Dallos

Knew nothing about this show before going in and was completely blown away. Animation was phenomenal. Bluray remaster looked fantastic. It has everything you want from the sci-fi action genre: mech battles, spaceship battles, AK47 battles, laser explosions, basically nonstop gorilla warfare. It probably should have been called moon wars. It's too bad the 4 short OVAs weren't enough time to tell a completed story, but also this is quite normal for old-school OVAs. Surprisingly not a lot of gore in this, but when it does show up it is quite shocking. It's an absolute must watch for fans of 80s style animation.

Dallos as we know it would serve better as an intro to a full fledged series. Unfortunately, it's short run leaves it feeling short of fully developed and short of fantastic.

The story line to Dallos is well rounded. You have a love story, a story of jealousy, a story of neglect and a story of revolution. With all these avenues working in harmony, which I commend as well done, I felt that by the time we reach the end, I'm left wanting more. While I understand that this OVA was really the emotional journey of one man, it builds a world with rich depth that ... is begging to be explored. If you like Star Wars, you'll find a lot of similarity to the general premise of Dallos.

Art is about average. There really isn't anything to note. At times it can feel a bit awkward animation wise, but those moments are few and far in between. Similarly with sound, if it were without the great score, the sound would be average. I don't think the voicing is particularly spectacular although it does have it's moments. The score is what sets the sound high. In my opinion, the score is on par with many other forms of media, including Hollywood productions. It does feel dated, making use of synths, but more than perfect for it's time period.

Character quality is just okay. We really only see development in Rachel and Shun. While some of the other characters might undergo development, it's hard to say for sure, as we'd need more episodes to confirm any growth.

Overall, Dallos is enjoyable to watch, but I feel it's short run and lack of additional stories, hurts the series overall as the world is rich with possibilities.

The worst thing Oshii has ever laid hands upon. Rebels fighting the government for four episodes. Both sides feel generic and unconvincingly brought about, probably due to the staff forcing their conflict into the narrative without fleshing things out enough so the audience could actually give a shit. Self-serious exploration of a theme that goes nowhere thematically, and the drama is cringeworthy with eye-rolling interactions, contrived chemistry and a final sequence that pretends to be epic while being just hard to sit through. Basically, 80s cheese trying to be more than what it is and whose only redeemable aspect would be Oshii's directing, which to ... be honest is far from noteworthy in here. How he went from this to directing one of the most beautiful pieces of arthouse ever in little more than a year remains a mystery to me.