Ranked #5411

Teito Monogatari

Overall/Enjoyment:
I've seen much worse. Much, much worse. This was reasonably solid and had a fair mix of good and bad points. At 3 hours it's probably a little longer than necessary, and the transitions between leaps in time are a little awkward. Although some cheese is present, it never gets ridiculous enough to where you can't take it seriously. In fact, part of the reason I kept watching was because despite being fairly silly at times, it still presented itself in a manner that at least made an effort to tell a real story.

Story:
Not the most original of stories, naturally, but few seldom are. I always say it's more important how you tell a story than the particular story itself. A good writer can make even mundane everyday situations interesting. So to that effect, I'd say Doomed Megalopolis brings just enough intrigue with the introduction of plot elements, the development and progression of events, and the characters involved. There were a lot of confusing plot moments, like the ending, where something may get resolved, but you are left wondering, "So what was the point of all that?"

Characters:
The chars are somewhat interesting, at least there was a respectable balance between realistic and symbolic ones. Not sure any of them are really developed well enough to be particularly memorable, or at least, the more memorable ones are probably the least likable ones...

Art:
The art was fine. Typical of its time. Nothing really stood out to me as bad or ugly, however, there was more nudity than really needed. (To make whatever point one tries to make by including nudity that is...) Also, the main villain really looks A LOT like Bison from Street Fighter :p

Sound:
Mind you, the only version I have is the dubbed. This was probably my biggest problem with this DVD. I had my volume maxed at 100 just to be able to barely make out what the hell they were saying. read more