My Viewing schedule for the week of 31st December 2018 - 6th January 2019
Week 3 of my official uk anime release marathon.
Kai Doh Maru is bad, it's really, really bad lol. First of all i have no idea what the hell the plot was supposed to be, it's just a collection of events with no real narrative to tie it all together, what happened to the evil uncle? Why wasn't this a revenge story? There was just nothing to get interested in. The action scenes are this ova's only saving grace as they're very well done.
Second and this will be a matter of personal preferance is that I hated the animation style, I know they're going for that tradional japanese art style but watching everything with a white filter over it was very distracting and made everything seem foggy, then there's the 3D CGI which does not combine well with the art style at all, it's completey jarring and out of place and watching the traditional animated characters talking while surrounded by CGI backgrouns was extremely off putting.
This is by far the worst of the anime I've watched over the last 3 weeks, this isn't worth anyone's time.
Psychic Wars is similar to what I said about Bio Hunter last week only this time its a really poor effort with this OVA. It's far too short for the story it wants to tell, everything is rushed, the animation is poor and they use the same plot twist twice lol so that was pretty bad. This little ova is a bland uninteresting mess which is ashame as I think there was a good story in there but alas it was not too be. Skip this one.
Slayers Excellent is overall a good little OVA, the first episode especially is a must watch for any fan of the series. The first meeting between Lina and Naga is brilliant and seeing Naga fumbling around due to her inexperinece is hilarious plus the bad guy and its resolution is pretty good.
The second episode is ok although the spoiled rich girl can get annoying pretty quick, its another anticlimax finish though although it is nice seeing Naga resolve the issue for a change lol.
The Third episode is probably the worst of the bunch about a pair of fueding fashion designers, this one was hard to get interested in and I found it pretty boring.
Vampire Wars was actually a lot better than i expected it to be lol. I liked the main character and the fact he gets stuff done, basically like an 80s action hero so that waspretty cool. The ending twists were a bit weird but i found this ova mildly entertaining. Nothing special but decent if you've got an hour to kill.
You're Under Arrest OVA is a pretty fun little series, First episode was good and the car chase was good, the relationship between the main girls was good too. Second episode was ok i would have rather had more focus on the speeding car causing havok than focusing on a pregnant cat so that was pretty disappointing. The third episode is a pretty funny little romance episode which is decent and the final episode is a good one, although i think the whole splitting apart thing was done way too soon and probably better saved for the tv series. Overall it's a fun little ova thats worth a watch.
You're Under Arrest Mini Specials, unlike the ova these aren't really long enough to get really invested in, the first few are a slog to get through with how many focus on perverted criminals, only the 3rd episode with the panty theif who breaks into the girls home is worth going back to, the later 10 episodes are much better and offer more variety like a grocery store robbery, a ghost tunnel, a demon robber, a rooftop suicide jumper and a great little episode with a purse snatcher. They're ok for the 5 minutes each episode runs but only worth it if you're a hardcore fan of the series.
You're Under Arrest the Movie is the best of the 3 UK releases. It has a serious plot with real consequences and plenty of moments to keep you interested. The assault on the station is pretty good as is the majority of the chase scenes, we even get a new variety with a boat chase and a pretty awesome scene involving a Helicopter. This is worth getting even if you're not a fan of the series as a whole as it work as a stand alone movie just fine.
Zeoraima Project Hades was an interesting little ova that was again too short to properly portray the whole story it wanted to tell, there was some interesting themes it wants to explore but simply doesnt have the time to really develop, most of the characters are uniniteresting since there's no time to get to know them and ultimately this is wasted potential.