#106: Burn-Up W (1996)

From https://strawberryscentedburnout.files.wordpress.com/
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Director: Hiroshi Negishi

Screenplay: Katsuhiko Chiba, Katsuhiko Kochiba, Sumio Uetake

Voice Cast: Yuka Imai as Rio, Maya Okamoto as Maya, Ryotaro Okiayu as Yuji, Sakura Tange as Lilica, Yuri Amano as Nanvel, Akemi Okamura as Chisato

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

If you were curious, or merely fancied a dive into the morbid, imagine a franchise whose existence has entirely vanished in befuddled thoughts despite having had enough popularity or interest for multiple sequels, to which many exist in anime and you can look no further to the Burn-Up anime. Predicated on super sexy, voluptuous police women in a sci-fi Tokyo, the original 1991 OVA (merely Burn Up) sold well when ADV Films released it, ever the company to sell their wares on lurid promos. After that came the sequels - Burn-Up W, a four part OVA, Burn-Up Excess (1997-8), a thirteen episode series¹, and Burn-Up Scramble (2004), another series.

Burn-Up W and Burn Up Excess were sat within the same version of this world, even with a few differences. From what I was remember, between them you have Rio Kinezono, our shopping obsessed (and broke) main heroine, who is the same with her over the top blonde hair and curvaceous figure; Maya Jingu, a gun obsessed officer with an unhealthy fixation on shooting things, with green hair, got a deeper voice and became much more of a tomboy for Excess rather than being as high pitched as a schoolgirl here; Lilica Ebett the hacker, pink hair, is the same and I forgot Nanvel Candlestick, the raven haired tech head, was eventually introduced in episode two. We shouldn't forget Maki Kawasaki, their female leader, or the sole male on the team Yuji Naruo, technically Rio's boyfriend, utterly lascivious but baring being a pilot useless, something which is a reminder that, for all the gender issues and objectifications, there is a surprising habit that, for all the skimpy costumes and busts, a lot of anime and manga makes all their female characters stand out even in just their designs whilst most male characters are emasculated constantly and idiots.

Burn-Up W is cheesecake, tonally jarring cheesecake as I'll get into, but for the first two of four episodes this is still ridiculous material, adequately animated and of the nineties in bold brash colours. A hotel is taken captive by a group who, whilst the real ringleader gets on with her business, demand absurd requests like a baseball coach to apologise for his team failing and a female idol singer to bungee jump completely naked. The franchise is sexy sci-fi cop action, denoted just from how form fitting and short the female cop costumes can be, or where members like wear frilly white and Chun-Li approved hair accessories; even a tank top is made comically small for these characters' figure. It's an issue of the "gaze" whether this is all merely innocuous or not, but not the "male gaze", the complicated reality that a viewer whether heterosexual or gay or bisexual brings their own individual reactions to this material, set again the obvious sexualisation here, which could easily lead to multiple reactions rather than the presumed ones. For me personally, it causes me to roll my eyes at times, but it's much more an issue as, like a lot of anime, this includes a world where the men are mere letches and pathetic (trust Yuji to film his girlfriend taking the nude bungee jump to get the other jump on the criminals), and everything being sorted as by women both as heroes and villains. It is an odd dynamic, the more you think about it, how work like this (even getting former porn manga author and Tenjho Tenge creator Oh! Great to work on a tie-in comic) for all its lasciviousness still leads to this strong female dynamic as a polarising duality, something which is common in a lot of media beyond just animation.

It's also done with humour, an absurd action romp which is knowingly silly, the style predicated on exaggeration with bold multicoloured and pigtailed hair on many, elaborate futuristic buildings, giant guns and broad voice performances for broad characters. It's strange as mentioned, where male characters are interchangeable in anime, no matter how crass and rightly to question depictions of female characters are in anime and manga, hell a lot of creative media, over the years even in some objectionable examples there's this fascinating discrepancy, no matter objectifying, where the obsession with style and personally given to these characters right down to their choice of coloured hair is more distinct and cared for than a random blank male protagonist or side character we "meant" to also root for, a curious paradoxical strength. And again, this is a show which is lead by its female cast; they may be dressed in skimpy clothes, and fully envision the problematic ideal of the strong female character who is just fetishized, but that these characters are still the ones who have the events to overcome, barring the one where Nanvel's beloved giant robot creation literally falls in like a Monty Python foot to resolve the story hastily, which adds layers to this conundrum worth dissecting.

From http://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/8/86/Burn_Up_W_
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The same applies to Episode 2, where a virtual idol (with a helium voice) is "kidnapped" in an ongoing plot over the episodes; twenty two minutes per episode, it feels closer to TV and was aptly a dry run for Burn-Up Excess where this exact world, even the villainess in some form, returned barring some slight character changes. It doesn't allow for much complexity, so the show is frantic. It plays to silly jokes, such as Rio's lack of cash even leading to her considering selling her used underwear posing as a schoolgirl in the opening scenes of Episode 3, or Nanvel's aforementioned giant robot she treats like a living pet and is crestfallen hasn't been brought out to help in an assignment yet. It's a broad and juvenile world, so much so a female cyborg with Wolverine claws also has the revealing portions of a Barbie; it's not defendable, but thankfully it's not the egregious and repulsive fan service of other shows, where it's inappropriate and constant, and thankfully these characters are at least grown women, still undefendable still but without another moral quandary for drawn characters to deal with.

A detail I haven't mentioned is how surprisingly bloody the show is from the start, extras being killed off, which leads to that aforementioned tonal jump, not surprisingly probably the result of having one screenwriter writes the first two episodes, another the last two. From the opening credits, building up to an elaborate one between comic panels and a hot speed pursuit of underwear thieves, to the beginning of Episode 3 where Rio does indeed try to sell her used underwear does suggest the same as before. Than a character close to her is introduced and killed off within the same episode with completely brutalness, even if off-screen, for an emotional shock. Add to this a crackdown on a police station where two deviants carve officers down and everything is on lockdown, I was caught off by how suddenly serious this OVA suddenly tried to be, which I completely forgot took place. Cheap emotional shock, brainwashed cop going on a shooting spree, Rio wandering despondently back to her apartment for a huge emotional meltdown, over a character only introduced that episode, all of which swirls together into insanely bad screenwriting which is yet amazing abrupt. Jokes still take place even in Episode 4, in the midst of the police station under siege when everything is meant to now be a serious action story, which adds to this madness.

It also has no real ending, the villainess returning for Burn-Up Excess adding to the sense these two, with tweaks, would be part of each other in design. Is Burn-Up W, however, worthwhile though by itself? It's not good but it was compelling nonetheless, and considering how long out of print Burn-Up Excel is, ADV Film's liquidation (even when they became Sentai Filmworks) removing their type of releases for the most part from the British anime industry, I'm stuck now with the morbid desire to follow up how this went into Excess as a result. Like a gaudy, entertaining but beguiling mess, I find myself still remembering details in Burn-Up W for the review despite so much I know is amiss. It's not surprising, until Burn-Up Scramble likely crashed and burned in sells, ADV Films were constantly being involved with this franchise in the first place, as even some of the details I have criticised were what sold it.

From http://solrpg.22web.org/admin/rpic/
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1) Burn-Up W and Excess were the only entries, to my knowledge, that ever got a UK DVD. Infamously, in one of ADV Film's aforementioned lurid promotional works, they had as a DVD extra for Excess called a "Jiggle Counter", a DVD extras option where you could have onscreen a tally of the entire collected breast jiggles the four main leads had for the whole series. It's sexist, dumb as a brick, actually useless as a extra...and yet I openly admit, as a younger guy, I watched the series with this function on for baffled curiosity. I am able to say, from experience, the extra was a waste of time, as it'd never change unless your DVD was cursed.

#1 to #100 Retrospective: Best Episode/Underrated Gems/Guilty Pleasures

For the previous segments, here are the links to Part A, Part B, Part C and Part D of this retrospective of the first 100 anime covered on the blog. 

Best Episode:

Honorable Mentions:

Casshern Sins (2008-9), whilst held as an underappreciated work, didn't captivate me, an incredibly bleak post-apocalypse reinterpretation of Tatsunoko's Casshern character, imagining him as the cause of a rust which kills robots slowly whilst the world is dying for everyone else. Probably the issue was that it is was too dark, too repetitive in its tone without ever feeling like the show was going for a real emotional power, but there was a curious curve ball in how, for one episode 18, The Time I've Lived and the Time I Have Left, we get the kind of freakout episode about the main female character Lyuze that feels like when Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-6) went weird in its later episodes due to Hideaki Anno's personal problems effecting the production. For one episode there's live action, avant-garde techniques, alternative reality moments, and the jarring move of imagining this character as a sex worker, all of which is strange but certainly memorable as an episode.

Worthy of mention too, for another bleak series, you are made fully aware in Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011) when the first death of the series is so abrupt and disturbing this is not going to be a happy show about magical girls. To reveal which episode this takes place in is a spoiler, but imagine how this warning shot was felt by the first Japanese viewers of the show before we all became aware it was going to be dark.

Finally there's episode eleven of Ghost Hunt (2006-7), Ghost Story in the Park?, which is the only one story episode of a series which is split off into narrative arcs, the one clearly meant to be the overt comedy episode as the central gang of ghost exorcists, which vary between paranormal specialists to even members of numerous religious groups like a Shinto shrine priestess and a Catholic priest being comrades in action, having to deal with a ghost that dumps water on couples in a park out of spite. It turns into a bitter sweet emotional episode, with a ghost that (usually a series about evil and malicious phantoms) is entirely good and just with a tragic tale to them, but the one moment the show just rested fully on the comedy that did exist throughout was a lovely change of pace. 

5. The game show episode of Ergo Proxy (2006) [Episode 15: "Live Nightmare Quiz Show, 1 Million Yen in 30 Minutes! / WHO WANTS TO BE IN JEOPARDY!"]

Another series which didn't captivate me was the sci-fi dystopian show Ergo Proxy, but only because the ending fell on its face. The series got better when it pulled the rug out from under the viewer, starting with the female lead chasing down rogue robots in a dystopian city, to the [mild spoiler] reveal the city was not the last in the world but that there were various domes across a desert wasteland. The exact moment the lead characters got out the dome lead to some good episodes, as it also lead to the lasting memory of many viewers that the one-off stories were held as the best rather than the main plot. A strong candidate was Episode Nineteen, the tale where the tiny robot girl Pino, who was one of the three main leads got an episode in a Disneyland parallel city, the robot far more able to smile than anyone in the character costumes and leading to some nice subversion of Western animation for an emotional beat.

Truthfully though, you have to talk about the game show episode, because how ballsy is it to have an abrupt and weird episode entirely structured like a game show appear out of nowhere in the series? More ballsy is that this episode, where the leads are contestants, includes very important details for the major plot, an inspired way to get through exposition that had to be praised.

4. The Anime Production Episode of Paranoia Agent (2004) [Episode 10: "Mellow Maromi"]

On my initial viewing of Paranoia Agent years ago, the entire segment between Episodes eight to ten where it drifts briefly away from the main story to episodic side tales were interesting but seen as the weaker moments. In hindsight they showed that Satoshi Kon was just as interesting here as in a single plot; one about a suicide club was sadly censored for the UK release, in a terrible decision to this day from the British Board of Film Classification, but is still a poignant take on the subject, whilst the one entirely around gossiping and making up tales about the central figure, Lil' Slugger, who attacks people is the best kind of black humor. The best of them all, however, feels like an actual unloading of all the stress of producing televised anime as its about the stressful life of creating an anime, right down to digressions explaining different job roles to the viewer for educative means. Its a dark take, as everyone's stressed and in this world people start disappearing or dying off one by one, but the honesty is absolutely memorable.

3. The "Nue" arc of Mononoke (2007) [Episodes 8 and 9]

It's not just I'm a fan of Chiaki J. Konaka, a divisive anime screenwriter who can be difficult; its that, with a series which is made up of five arcs over twelve episodes, all of them strong, the Nue arc had to really stand out from strong competition. And it sure does, the kind of peculiar story only unique to anime and manga, about an incense competition for an ancient piece of wood, which may have led to tragedy, and even manages to have a game based on the individual chapter names of The Tale of Genji as a major set piece. We forget anime is a Japanese creation, infused with their culture, but when you get something this undeniably idiosyncratic to Japan's own culture, probably esoteric even for a Japanese otaku to watch at points, its something to bask in too.

2. The ???? episode of gdgd Fairies (2011/2013) 

Trying to choose an episode of gdgd Fairies is a flawed concept because so many segments are inspired. First episodes of the first season? Bungee jumping bread eating competition where the platform is in outer space? Voice actress Satomi Akesaka beginning the running gag of an old woman polygon figure, purple hair and lingerie costume, at the "Dubbing Lake" that would lead to a side character being naturally created. The entire first season? Between the house one of the titular fairies buys which is haunted by the traps of a Super Mario level to the final episode, set as a piss take of bleaker finales of anime series which runs with the joke to even darker levels, there's so much already there.

Then the second series appears and it manages to up the ante in memorable moments. The entire multi-episode time travel narrative which is signposted to the point you could rewatch previous episodes and spot what the jokes are leading up to. The introduction of three new characters. The entire episode set at a hot springs, which I did actually consider choosing for how strangely sweet it is. The final episode, whilst the first series' final episode is the strongest, set at a school. Too many moments stand out to choose, so they are all getting the second spot... 

1. The Final Episode of School Days (2007) [Episode 13: "School Days"]

...the first place, however, could only go to one episode, the titular "School Days" episode of the infamous series School Days which gained the show's notoriety, pulled off the air due to tragic timing to a real murder, and was built up to with all the agonizing melodrama and worst hormone driven decisions of its cast to this nasty finale. Even knowing a bit of the ending didn't spoil how out there the series would end in terms of falling into a different genre which, oh boy, gets gruesome and over-the-top out of nowhere after punching the viewer in the gut repeatedly over the previous episodes. Also it wasn't spoilt because of how the culmination is more impacting having seen the whole show. Arguably too, having the fate of one character spoilt actually made School Days even more meaningful for myself as there was a dreaded sense of fate looming over the narrative, and a greater sense of tragedy as the first episode or so suggests an innocuous and eye rolling harem drama only for things to turn sour quickly. Nothing else should've gone here as School Day's finale is still lingering in my memories stronger than all the other candidates. 

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Underrated Gems

For those anime titles which, sadly, never got a nomination or mention in any of the other awards so far or later on; this is their moment of recognition.

Honorable Mention:

Call Me Tonight (1986), an obscure OVA sounds on premise, a sex hotline staff member trying to help a man who turns into a tentacled beast when he gets sexually aroused, lurid and gross but is an incredibly prescient satire on hentai and the depiction of sex in anime, more poignant as it was only in the early eighties that the OVA market was created and hentai (pornographic) anime, including deeply problematic work that'd never be allowed to be released in the West to this day, was being created. Only thirty minutes long, this is a little horror-comedy gem.

5. Genius Party (2007) [REVIEW]

Considering Studio 4°C have a reputation for great experimental animation, including the early home for talent Masaaki Yuasa, isn't worth the studio having a victory lap by way of an anthology which include legitimate legends among the roster? Genius Party does have the divisive Limit Cycle, an esoteric foray into philosophy with a James Dean stand-in which I loved but, in knowledge to how it could be seen as dreadful and pretentious, could induce people to tear their hair out. The anthology nonetheless has Yuasa showing his skills but also a segment I was originally cold on, Shinichiro Watanabe's Baby Blue, which has grown on me. The Cowboy Bebop (1998) director creates a bitter-sweet drama, abruptly punctuated by a subplot about a stolen hand grenade, about a boy and a girl skipping school to be with each other one last time which has planted itself in my heart. Sadly Genius Party Beyond, whilst it had good segments, felt a bit like an afterthought by poor luck when the best segments, or at least the most memorable (for better and for worst) were in the first.

4. Five Star Stories (1989) [REVIEW]

The issue with the adaptation of Mamoru Nagano unfinished magnum opus is that, the prologue to his tale, it barely covers his elaborate mecha space opera and, made behind his back and thus angering him, it'd never get a follow on anyway due to the bad blood involved. Its an absolute shame - Nagamo is obsessed with glamour and spectacle, his androgynous male characters to his incredible ornate mecha designs brought to screen as well as possible, all in a mere piece of this tale that won me over. The best thing is that I wanted more, left disappointed there wasn't anymore. Between the original manga , since 1986 and ongoing, being still unfinished and that Nagano's own directorial feature Gothicmade (2012) was pulled off the market by himself, for whatever reason and occasionally screened, adds a sense of frustration to this joy over this particular anime.

3. Golgo 13: The Professional (1983) [REVIEW]

The Professional has a "guilty pleasure" label hanging over it, like the Sword of Damocles, because the original Takao Saito creation is one which plays on luridness, a cold blooded assassin who merely kills and fucks, with gender politics an issue here even if it does it best to still play such moments off as uncomfortable as they should be. A factor, however, that differentiates this theatrical film from the likes of Crying Freeman (1988-1994) is that its directed by Osamu Dezaki , who bring the finest craftmanship possible and turn this lurid pulp into a piece of dirty yet beautiful art, one which even becomes borderline surreal in some of the inspired artistic decisions that take place. Even in the infamously dated computer effects, in mind they were in the early eighties, still show the experimentation that was brought in to make this film shine with greater artistic craft than this material usually gets. You can still appreciate Golgo 13: The Professional, one of only three animated adaptations of the character despite coming from 1968, even if its hyper-violent and sexy male power fantasy is off-putting at times.

2. School Days (2007) [REVIEW]

Aspects of School Days, which is the one work that has actually had mentions beforehand, are potentially the usually annoying cliches of anime, from the "sexy" (i.e. off-putting) fanservice to the bland big eyed aesthetic. These aspects, even if unintentionally, become artistically perfect however because, in adapting an erotic visual novel, someone had the inspired idea to take the bland male character surrounded by a group of potential female suitors, the stereotypical harem genre, and imagine it going all so horribly wrong, where he turns into a callous (even unintentionally so) idiot and those around him making the worst mistakes in love or blind lust. Whoever came up with this choice, taking the "worst" ending from the source material, deserves a gift of their choice even still because School Days, whilst agony for many just from the comments I read on Crunchyroll, is unforgettable like a much needing scorching of these cliches.

1. Darkside Blues (1994) [REVIEW]

Even without watching the original Japanese language version - where a female voice actress was cast to voice the male lead Darkside in a subversive creative choice - Darkside Blues was an incredible discovery. Flawed, cramming way too much into only under eighty minutes, this Hideyuki Kikuchi adaptation which combines sci-fi with magic, all with the inspired touch that the anti-hero Darkside is not violent in the slightest but succeeds as a pacifist mediator for the good guys unless pushed to a corner, has stayed with me for its unique genre mashing, its atmosphere and cramming so much into itself there's mere scenes which stand out still in memory. I am incredibly sad Darkside Blues never appeared in any of the other awards, but thankfully I could mention it here.

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"Guilty" Pleasures

No one's perfect...although in a few of these cases you do get good artistic creation among the misfires.

Honorable Mentions: 

Can I call The Humanoid (1986) even entertaining, let alone remotely competent? From the era of eighties OVA mass production, a license from Central Park Media which inexplicably (thankfully) got a UK DVD release is as bland a work you could get, so much so I can reference Alex Cox's Repo Man (1984) in how, on a shelf in that film's world, you could easily replace the cover with a white spread with black text saying "Sci-Fi Japanese Animation" and not bat an eyelid. Yet, with some personality due to its inexplicable obsession with coffee, something this bland and conventional is strangely alluring as a result, probably helped its only under fifty minutes long. 

The South Korea animated spectacle Armageddon (1996) is a mess, an obscurity plucked up by Manga Entertainment in a fleeting interesting in South Korean animation, that also got transferred to the DVD era, which is likely never to get a Blu-Ray transfer and is going to be continually confused with another film from 1996 also called Armageddon directed by Michael Bay. A shame as, honestly, it was a charming multicolored puke stain I felt sympathy for in knowledge of those who probably tried their hardest but failed. Unlike Blue Seagull (1994), which ended leaving a nasty taste in the mouth and agony as you saw the poor figures who worked on it in behind the scenes footage, I can at least look back on this other Korean work I covered as a bonus review and admit it was fun to experience. 

Now the next two aren't "Guilty Pleasures", but they are here as, in all seriousness, they got negative reviews but I want to revisit them, even potentially for new reviews if I drastically change my mind, here in this list because there's enough between them to hesitate on the previous negative judgement. Black Rock Shooter (2012) is style over substance, or seemed to be, its mashing of psychological drama in a school, where the villain is (mild spoiler) the school councilor of all people with her sinister yet charming cups of coffee, against an alternative reality of insanely bombastic female warriors/mutants fighting each other is a curiosity that hasn't vanished from mind despite my original issues. 

The other is Vampire Princess Miyu (1997), which I have already referenced for all its dumb moments and lulls left a lasting mark for its atmosphere and an ending, in spite of its incredibly comical aspects, which suddenly got nasty, tragic and sincerely emotional. Enough, in honestly, that I have fond memories in spite of remembering very well how negative that review was. 

5. M.D. Geist II: Death Force (1996)/Biohazard 4D-Executer (2000)

Starting this list off proper, however, is Koichi Ohata which fits the award perfectly. Now he has made Genocyber (1994), which has the potential (if revisited on the blog) for being actually a grotesque little gem according to my memory, but M..D Geist II is dreadful in a memorable way. Now before anyone asks, the original M.D. Geist (1986) is frankly average, not a work that's stuck with me in the slightest barring that its required for the context of the sequel, the first OVA a surprise success for Central Park Media that was also loved by their head John O'Donnell, who pushed as hard as he could get to get a "Director's Cut" for the prequel as well as fund Death Force, a gaudy totem of what late nineties anime could be like for all the good shows, films and OVAs. Its magnificently scuzzy and gauche, worthy of rediscovery, but am I aware enough to stick Death Force here for these same reasons.

So it seems unfair to drag Biohazard 4D: Executer down with Death Force, actually one of the most unique works I have covered as it was original part of an interactive ride, the footage managing (cough) to be available to the wide world long afterwards. Its still a lurid early 3D animated short all about the violence and with its visuals touching a soft spot for incredibly dated visuals, Resident Evil for all its acclaim always with a side of schlock to its legacy, but it turned out to be a perfect project for Koichi Ohata surprisingly. He will likely appear on this blog again if I can access his work, though its worth noting after Burst Angel (2004) he sadly, for all the jeers he's gotten over the years from anime fans, vanished into obscurity, a fate no director of his infamy should end up in when he should still be creating divisive anime.

4. Gyo, Tokyo Fish Attack (2012) [REVIEW]

Next is one I am slightly sad to put on the list, because I like this adaptation of the Junji Ito manga of the same name a lot, but I have to put this adaptation of his undead fish apocalypse tale on this list as its ridiculous, undercut by some glaringly obvious 3D models and for being lurid to a comical extent. Some of its changes to the source material are actually of worth, such as changing the protagonist to the female lead and how the apocalyptic ending is depicted, but this OVA feature film also has plenty of absurd moments. It also has a sex scene, whilst chaste, which having never seen even in a trangressive live action film also raised my eyebrows and just adds to the scuzziness of the entire feature, obsessed with farting and rotting evil fish, all of which even if I feel no guilt from, is still a pleasure I admit is funky. 

3. Crying Freeman (1988-1994) [REVIEW]

The idea of a guilty pleasure is, to be honest, always a suspicious one as one should never feel guilt for any work you admire or find virtue in. The only exception, which Crying Freeman falls into, is a "guilty pleasure" where, whilst no way near as problematic as Mad Bull 34 (1990-2), there are moments which are deeply uncomfortable and problematic, the late manga writer Kazuo Koike (whilst acclaimed) also notorious in how, in a position where he had to pile on lurid storytelling content to be able to keep a readership to his work over the difficult career of manga production, this meant a lot of explicit material including sexual violence with his female characters. There's plenty of moments in Crying Freeman which will be sexist or just flat out offensive for many, so a warning is required, as well as that "guilty" pleasure term for once being necessary as, when its a lurid and absrd spectacle, I feel no shame, but the few moments which do cross the line I will not defend and wish weren't there. 

Thankfully that which isn't off-putting is gleefully over-the-top and, unlike Christophe Gans' 1995 live action adaptation which could only adapt the first chapter, this multi-episode episode OVA is able to go so much further and bring out all the bizarre content from the later chapters. You go from an initial premise of the titular Freeman as a brainwashed assassin only for this premise to be quickly thrown away, all manner of crime and pulp plots to appear, even a cursed ancient sword to be a one story plot, and everyone (man, woman, large or thin) be abruptly nude at random points, frequently and not necessarily for sexual reasons. Its not even by accounts a full encapsulation of the work of Koike, but the experience is insane.

2. "Limit Cycle" from Genius Party (2007)

Ah, as mentioned in a previous awards above, Limit Cycle is a segment which I love but had to put here as, yeah, in combining alchemical and philosophical material in a giant barrage of audio-visual lecture, based around the exaggerated visuals, people are going to despise this segment for all the good will the others have. I will defend the segment, and feel that if you decode the material within it (even painstakingly) it could turn out to have a lot to admire, but this could also be a situation like Neon Genesis Evangelion which, for all its virtues, was notorious for using Christian-Judaic imagery merely for aesthetic reasons. As a result, the Emperor here may or may not be wearing clothes, Schrödinger's Trousers a contrived metaphor for the situation where putting Limit Cycle as a guilty pleasure is a wiser choice. 

1. Dark Myth (1990) [REVIEW]

Yet the guilty pleasure I hold closest to the chest is probably the obscurest, one of the titles part of my pet obsession "The Collection", a series of old licenses Manga Entertainment brought back out on DVD from VHS, most of which will likely never be re-released again. A shame as, whilst I am probably one of Dark Myth's sole fans, aware of its limitations, its a strangely atmospheric horror anime I just found entertaining, stuck in my mind irregardless of its lack of reputation. Its a perfect choice, an idiosyncratic favourite no one else likes but me. 

#1 to #100 Retrospective: Best Score/Most Unique Aesthetic

For the other Retrospective posts for the first 100 anime covered on the blog, follow the links here for Worst Anime Covered, the Strangest Anime and Best Bonus Review, and Best Song and Best Opening and Ending Credits.

Best Score

10. Avalon (2001) (Composer Kenji Kawai)

This is one (live action)  film that should be included as, considering Kawai is a veteran who has worked with director Mamoru Oshii a lot, his bombastic operatic score is just as emotionally stirring as his iconic work on Ghost in the Shell (1995) was.

9. Yurikama Arashi (2015) (Composer Yukari Hashimoto)

Befitting Kunihiko Ikuhara, his 2015 consists of a surprising amount of electro-pop which, rather than putting me off, felt absolutely appropriate for the pop-surrealism onscreen. Composer Yukari Hashimoto, having worked with him on Mawaru Penguindrum (2011), really did her best here.

8. Lupin III: The Mystery of Mamo (1978) (Composer Yuji Ohno)

Already a composer on the 1977 Lupin III series, and soon after working on the iconic The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), Ohno (also a jazz musician) was naturally going to know how to score this character's world with ease. Even if you discount just how awesome the version of the iconic Lupin III theme is here, hearing jazz combined with electronic noise and at times about to turn into disco, knee deep into the seventies lounge music, is pretty good stuff.

7. Royal Space Force – The Wings Of Honneamise (1987) (Composers: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yuji Nomi, Koji Ueno, Haruo Kubota)

Exceedingly low for Ryuichi Sakamoto on this list admittedly, a man who also in 1987 composed the score to Bernando Bertolucci's The Last Emperor with Cong Su and Talking Heads' founding member David Byrne, thus winning a Best Score Academy Award between them, but honestly  including this at any position is not blasphemous as long as the score for Honneamise is at least recognized. Sakamoto is such an important figure in Japanese music and a legendary composer, one with a peculiar and diverse soundtrack worth exploring, but everyone else involved helped build this incredibly moving score. The entirety of The Wings of Honneamise, studio Gainax's first major production which was a struggle to complete, was an ambitious and still awe-inspiring attempt at serious and intelligent science fiction, so the score as well should naturally fit the existential and spiritual layers the film itself gets to.

6. Samurai Flamenco (Composers: Agehasprings and Kenji Tamai)

The light jazz motif, that plays in the light hearted moments, was what I immediately pricked my ears up upon hearing and started my love for this show score. It was a great series which, even in the quiet scenes, had non-digetic music that added to the mood perfectly, all before you get to the more bombastic moments.

5. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000) (Composer: Marco D'Ambrosio)

Bloodlust is a fascinating time capsule - not just for tragically the last gasp of painstaking and incredible hand drawn animation, but that in the midst of a greater Western interest in anime this was effectively a US-Japanese co-production to the point the English dub came first, the Japanese one only appearing time later and (sadly) not allowed to be released outside of Japanese physical media even a decade later. It also meant that a Western composer Marco D'Ambrosio helmed the music, tragically never working on any prominent film or work to this day. That's particularly the case as, befitting a franchise which is a hybrid of genres, he knocks this score out of the park in operatic bombastic, electronic noises and a grandiosity befitting this incredible production.

4. Robot Carnival 1987 (Composers: Joe Hisaishi, Isaku Fujita and Masahisa Takeichi)

Joe Hisaishi is a legend just for his work with Hayao Miyazaki and "Beat" Takashi Kitano, but his career occasionally strayed out of these two figures' filmographies too. In the eighties, here with Isaku Fujita and Masahisa Takeichi, he had a considerable challenge to come up with eight completely different types of score for eight different type of anthology animated segments merely tied together by their theme of robots. Even the cheese fest of eighties guitar in Deprive, or the eighties synthesizer cheese of Star Light Angel, is exceptional especially when contrasted by the ambient (for the experimental Cloud) to the appropriately absurd for period farce Strange Tales of Meiji Machine Culture: Westerner's Invasion.

3. Boogiepop Phantom (Atsushi Yabe  and Hideki Amano)

In lieu to the idea that a soundtrack can amplify the images, Boogiepop Phantom cements the incredible weight a great one can have, especially as part of it's genius is that it absorbed pure noise and sound as tools to use to induce eeriness on the viewer.  Particularly for the horror genre, where music is such a vital tool that has to be good or at least memorable, or everything is marred, everyone who worked on the series should've been proud. 

2. Belladonna of Sadness (1973) (Composer: Masahiko Sato(h)*

It's not period accurate to medieval France, but Belladonna of Sadness' incredible limited animation aesthetic animation is appropriately melded with psychedelic rock which at times even turns into acid rock, guitar riffs enough by themselves to induce psychotropic images if the film itself wasn't already producing ones onscreen.

1. Paprika (2006) (Composer: Susumu Hirasawa)

When I covered this film, what else but this soundtrack gets the Number 1 spot? In comparison to Paranoia Agent (2004), which was gorgeous but did have to repeat a limited series of motifs, for the theatrical feature by the late Satoshi Kon the soundtrack itself became as iconic as the film itself, arguably having an incredibly positive effect on widening Susumu Hirasawa's potential audience because it had an actual physical release (and iTunes release) in the West. Not surprising, in-between jaunts into even circus music, his trademark world music influenced synth pop is absolutely unique and awe-inspiring.

Most Unique Aesthetic 

10. Princess Tutu (2002-3)

Even on a TV production from the early 2000s, when the introduction of digitally painted animation did frankly cause a lot of productions to stumble aesthetically for a few years, Princess Tutu's fantasy world which drew on European fairy tales and ballet was its own beautiful little globe. Literally, as part of the series' lore, which made the aesthetic even more vital, was that it was all contained in the one town the show is set in. Any further than this is a spoiler, suffice to say its a children's show which yet has the kind of deliberate artiness to match other contenders on the list, with motifs and symbolism rife to pick apart and gain greater depth from.

9. gdgd Fairies (2011/2013)

Usually when something's done terribly on purpose, its for irony and just tedious. gdgd Fairies is a strange and wonderful case as, yes, it was probably animated to look this cheap both for cost and because it made the creators laugh, but oh my did they run the gauche digital models and backgrounds into the ground to the point it became sincerely awesome. From using them for jokes about word punning to the elaborate games being played, from a perversion of a karting video game to the biggest Rube Goldberg machine machine possible, gdgd Fairies found gleefully weird ways to make itself funnier as it went along.

8. Yurikama Arashi (2015)

Creating an entirely (well mostly) female world separate between women and bears is a jumping off point for a work where distinct design and colour schemes rule. This is Kunihiko Ikuhara after all too, so the symbolism is insane in its depth and even the things which were probably just for aesthetic pleasure for him are gorgeous to look at.

7. Night is Short, Walk on Girl (2017)

Likewise, Masaaki Yuasa's work is entirely unique, though I'm not going to stumble into talking about the "Superflat" art movement, which has been brought up with Yuasa, as a) that's a complex subject I barely know a lot about and b) it feels alien, considering the Superflat movement is about the flatness of pop culture, when Yuasa's work has always been emotionally deep even when incredibly weird. It's more a case that, in his hyper stylished aesthetic that is drawn from influenced even as far as Yellow Submarine (1968), he exaggerates and distorts to perfectly depict these emotions and action. 

6. Boogiepop Phantom (2000)

From its incredibly washed out look, to the potentially problematic issue that individuals can becoming confusing to differentiate, Boogiepop Phantom's aesthetic choices are both alienating but also absolutely perfect for this dread inducing, weird horror/sci-fi premise which involves memory returning phantom butterflies to balloons which steal your inner child from you. Hopefully, pray, the new 2019 adaptation doesn't delete this version from existence as its art style is more than worthy of remembrance. Fingers are crossed, as well, the other way around that the 2019 version did its own ambitious aesthetic tricks with the material too. 

5. Requiem From The Darkness (2003)/Mononoke (2007)

Turning the final years of the Edo period into a nightmarish world full of strange touches, like all the equivalent of the police having wooden block heads like training dummies or the protagonist's publisher being a tiny little imp, Requiem From The Darkness even before you get to its dark fantasy horror sets the tone perfectly.

In a controversial move, I'll include Mononoke as a joint entry as, both as much more mature period horror series, with individual stories but witnessed by the same protagonists,  the pair make a great duo in their aesthetics. Particularly if you cannot get away with overt violence or very disturbing content on television, what the duo do in their own ways really help a lot in having an impact. Both feel like taking acid too, Mononoke's bright and truly unique aesthetic matched by the fact that, yes, it manages to tackle very dark and unconventional subject matter, whilst still being a good horror series, through symbology and great production style too.

4. The Flying Luna Clipper (1987)

Completely animating a film from the graphics of a video game console, the MSX here, is a test for any animator to try, more so as long before we became obsessed with "pixel art" this film does its best to promote said console as the best looking possible, its lush Hawaiian surreal aesthetic matched with moments of live action. The eeriness of its "stilted" animation, alongside how weird the film is, creates something incredibly unique as a result. 

3. Midori (1992)

Just for the fact director Hiroshi Harada worked on this project for years by himself, and how good it looks, you have to admire Midori, but this grotesque film also has an incredibly unique style, aptly taking its influence both from the original manga author Suehiro Maruo's source material (and style), but also the fact this is a period film set within the early Shōwa period when ero-guro grew into existence as an art movement. There are moments in Midori which are gross and horrifying, but the limited animation and style of the production is undeniably gorgeous.

2. Belladonna of Sadness (1973)

Taking unconventional and limited animation to its extreme, the last hurrah before Mushi Productions, Osamu Tezuka's anime studio, went out of business did so drawing on Art Nouveau influences to create a film that looks like no other Japanese animation in existence, again gorgeous even when dealing with incredibly dark subject matter including rape, a style which doesn't undercut this darkness, never feels into feeling like pure softcore when it comes to the sex and nudity, and is absolutely captivating to the point any screenshot could be hung off a wall of an art gallery.

1. Royal Space Force – The Wings Of Honneamise (1987)

In terms of aesthetic, whilst its not the most unique, Honneamise takes anime production to an extreme in how, working with its lore and story, it had to create a world like ours but was entirely unique to itself. From the iconography to how the aesthetic of their religious institutions looks, even how eating utensils are entirely different from ours, Honneasmise is awe-inspiring in how precise and elaborate it had to be in creating a new planet and world with unlimited possibilities left untouched outside the main plot point. You could comb this film over multiple viewings and probably find background or little details which would add a new sliver to their world. The result, likely arduous, is  captivating as a result and is still seen as a badge of pride for Studio Gainax for good rerason. What happens if the sequel, Uru in Blue, ever comes about and how it could follow up on this craft in the modern day is one to be intrigued but also scared about.

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* On iTunes/Spotify they have the purchasable version of the Belladonna of Sadness soundtrack by Masahiko Sato without the "h" at the end, which leads to some annoying confusion.

#105: Serial Experiments Lain (1998)

From https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500_and_h282_face/
oM55x1xvdqfW9rJ48Dl7wEkBPC9.jpg

Director: Ryutaro Nakamura

Screenplay: Chiaki J. Konaka

Voice Cast: Ayako Kawasumi as Mika Iwakura; Rei Igarashi as Miho Iwakura; Ryunosuke Ohbayashi as Yasuo Iwakura; Yoko Asada as Alice Mizuki

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

When Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995) became a massive cultural supernova, including its 1997 theatrical alternative ending End of Evangelion, there were many attempts to ride its coat tails in terms of more adult anime. There were many attempts at an "Evangelion Killer", mecha shows which tried to follow varying from highly regarded work like RahXephon (2002) to failures like Brain Powrd (1998). The other aspect about Evangelion is that it almost became a giant flag held aloft for more unconventional and experimental anime television series to appear even if it never had any direct influence. Certainly though, between the controversies surrounding some of Evangelion's content and that, in the last half, Hideaki Anno's known personal and mental health issues were literally leading to episodes using line drawings, the fact Envangelion actually succeeded rather than crashed and burned would've allowed braver work to appear more easily if other production companies wondered if there was now a market to start creating them. Certainly experimental OVAs and theatrical films existed, but in terms of television series before Evangelion? A question to consider, mainly due to the difficult in watching every show that came before and after Evangelion to plot out a history, especially as under its shadow into the modern day, there's been many odd and bold creative works in existence even in micro-series comedies that have appeared. One of the earliest to appear immediately after Evangelion, which can be confirmed, was the cerebral sci-fi series Serial Experiments Lain, which still has a warm reputation in the West to this day.

Lain's story is incredibly relevant in the 2010s, amazingly prescient on issues we are coming to terms with about the internet and the potential existential and sociological problems with it, all in mind that whilst the internet is briefly references, this exists in a world where it's been replaced with the Navi instead of computers and its own form of the internet called the "Wired". Thankfully, this means, regardless of visual details, there's no concern of this having dated anyway since the technology already looked alien to any world and the ideas are of greater concern. It helps, from this, the series never tried to create an accurate vision of the future, instead looking at the fears and concerns of this machinery even in terms of spirituality as we follow the titular Lain, a teenage girl stuck in perpetual childishness at first and utterly computer illiterate until she and the girls in her class start getting texts from a classmate who had commit suicide previously. As she becomes obsessed with the Wired, head screenwriter Chiaki J. Konaka nosedives as she does into a world of philosophy, a potential God on the Wired communicating to her, and some sobering and accurate predictions on concerns we are getting to twenty plus years later from Serial Experiments Lain.

Identity theft and the obscurity the web allows? Lain finds there's an alternative version of herself online who is much bolder and even evil. Data security and personal information being compromised? Said version of Lain leads to Lain herself being accused as a peeping tom at school. Secret online groups and computer hacking? The Knights of Eastern Calculus, eerily similar to the semi-fictional organisation of expert Lisp and Scheme hackers called the Knights of the Lambda Calculus, a hacking group who will even lead people to being harmed or maimed by attacking any technology, such as traffic light systems to blurring a children's tag game with a shooter, who want to break the barrier between the "Real" World and the digital one. Existentialism and post-humanism? The idea some individuals want to evolve human beings to leave their bodies and becoming permanent consciousnesses online. Hell, throw in conspiracy theories in general too, though the only weird detail, which is weird and the only one which dates the series to back when the nineties run of The X-Files was, is where the hell the cameo by a literal green alien came from in Konaka's mind.

Lain as a series does eventually become esoteric; at first, it skims the waters of horror so much it feels like it's going to become a permanent resident, with literal phantoms haunting Lain even in the day and the telephone lines bleeding. It also emphasises how good the show was aesthetically. Now, probably the biggest surprise for me returning was that, having always been available on DVD through MVM, the original version was incredibly muddy in hindsight to the point it added to the mood, leaving the experience of seeing this thirteen episode series again on a recent restoration looking like a brand new work. Its emphasised how even on a television budget the production took its potential restrictions as an advantage, boldness in its natural look contrasting heightened colour and lighting choices. Of note too, more pertinent now in comparison to each other, the character designer is Yoshitoshi ABe, creator of the original dōjinshi of Haibane Renmei, adapted into a 2002 anime which also feels like it's in the shadow of Evangelion in terms of very creative and utterly unique animated television, a very unconventional afterlife parable with the same muted style and slow burn pace Serial Experiments Lain has¹.

Again, as I've rightly remembered for years, the first few episodes feel like sci-fi horror, the images of humming electrical wires and the sense of desolate streets even in ordinary busy Japanese streets evoking what Kiyoshi Kurosawa would later go with for Pulse (2001). Contrast this with the night time scenes, with heavy neon green lighting, or the increasing influence of the computer technology through the plot, even turning into an almost bio-mechanical entity in Lain's bedroom, the floor wet in coolant, covering the entire room where once she still had plush toys everywhere. The world of the Wired is just as distinct and strange, metaphor and symbolically doing its best to perfectly imaging  an internet chatroom by representing gossiping avatars by being merely lips or eyes, or how in fear of others taking her identity, the same figures have mannequin heads of Lain on their shoulders in a darkened room in cyberspace. In knowledge that in this world, Lain herself practically enters the Wired beyond symbolic meaning, these literal visitations around unique environments are as much there to get to Chiaki J. Konaka's obsession with constantly breaking reality into pieces in most of what he writes, he both notorious and distinct in how the literal and the metaphorical are deliberately blurred in his work even for live action films like Evil Dead Trap 2 (1991); even for a children's show like Princess Tutu (2002) about ballet and fairy tales, when it gets to an inter-dimensional clockwork world where the "author" of the show exists, you can tell which episode Konaka was writing among other script writers when it's the one with the most meta and unconventional philosophy even if the target demographic was kids first.  

From https://i.imgur.com/a6PYSkO.jpg

Sound is also of importance, and not just for the inspired choice of a song by a British band on the opening credits, Bôa given a lasting cult reputation just from anime fans who had their song ] become an earworm, but on the emphasis too on sound design that crawls under the skin. It's completely comparable to Boogiepop Phantom (2000), another highly experimental show fromn this era, between them offering nuisance noise and electronic effects.

[Major Spoiler Warning]

As mentioned, this series is from Konaka, an incredibly divisive screenwriter who leads Lain to becoming difficult at points, early into the series shattering reality when even a giant deity like Lain, to her own surprise, appears up in the clouds for children to stare up to. Later episodes get into even arguments about the existence of God, an entire episode on intermingling real history of the internet and the likes of Project Xanadu with UFO conspiracy and the introduction of "Deus", a figure (Eiri) formerly human who has become a self proclaimed God of the Wired, and one episode (Infornography) whose first half if a compilation of images from previous episodes, all to represent Lain downloading an entire Navi system into her own brain, matched by a guitar riff you could grow a mullet from. Probably the biggest factor, though, which might divide viewers, is when Lain is shown not to merely by an ordinary character, who is brought into these strange events, but is part of a character arch of a unique one-off figure rediscovering her own abilities, a being (possibly through an ESP experiment talked of halfway through) capable of going beyond the Wired to actual God-like abilities. This is controversial as a plot point as, as shown in the worst examples of modern franchise blockbusters in fact, it does limit the connectability of the story from the viewer. I feel however that, especially as the first few episodes feel random, the narrowing of the narrative not only helps the show and but, as it focuses on specific characters, the real virtue of the characterisation appears.

[Spoilers End]

Another thing I forgot, for all its esoteric and eerie shenanigans, was how emotional the show eventually is. Here I admit, for its entire cool atmosphere, and general sense of complete strangeness, actually the real virtue turns out to be the bitter-sweet tale of Lain trying to find happiness. Only close to Alice Mizuki, a school friend, her isolation in the world and how attempt to grow on the Wired (literally) is fraught with further isolation, here a tale which does anchor the entire series with a greater meaning. All the philosophy is weighted ultimately by how as much it connects to her too, evoked when rather than the usual opening before the credits (a male voice over text) she opens the final episode talking directly to us about whether she actually exists or not. All the eccentricities are softened by how utterly emotional the show finally is within the final scenes.

This means Serial Experiments Lain earns its pretensions. Chiaki J. Konaka is notorious for his clear hatred for conventional linear storytelling, but there is so much about the dangers of the physical world against the digital one which have become ever more salient. It also makes sure the characters are of interest around Lain too. Her family, very disconnected, are so for a reason and builds itself to one single scene of emotional resonance; even two men in black, with cybernetic eyeglasses which stalk outside her house, get personalities and enough humanity to why they are there that their fate as everything turns pear shape is significant. That's ultimately, upon returning to this show, why I still love Serial Experiments Lain.

I once, on the first viewing, dismissed it with the same misguidedness I dismissed Boogiepop Phantom, another of these bold and innovative works from under the shadow of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Second time, many years later, it was the surreal and unconventional tone, on the borderline to horror and sci-fi, completely introspective and psychological, which won out. Now, this is in mind still but the drama is all what's left at the end and actually touching in the end. Certainly for me, when you start most series, you should hope for a progression where the final episode is that you'd never expect it to end as from just the first episode, said progression felt throughout natural or at least an escalation in drama, emotional and/or spectracle. Certainly, with Lain this is as good as you could get with this natural progression.

From https://ilarge.lisimg.com/image/754723/
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1) It would be an utter disservice not to mention producer Yasuyuki Ueda, who helped put together this show knowing the risk. He produced Lain, Haibane Renmei (working with Yoshitoshi ABe a lot), and a lot of work between the experimental to more adult, from Texhnolyze (2003) to Hellsing Ultimate (2006), that have been pretty well regarded and even successful.

#104: Strait Jacket (2007)

Director: Shinji Ushiro

Screenplay: Ichirō Sakaki

Based on a light novel series by Ichirō Sakaki

Voice Cast: Ai Maeda as Nerin Simmons; Kei Shindou as Kapel Theta; Shinichiro Miki as Reiot Stainbarg; Akira Sasanuma as Isaac Hammond; Asami Imai as Rachel Hammond; Kōji Ishii as Brian Meno Moderato; Mayumi Asano as Filisis Moog; Tatsuya Kobashi as Jack Roland

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

By the release of Strait Jacket in the US and UK, Manga Entertainment changed a great deal onwards. They've released a lot of big titles and franchises over the years to still be a major influence on the British anime industry (Dragonball, Pokemon etc.) but for every idiosyncratic title like Satoshi Kon films and Mawaru Penguindrum (2011) they've also lost their personality for me, more so as within these few decades MVM (appearing in the 2000s) and Anime Limited (appearing in the early 2010s) have gained dominance in UK anime distribution. It'll be interesting, fingers crossed, how the fact they've been purchased by Funimation, as part of anime streaming and distribution companies have been gobbled up by major companies, will affect them as they'll exist with their brand name, hopefully leading to a much needed personality injection.

A lot of this old personality is that, honestly, their reputation over the years was from a male audience dominated era of violent anime or increasing the amount of swearing within their titles, something we should probably never return to even I'd like that aesthetic to appear again. However there was more to them beyond this thankfully which did blossom, and was even found in some of those ultra-violent or adult titles they got over the years. What is missed, sadly in lieu to the OVA (straight-to-video) anime industry diminishing from the 2000s, is that Manga Entertainment gained their popularity and reputation as much from acquiring far few series originally but one-shot titles like Strait Jacket, films or OVA series which could be sold as done-in-one releases into the DVD era or a few tapes that did not need any long length of time to ingest, could hook people in and kept being of financial reward for them. Even in this still having their annoying tendency to excise the opening and ending credits, to create a "film" from all three episodes, Strait Jacket just feels like one of the last hurrahs of this great tactic of theirs.

And bear in mind, for all their lurid title choices and "beer and curry" anime, even into the early 2000s Manga Entertainment would also pick titles which could be of any genre, as long as they were action packed, getting a huge cult following for Read Or Die (2001) as one of their last big successes. Strait Jacket, whilst not perfect, feels like a title that released earlier would have done well to them rather than sadly fall into obscurity. The OVA does have an interesting premise which never became a franchise annoyingly: set in an alternative history, when magic was turned into a viable power in 1899, in the turn of the 20th century, this new resource is used both for anything from construction to medicine but with the issue that, even with protective suits and charms, it can turn people into monstrous demons that gibber and slaughter anything in their path. Those sent to deal with this issue, using magic containing armour, are nick named Strait Jackets, fraught careers that could lead to death or mutation.

From https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWg7Fdqft8DX5TbdyxdwJ34JHnPAZRjbiEdSFMUlSESO8t6lNvkPaKhyphenhyphen11Q6wi1vyzflLYb9lnP503FeiMS_PBl4e-t4l_p1kk3ZP9RA6SC1O6dpm8fgTykpUz9sZlqXXPphYuPWwUKqKn/s1600/straitjacket01.jpg

For me personally, some improvements could have been made, but it is perfectly fine as it is and has many interesting details. Not only is there the period chosen, with a steampunk (disealpunk?) aesthetic but also the detail that these demons are also being deliberately created by a terrorist group, noticeably in a line of dialogue emphasised to be far left wing, which rather than being problematic conservative messaging from the material strangely invokes the likes of the Red Army Faction in real life, which brings about some really interesting details if this story ever wanted to move beyond fantasy action into something far more complex and enticing. Also there are both the licensed military hired Strait Jackets and the unlicensed mercenaries like Leiot Steinberg, your stereotypical loose cannon anti-hero for anime whose main character distinction here is that he's followed around by a young woman (girl?) with four eyes revealed to actually be part demon, part of a complex relationship between them that hints how he owes her his life for killing her parents.

From there it's a very simple plot, adapted from a light novel series, which could be built from with ease, where even the clichés (the anti-authoritarian hero jaded by all the death he's witnessed etc.) at least have the building blocks within them to evolve into something interesting. Not all the ideas work, notable that the Strait Jackets (their proper name " Sorcerists") use giant magical guns instead of throwing magical spells, which could've easily gotten generic and difficult to work around for a longer series, and some are shown but never used, such as a female Strait Jacket who never gets in her armour but lives in luxury as a madam of a manor, but a lot also stands out. A muted but fascinating turn-of-the 20th century setting has a lot of intrigue and, with a bit of dark fantasy, this OVA is still a throwback to the old work Manga Entertainment used to release, not as violent but still gory with body horror predominant. The "demons" in particular are inspired, horrifying monstrosities of bulbous mass (or strange shapes like an upside down flower man) which, when an unfortunate person turns into one, gibber and rant about the last things on their mind in ecstasy as they rip anyone to shreds.

Wrapped within this is a generic plot but, thankfully, one that has a better pace and structure than longer works (this only one hour and sixteen minutes in this compilation version). Baring the story of our titular anti-hero, the show eventually turns into the downward spiral of a military Strait Jacket which is interesting; it's not perfect, as one character the moment they're introduced I guessed right would be killed off for cheap emotional effect, also sick humoured in how blatantly telegraphed it is if it wasn't cruel to a drawn figure like them, but it at least works as a plot with a dynamic to latch onto. The creators of the production, Feel, have not really made a name for themselves however, having also fallen into making notorious work like Kissxsis (2010)¹ and Bikini Warriors (2015) and complete obscurities. Strait Jacket as a result is one of their most prominent titles in the West, which seems a tragedy as they could've easily worked on from this title or just invest in this type of work rather than a lot of fetishitic material. Again, as with the wish for Manga Entertainment to return to this, even if nowadays there's more likelihood for a TV series to be these idiosyncratic rather than even any actual OVAs to be laying about needing to be picked up, any influence that could lead this animation studio to go back to interesting material like this would be highly rewarded.

From https://sturdypine.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/strait-jacket.jpg

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1) Ah, incest in anime and manga, why is this topic surprisingly common and only tackled seriously, by all accounts, in Koi Kaze (2004) rather than for titillation for their target audiences like for most?