Onna Senshi Efe & Jira: Gude no Monshou

Okay, so today's film is from JC Staff and aired in 1990. I have a mixed history with JC. They've made some absolute rubbish like Sakurasou no pet na kanojo or Puni Puni Poemii. They've also made generic boring stuff like Toradora and Hachimitsu no Clover. But then they occasionally come out with something amazing like Slayers or Flying Witch. They're a studio that's so prolific and varies so widely in quality that I can't even predict what we're going to get from them.

Story:

Our narrative is set in a fantasy world where the warrior princess Jiliora and her mage partner Effera are captured and ... put on a slave ship. The pair escape along with another prisoner but the lad is mortally wounded, prompting them to return the jewel he left behind to his siblings. This results in them being dragged into a major adventure.

There's one major flaw with this story. It relies on a lot of exposition. We start with three minutes of a narrator telling us background for the world. Because natural world building is too hard. There's also a sequence where Efe and Jira are given information that "everyone knows" except them, apparently. Here's the thing that bothers me about that. It would have been so easy for the old man who gives them the information to say that it's being kept under wraps but he heard it from a contact instead of having our main cast be the only ones around who don't know for some inexplicable reason.

That being said, I appreciate the writing aesthetic in this. It's like a cross between Dirty Pair and Slayers. With the somewhat more serious but still comedic tone of Dirty Pair, along with focusing on a dynamic dame duo but the fantasy setting of Slayers along with action sequences that are more reminiscent of it. Although I should add that this came out before Slayers and the light novel it was based off of came out slightly before the Slayers light novel. In terms of story-telling it's a fun little adventure that manages to stay compelling and provides some funny moments.

Characters:

Efe and Jira are both pretty interesting characters. The problem kind of lies in the supporting and antagonistic characters. We have a young man who barely speaks and just sort of meekly helps the pair without getting involved in the fights. We have the siblings who they get involved with helping. And the antagonists are just kind of religious zealots, a monstrous tree lady and a creepy dude who pulls the whole "someday she will be mine" thing towards Jira.

Art:

Onna Senshi Efe & Jira: Gude no Monshou definitely has that early 90s art and animation style. Including the motion lines and repeated frames as a shortcut to save on the animation budget. That being said, it still holds up pretty decently. The character designs are good and the action sequences look pretty nice.

Sound:

Matsui Naoko and Ikura Kazue are both really good in this. The rest of the cast is good enough. It's one of those situations where their character underdevelopment does somewhat affect the performances but they still do well. The music s pretty good.

Ho-yay:

Jira and Efe definitely come across as more than friends. There's a part where the guy who's creepy towards Jira says that he tolerates her "partnership" with Efe because Efe is sharp and he says it in a way that makes it sound like they're partners in more ways than one.

Areas of Improvement:

1. Do your world building by showing it, not by having an exposition dump. Literally no one has ever watched a film or tv show and said "I really want someone to explain how the world works to me while nothing interesting happens on screen."

2. The supporting characters could us a bit more depth.

3. Think through things a little more. What I mean by this is that if something is common knowledge, our protagonists should know it. And there are ways to get around that and still explain it to the audience. You could have it not be common knowledge or they could have to explain it to the phasing boy.

Final Thoughts:

I quite enjoyed this film. It reminds me of two anime franchises that I rather enjoyed and loved respectively. That being said, I definitely don't think it's on the same level as Slayers. It's an entertaining little film with plenty to like about it though. As such, I'll give it a solid 7/10.

This 1990 OVA about two warrior women is in my opinion pretty alright. What initially drew me to it was that it had two female MC's that looked pretty badass on the cover art, I'm a guy who loves strong women so i was all for that.

Story: lets start with the story. In my opinion the story is confusing. we are given some exposition at the beginning but for me it didnt help much. We the viewers learn the story at the same time as the two main characters. I would sat that its a typical convoluted fantasy story. Whether its good or bad might ... depend on the viewer, for me it was alright. There is one thing I liked but that might have to do with the time in which the anime was released and not the anime itself. Even though its an adventure story and not an overly dark narrative people die, children die and there's blood when people get cut down. Its different than in anime today where the only time you will see this sort of impact of death is in very dark anime.

Art: The art was decently good, i do believe this was originally VHS so that kind of affects the quality of what we see. But all in all the art is typical of early 90's anime.

Characters: Now this is the one thing that i believe makes this anime worth watching and its for sure what got me interested in it. This anime most definitely passes the bechdel test, even though i think that test is B.S it has some merit. The two main characters Efe and Jira are two sword wielding princesses away from their homeland. The two have a partnership and feel developed as characters. Efe uses her magic to supplement her swordplay and outwit her opponents or distract them while Jira uses her masterful swordsmanship coupled with her great strength to break through her opponents guard. Theres also the three siblings which Efe and Jira help. The siblings are the driving point behind the story and I felt their hardships and loss along with them.

In the end this is a neat little adventure anime spawned from the 90's. I enjoyed it, though I wish i could see more of the princesses adventures hinted at in the opening. I give this Anime a solid 7!