Story:
This OVA is so obviously based off of a manga that far expands the story, and lo and behold, I was right. This was based off of a pretty short-lived manga published in Weekly Shonen Sunday by a seemingly unknown author (and by unknown, I mean that I haven't bothered to research the subject). The story is surprisingly not all TOO clichéd, but that doesn't mean it leaves an extremely deep impact on the way I view animation as an art form. It gets a while to get going, and then it goes for about 10 minutes. Then, sometime around the climax, the story just seems to totally fizzle out and we come to realize how one-dimensional this entire OVA truly is.
Art:
Now, one good thing that can be said about this OVA is the animation. Yes, kiddies, back in the day, Studio Pierrot actually gave two shits about the animation in their properties. For example, when Justy and his trusty (hur hur) companion Borba dock at the cosmo police headquarters...man, that was the exciting docking scene I've seen since the original Star Wars. And it was a totally mundane docking procedure, imagine if explosions were involved and stuff! The fight scenes are also slickly executed here, with espers flying around in rich detail without having to resort to the good ol' "going so fast that the normal human eye can't see them" trick.
Sound:
It's the 1980s. The sound effects are therefore awesome.
Character:
THIS is where the OVA truly shines. Extremely rich and detailed characters abound here, people! First we have Justy, an esper who's the best at what he does who wishes to protect his newly adopted sister. Then there's Astaris, the ever-so-insanely cute sister of our hero. Her father was killed by Justy and this incident awoke her powers that magically (psychically?) turned her into a full-grown girl who still has the mind of a 6-year old, but packed with enough psychic powers to make Mewtwo blush. But she's sooo cute....just look at that face. Next up is Borba, Justy's comrade who can't stop thinking about work as evidenced in the witty line of dialogue: "Oh Borba, you can't stop thinking of work, can you?" There's Jelna, Justy's sister by blood who....does....something, doesn't she? Then there are the bad espers who wanna take down Justy by reactivating Astaris' powers after somehow finding out that he had taken her in sometime after Astaris had proceeded to kill Justy in the past. Grade-A characters right there.
Enjoyment:
As stated earlier, I REALLY wanted this to be ultra-violent, but Cosmo Poilce Justy settles for being the pacifist among the obscure 1980s OVA crowd. When people are shot IN THE HEAD, do they bleed? Somehow, no. This is an OVA, Pierrot. You can get away with so much more than you could on television. Plus, when Justy disposes of his victims, they either crumble into ash or their heads flash uncontrollably. Lame, me want blood now. I also really wanted to see randomly placed nudity somewhere in here as well. I mean, Astaris' clothes rip perfectly after her transformation into an adult. You see nothing at all, not even the tip of her butt crack. This OVA plays it too safe. Although you might think these complaints are weird, there's a certain enjoyment I have in watching ultra-violent 1980s OVAs with random nudity. It's just nostalgic.
Overall:
So, yeah, my tastes are probably a lot different than all of yours. If you guys dig obscure 1980s OVAs (why else would you be on this database entry and reading this review?), then you just might get a kick out of this. However, I couldn't get past the lack of guts this OVA had to go further than what television could. Sure, it's got a pretty rocking soundtrack and some slick animation (plus hilariously cardboard characters) and there is some fun in watching all that. But the story gets dull after a while, and all I wanna see when that happens is heads blowing up in gory fashion, not flashing like a strobe light.
Yeah...my tastes are definitely weird.
