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.