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I'm just going to come out and say it— anime wouldn't be where it is today without Tatsunoko Productions. In fact, I don't think shounen heroes would be what they are today without Casshern. I just hope that someone will try this anime for him or herself and see if I'm right or wrong. I highly recommend it, which is not going to be a secret.

Set in a world where robots cooperate and work for humans, the story of the anime Shinzou Ningen Casshern, a 1973 post-apocalyptic shounen-like anime, revolves around the relationship between both human and machine. Dr. Kotaro Azuma is a genius engineer ... who wants to create androids or automatons in order to assist and progress the future of humankind. However, things take a turn for the worst when the renowned scientist creates a powerful android unit named BK-1 and it suddenly spirals out of control. Yeah, this is how the story begins... in a crapsack world. While Casshern is a superhero by all means, this isn't a kiddie tale. This series stays on one tone level for the majority of its episodes-- DARK.

The main story revolves around Casshern butting heads with the out of control android, who names himself Braiking Boss, while protecting the human race and its pride...what's left of it. This feels like a juvenile set-up for a Saturday morning cartoon, but I kid you not-- Casshern kicks butt and takes names almost every episode and his heroism is inspiring, leaving a legacy in anime to this day.

The series is mostly episodic and is presented in a sort of villain-every-week format, however, that doesn't mean that it doesn't have quality.

Shinzou Ningen Casshern develops a very interesting atmosphere within its story, as the humans who once had rule over the robots for a long time are now losing their rights, privileges and even their lives to the might of Braiking Boss and Andro Force, Braiking Boss' army, at a startling and uncontrollable pace. The story also uses its episodic nature interestingly; the anime seems to focus on the robots' call for domination and the dehumanization of mankind. It shows off these concepts through the various characters presented regularly in every episode and the many emotionally striking situations they are roped into over the course of dozens of episodes. This anime doesn't try hard to make you feel for the characters, especially since they may not even make it to the end of the episode alive, but it IS hard not to feel for them since the emotional impact is surprisingly deep. The main character ends up making a grand sacrifice-- giving up his humanity to save everyone else's. At the very least, with Casshern, the pull is there. Watching this show, I begin to think to “what can I do… what should I do?” to myself. Shinzou Ningen Casshern isn't winning a prize for heavy continuity, but it does get major points for pulling off numerous moving and action-packed scenarios that take themselves seriously. Few anime did this in the early 70's, and I believe that this particular anime holds up to today because of its story telling quality.

Honestly, I love Tatsunoko... but this was 1973. You ain't gonna find any pre-rendered vehicles or high definition special attacks. However, I believe that Casshern '73 looked good for what it was. Unlike numerous TV anime from its time, Casshern had very fluid animation including its fight scenes (and there are tons of them). Every now and then, when Casshern is fighting a multitude of robots the scene will rehash the same scene a couple times but it's nothing to get worked up over. One thing that does stand out for Casshern's animaton is the special effects. For once, there aren't a ton of flashing lights that might give you a seizure if you look at them. I love the series, but I can't say the same for Macross and that's a late 80's anime...

Getting back on track, the explosions are detailed and the backgrounds look nice and fit in with the anime. There aren't any real bad points about the art style or animation, but of course, this anime is leagues behind in that respect. It's obvious that it is an old series and whether it aged well or not in terms of animation is irrelevant. Shinzou Ningen Casshern's animation is okay, and most importantly, it gets the job done.

It is a shame that this series never received a dub for North American audiences, but there is no shortage of quality with the Japanese cast. All of the voice actors sound marvelous and fit their roles well, whether they are strong and buff, young and brave or girly but bold. Ikuo Nishikawa as Casshern and Emiko Tsukada as Luna make this show. But the most prestigious voice of them all belongs to good old Braiking Boss played by Kenji Utsumi, who does an excellent job of making me hate him in all three versions of Casshern. There are vast amounts of other actors and minor roles in the anime that do substantially well too, as the production values were very high. The soundtrack is classic orchestral superhero music with stingers, slow, sad songs of defeat and epic battle themes too. It is very memorable, even if you only remember it because the opening and endings for this anime (and many other early 80's anime) are so cheesy... no getting past that fact. Eventually, the soundtrack will grow on you. If not, no big deal.

The only displeasing thing I can say about the characterization in Shinzou Ningen Casshern is that outside of Luna, Casshern and Braiking Boss and company, there are not very many characters with the same level of depth. Development is saved for the climax of the supporting characters, and it is generally slim outside of the main three—Casshern, Luna, and Braiking Boss. Casshern is a boy who put aside his own life to fight for the people who were too weak to do so. He is strong-willed, yet very shaky. There are many scenes in the anime where he is torn between his existence as a "newly-built human,” and his fate as being no longer able to live like a normal man. The irony is crushing, since even if he saves the world and Luna and his family from Andro Force's control, no one can save him from his fate. Despite that, he deals with it. He sets the example for other shounen heroes that came and still exist today. While Braiking Boss is the typical renegade bent on world domination who is very cunning, he treats everyone below him like trash. He is not above breaking promises or breaking bones to get what he desires. Luna is the typical girl companion until her love for her friend turns her into a pivotal and essential character that is soft, but bold. She stands and fights alongside Casshern forgoing the impending doom and I like her a lot, actually.

Even though those three are the ones you get the most interaction out of, it is worth noting that there are a multitude of characters with their own personalities and passions that are set as a basis for the episodes. You are bound to find a character or two that really grows on you throughout the course of any episode, and that can't be overlooked.

Shinzou Nignen Casshern does not falter in the entertainment factor. It SPOILS. I'm not saying this because I'm a nostalgic, because I watched this when I was 17...From episode one I could feel that this anime was not going to be a typical old style anime. It seems almost experimental, especially when it comes to its episodic structure, and the robots are... very silly at times. In fact hilarious, even, to a fault because it is different from the show's overall tone, however, this anime goes outside of the box just slightly and dives deep into a great tale that really gets the ball rolling. Shinzou Ningen Casshern just seems to show off its 35-episode-glory to me very well. I hope others can understand that.

Creator-Kun’s Score:
Story: Exciting. Sad. Emotional. Silly. Very silly at times. This anime is just plain fun and enjoyable at times as well as tear jerking and melodramatic. Moreover, it doesn’t try hard at all to get that across. Not to mention that the episodes have brilliant writing and pacing. If the episodic nature really bothers you, take your opinions and toss them aside. Just watch and see what Casshern can do. (10)

Art: It looks fine, and fight scenes look the best over everything else. Sadly, I can’t say much else. The animation is just dated and even in the 70’s this anime was average looking, not the best-looking thing ever. Of course, this is a minor flaw in the series, if you can call it a flaw at all. It isn’t a big deal, so I’m going a half point here. (7.5)

Sound: Wonderful actors who scream and yell boldly. A nostalgic and incredible soundtrack. Tatakae, Casshern! (10)

Characters: I’m just into Luna the most, but the characters are fine and are also the driving force of the anime. Every character has his or her gripes and troubles, strengths and weakness. I think it is interesting to be able to see them all play out over the course of an episode…and even be able to relate to a few of them. It isn’t hard to pick a favorite. (10)
Enjoyment: I relish the chance to watch this anime a third, fourth, or tenth time! I believe that it is wonderful and amazing to just sit and watch this story play out because everything comes together in this anime. Highly entertaining in my opinion. (10)

OVERALL: 9.5(weak 10) OUTSTANDING - For those of you who have seen any of the other versions of Casshern, you understand what I meant earlier. If you haven't, I'll go into more detail: the Robot Hunter OVA is an extravagant battle that blows away your expectations...even though it weirds me out a tad bit. Casshern Sins was a masterpiece; it is probably the best-looking anime of the 2000's and presents a dramatic and thought-provoking story across every episode, which was simply amazing. But Shinzou Ningen Casshern is the opening tale of a classic character in a classic battle of good vs. evil, mixing the roles of humanity and machine. Best of all, there is no pandering or stalling.

This anime strikes one level and keeps going, accomplishing what it sets out to do. If you don't get with that, you don't have to. Casshern may not be for you, but don't bash something you know absolutely nothing about. Instead, educate yourselves--this action-packed, battle-oriented and dramatic animated tale is nothing short of pure entertainment.


I dispel all of the hate that this character and series gets because there is no justification for it. Casshern is top quality and proves himself as such on more than one occasion. Even though this time, it’s actually an opinion, I still won’t hesitate to recommend this to everyone who is an anime fan because you won't be disappointed.

I don’t think I can have any kind of opinion on the romantic-comedy genre as a whole. I’d rather preach that you should enjoy what you watch rather than try to pick on what others like. Truth be told, the handful of romance anime that I’ve sat down and really watched range from decent to spectacular. Unfortunately, a few series of the romance genre don’t make me think of them as spectacular. Instead, these certain anime make me feel MISERABLE when I watch them. Of course, I am talking about Futari Ecchi. I can’t believe I’m doing this, and consider it more unbelievable that I ... ever watched this ova. What’s more infuriating is the simple fact that this anime is nothing more than garbage. I don’t even want to talk about, but that would negate the purpose of reviewing it... Watching this anime makes me wanna puke. It’s making me SICK just to review it!

Brooding is over. The review begins.
Released in 2002-2004, Futari Ecchi or H, call it whatever you like, is one of the romantic comedies I went on about that fail to give off any sense of humor or REAL romance. The anime mostly has situations and dialogue that are “in poor taste” for most regular viewers. As for “romance,” the series’ actual premise revolves around the main character couple, Makoto and Yura Onoda, and their… sex lives. They have never had sexual intercourse and are stressing about learning how to do it…

I don’t believe it myself. An entire anime series devoted to showing off the various ways a couple can knock boots… and even more.

Well, let’s back up a bit. The series is only four episodes long, so that doesn’t qualify as an “entire anime series”. (Way to state the obvious). I think that’s one of my biggest issues with anime of recent years-- much like this one, these anime are so generic in production and mundane when it comes to length that there is little entertainment value. It’s not even worth watching something so short, and it’s almost not worth reviewing and finding fault in it. But don’t worry because there are PLENTY of flaws in this piece of vomit.

As for the story of the ova, “Step Up Love Story” I HAVE TO ADMIT that the initial opening to the show was not bad. Ignoring the first two minutes (please), the series begins in modest with the young, perverted and clumsy Makoto, and the silly and cute Yura. It was very raunchy, but even for this anime, the opening episode starts the Onoda couples’ relationship off very modestly, and I expected it to continue to be decent, BUT BEWARE! It takes a nosedive in quality real quick. The manga’s redeemable factors are that it (somewhat) contains appeal and an involving story with the characters, even if it is all about S-E-X. This is not so for the ova.

One note I might add is that, the sheer amount of gratuitous sex and imagery, along with the explicit nature of the sex scenes and dialogue in this anime are so bad, it’s almost vomit inducing. I honestly thought for a few moments that I had stumbled upon a hentai. And I have a zero-tolerance rule with hentai. Not that all hentai series are bad, but that just it: I’ve never been prompted to watch two characters have sex with each other, so I’ve never seen a hentai, therefore I have no right to judge the genre and I never will so don’t misunderstand me here. This one seems to be very close, but I’ll let others decide on that. Right now, I AM the judge for this putrid, raunchy anime.

Speaking of judging, I also want to talk about the characters for this “anime.” If I were a real judge, I’d lock them up, because they aren’t likeable and unappealing and have nothing to do with the plot outside of sex……. But again sex is the only excuse for a plot here. If that was the aim, then job well done. Normally, I’d end my review here. Unfortunately, that isn’t going to fly this time. Since “Step Up Love Story” is indeed a seinen anime that is taking itself and its audience seriously and is not a hentai, I have the right to seriously pick the anime apart and critically review every aspect of the show.

Starting off, we have the newlyweds, Makoto and Yura. Makoto is very……..estranged…and finds himself in very unfortunate places when gorgeous women are around. Although he initially comes off as respectable and even funny, because you’d be laughing at him, not with him, his character falls flat in the span of one episode. Once he marries Yura and the story begins, he has sexual fantasies of many of the women he comes across. His delusions of grandeur aremeant to be this anime’s attempt at echi comedy, but unfortunately these scenes come off as really…unnecessary in hindsight, since the show has enough ecchi, not to mention that it is typical to have the titular male character in the series be tempted by fantasies.

Yura is possibly my only likeable character here. Outside of the fanservice, Yura is still very sweet and naïve and has more personality than the rest of the cast. It may be favoritism, but you’d have to watch for yourself, and I hate that I have to say that too. I’m not a fan of ecchi, and I dislike this anime’s constant need to throw nudity in almost every scene, but I will fess up to my puckish self when it comes to Yura. It’s very…hard to look away sometimes. She’s everywhere, so even if I try to avoid it, there’s no chance I’ll succeed.

Makoto and Yura have sexual tension constantly over the course of every episode. Once the characters are finally in each other’s presence, the heels are immediately thrown off, the pants come down, and the wife is playing rocking chair with the husband’s face. It’s impedingly sick. This anime’s excuse for a plot sickens me. It’s mundane, too, because it happens every episode. I am reiterating myself, but that really is it. Not once is there ever a break from the sexual tension, the disgusting scenes, or the crude dialogue.

All the other characters only ramp up the sick sex talk, constantly ecchi and sexual references even more. There’s Kikuchi Miyuki, who is a minor character with a MAJOR desire to be Makoto’s playmate. In addition, there is the character, Kyouko, who is Makoto’s cousin and a gynecologist. In this show, her occupation says enough. These characters merely exist as “characters” so that there are identifiable voices to match with the characters when these couples go to the bedroom and under the sheets. All the characters, though Yura appeals slightly, are uninteresting and only sex livens them up… in other words, outside of sex, and despite Makoto’s…”imagination” no character really stands out.

I’m moving on to the sound quality, but honestly, I don’t care about how the anime sounds. I’m sure that people didn’t pick up this particular anime for incredible music anyways. It’s not even watchable to begin with, but for the sake of those who will attempt to watch this ova, you’re not going to find a superb soundtrack. It’s composed of generic tracks that may suit the mood, but that’s all these songs do. The voice actors do a lot of…moaning and screaming throughout the show. For some reason, it happens particularly during the night scenes, in beds, bathroom stalls and off-screen sometimes. I guess the voices are suitable. If you like characters that whimper, scream and moan A LOT, this ova is right up your alley in that department.

All in all, Futari Ecchi doesn’t have any aspects of an entertaining anime. It’s a horrible excuse for a romantic comedy, (unless romance is supposed to be a free-for-all for the spouses and sex is all you need to make a good story), not to mention the humor leaves a lot to be desired. I desired humor when watching this filth and that’s what the premise of the ova initially gives off, but my hopes of ever receiving that become dashed quickly. It’s raunchy, sick, mundane and a waste of 100 minutes you could be spending watching a better ecchi romance comedy. I’m sure there are many. With Futari Ecchi, there are MANY factors made me give this the lowest possible score. The production value is (not shockingly) cheap, the story is just one big excuse to show off two characters having sex, and that is not my cup of tea. Especially when it comes to the “comedy” aspect of it.

The worst thing about it is that this was one of the earliest times in my anime viewing life where I honestly felt like it was a waste. I felt like I should SERIOUSLY should be doing something better with my time. I felt like I had to get away from this anime—FAR AWAY. Overall, this ova is too insignificant since the presentation of the anime is piss-poor and moderately similar to a hentai anime, and like I stated previously, I have a zero-tolerance for things of that nature. No one will change that.

Creator-Kun’s Score:

Story: (1) It is an excuse to throw sex everywhere in the story. Some might say that is supposed to be the aim of this ova. If it’s a fact, that only proves me right and gives my score much more meaning …

Art: (3) It’s bland and characters move oddly, in whatever they are doing and wherever they do “it.” Art style is poor, but the animation does its job…“barely”. No pun intended…

Sound: (3) No song stands out with the soundtrack. The voice actors get boring quickly since all they do is moan and scream moan and scream. Even describing it is bad and redundant.

Characters (1): Name one important character in this entire ova that does not have any relevance to the innumerable amount of sexual themes…(pause) AND is still relevant to the story.
I thought so.

Enjoyment: (1): I detest this ova. I don’t even want to keep reviewing this ova.

OVERALL: I graciously grant the Futari Ecchi with the score of a 1. It is one of the greatest anime where it has been my displeasure to watch.
All jokes aside, it’s time to wrap this up simply. It’s just THAT BAD. The ova, “Step up Love Story,” is a “step down” in quality. A romantic comedy anime should be about romance and contain SOME humor (even if it comes off as cheesy). Instead, this anime is a raunchy sex-fest that is absent of humor; it is sickening, and the romance is only present because of sex. Sex shouldn’t take prevalence in a comedy or a romance story and definitely not as explicitly as it does with this ova. Do you know where sex should take prevalence? It should take prevalence in a hentai series, not an actual anime. People who have tolerance may like this series. I can only speak for me. Obviously, I'm ranting now, since the purpose of a review after all, is to present my view and whether or not I’d recommend and/or praise the series. Sorry, I cannot praise Futari Ecchi in almost any aspect. Even if you are into this type of stuff, I plead with you to take up the manga rather than this horrid ova. Still, if you have a soft spot for bad romantic comedies and ecchi anime, you came to the right one, so go ahead and try this anime. Take in all in. Be my guest.



I never want to talk about this series again.

I’ve had conversations with some people who have either general or diverse opinions over older anime. There are tons of older anime series, but people will either pass them off or think they are all like Dragon Ball. It's to be expected because the majority of them are outdated. But there is a difference, I think, between "classic" and "outdated." As for Black Magic M-66, I believe it fails to reach any sort of “classic status” and as always, I plan to explain my reasoning behind my claim.

Released in the year 1987, Black Magic M-66 as a whole is somewhat... well, FRUSTRATINGLY mundane. Of course, ... it was directed in part by Masamune Shirow, and he did the Appleseed, which was awesome, (maybe I’ll review that one) so I don’t understand how M-66 came out as a bad anime. Well, it IS of the typical type of anime ova-- a cyberpunk, action-based free-for-all that delivers a lot of blood and gore and horrible plot structure with hit and miss characters, yet, these ovas usually contain decent animation and value that aspect over all things, despite their crappy music and a butt load of major issues with the ova itself. So, now I wish to address those issues.

The story begins by showing a fighter plane flying through a storm. The next thing you know, this plane that was introduced only ten seconds ago goes down and explodes into a billowing ball of fire, crashing into the trees, and (finally) hits the ground hard. The title screen is shown, then, a naked girl appears on screen and walks out her house unclothed….
...It only took one minute for this ova to throw me for a loop. I know that barely anything happened yet, but the things that did happen are complete B.S. I feel that there are no aims to ovas like this, because all they do is show of horrendous plots and titillate nude women (no pun intended) and fanservice for the majority of the show.

Moving on, there seems to be more going on in this ova than what seems to be, but actually, that’s the main problem with this one. There’s too much crap thrown into the beginning of the anime and as a result, it distracts from the important elements of the plot and ruins the entertainment factor. All in order, there’s the spectacle of an explosion in the first 30 seconds of the anime, the title screen is dropped, a naked girl is immediately thrown into the focus of the camera and all she does is scribble on some film containers and go streaking. Next, some government people are in the forest where the plane from earlier crashed and we learn where the M-66 robots come into play. But after a brief introduction and explanation of the components of these robots, they story shifts and continues to shift between the main characters Sybil and Leakey, then onto the military grunts, then to a girl with barely any clothes on (seems to be a recurring theme in this anime), then to a weird professor, then all of a sudden the military is back in the forest, and apparently Sybil is too, and gets captured. Then a bear is shown dead with its blood and ribs pouring out, and the M-66 robots begin to do random things and kill anybody they see in the forest, and then we jump-cut back to the apprehended Sybil about to be killed before FINALLY the heart of the story takes place and the robots start to wipe out the military forces. Afterwards, the characters find out that the aim of these combat robots is to kill the professor’s granddaughter, named Ferris, shown briefly in a bra and panties moments ago. And all that happens in roughly 15 minutes.

Now, I’ll admit that there was a pretty solid twist that starts off the action, but I only have one small complaint. I have but one, tiny, miniscule problem with this…

Everything I explained previously about the story of M-66 is arbitrary.

I didn’t spoil the anime nor did I ever hint of a climax. I’ve only BEGUN to explain the opening of this anime. That is absurd!! This is what ruins anime ovas, a bunch of useless, unimportant garbage thrown into opening scenes and information and actions that are irrelevant to the main plot! M-66 might hold the trophy for the worst opening ever in an anime because there are so many unnecessary things thrown into it. Ovas are only so long, too, so you’d think that more time would be spent on developing a decent story, but M-66 goes off the deep end and flounders its writing. Between those first 15 minutes, there are so many things introduced, so many random events happening, and so little time for any narration or explanation that the story is incomprehensible. The frequent scene switching and jump cuts screw the flow of the story over even more. The only worthwhile part to this is watching the soldier at about 14 minutes and 52 seconds into the anime being turned into visceral. Yeah, keep rewinding that over and over. It’s better than sitting through the rest of M-66. M-66’s opening story is very flawed; it’s like watching Genocyber all over again…

Buuuuuuut Genocyber was 100% bad… and I have to say that… the latter half of this anime is quite decent. I’m actually impressed. They didn’t screw around when the better scenes came along. There are many points that drive home the suspense and those are periods while watching that I really hoped that Sybil would make it out to the end alive with the girl Ferris, who ends up being a target of the killer robots. The drama works with many of the more intense action scenes and I’m sure that you would agree that everything falls into place well in some moments of this half of the ova.

Surprisingly, there are actually very few “action” scenes in this ova that aren’t just a robot killing a bunch of military grunts. However, the scenes that exist are worthwhile and very well done, despite this being just one of those ovas that are just an excuse to show copious amounts of blood onscreen. It doesn’t hinder the experience much this time around, and by the time Sybil has to keep Ferris safe from the renegade combat robots, the “excuse” is justified: these robots are going to tear up anything and everything that stands in their way in order to complete their goal. However, the resolution to the story is unsatisfying, and does NOT justify what I went through watching the beginning of the story, which was a lot of bewilderment and confusion.

Moving on to the characters, I think they suck. Sybil is the only interesting one, but only because she’s a bit comedic and if I ignore the moment where I see her nude in the first 60 seconds of the anime, I dare say she’s kinda cute. The professor who created the M-66 robots is too dumb to live; In fact, he’s probably even worse than the people in the story who go up to the super-powered killer robots and fight them out of free volition. Why do I think so? He let these killer robots get close to his only granddaughter, and one of them became familiar with her and went apeshit, so naturally it wants her dead. The plot of M-66 is all the professor’s fault. Leakey is seemingly Sybil’s grunt worker. He’s uninteresting. Ferris is the professor’s granddaughter and she’s very annoying, and I don’t like her. And there’s a Major of the military and some other military guys who help out or go against Sybil, but the thing is that this story spends zero time on character development. Although, for Sybil’s character development, it’s all decked out for fanservice. There are plenty of one-shot characters as well, who usually die right after they are introduced since they take on the M-66 robot bullheadedly. The plot simply leaves characters dead and just goes right on into the action. I guess getting to the point is not a bad thing for an anime and in an ova, there’s hardly any time to pull out anything good like what FMA does with its characters. Unfortunately, this anime fast-forwards to the action at a bad place. This anime should’ve gotten to the point right after the title screen and THEN explained it’s characters if need be, instead of crapping all over its introduction and skipping the character development so that they can focus on the action.

Looking at the sound of this ova, the acting is fair. The dub is certainly far from fair, but it’s not as atrocious as Lily C.A.T. or Violence Jack. It’s tolerable, and if subtitles bother you as much as they bother me, try the dub. Otherwise, stick to the original Japanese audio and dialogue. The closing theme is actually a wonderful song by Kitahara Yuki. If a song from an anime makes me feel like searching for it in Google, I think it is pretty good by default. For me, it’s a memorable song, but the rest of the score is disappointing. Most times, the music is ignorable, because the music doesn’t stand out much, but other times (the final scene on the rooftop for example) the music does not suit the mood of the situation. Outside of that, most of the score is unimpressive.

M-66 looks visually unimpressive as well and not just because it’s an 80’s ova. Lily C.A.T. is garbage, but it had fluid animation scenes and stunning (and gory) designs of its monsters. Comparing M-66 to Lily C.A.T., the animation seems to be done on the cheap for most of the ova and the most important parts have an art style that is just like standard animation for an 80’s anime. The blood from the dead people and animals looks more of a magenta color than bright red. The robots are interesting characters on their own, but look like nothing more than the dolls you see in the windows of clothing stores with wigs on them. The animation isn’t flawed, but it fails to impress.

For the most part, every aspect of Black Magic M-66 is generic. The outstanding aspects are usually the worst parts. If you didn’t catch everything I explained or need a bit more clarification as to why this anime ova is a piece of crap, in my opinion, I’ll gladly clarify on my points, which is something M-66 never does once.

Creator-Kun’s Score:

Story: (3) Quite appalling. There is no consistency for much of the beginning of the anime, with random events occurring left and right, and the way the story introduces the combat robots only confuses me more. This story doesn’t pull itself together until 30 minutes have passed. It’s a 45-minute ova…
Art: (5) Not good, and not up to par, even for an 80’s anime ova. Even though this was released prior to Lily C.A.T., that’s not an excuse.
Sound: (5) It’s plain and mediocre. Can’t say much about it. I do find some solace in the theme by Kitahara-san.
Characters (2): This ova has a severe lack of character development overall. They all felt very loose, at least the main characters did. Other characters don’t even last that long before they meet their doom. I don't consider the androids characters either.
Enjoyment: (4): I only enjoyed three things about this ova: the ending theme, Sybil’s humor, and again, minute 14:52. The guy just takes a hit for the team. That scene will stay in my head for a long time to come.

OVERALL: I bless Black Magic M-66 with a 4.

Between the surprisingly good action and chase scenes, horrible characters, and a mediocre score, I could’ve just passed off this as an average ova series and considered the flaws mentioned very miniscule actually. But the thing that destroys the entire flow of the ova and the enjoyment factor is the horrible beginning. I don’t need to say much else because you know how I feel about it. I don’t like it. It’s as if Shirow wasn’t thinking when he directed this. Outside of the suspense, there is not one quality aspect to the rest of the story since the ending is sub-par and most of the plot is pathetic, with its crappy beginning and incessant portrayal of men being turned into ludicrous gibs by the robots. It wears on your patience FAST! It's not enjoyable in the least; it’s BELOW AVERAGE! The flow of the story of this anime is bad, cased closed!

Once again, this is the part of my review where all the exaggeration ends and the seriousness begins. I don’t think I can speak for people from the 1980’s when I say that this story is flawed. It was a different time back then, and most ovas have come a long way in huge strides. But the point of this review is to review the anime ova and see if I could recommend this to people out there, not to focus on reviewing other periods of time or other people’s tastes. However, when it comes down to me labeling M-66 as “recommendable,” I don't think that I will do that either…

Yeah, I get it. Sunabozu is supposed to be a very funny, action-y and very sexually humorous anime and it’s pretty well known; a lot of people like this one. For goodness’s sakes, I don’t get it. This anime is nothing more than a crappy, unwatchable snooze fest. Part of me wishes I never picked this up. Part of me HATES me for being curious and deciding to buy this anime for keeps. I was actually looking forward to an enjoyable comedy anime, but unfortunately, this wasn’t what I thought it would be.

Not much can be said about the story of Sunabozu, at first ... glance anyways. It’s a standard one-season anime series with episodic structure, but with few if any, plot holes relevant enough to make a difference. But this story is also a poor man’s version of an anime-style manzai comedy show. For the most part it seemed like this anime was going out of its way to not be funny. I don’t get that. Most other comedies try hard to make you feel for the gags. I mean, look no further than BoBoBo, but honestly, at least Sunabozu has some sort of a plot—a dreadful, stupid and uninteresting one to me, but a plot nonetheless.

So you have a weird, perverted desert rat acting completely self-centered and doing whatever he can to fulfill his own needs and survive his bounty hunter duties on the side, and a woman, with breasts that probably make it into the top tier of list of the largest breasts in anime, who tries to foil every scheme he comes up with, seemingly for no other reason than because she can. Numerous random plots follow suit, and every episode usually involves the Sunabozu forming a plan to complete his objective- whether it be retrieve a treasure or protect an annoying spoiled rich bratty girl. Then that plan is rendered completely useless midway through his mission, leaving the Sunabozu to rely on clever (not that clever, really) tricks in order to escape/take out/mostly run from a random group of desert thugs. Many episodes were almost dreadful to watch, and handfuls were painful to watch, because nothing really happened that wowed me. The first few episodes really suck, because they do nothing but repeat the above formula and add in a bunch of crude, sexual humor that is either unfunny or out of place for the scene. Now, it’s not that I don’t appreciate somewhat dark, crude sexual humor, but who’d say that they do appreciate such things proudly? Sickos. Then again, I tolerated Panty and Stocking, and then I grew to love it. Therefore, I’m with you sickos after all. But the anime Sunabozu is where I draw the line between my sicko self and you other sickos. This anime could never be any good. None of the jokes are clever, at all, and that’s a BIG problem, since this is supposed to be… a freaking comedy. Or at least that’s what I expected. I know I’m starting to beat a dead horse here, but I’ll say this much: for a comedy anime, I rarely found myself chuckling at any situation involving the boob jokes, or any of the other off-color jokes that plague his horrendous snooze fest. Yes, that’s another problem with this anime. It’s boring. It’s fracking boring! I don’t care if it is somewhat original, it is unfunny and unappealing and boring. I’m starting to sound redundant myself just mentioning how bad the flow of this anime is. I can only take watching the main characters walking through the desert for so long. I’d rather watch the DESERT ITSELF MOVE SAND PARTICLES AT ONE HALF A MILE AN HOUR than pick up this series ever again.

I should’ve said this outright. I don’t rate anime on what other people think, or how popular it is, I rate anime based on my views about what the show gives me, and every anime has to start from the ground up and earn a number rating. Right now, Sunabozu’s characters aren’t giving me much to work with.

Looking at the characters, they are all generic. All the desert thugs and groups are the same; they want money, women, and water and want Sunabozu dead and out of the picture. Yes, I’ll admit the kid really does have a knack for pulling out the stops on some really stupid criminals. He also has a crowning moment of awesomeness in the first few episodes, and the guy is pretty resourceful, but then he turns into a ridiculous perv. I dislike him from then on. Sunabozu himself is just a bad, unfunny and estranged character. Period. The only characters that stand out are the two female characters (shocking isn’t it), Kosuna the brat and Junko the sexy, tall, large chested one. Unfortunately, I don’t see women like Junko, fall in love with her body, (I’m sorry, other guys will call it “character” and give this anime or nine or ten). Seriously, I will give this show one thing: they made the personality of the secondary character more interesting and cooler than the main character. It was hard to keep watching this anime but Junko’s antics were clever. It was interesting to see how she’d screw with the punk kid over the course of the more episodic…uh, episodes in the storyline. But that’s it. Unless they have big boobs, characters are piss-poor and unappealing in this anime, apparently.

To my dismay, there is nothing to complain about when it comes to the animation. The art style is fine here, well to be specific, it’s not bad but it’s not special or perfect, either. It suits the anime well and looks decent. Decent is a very forgiving word to use when talking about this anime series anyway.

The sound is fine. The background music is… just background music. The opening is great, and the first ending theme is actually super-catchy. I wash my mouth out with soap when I catch myself singing those songs, due to the fact that this anime IS bad, not its music.

Now then, if you don’t understand why I don’t like the Sunabozu already, I’ll simplify it for you:

This anime was one of the biggest disappointments in my anime viewing history. I cringe at some episodes, close my eyes, and cover my ears at many scenes and most of the moments where others who like this thing would fine humorous and fun to watch. I find it hard to watch. Episode 12 is quite possibly my most hated anime episode of all time. Just watch it to find out. I initially dropped this anime after 12 episodes, but picked it back up a while ago, AND watched it again all the way through in a week just to review it. I forced myself to watch this and I regret doing so.

Creator-kun’s Score:

Story: Once again, I dissect the innards of an anime just to see what the story truly has to offer. This story offers a good nap, because this show isn’t funny and bores me with its story—which is rife with unfunny ecchi humor. The story of Sunabozu didn’t appeal to me. (3)

Art: Just fine, actually. (6)

Sound: Fine again. Great theme songs and a decent but far from outstanding soundtrack. However, The English dub is where I start to cringe at the poorly delivered and crude jokes. This came as a surprise to me, because FUNimation dubbed this and it is average at best, and they take a few liberties with swearing as well. (6)

Characters: Dreadful (2)

Enjoyment: You’re kidding, right? (2)

OVERALL: 3- Very Bad. This is all I have left to say: Sunabozu isn’t for everyone, and if you agree with me, it ain’t for you either. Gosh, it disappoints, it fails to impress, it sucks hard, I don’t recommend it to those who like good storylines and decent humor, it’s pathetic, it’s despairing… And I don’t like it. I seriously say try something else. And yes, I just panned Desert Punk! All joking and harshness aside now, I’m not criticizing anyone or anybody’s personal preferences. But I’m being straight with you all when I say that if something is screwed up, it’s screwed up. .. If you really like this kind of humor and fanservice and uninteresting storytelling, Sunabozu is right up your alley. I prefer it stay out of mine. I’m still gonna say this: Please people, go find a good action anime, and please go watch a better ecchi-like comedy (and no, I don’t mean Futari Ecchi).

Lovers of all things anime will appreciate everything the art form has to offer and will not only rejoice when a series is absolutely stunning, but will also prepare themselves to derail and destroy the series that are absolutely dreadful. Of course, I'm being subjective, because whether you've seen every anime ever or maybe one type of anime, you are an anime lover. If you've seen this anime, you are a disappointed anime lover...

*SIGH* Enough brooding. One of the worst anime original home videos that exists in my opinion is Lily C.A.T.

Lily C.A.T. is a science fiction/horror anime OVA from the ripe age of ... horrible anime like this one. The film follows the spaceship on a 40-year mission. Under the instructions of an unknown force (that remains unknown and is never address again throughput the entire anime) the ship's A.I. computer system accidentally introduces an alien bacterium into the ship while its human crew is in cryostasis. Naturally, both the ship and the unknown force want to eradicate the bacterium from the ship but also to cover up for this blunder. And that's what sets the plot into disarray.

You have a misfit crew that doesn't get along at all and only wants to look out for their own selfish goals and they are attacked by man-killing bacteria that took over a cat. You can already see it coming. The story is typical horror; the mysterious, scary, evil pursuer picks off the crew one by one. The alien wants the humans dead. But that's not too bad, it's mundane, but typical horror, but so can still keep watching.

But when you look at the characters, things start to get much, much worse. My main gripe with the characters is that not one of them, except the obvious couple, Hiro and Nancy, get along. Not one of these idiots. It's as if the writers made them forget that a dangerous, life-erasing bacterium is gunning for them, and they need to work together to survive. Then there's Hamilton, who defines the meaning of determination so hard, it has to be seen to be believed. It's very... BAD! None of the characters were in their right mind. In my eyes, characters as simple-minded as the ones in Lily C.A.T. deserve to be food for bacteria. Hamilton chases Hiro for pride, Hiro comes out of the blue as a murderer without any evidence that he was beforehand, and a complete lack of any backstory to boot, Nancy acts like a schoolgirl for almost the entire anime, Hiro comes off as a bad stereotypical stoic, Carolyn is awful, and for one member of the crew, it's so obvious he's not gonna make it, you consider him dead meat right after his first speaking line. It's all pathetic. One more thing, Guy is the only black male in this crew. His position like other characters that weren’t the cop, the heroine or the lead males Hamilton and Hiro was debatable, and that says enough on its own.

The sound is of a typical, outdated film type. The 80's muddled, low sound effects, the cheesy 80's music, even the characters wear clothes from the 80's IN A STORY SET 40 YEARS IN THE 23RD CENTURY. Damn. The dub is awful as well.

If it isn't a secret by now, Lily C.A.T. delivers a crushing, gut-wrenching, horrible experience for the viewer. It contains your fan service-like but action girl and the blood and guts that defined those ovas of the time, complete with a sub-par, but passable plot that is ruined by unsettled characters and holes that pop up in pivotal scenes (Pay attention to the background check interviews and Hamilton himself-- Believe me). To top it off, in order to screw with the viewer more there are two things from an actually good horror movie, Alien, that Lily C.A.T. adapts. Not going to spoil it or the "ending" as some might call it, but these elements that Lily C.A.T. graciously and proudly copies only complicate the story even more. It's almost a guaranteed re-watch to understand what is what and which is which, but this anime is not even worth the first time you see it-- it's a mediocre, gory, bloody, confusing mess. Its enjoyment factor is destroyed by its horridness and I'm dead serious. When Lily C.A.T. isn’t boring me in the opening, or disgusting me through the “jump scares” (they suck, really), it’s killing me throughout because it’s a painful, confusing and pointless mess. The characters even lampshade how pointless it is in the anime. I apologize for this drawn out review, but it’s better than wasting an hour watching the anime itself. Friends of mine have praised this series and call it a great horror anime. Some even claim it is an obscure buried treasure. The only place I want Lily C.A.T. buried is in the bottom of my crappy anime basket pile, never to see the light of day again.

Creator_Kun's Score
Story: The beef of my review; The story is typical and even disoriented and confusing (3)
Art: Nothing bad, nothing to get an eye-gasm over. Gore-galore. (6)
Sound: Bad, but it was the late 1980's. This is the one area I can't rip Lily C.A.T. because it's not its fault. The English dub is god-awful and poorly acted. (6)
Characters: Gosh... (4)
Enjoyment: I shake my head when I try to think of enjoyment an d Lily C.A.T. going together. (2)
OVERALL: 4- Bad. I grace Lily C.A.T. with a blissful “4” rating. I recommend you stay away from this anime. If you really liked "Alien", give it a 6. Otherwise, don't bother.