Anime Review No. 88 (Silent Mobius)

Silent Mobius

1998 TV Series

Studio: Radix/Sotsu Eizo/TV Tokyo

Director: Hideki Tonokatsu

Script: Hiroyuki Kawasaki, Katsuhiko Takayama, Kenichi Kanemichi, Mayori Sekijima, Michitaka Kikuchi, Miyuki Yanari and Yoshima Narita

This review made possible by a Christmas gift last year from fellow AR writer and internet content creator Juude (Juude's twitter, His YT Channel)! Thank you dude!

So, yeah ever watched a show or movie from when you were young, only to revisit it years later? Oh I’m sure most of the Internet had done that from one time or another. I have done it before here on this blog as well. Well this time, I am looking at another anime show I watched back on the Anime Unleashed block on the now long defunct TechTV. This block I have mentioned in my reviews of ROD TV and Crest of the Stars before. The show in question this time is about Silent Mobius.

Silent Mobius is based on a manga by Kia Asamiya, well known for Nadesico and Steam Detectives. In 1998, it was picked up for an anime series that ran for 26 episodes, later getting onto American TV some time around 2005-06. Now I am aware there are some movies that were made prior to this but I have yet to see them and as such this review will cover the TV series only. So what’s the series about?

What a blood moon

Well, it is essentially the story of Katsumi Liqeur, a seemingly ordinary young woman living in Tokyo in the far future…..of 2024. It’s a future where some past catastrophe was nearly averted but someone else might be up to reenacting it with the aid of some otherworldly creatures named Lucifer Hawks. Katsumi is dragged into the battle as she is drafted to join the AMP, a special police division consisting of only females trained to deal with the monster menace and prevent the apocalypse. The AMP, led by one Rally Cheyenne, consists of computer expert Lebia, Dark skinned Amazon tomboy Kiddy. kind psychic Yuki and meek miko Nami.

What works in Silent Mobius’s favor in its story and characters. Granted, much of the show is similar to another show from the same era, Bubblegum Crisis 2040: Group of hot babes kicking ass in a futuristic cyberpunk setting against monsters set to destroy humanity. In addition, Silent Mobius examines the human condition and how despite all adversity we shall endure. Katsumi in particular goes through a most interesting arc as she is prompted into the AMP due to inquiry into her heritage and where that leads to is very fascinating. In the course, she does develop a relationship with Roy, a cop who goes from being her trainer to eventually her romantic partner. I have to say that the relationship dynamics in this show between characters are rather mature, ie the sort I would expect between adults for the most part.

Oh don't be so hard on yourself Nami, your focus episode was pretty weird and surreal

But as this is an ensemble piece, the other members of the AMP squad get their own focus episodes and minor storylines in the show. Some of it (like with Nami and Yuki) are rather surreal in nature, whereas the material around Kiddy and Lebia delves into the same thematic territory that Ghost in the Shell and Evangelion explained prior, but within a different context.The antagonists are mainly the Lucifer Hawks, which are basically these otherworldly beings of great power and strength. Of course, halfway through the show some big WHAM revelations pop up that very much shift the dynamic between the AMP and Lucifer Hawks.

These two screencaps were taken within a few seconds for each other-Spot the quality difference?

Such a pity that the visual presentation of the show is an uneven mess. Oh don’t get me wrong, the animation is consistent on a prime basis level. However, Silent Mobius suffers from something that many of its contemporaries suffered from: the digital/hand-drawn hybridization in the animation. What I mean by this is in the late 90s and early 00s anime studios would experiment with digital paint on cel animation and other digital techniques, CG included. Professor Otaku in his latest video on Queen Emeraldas (Prof Otaku's latest review) touches on this a bit more, but for Silent Mobius its a special issue. See, on a scene by scene basis, Silent Mobius will flip between hand-drawn cel animation on film and cel animation done digitally. Granted, at first it’s not too obvious but as the episodes progress it becomes rather apparent and ultimately very distracting. And you can tell because of how crisp and clearer the digital work is in comparison to the traditional animation. At times, the show seems like one that was made 5 years in the past and 5 years in the future. Also most of the CGI work especially in the later episodes is on the jarring side when placed in conjunction with the cel work.

Scene from one of last episodes

Silent Mobius OP

In terms of sound, the music for the show was done by Jimmie Haskell, Kenichi Sudo, Suzie Katayama and Takashi Furukawa. Its really good, a nice combination of techno cyberpunk music and somber orchestral pieces. The OP is really great. All of it except for one piece-this really cheesy piece of 90s engrish pop ballad which they use as the Second ED and I can’t help laugh when that track plays, its so corny.

The English dub was done by the good folks of Vancouver, back when they did quite a lot of work in anime dubbing. The dub cast list reads like a who’s who of Canadian anime voice actors (Marcy Goldberg, Kelly Sheridan, Lisa Ann Beley, Paul Dobson, Trevor Devall, etc.) Nicole Oliver does double duty of voicing Katsumi and Lum Cheng, a character that shows up in the second half, though she does a really good job at distinguishing between the two, not an easy task in a dub certainly. Of course, nowadays, she is more well known for voicing Princess Celestia in MLP FiM which is quite funny in retrospective. If I could, I would like to splice her MLP audio onto Silent Mobius clips. The dub is overall decent, with the main cast putting in some good performances but the rest is rather stilted or wooden.

The only scene with mizugi but dw its a team of some Grade A babes

Silent Mobius falls under that category ‘not as great as I remember, but now I can see something else great about that I like about it’. I mean when I watched as a teen I was enthralled by the action and the fact that at the time it was unlike anything I had seen before. Looking at it now as an adult and a more aware/mature viewer and fan, I can see that the show has not aged well, but it has a very compelling cast and story that’s rather mature than I initially gave the show credit prior. It’s a show worth checking out at least, if only as a historical piece of Japanese animation production.

Next time, its the Halloween Special review and an occasion to 'Plunge into the heart of horror'.......

Til' next time, dear readers.

Anime Review No. 60-Crest of the Stars

Crest of the Stars

1999 TV Series

Studio-Sunrise (Studio 5), Director-Yasuchika Nagaoka, Writer: Aya Yoshinago

Lafiel and Jinto, main character duo

Well, Tech TV: Anime Unleashed month starts off with the first series I watched for this anime programming block: Crest of the Stars. I enjoyed this series when it was on TV back in the day, and having it on DVD as part of my collection is very worthwhile.

Crest of the Stars is based on series of novels by Hiroyuki Morioka back in the mid-90s. A few years later, Studio Sunrise picked up the series for an animated adaptation. It tells the story of Jinto, a young human nobleman as he finds his place in the universe. This is set in the far future, when humanity has flown through the stars and colonized all over. In the process, they developed through genetic manipulation, a race of beings called the Abh. The kin of the stars, as they are called, they formed their own empire and are involved in a long war against the United Mankind Empire. Well, Jinto, in his journey to be inducted into school to be an Abh officer, he makes a friend in Lafiel, an Abh princess/soldier who takes quite a liking for him. However, the path to the Abh capital is wrought with challenges, but they are met with resolve and confidence.

Now, onto the great things about Crest of the Stars. First, this story is very good. Superfically, it a standard space opera in the vein of Macross and Gundam with spaceship battles and sociopolitical commentary. However, at its heart it is a love story between Jinto and Lafiel and a coming of age story for Jinto himself. They meet and as they go off on their journey they develop a relationship together. It is very interesting to see how the progression feels natural. Even when the space opera elements come into place, the focus stays on the core story. Of course, the core story is very well-written in terms of dialogue/exposition so not really an issue. It is full of ideas (sociopolitical commentary, diplomacy, genetic engineering, conduct of war in space) but it takes time to explore and develop them enough so none of it seems excessive or underdeveloped.

Second, the opening song is a sweeping and majestic instrumental piece, reminding one of Star Trek and Star Wars. Same can be said for the rest of the soundtrack, equally space operatic-style with sweeping strings, thunderous percussion and blasting brass fanfares.

Finally the animation is outstanding. This was done by Sunrise Studio 5 which have done work on Escaflowne, the Inuyasha movies and more recently Gintama. It is well done cel animation (solid character designs and backgrounds) from the late 90s, right around the same time as Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star. Granted, there is some instances of CG graphics but its hardly noticeable except to the most astute viewer.

Of course, the big weak link of this show is the English dub. For all the praise I can muster for the show, the dub is not really good. The vocal performances all round are very stiff and dry, with either not enough emoting or small bursts of overacting. While this wouldn't be so bad, the fact is that Crest of the Stars relies on a lot on its dialogue as the driving force of the story, with long stretches of time spent with characters talking to each other. So, if the English dub fails, the series just about fails as well. Still its a commendable effort. Bandai farmed out this dub to Vancouver and that shows a bit, especially with some of the bit parts. By the end of the series, Jinto and Lafiel's English V.A.s improve a bit, but not by much. In fairness, the dub just goes to show how far we have come in doing English dubs of anime from that time to the present.

Another weak link is that this is only the prologue tale to a larger story it seems. Well that because Crest of the Stars is the first of three series for this franchise. This is followed up by Banner of the Stars, which did aired on Anime Unleashed block. There is also Banner of the Stars II which get released with a dub but never got aired. So, a bit of a bummer. I might do a review of the two sequels, if I can get them.

Overall, a very good show that unfortunately is hampered by its English dub. Other than that, it has great animation, music and story to it, so if you can please check this out.

Two weeks from now....well, Read or Die the TV series

Anime Review No. 55-Diebuster

"Hard Work and Effort"

Diebuster (2004 OVA, 6 episodes)

Studio: Gainax

Now, onto Diebuster. Let me stress first off that I have not yet seen Gunbuster, the original 1988 OVA done by Gainax. So, my evaluation of Diebuster will not be as a 'sequel' to another work, but rather as a 'transitional piece'.

Diebuster is an 6 episode OVA from 2004, in order to celebrate Gainax's 20^th anniversary. It tells the story of Nono-chan, a pink-haired girl from the country who strives to see the stars by becoming a space pilot. She runs into Lal'c Melk Mal, the ace pilot of Topless, an organization where teenage pilots using highly specialized giant robots to fight off space monsters. But, Nono holds a secret that could change the tide of the conflict for the better? What is the nature of the space monsters? Will humanity survive? All these questions are all very interesting.

Of course, from reading my summary, one can piece together similar concepts from other Gaianx shows. Well, no surprise, as Diebuster is very much a pastiche of stuff Gainax has done. From using mecha that wouldn't feel out of place in Evangelion to having a story that at its core is much like Fooly Cooly; that is, it is a coming of age story for both Nono and Lal'C though not in the way most expected.

One of the nice things about Diebuster is its small yet tightly controlled cast. There are only about 5-6 recurring characters throughout the 6 episodes. Nono and Lal'C have an interesting dynamic (some would say its a shoujo-ai relationship, but its more out of admiration than love). The other characters (Casio, Tycho and Nicola) each are very interesting with their own focus episode/time. I won't spoil further, but suffice to say its makes things very interesting.

But more than a simple character study, it is also a rather exciting space adventure. One of the things that struck me about this OVA is how great it looks. From a production standpoint, Diebuster is very pretty to look at; clear, crisp and consistent character design and modeling, even if some of the shots are clearly CG, but then again most CG from pre-2006 or so is mostly obvious and/or jarring, so I won't complain much on it. The action scenes are very well-done, kinetic and fast-paced which you do need in your show with giant robots.

Diebuster also stands as a 'transition piece'. On the one hand, it looks back to Gunbuster (of course), Evangelion (mecha and cosmic horror of space monsters) and FLCL (both share the same writer and director). On the other hand, it looks forward to Gurren Lagann, as both are basically gung-ho sci-fi mecha shows where hot-bloodedness and enthusiasm takes central stage. The epithet 'Hard Work and Effort' which I've titled this review initially serves as the central message of Diebuster, that through hard work and effort one can do the improbable, which happens to occur so often one could make a drinking game of it. Seriously, the feats that break not just physics but reality itself committed by Nono-chan for the most part is astounding yet awe-inspiring.

But, I think that "Hard Work and Effort" stands as a slogan for Studio Gainax itself. This is the studio founded by fanboys back in the 80s who loved those sci-fi/mecha shows from days of yore. They put in a lot of hard work into their shows, despite any production/budget issues, and it shows here in spades with Diebuster. This intense passion and enthusiasm can be seen from the beginning to the final scene. It is very inspirational and powerful.

Now, onto some other aspects of the show: The music is phenomenal, having been done by Kohei Tanaka, who has done several scores for anime, OVAs and games. Just check his Wikipedia page for full credits. His music is very powerful and fitting in just about every scene in this OVA. Of particular note is "March of the Exelion" and "Inazuma Double Kick".

The Japanese voice acting is very good. The DVDs I have for Diebuster were from the Bandai Visual release a few years ago. They decide to just release it subbed, with no english dub at all. Which is fine, as I feel a dub wouldn't be too good. Plus, Diebuster is a very niche title, so I guess that Bandai figured that they could just make their money back on it by just selling it subbed release.

Luckily, Discotek Media is releasing the complete collection of Diebuster in May. This definitely gets a recommendation from me. It is probably one of the better entries in the Gainax catalog, and that includes 'Evangelion', 'FLCL', 'Gurren Lagann' and 'Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt' so it's in good competition/company. Its very good in just about everything. Now, if you wish to view this as a sequel, I would recommend checking out the original Gunbuster, as I hope so to do in the near future. However, as a 'transitional piece', it is perfectly fine to watch just this, it works well as a stand-alone work.

Next review concludes Gainax month with the Eva Rebuild films, to be posted April 27th-28^th.

Laterz,

The Eclectic Dude