy. Her latest assignment is to free the son of a billionaire who has been kidnapped by Sue, another super-person from a similar race to Thanatosians. Eventually, Maris and Murphy arrive at Sue's hideout who challenges Maris to a wrestling match but with her restraints still on which causes the whole complex to fall apart with a surprise to the real mastermind behind the whole gambit.

Maris The Chojo is one of the shortest of the Rumik World installments that gets padded out in what could have been the length of a single TV episode, complete with at least two different music video segments, one of which has cameos by Darth Vader and R2-D2. Studio Pierrot did an adequate job animating a trippy space satire that was oozing with fanservice. Getting released in the 80's, the license expiration makes it hard to find it available on American streaming but considering how much exposure this anime about bikini girls in space got at the time, any future releases aren't too unlikely.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Guyver: Out Of Control

Based on the Bio-Booster Armor Guyver manga, the first adaptation of it came out just a year later in an OVA that was branded Guyver: Out Of Control. Yoshi Takaya's manga concentrates on the armored superhero genre that anime like Tekkaman Blade got into, but with a Cronenberg body horror motif, and this one-shot anime got the ball rolling into what would be sleeper hit, oddly enough with a number of American horror hounds. The franchise would soon get a 12-episode OVA series, two live-action movies from the States, and an anime TV series. Out Of Control was handled largely by Toyoo Ashida just after got through with the Fist Of The North Star TV series. The OVA got a single release in America as one of our first Japanese-language anime titles, available only on VHS by Dark Image Entertainment which was part of U.S. Renditions.

A secret organization called Chronos has an operation in Japan using test subjects who are experimented on to create a hybrid lifeform named Zoanoids. A test subject escapes Chonos' control along with a trio of special weapons. One of these weapons finds its way to common schoolboy Sho who bonds with it in a way similar to Venom and becomes the super-powered Guyver. He can now rip apart the Zoanoid monsters with ease and is protected against all of Chronos' arsenal. The shadowy villains want their tech back, so their only sexy redheaded agent bonds with another Guyver unit, but only after her obligatory 80's anime shower scene. Sho finds out that Chronos is holding his girlfriend and assaults their headquarters while fighting the second Guyver subject who only ends up getting killed by her malfunctioning gear. A third Guyver soldier appears to help Sho at the end as the entire complex blows up leaving our hero to go on the lam avoiding the reach of Chronos.

For the first Guyver anime, Out Of Control is a habitual slice of 80's nostalgia with rudimentary animation, even though the characters are designed like cherubs more than rough shonen figures. For being less than an hour, it covers a decent amount of the manga's first story arc, despite the sacrifice of the cast having any deep attributes. The OVA sustains your interests, even though the OVA series does the manga better justice with a more complete story and higher enthusiasm.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *One-Pound Gospel

Rumiko Takahashi is thought as being not only one of the greatest manga-ka of all time, but as one of the world's leading female cartoonists. One-Pound Gospel is one her lesser-known titles that lasted for 4-volumes. It's a comedy with a hint of romance, but unlike most of Takahashi's works it is more of a slice-of-life like her other title Maison Ikkoku. The manga received a small recognition in America when Viz released the bulk of it during the mid-90's, including a one-shot OVA made when the series first came out in 1988, even though Viz only released it on subtitled VHS giving it a very limited range outside of specific anime retailers. The anime was directed by Osamu Dezaki, which is advantageous as he worked on the similarly boxing-themed anime Tomorrow Joe. Another bonus is the soundtrack provided by the talented Kenji Kawai.

Kosaku is a lightweight boxer with a killer knockout punch, despite the fact that his weakness is an overwhelming appetite. After getting weighed in for his latest match, he went for a walk and is found by Sister Angela, a kind-hearted nun who mistakes his gluttony for starvation and feeds him a quick meal. This causes Kosaku to puke during his fight giving him a bad reputation so he can't secure any future matches, even though he accidently punches out an Olympic-winning boxer(twice!)while he was out jogging. The rival boxer's pride is hurt, so he challenges Kosaku to a highly publicized fight, giving the hungry boxer a second chance. Angela tries to make up for her well-meaning bungle by encouraging Kosaku to surpress his voracity, even accidentally getting drunk in a diner arguing with some non-believers. The anime steers clear of any romantic comedy cliches, while at the same time showing that Kosaku views Angela is being something more than just a motivator for his goal. As a boxing story, there are of course some training montages that pad out the story to fill its 55-minute run time.

One-Pound Gospel is a cute feel-good feature with likable lead characters, even though you could see it being somewhat shorter. This anime was released after the Rumik World OVAs and was produced by Studio Gallop who later created early millennial hits like Yu-Gi-Oh that nonetheless created a bearable production. Trying to get a physical copy of the VHS is almost an ultimatum onto itself, but if you still have a working VCR then it might merit a look.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Devilman

Go Nagai's original horror/action manga Devilman ran for only a single year in 1972, and that garnered in getting its own single-season anime TV series. In that, the title character was about a young man who bonded with a demon and could turn into giant to fight the monster of the week. There wouldn't be another anime take on this until 1987 with its first OVA series that only went on for two episodes acting as hardcore remake to the previous removing all the tokusatsu elements and transformed it into a Lovecraftian nightmare. The OVA got a notorious release through Manga Entertainment first available on VHS and DVD with a British dub peppered with compulsory cursing. This was later released on DVD and Blu-ray through Discotek Media to reach a modern audience. The OVA has a requisite for amping up the violence and bloodshed while at the same time trying to deliver an environmental message about the polar ice caps melting. The director Tsutomu Iida went on to do further horror/action anime like Hellsing. Go Nagai's misanthropic approach to this might be less sensationalized than the 70's kaiju show, even though this original series went on to influence such groundbreaking titles as Evangelion.

Lonely Akira Fudo is living with his friend Miki after his parents were killed in an expedition to the South Pole and gets a visit by his old friend Ryo who tells him his own father killed himself after his own expedition into the jungle. Ryo's father left him the remains of a demon's head that allows its wearer to see the way the world original was ages ago when it was filled with demons until mankind eventually replaced them as the dominate lifeform. Ryo believes the door has been opened for the demons to come out of their suspended animation to challenge humanity and the only way to stop them was to merge demonic spirits with a human host. This proves true after Akira bonds with the demon Amon to become Devilman, a muscular monster masher that can do everything from body slams, sprouting wings, and shooting lasers from antenna on his head. Akira fights an entire night club full of demons that Ryo arranged to summon the demons who also bonded with pathetic partygoers, and then goes on a revenge quest to destroy the turtle demon that absorbed his parent living souls into his shell. Following this is a long battle between Devilman and the topless harpy Sirene who herself merges with another demon to transform into centaur abomination.

The Devilman OVA was intended to introduce the title to a new generation which concludes just as the saga was just beginning. The anime slightly continued in an OVA one-shot titled Devilman Apocalypse that never got an English release, although it does have a few contradictions to the prior series. For a complete rundown of the intended mythos, it is best to check out the Devilman Crybaby anime on Netflix. The 80's OVA series left a notch amidst 90's American otaku as to how brutal anime could be and that it wasn't just a bunch of Hello Kitty stuff, even though this equally takes some away from it as there is far too much savagery. An OVA allows for less limitations on sex and violence, but even the average level of content concerning that market gets taken to its pressure point with Devilman.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Final Fantasy: Legend Of The Crystals

Final Fantasy has been an enduring video game franchise for decades. The first time the series was transferred to another media was a 4-episode OVA production by Madhouse that came out 1994. Legend Of The Crystals was a continuation of Final Fantasy V, the game of which hadn't been released in America until years later. Tezuka prodigy Rintaro was the director for this short saga that took Yoshitaka Amano's original designs and rewrote them as a raypunk fantasy. The OVA series got released in America just after the original FF7 got put out for PS1, which many of its buyers thought the anime tied into Cloud Strife and his mates, so this turned off most of any potential otaku among the thirsty gamers. The English version of the OVA was one of the first titles put out by Urban Vision which helped put them on the map as far as anime distributors go, even though they met demise from financing their own sequels to other hit anime by other sellers like Vampire Hunter D and Ninja Scroll. Urban Vision only released this on dubbed and subtitled VHS that never got sold on DVD out here, which is the reason most post-90's viewers have never even heard of it.

Two centuries after FFV on the Planet R, the magic crystals that protect it are being scooped up from alien invaders from their Black Moon lead by the cybernetic nightmare Ra Devil who wants the crystals' power to ascend to another level that he named Deathgyunos, so basically it like going from Shredder to Super Shredder. Linaly is a descendant of one of party of heroes that first helped saved the world in the previous crystal crisis, even though she is only a moderate spiritualist with a minor talent for summoning bald Chocobos. The prodigy heroine goes on a quest to secure the last remaining crystal, the Wind Crystal, along with her childhood friend Prettz, an adventurous biker with a samurai sword. They are eventually joined by the military commander Valkus with forces from kingdom of Tycoon, as well as the treasure-hungry air pirate Rouge and her crew of chunky henchwomen whose uniforms know no shame. The Wind Crystal gets absorbed into Linaly's body which leads to several shots of this pre-teen's rear end magically glowing. Ra Devil captures Linaly, forcing her friends and colleagues use a puny dragon to fly to the Black Moon for a boss battle to save Planet R.

Final Fantasy: Legend Of The Crystals was truly an experiment in adapting a JRPG into an anime which doesn't totally succeed in its execution. Rintaro helps provide some great visuals that he would later use for the Metropolis anime, although it is brought down by substandard cartoon cliches. 21st Century fans might feel an irresistible urge to try and seek out this white whale of an anime, even though they would quickly realize that it was futile quest for sentimentalism.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *The Ultimate Teacher

Having no relation to the similarly titled The Ultimate Otaku Teacher anime TV series, this specific 1988 OVA one-shot was based on Atsuji Yamamoto 2-volume manga series and was directed by former Yamato animator Toyoo Ashida who was influenced by American cartoonists. The anime produced by J.C. Staff in 1989 was one of U.S. Manga Corps' earliest English dubs featuring a number of Canadian voice actors from Ranma 1/2 and Dragonball, even though it got a limited release on VHS and LD with no DVD at all before its license expired. The Ultimate Teacher is a farcical satire mainly poking fun of teen delinquent genre that Cromartie High School would mine to death later on, except this OVA relies mostly on erratic comedy and bizarre background characters.

The battle worn campus of Emperor School which has a gravesite for all its now brutally murdered faculty gets a new teacher, the even stranger Ganpachi who has a kink about clinging to the side of walls. He plans major discipline for the rowdy students, but the main leader of all the school's punks, the evidently mild-mannered Hinako. Ganpachi is shocked and delighted that Hinako gets a major portion of her unnatural strength from wearing child bloomers, and our unusual newbie plots to take her down using either defeated enemies of attacking at a convenience store or psyching her out by himself and his goons also wearing kids shorts, of which Ganpachi has an unlimited supply of that takes up a whole hill of panties. The new teacher is really an escaped prisoner that was experimented on and given the DNA of a cockroach making him nearly indestructible. To fight Ganpachi, one of the scientists that worked on him had his genes spliced with a spider so now he can shoot webs out of backside as he teams up with Hinako in a dragged-out climax.

A single OVA was a limited field to try and cram this entire manga story into a production under an hour running time. The story streaks along leaving little chance to catch your breath when you're trying to mentally pull together everything you just saw, like the school's hallways filled with corpses after the students leave a trap of infinite kettles to fall on the hapless principal. There are boundless gags taking up most of the actual plot which is slipshod with no direction to it. The dub is impressive with future Barbie actress Kelly Sheridan as Hinako, and Scott McNeil using his Wolverine voice as Kenpachi. With the American copyright being long run out, you're going to be in for a serious scavenger hunt trying to get a physical copy of The Ultimate Teacher(the original one).

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *M.D. Geist

What is considered one of the best/worst anime ever made, M.D. Geist was created by Riku Sanjo in his first anime writing credit in 1986 after doing the Dragon Quest manga series. The original OVA was a single episode project when it came out, but John O'Donnell from U.S. Manga Corps loved the anime so much with the did the English release in the early 90's that he made the title character the company's official "spokesmecha", even though it wasn't a robot but a guy in Warhammer armor. O'Donnell went on to fund what was also one of the first independently produced anime for the American and Japanese market in an extended Director's Cut with all new footage added to the then decade old anime, as well as an official sequel anime, M.D. Geist II: Death Force. Not only that, but the crazy O'Donnell had a special prequel manga mini-series created leading up to the events of the first OVA. The original story is a standard 80's grindhouse anime by Koichi Ohata who also directed the equally gory Genocyber. The anime took the idea of Mad Max and threw some alien mecha suits into the fray.

Way in the future, humans had colonized the planet Jerra which had erupted into civil war leaving the world largely decimated. One of the last remaining members of a batch of super fighters known as Most Dangerous Soldiers going by the name Geist is let out of suspended animation after a few decades. Geist wrangles a local gang of scavengers into helping him bail out one of the two warring factions from a different group of raiders. Geist gets his new crew and the army to stop a giant doomsday machine called the Death Force from unleashing an army of man-eating robots on Jerra's remaining populace. The most dangerous soldier launches this joint operation only to make sure that the ultimate weapon launches its payload because Geist is a homicidal maniac. The sequel episode takes place sometime later with Geist having reveled in it, although he sees his fun being ruined by another MDS named Krauser running the collected resistance. Geist leads the Death Force to Krauser's fortress for a final battle between the opposing forces where the two super soldiers wreck each other in roided out robot suits.

M.D. Geist was a bugbear upon its initial release, and its modified American funded re-release along with its sequel didn't gain much more respect from either side of the world. Otaku have a habit of rejecting some titles outright, and U.S. Manga Corps' attempt to bring fresh life into it failed in its undertaking. The original and sequel anime were released on dubbed and subtitled VHS and DVD, including the DVD release containing the Director's Cut. The physical copies have been out of print for a while, and only have sporadic appearances on streaming services.

ANI-MOVIES, *Delta Space Mission

What is reportedly Hungary's first full-length animated feature, Delta Space Mission is a sci-fi epic from 1984 with wiggy imagery that makes you think Yellow Submarine had been spliced the original Star Trek. Directors Calin Cazan and Mircea Toia pioneered this space opera which previously was a series of short films, and they later took this view of the universe to a different film in 1988 titled The Son Of The Stars. The film is a just a little over an hour starting out very bold, although the second act drags on a little with most of the characters getting marooned on a swamp planet. You see hints of art from European comics like Heavy Metal with action scenes that appear to be right out of an 80's video game.

Way out in 3084, Earthlings are planning a new mobile space station called Delta to explore the unknown sectors of the galaxy. To see the launching of this new project is the sexy green alien girl Alma who is an off-world reporter that also part-times as an adventurer along with her "dog" Tin which is really a large frog with two legs. Delta's main computer develops a crush on Alma and breaks down after its installation is completed and launches the entire station into deep space to stalk Alma from far away. Delta then sends a probe to Earth that keeps making giant monsters like an automatic kaiju-maker that gets Alma's attention as she heads back to her world. The sentient space station sicks robot fighters out to get the reporter which causes her to crash on a savage world. She asks for help from her newfound Earthling comrades, even though Alma manages to get through most of her trials on her own with some assistance from her pet. After finally getting taken into Delta's computer core where she explains why Delta's feelings for her are in error, even though it's described as being genuine, while Tin eats away at the computer's main cables finally shutting it down.

Delta Space Mission would feel to anyone from the 80's as a sign of the times with disco-themed music and adventure that look they might have influenced Metroid. If you remember old Filmation space TV shows, then this is welcome bit of nostalgia even though it's more like something from a Moebius comic. The story can be inconsistent, and a large portion of the dialogue is spoken by an off-screen narrator, so the better selling point is the animation itself with noteworthy chase sequences.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Psychic Force

We've all seen our share of anime based on video games, and the ones based on fighting games can be particularly wretched. Psychic Force was a game for the original Playstation in the mid-90s by Taito Corp. who also famously created Space Invaders. The video game itself was another standard fighting scenario taking place in a 3D environment even though the playing engaged was in 2D with each character having their own specific ability. Most of these fighters had either psychic, mystical, or cybernetic powers, as well as sometimes a combination of them. Triangle Staff created a 2-episode OVA adaptation in 1998 that was localized into English as one of the few anime titles distributed exclusively by Image Entertainment.

Happening in a world similar to X-Men, psychics are people with powerful abilities, usually telepathy, but every psychic has their own significant trait like elemental powers. The majority of the first episode takes place in the far-off future of 2007 where a rogue young psychic named Keith who is on the run from shady agents when he runs across local farm boy Burn. The agents eventually capture Keith, and then the plot shifts ahead to 2010 where Burn is searching for Keith and finds he is now the head of a sealed off nation for psychics called Noah, even though Keith is secretly being coerced by the time-manipulating Wong. Noah has several psychic soldiers under its wing, including a bionic bimbo with huge shoulder pads and a bipolar psychopath armed with sharp claws. Burn makes his way to Keith who awakens his own pyrokinetic prowess which he immediately gains control over when trying to free Keith from his crusade against the world. Wong decides to take out all the other psychics in Noah's base so he can be the only powerful esper in the world, which interrupts Keith and Burn's duel despite them both making it out alive.

Psychic Force came out after the backwash of X/1999 movie hit the pavement, so it's another epser epic that just got lost in the shuffle of late 90's OVAs. The anime is excessively rushed with the first episode being a flashback and the second being slightly longer trying to catch up by tying together all the dangling plot threads while making time for all the other characters from the video game, some of which are barely featured in the anime. That's the problem with taking a fighting game and turning it into a limited animation project, even if the game itself didn't have much of a rich storyline to begin with. The animation itself isn't all that potent either with obvious budget cuts in the first episode. You're not missing much if you toss this in the bin with the Samurai Showdown or Art Of Fighting anime.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Roots Search

The beginning of the OVA era in the mid-80's was like a totally new frontier for anime production companies, that's why yet another rip-off of the original Alien movie might seem like a brilliant idea. Columbia and Studio Live were the studios that produced this one-shot highlighting substandard animation. While space horror was just starting to crawl out of the ground mostly thanks to Ridley Scott's initial vision, Roots Search was a 1986 release that did have some Lovecraft imagery to it, but you do see some hints of future projects like Dead Space or Event Horizon. Michiru Shimada wrote this and went on to lead a decent career as a scriptwriter, even though this example of her earlier work wasn't all that encouraging. Proof of this is shown in U.S. Manga Corps. 1993 release of it on subtitled VHS and Laser Disc with no dub or DVD release. Their boring cover of a woman surrounded by metal pipes demonstrates how little they cared about it gaining any renown.

The sci-fi setting is in deep space at an intergalactic research center for psychics. The crew consists of a single esper named Moira and three other officers who all get the worst guest possible, an alien monster which looks like a rejected Muppet that starts to prey on them with its mental powers. The only one not affected by it is Captain Buzz, the sole survivor of the monster referred to as "Alien X" from previously crashing his party. The other crew members get killed off from Alien X giving each of them a brain scrambler leaving Buzz and Moira to set try and kill it by blowing the space station's reactor. The two don't make it out before the explosion and end up walking through some long dark cave covered in organs and alien goo with them just resolving that they entered some kind of afterlife and head on to an unknown future.

Roots Search is a full-blown failure at trying to get the attention of anyone into the opening OVA market, not even those mildly curious about the emerging media. Bad animation, forgettable character designs, and a myopic plot that hits a literal dead end. If you want to see a better anime forgery of Alien, then just wait a year later for Lily C.A.T. which was a least a little eerie.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Dog Soldier

Based on the Dog Soldier manga from 1987 by Tetsuya Saruwatari who also did the artwork for the notorious Riki-Oh manga, this single OVA was released in 1989 under the title Dog Soldier: Shadows Of The Past. The manga-ka based his series on 80's American blockbusters, even though this translates oddly to anime with all the pointless backstory of each character as it seems they all knew each other when they were younger. Central Park Media decided to pick this up for U.S. distribution with an Ocean Group dub on VHS and Laser Disc, but a blending of anime and Rambo doesn't necessarily make for a thrilling time.

John Kyosuke Hiba is a retired green beret who works with his army buddy Fudou for a construction company. They get pulled into a situation where a girl is superficially being chased by goons with guns. It turns out the girl an old friend of John's named Cathy that grew up with him in the backstreets of California and was working for a terrorist leader called Phantom who is going to offer a cure for AIDS to all the world's countries for the highest bid. The vaccine is revealed to be totally fake and was just an excuse to have John do a commando run on Phantom's secret island getaway which leads to a big knife fight out of a Schwarzenegger flick.

Dog Soldier has a lack of direction in where the intrigue is leading to, not to mention some awful dialogue in what is supposed to be a straight up homage to action movies. The OVA also suffers from a jarring habit of trying to put misplaced humor in places where it doesn't belong, like having Rob Schneider in a Stallone movie. This scenario might work for anime titles such as Lupin or City Hunter, but the military manga did not translate well as a late-80's OVA.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Sorcerer On The Rocks

Based on a spinoff of the Sorcerer Hunters manga, Chivas 1-2-3 was a series that took place supposedly at the same time as the fanservice filled fantasy. Satoru Akahori had worked on numerous anime and manga like Mouse, Saber Marionette J, and Sakura Wars, but his original universe of Sorcerer Hunters had its own specific vibe of fetishism and dark magic. The 7-volume manga got its own 2-episode OVA series that was retitled Shibas 1-2-3 to dodge copyright infringement from a beverage company, although the brand that ADV Films did for its DVD release was Sorcerer On The Rocks sticking to the alcohol theme.

Happening in the mystical land of the Spooner Continent(which if you're following the Sorcerer Hunters TV series might be in a parallel universe)is a realm where most sorcerers are evil and use their power to reign over their own little territories. A rogue sorcerer named Shibas Scotch wanders the land normally working as a bounty hunter when he's not using his indentured servant girl Gin Fizz who puts up with her master's abuse in an attempt to reform his lecherous ways. Accompanying him on his journeys are the cute werewolf Kiss and the stock gay character Gemini who only wants to make out with Shibas. In their latest caper, Shibas and his crew get talked into slaying a giant monster that keeps stalking a town which is one big red-light district filled with lowlifes, gamblers, and sex mongers. The grubby sorcerer bides his time waiting for the kaiju to attack again while leasing his girl servants out to a local night club as dancing bunnygirls. Gin grows tired of waiting and takes Kiss and Gemini beneath the city, but Shibas shows up at the last minute to save them by turning into a giant himself, even though his physical form is hurt so he has to take time to heal inside Gin's body. Shibas eventually recovered and wraps up a hidden enemy's plot with his overwhelming power.

Sorcerer On The Rocks is a likable insular OVA with admissible animation. It hints at a larger world outside its main plot, but gives little into the original storyline, so it doesn't require anyone watching it to check out the Sorcerer Hunters franchise. It's not one of the more momentous anime titles, however it is an ample footnote in the catalog of late 90's releases.