ANI-MOVIES, *Gundress

The fact that the character designs for this anime film were done by Masamune Shirow of Ghost In The Shell infamy is the single selling point of this cyberpunk title. Orca had already botched things up with their previous blunder of Landlock, but the anime studio went even further with their debacle of Gundress. The franchise did have a little more success with the titles having its own manga and video game, despite the fact that Gundress didn't have a strong footing when it came to reusing Shirow's abandoned designs for some of his former projects. The main draw is "girls in mechas" which worked fine for anime like Bubblegum Crisis, even though that series had its own developed plot where Gundress was all whistles and bells with no substance.

Taking place at the beginning of the 22nd Century, the new metropolis Bayside City is under the protection of the Angel Arms Company under the command of the ex-cop Takako which is an all-female strike team. The members of Angel Arms each have their own set of skills that comprise the group that gets disrupted because of new recruit Alisa. The rebellious new addition has a dark past involving the leader of a terrorist group bent on drowning the city in chaos.

Gundress was finished in 1999 but didn't see an American release through Media Blasters until 2006 because there was so much speculation regarding its potential for new millennium otaku who were finally getting wise to not spend all their cash on an unheard of anime. Despite it getting an American theatrical release, Gundress was a bomb from start to finish. The animation clumsily adapts Masamune Shirow designs, the plot is shoddy, and the dub is bad that is almost laughable. Even hardcore cyberpunk fanatics would want to skip this stale slice of bread.