Ranked #3373

Kite Liberator

Well, this is a tricky one to review as it's something that most people will have mixed feelings about as the original Kite was a very interesting work in its own right. But as you can see from the ratings I'm part of the contingent that liked it.

Story: First off I'll start by saying that I thought it was very interesting that they made a non-hentai sequel to a hentai-pigeonholed movie. Whilst the original focused on a gritty underworld story of corruption and violence (which featured nudity), Kite Liberator takes a completely different tact and focuses more on a kind of action-based sci-fi plot. Some might say that the absence of sex scenes makes the anime not seem like a true sequel and I would have to agree to some extent, but I feel that to do a sequel too similar to the original would have inevitably not have been as good. Now, back to what's at hand. The OVA in general is quite well paced. Even though it is only an hour long in length, the way the plot is constructed makes it feel like a full-length movie. In it's own right, the sci-fi plot is quite entertaining but I was disappointed with massive leap in terms of content from the gritty original to something completely fictional. At least with Kite you could imagine the events happening in real life.
The story element is something that most people will have differing views on but I think 7 is a fair score for this component.

Art: Well, I have to say that this was one of the standout features of the OVA. It was excellent, to put it simply. The combination of computer graphics as well as more traditional constructions made it very pleasing on the eye. Everything was well-rendered or accurately drawn and this component stood out justifyably, fully deserving the 10.

Sound: Another case of "doing what it says on the tin". The themes worked well with the scenes throughout and the sound effects and timing were spot on. The stereo effects were really accurate and made listening to the movie through headphones much more enjoyable than through standard speakers.

Characters: I felt you could empathise with the characters in the story quite well in a similar way as you could for the first movie albeit for different reasons. The main character really kind of reminds you in a lot of ways of Sawa from the first film. The only problem I had was that story didn't fully explain some of the character details and I was sometimes left wondering about a particular part of certain characters' backgrounds.

Overall, I would have to say that whether or not you've seen the first film, this is something interesting in its own right and it something well worth watching even with some of the issues that exist within it. 8/10 read more

You call this a sequel to Kite? How does this have anything to do with Sawa or the group of assassins she was associated with from her original 1998 series? Regardless, the plot to this movie is a bit of a mess tossing in random elements in a vain attempt to create any sense of imaginable substance such as the poorly addressed "space food and radiation mutates astronauts" side-plot, Monaka using her tasteless maid cafe job as a front for her job as an assassin and failed drama coming from what we learn of Monaka and her father. While the original Kite had a sense of mood and plot covering the cruel, tragic and merciless developments Sawa faced as an assassin, Liberator doesn't keep things as grounded as it seemingly goes for a more gritty, over-the-top feel and doesn't seem sure what kind of series it wanted to be with its elements of sci-fi thriller, crime action and heart-wrenching drama. All three of these don't mesh too well as the sci-fi element is way out of place with what we seen of the original series and because Monaka doesn't have any tragic developments like Sawa had from the original Kite, I couldn't find myself connecting with her as I did with Sawa from the original series.

Liberator does deliver well on the action element through its high quality presentation as it makes great use of CG and cel-shaded animation to render both the environments of Tokyo and the space station in which the show is mainly set in. Settings and characters have a great amount of detail applied to them with the color shading seemingly being brighter compared to the original series. Action scenes with characters are fluid and intense as you get to see regular gun-action and later on the enemy that emerges from said sci-fi plot.

Unless you are watching Kite Liberator purely for the action, I would recommend avoiding it or only peeking at it only once as the plotting is a mess with the elements it tries to mix around. read more