Armed Blue Gunvolt

Armed Blue Gunvolt, this name sounds wonderfully both classy and melodious to those ears of mine. At first I was expecting this episode to be the first of a series and I was all the more hyped, but it turned so it was only an one-episode long special show ; which doesn't bring it less quality than it indeed showed. Armed Blue Gunvolt seems promoting an eponym series and videogame, and dear I'm ready to get more invested in this series if it's that awesome !

Story (9) :

The pacing was fast, but comprehensive, the story dealt on the lore of this game and, as ... it was about the beginning of an established series I bet they had to follow another more settled timeline, but this was anime introduced the right way, and there was no other way it could be improved ; starting on action with such completing animation for the action plot, really preparing for a series filled with treason, ideals and betrayals ! But that is just me surmising on this gem of animation.

Art (9) :

Filled with the blue and black contrast I affiliate with science-fiction, filled too with a dark environment and an atmosphere brought out by the sound track, although animation plans were similar to other series it has long proven to be effective. Besides I do not believe so the art-style and animation has most to deal with story telling rather than immersion to the lore, and characters are the most prominent aspects of a show.

Sound (8) :

I believe so there was only one song affiliated to this short episode, and that was a vocaloid song, pretty cool indeed, this enhances the core of science-fiction and I loved the sound track, and even the dubbing was pretty well made !

Character (9) :

The one most introduced is clearly Gun Volt, and he is so cool and strong and beautiful and classy ; perhaps is he in the series the main character as well ? He has this charm not many shounen characters have, and his character design albeit normal made him resort from the whole of the cast.

Enjoyment (9) :

Rarely seen something such in a science-fiction environment, all series and games and medias counted. Awesome immersion, beautiful pacing, this was state-of-the-art jewelry.

Overall (9) :

I expected it to be average, and this was awesome, that is why you really should at least watch it, and I don't see what more to say. Now is time I investigate more on this license !

As much as I hate to leave a negative review... Okay, I will be upfront and honest right from the start: I have never played the Gunvolt games, although I had heard of them. I watched this single-episode anime for one reason: Meguchi, because I'm a fan of hers and of her band, Roselia. And after watching the anime, which although released in 2017 *looks* like it came from the mid-1980's, I can honestly say that she was the only good thing about it. The animation was dated -- seriously, it really did look like it came from the 1980's. It was even apparently shot ... in 4:3 aspect ratio, which although I personally love that aspect ratio it hasn't been used in years. Basically, if you're a hardcore Gunvolt fan, or a Meguchi/Bandori fan like me, it's worth watching just to say you saw it. If not.. don't bother. Call this one a turkey and walk on by.

As a fan of Gunvolt I hate to admit it but I'm quite disappointed. When I heard Gunvolt was getting an anime I was hyped! The magnificently designed characters by Yoshitaka Hatakeyama being brought to life in animation! Though the key animator had no choice but to slightly edit the designs a bit to make the animating process smoother. When you see the Megaman Zero comercials you have to wonder...what if Megaman Zero got an anime? Why? Because you wanna see more of that while still using Toru Nakayama's (Megaman Zero's Character Designer) designs. Still, the work would be tremendous! So they had to settle ... with easier to draw designs which I completely understand. But enough of my hype, let's talk about how they messed it all up.

Story: 4
Gunvolt isn't about the story, it's about the world. Megaman games are the same thing. The story isn't all that important. All you need to know is that robots are attacking and it's up to the robotic heroes to save the day. Simple. But concepts stack onto that base to expand the world of Megaman. That's the appeal of it. More robot masters and reploids, how the world evolves through each game, the idea of reploids and humans can coexist and all of the fun memories of friendship along with the hardships of evil. Gunvolt is essentially Megaman but replace robots/reploids with adepts. Since the anime is about the beginning where things left off, and because of how short the first mission in Gunvolt is, SURELY they can go for the best option by having the first ten minutes be about how Gunvolt starts his days in QUILL. Instead we get a poorly paced drawn out first mission plagued by badly placed flash backs and ridiculous pacing. One moment Gunvolt is on the train, next moment we are back to Jewel. One moment we are seeing Gunvolt infiltrate a random building then we cut to a flash back when he was saved by Asimov. While other things are happening Joule's Septima keeps interrupting the flow as well. If they wanted to shoe horn her septima to sing, why not just use her RIGHT when Gunvolt is about to fight Merak and have her dance around with decent animation like how she is used in the game?These choices are so jarring even I kept being sucked away from this anime. Honestly if this was the direction they were going they could have at least had Gunvolt's flash back be the start and work their way up to the moment he saves Joule and leaves QUILL. Over all the story in Gunvolt isn't an issue, the matter is how the anime presents it is very slashed into pieces and arranged in a way that would make it confusing and jarring to even watch. And don't forget that shoe horned fight scene...I will talk about that later.

Art: 5
The art style is fine! They put in some nice moments to show off how awesome Gunvolt and how beautiful Joule's Septima can be at times! He makes some nice moves here and there but the problem starts to fall when it comes to other aspects of the show. Art in anime isn't about how flashy it can be, it should be about how they can spread their budget to the right areas and like most anime that have action in it they save the best for the good stuff. But that also means making cuts. Gunvolt's flash back were multiple still frames, his talk with Asimov is on a desk side shot for side shot with bland colors, sometimes the other animation bits can be choppy when they don't want to be. I don't blame them for this animation! Gunvolt only solid like 150 K units! You can't expect someone like Inti Creates to make a pretty anime! They just had to work with what they had. Still, it's no excuse for this choppy animation when they could have used previous bits of animation in favor of something different. They don't have to make a 21 OVA by stretching out animation and pacing, they could have compressed the best scenes without unnecessary ones to make it as pretty and short as possible. After watching Planetarium I realized you don't need 21 minutes to describe some plot in that frame of time. All you need is enough, and because of how simple the story is in Gunvolt it could have been so much better if they made a smarter move for quality and not quantity.

Sound: 3
Joule's song is...well...meh. Compared to her other songs I'm surprised they didn't just put in Reincarnation when Gunvolt was powered up. That song is a staple in the series and they didn't even use it. I watched the dub and sub and...Was Gunvolt's voice actor making Gunvolt trying to sound like a complete idiot? I don't know, Merik and Gunvolt's voices in this anime are awful. Joule's and the others were fine at times though. The Sub is way better, and I think what happened here was that the dub was rushed. You can tell with the cut and paste translation. Dubbing is pretty difficult. You have to make sure your lines match the lips of your character while also conveying the same message. Meaning there is syllable management. There are times where Gunvolt finishes his lines and his mouth keeps moving up and down, including Marik's at the end. Though some of the line's are delivered to the point it would make the dubbing of Megaman X4 blush. When a character's face is conveying so much emotion but their delivery is VERY off, it results in cringe and hilarity. Look no further than Marik's 'Just freeze already!' line while he is making a rage face. It makes me wonder if this was intentional or not because of how far voice acting as gone. Even the most inexperienced of voice actors can be whipped into shape with multiple cuts until they get it just right. If that isn't the case then the voice acting was most likely rush to finally get Gunvolt published for the media. Watch the Sub if you wanna take it more seriously...or the dub if you wanna have a laugh. Don't forget Gunvolt's "SHEEEE HAAAS NEEEEDS TOOO."

Character: While most characters are portrayed accurately, Gunvolt and Marik's is very off. Gunvolt now sounds like your generic anime protagonist with a sense of justice. Yes, he is that but Gunvolt's appeal comes from how much of a snarky bastard he can be. He loves thinking about how messed up people are with a silly one liner, he loves to show off how cocky he can be with his ability fry your jitt up. They did not convey this side of his character very well in the anime even when he was fighting Marik. Instead he talks about Joule's dream to sing with her own power, why Marik works for Sumeragi and how wrong it is and such. Gunvolt in the game is like this, but was this really the right time to talk about it? Where are his lines of sass? What does he say when the torture pedophile was scared out of his mind? "Good intel, creepy electro whip guy." What...WHAT!!?!? That...that's his sassy insult?!?! What happened to his "Ding ding thanks for the whipping. I needed a good recharge." or "I -AM- LIGHTNING" line? And then there is Marik. How did they mess him up? Well for starters WHY is Marik here? He isn't in the Anthem opening mission in Gunvolt. He felt shoe horned in because he is the most popular Seven Glaive users/bosses in the first Gunvolt game because the audience can easily relate to a gamer boy who has no drive whatsoever. Marik is constantly annoyed, he finds everything else to be a chore and wants to go and play vidja games. Honestly they draw him with a cocky smile rather than a dull expression. His lines at times are fine and make sense for his character, but honestly he serves no point here. He should be complaining why Gunvolt is here or why can't he just die already. Oh well. Way to ruin two characters at the same time, OVA.

Enjoyment: 7
Though despite low numbers I am still a Gunvolt fan and I will gladly support the series by giving some of my money to watch this OVA. The problem is they could have done so much better and added more lore in the Gunvolt universe. It isn't about the story, it's about the world they are in with silly and awesome one liners filled with wacky people with pretty j pop playing. They can't fit all of that in 21 minutes, but instead of trying a different route they took a path that had to be drawn out. I enjoyed the flashy stuff, I enjoyed the pretty designed, I enjoyed the horrible voice acting, but I did not enjoy the overall performance which severely hurts this OVA. If this anime was made for a Gunvolt fan then it's alright. I can't expect much from Inticreates. But if I wasn't a gunvolt fan and watched this then I would NOT be interested in playing the series. Regardless, good try Inticreates! Better luck next time.