Reviews

I enjoyed this anime and don't regret watching it, but am unsure if I'll remember a lot of it in a few months as it's largely carried by it's main protagonist, Mitsuhashi. Mitsuhashi is, usually, a jerk with a heart of gold, and a somewhat hyperactive one at that,. This character archetype can be rather difficult to pull off well as you a bit too often these types of characters' jerkass antics cease to be entertaining and start to become grating, but luckily Mitsuhashi doesn't fall into that. His antics, and the comedy style of the series as a whole, do start to become rather predictable but it's still entertaining enough. I never felt bored watching it.

His supporting cast, however, is rather bland by comparison. His best friendemy and "secondary protagonist," Itou, is cool and serves his role as the straightman to Mitsuhashi's antics well, but I didn't feel he did much of interest. The comic relief duo Imai and Tanigawa aren't too bad but Imai's antics became very predictable by the end and I also found Imai's tough idiot schtick slightly grating towards the end. The 2 female leads, Riko and Kyoko aren't bad either, but the former is a pretty standard action girl and the other is a pretty standard moral compass of sorts for Itou. This may have been intentional, as a more grounded supporting cast is likely justified so they can play of Mitsuhashi, but they all sadly feel a bit too firmly in the background.

The show has a rotating cast of antagonists throughout the series, most of which aren't too memorable. Not helping this is most of them are one-offs, so they simply don't have much a chance to make a lasting impression. I do feel one antagonist, Sagara, is an exception to this, and he is also the only one to reappear in any form beyond a cameo after his character arc. He's a pretty solid foil to Mitsuhashi, just as dirty and batshit insane but seemingly lacking the same humanity, I really would have liked to see more of him.

The story is pretty simple but told well enough. I do wish there had been more in the way of actual arcs but the largely one-off format is fine. The ending is very unfulfilling though, I suspect due to the manga it was adapting not being completed at the time the OVA ended.

On a technical level, the animation and music are pretty good by 90s standards and hasn't aged poorly or anything. The fighting scenes, in particular, still look good. The soundtrack doesn't have any tracks that really stood out to me aside from the ear worm of an ED theme that it has, which I sadly can't seem to find anywhere, but it was used well and the songs were never bad or out of place.

Overall, I'd say this is a series to watch if you have time to do so. It's nothing groundbreaking by any means but it'll likely hold your attention while you watch it and, of course, you may end up enjoying it more than I did.