Ranked #1870

Strait Jacket

Strait Jacket is a 3 episodes OVA. Which is, no matter how you look at it, finished within a flash.
But truth be said, after seeing some of the artwork and reading a synopsis about Strait Jacket, I just had to watch it.

Good thing It wasn't disappointing. The scenes were quite well done; though you always see details that could have been better. Such as battle scenes being done too fast and the magic not being well explained. But what do you expect from 3 episodes; there wasn't any time to do so.

However, Strait Jacket did a perfectly fine job on making 3 episodes worthwhile and actually make sense. A lot of short Anime series (OVA in particular) explain nothing and/or let nothing happen due to their short time. Some even rush things through a few episodes and gives us an open ending.

Strait Jacket isn't one of them. Though you might consider it to have an open end; it is not a cliffhanger and doesn't really disappoint you. It's just what you'd expect it to be. Nothing too flasy, nothing too fancy, nothing weird, awkward or lame. It is quite enjoyable and can be watched with a coke and some popcorn. See it as watching a movie; since it in total is almost as long.

I give this series a 7 overall, though the sounds get an 8 from me. It really adds up to the series, creates suspense and isn't repeated too much. Other words, it's perfectly fine, just like the OVA is.

So really, if you have little time to kill and want to enjoy a good serie within a short amount of time; this is a pretty good choice. read more

Given three episodes, there isn't a lot that some anime series can hope to accomplish. The good thing about Strait Jacket is that it does not necessarily adhere to this; it never wears out its welcome, and provides the viewer with a decent action anime with supernatural and less blatant political and social themes. It gives us exactly what we expect from a three episode OAV, maybe gives more at points, but never less.

The story is set in a parallel universe, set somewhere in the very late 1800s or early 1900s. Technology is far more advanced, society is more developed, and magic is a dangerous, yet ever-present component of this world. It is highly interesting that this anime looked at a more detrimental use of magic--it seems to be almost metaphoric for the advances that were made in modern science; while highly useful to humanity, it could bring their destruction and downfall. To contain and control this magic, human beings must wear a Mold suit (some look like a suit of armour, not unlike the ones seen in Kenroh Densetsu or Jin-Roh). If the suit is broken or malfunctions or the human is over-exposed to magic, they lose their humanity and turn into violent, mindless, monsters. We follow three characters: Reiott, Mary Simmons and Isaac as they work on the side of the law, destroying the 'demons' as they are called.

The artwork is decent, the animation is solid. This series is focussed on action and violence. Trust me when I say it is immensely graphic, and very violent. The gore level would be given a ten, if there was a rating allowed for that. There's a lot of blood-splattering, entrails and other disturbing images. I suggest if you are particularly squeamish, that you think about it twice if not avoid this anime. Much of its intrigue lies in the violence and action, so if that's not for you, then maybe you should bypass this one and just skip the violent scenes (mind, you'll be skipping about 85% of the anime).

The sound was not particularly noticeable, honestly. But again, not doing a bad job accounts for something. There was one particular episode with ethereal singing coming from one of the demons, I don't know if it matters as sound, but it was haunting and set the tone quite nicely for the viewer to be highly perturbed by it.

Ah, and the saving point of this anime for me. While I am not exactly opposed to watching an anime just to see rampant violence, there is more to Strait Jacket than the 'BLUDNGOTTS!!'. Our main character, Reiott, is dark, haunted, and mostly aloof. Simmons is more vibrant, seems to be geared more towards 'comic appeal' and provides a softer femininity to what is a male-dominated anime (but please do not mistake me to mean 'testosterone-driven'; it is not), but it is Isaac who stole the show for me. While there isn't a lot of room for character development in a three-part series, the characters thankfully do not come across as strolling stereotypes even though they are highly archetypal. And Isaac came across as the most developed. While the other characters are driven by solely their pasts or by their sense of justice, Isaac is engulfed by both. His character undergoes the most change, the most conflict, so much so that he provides more intrigue than anyone else with more "interesting" backgrounds. He is the only character in the anime in which we see degeneration; he does a tasking job, it's bound to get to people, and it really does get to him. Interesting to see a man strive for justice and morality when everything just or moral is crumbling around him. There are two other characters who are not exactly prevalent, but they are a presence: a female Sorcerer and a young half-demon girl who follows Reiott. We never really see either character do very much, but there is a heavy cloud of intrigue surrounding them.

Now, was Strait Jacket enjoyable? To me, it was. I like violence, I like character development, even when it is minute, I enjoy the supernatural, magical, technological themes. I even enjoyed the semi-political background of the story, which seems to be set prior World War I, but all the tensions in Europe are still there. There is much talk about the 'Ottomans', which leads me to believe that the story is set in Austria-Hungary who held much contention with the Ottoman Empire at the time (that's a History lesson; I'll not go into it).

Overall, this gets a solid seven. I will not recommend it to the casual anime viewer; I will definitely not recommend it to anyone who prefers more whimsical magic anime or more science fiction-heavy technology-based anime. While there is stuff that we've seen before, maybe even countless amounts of times, Strait Jacket does the best it can with its material, with the content and with its longevity, to give us a decent action anime with, to me at least, a little bit more. read more

::QUICK REVIEW::
Story: 6 (what do you expect from 3 episodes)
Art: 10 (Edge of your seat action sequencesl)
Sound: 8 (A lot of bodies ripping apart)
Character: 7 (Typical bad ass action buffs)
Enjoyment: 10 (I've seen it twice already)
Overall: 41/50 = 8.2 = ~8 (So much action in 60 minutes)


::FULL REVIEW::
Strait Jacket manages to put more action, violence, and drama in 3 episodes than some action drama series can put in 50+ episodes. If you are a complete action aficionado, this is one that you CANT MISS. Theres not much you can explain in terms of story but they manage to make a good beginning middle and end to this OVA. Basically magic technology is advancing civilization so much that everything requires magic. But overuse and misuse can have its drawbacks and thats where we start this show. An elite armed force unit hired to dispatch these anomalies.

The story is obviously second to the action because these fight scenes take up over half of each episode and thats perfectly fine with me. Just everything about the fight scenes screams completely over the top. From ripping people to shreds to using super powerful guns that rips holes through buildings. It all just screams edge of your seat action. Now I'm sure you're saying, "a lot of anime do the same thing what makes this one so special?" Details my friend, details.

First off, the monsters they cook up for this show is something only to be seen to be believed. Although for the most part they're pretty ridiculous, but they will still make you go "woah" when you see them. But the artwork, camera angles, and detail to everything is just amazing. You actually feel the sense of destruction and power when watching a show like this. For seasoned action freaks like me, thats very hard to do considering we are usually numbed by things like that.

Overall this show, was completely awesome for a 3-episode stint. The story had a pretty reasonable beginning, middle, and end with even a plot twist that even surprised me (but I think that was mostly because I was still amazed with the action). For being such a short series, I highly recommend this to anyone who likes action, violence, and amazing artwork. Although, those who doesn't like gratuitous violence you might want to watch this. read more

I take it from the number of recent reviews that, much like with Negadon, most of the people will probably be familiar with this through Sci-Fi's 10/20/08 airing. Strait Jacket is definitely an OVA worth watching, and a pretty easy one to watch at that. Not too hard on plot elements, backstory, or technobabble/magibabble, it's not exactly a laid-back anime but it's something that can be enjoyed with a full bucket of popcorn, just be careful not to spill any after seeing a few "OH SNAP!" moments here and there.

Before going into detail, I should add that what makes this OVA work for the English-speaking world is its nearly spot-on dub. The dub isn't perfect, and in some areas can be less than stellar (I'm less than impressed with the dub of Mary Simmons, who comes off as a pretty weak character, despite being voiced by Bridget Hoffmann) but with a cast made of up, get this: Steve Blum, Crispin Freeman, Vic Mognogna (yes, you read that right: all three in the same OVA!) Kari Wahlgren, Jamieson Price, and Lara Jill Miller along with the aforementioned Bridget Hoffman, you just cannot go wrong.

Story: 7 (Good)

The story is not exactly exceptional but far from bland and unoriginal: it's the late 19th century, and people have figured out how to mechanize sorcery, basically. Since practicing too much sorcery can have nasty side effects, mainly turning people into homocidal demons, sorcerists wear "mould suits" which allows them protection. However, sometimes these suits fail, and the number of demon transformations have risen due to mold suit sabotage by a terrorist group calling themselves "Oddman." It's up to the Tactical Sorcerists, or "Strait Jackets" to deal with these demon outbursts. Hammond is one of these sorcerists; he considers his rival Steinberg to be an extreme danger due to his unlicensed status, unrestrained methods and sometimes downright suicidal attitude, which may have something to do with the relationship he has with the strange little girl Capeltata.

The story alone is not what makes this OVA great, but it's not something just tacked on either.

Art: 7 (Good)

Anymore, the art really can't be considered all that special, but given the average state of art in anime in recent years (a pretty big jump in quality, and pretty much light-years over some of the darkest days in the medium; see M.D. Geist, Mad Dog 34 or Vampire Wars) that's almost becoming a compliment, and if you can't be spectacular, at least being average beats the other alternative, especially when "average" is becoming pretty darn decent lately.

Though, speaking of M.D. Geist this OVA doesn't spare on the blood and gore either. It lacks the sheer cheese factor of that particularly ancient and bad OVA, but take it as you will in regards to whether it drags the OVA down or props it up.

Sound: 8 (Very Good)

It's hard to determine, really, whether all the points that contribute to this category being so high really deserve to belong here or over at the character column, because the voice acting really goes far towards making this OVA work. But even if you take all that out, we get some pretty awesome sound effects.

Character: 8 (Very Good)

Ahh, now we get to the best part. The characters are great, and its entirely thanks to their English VA's. Mary Simmons, despite having Bridget Hoffman behind her, does tend to fail, but given the opportunities for the rest of the cast (hey, it's got Steven Blum and Crispin Freeman as the leads) there's not much that can be said other than you simply can't go wrong. If you want to experience just how awesome Freeman and Blum can be, let alone together, you owe it to yourselves to see this.

Enjoyment: 8 (Very Good)

And that's just what this OVA is: awesome, and Blum's and Freeman's voices are just dripping of it. Trust me, you may not enjoy all 90 minutes but you'll enjoy darn near close to it. The only real damn shame about Strait Jacket is that unlike Read or Die there's no series to follow it, but given how recent this OVA is hopefully that will change soon.

Which gives Strait Jacket a final score of:

8: Very Good read more

In Brazilian Portuguese:
Com uma boa arte, e até uma boa idéia quanto ao uso da magia e tudo mais, este anime teria sido melhor se os roteiristas tivessem tido mais episódios pra desenvolver a personalidade das personagens.
Com apenas esses 3 episódios, somos obrigados a supor o que os personagens pensam, como se sentem, ou como reagem.
Agora se você assiste um anime como esse a procura de apenas lutas e sangue, talvez você se sinta satisfeito. Embora eu tenha achado a ação deste anime bem "fraquinha" também.

Translated to English:
With a good art, and a good idea for the uses of the magic, this anime could be better if the writers had more episodes for developing the characters' personality.
With only 3 episode, we have to imagine by ourselves what the characters are thinking, or feeling, or even how they react.
But if you watch an anime looking for fights and blood, maybe you like of this anime. Although, for my "taste", the action of this anime is very "weak" too. read more

This anime reminds me a bit of Karas but even though Karas had a twisted plot with a number of holes it was still enjoyable. Strait Jacket clearly should have been longer to develop the characters just a bit more...it feels more like a preview to a possible 13 or 26 ep series which i would be interested in watching since i like this particular universe. If you want a nice quick slugfest and carnage mixed with magic then this is your show.

Strait Jacket is based around an interesting concept, but itdoesn't really go anywhere.

It focuses on Leiot Steinberg and his hunting of these demons as well as a few other characters, but the action is pretty static, since the MOLDS just stand and shoot at the demons and then they usually get taken down with one shot, the characters don't really pull you in and by the end, you're left wondering what the point was. It's just demon encounter after demon encounter and they all play out similarly, and Leiot's guilt over the deaths he's caused just seems too cliché.

but the voice acting (in the dub at least) is pretty good, with stalwarts like Steve Blum and Crispin Freeman heading the cast.

Overall, not terrible, but it doesn't excel at anything really, and when the final battle is literally two guys just standing in front of each other and shooting without actually moving it's not very impressive action either.

If you want a demon slaying superhero, Karas is by far superior.
read more

Pretty good anime. Hope they will make more episodes. the characters here are pretty impressive as well. The only thing that sorta sucks here if you look away from the fact that its only 3 ovas is that the action sequences are short and their are not really alot of them. Hoped for more of them. Otherwise not bad. Would recommend ths for everybody. Great anime. Should be at least at the top 500 if you ask me.

Why Strait Jacket have to be an OVA? I just love Strait Jacket. The story were full filled with excitement n thriller! I love the part when Rayott Steinberg start to read the spell. So cool!

"I defy all transcend reason, I the............ Beruuta eimu kuifa kuifa, Magna Blast, EXIST!" [kyaa~!!] kakkoii!! ^_^

Well it was ok, animation was great but the story was typical and it had excess gore. It was disgusting and pointless. The story was basic sinner killer/hero looking for redemption story. The whole thing was predictable from start to finish.