I owe ya'll this... OS ANIME QUICK PICK!

[OmniStrata]

OK A BIG ONE BABY!!!!!!!!!

I just bought this sucker today and WHOLLY TOLEDO!!!!!!!!! WHOLLY COW...

[or hell, HOLY WYLD BOAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

By Ryo Mizuno, the genius behind Record of Lodoss War and its TV series comes......


[drumroll...]

LOUIE THE RUNE SOLDIER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now when I first saw this thing, the cover's art for it was SEXY!!!!!!!!! The fact that it was reversible and had a HILARIOUS cover alternative was good too, but I'm sure noboby would have bought it had it not been for the alternative... Wanna see?

http://www.advfilms.com/catalog/catalog_item.asp?id=800

It's neat, I thought the cover alone was sexy... [thank god the anime is too...]

Ok, ON WITH THE REVIEW... (first off, I now pronounce to add this thing to my top 10 asap!)

How does this sucker square up?

Originality: Ok, this thing has a slight take on "The Slayers", though to be honest, it uses references from Lodoss War flat out. The God, "Mylee" is mentioned. (Myree in the Lodoss Dub) Anyways, I'm going to judge it based on its earlier pretexts. As an anime, this thing is like NOTHING I expected it to be. The story on the back "hints" at it being a comedy but as you can see from the cover, it looks like a "true badass" epic. Boy was I fooled. (into a good thing) THIS THING IS UNGODLY FUNNY!! It packs FANSERVICE, swift fights, badass lookin' characters, a hero who's just WAY out there, and babes galore. The thing is, their misadventures literally kill me in terms of comic effect. The gags are reminiscent of the Simpsons, with a twist. A serious situation is suddenly overturned by something hilarious right after, or heck, I just keep laughing every so often through each ep. Who's the crew? Genie, the big [Chyna built] Swordswoman, Melissa: Priestess of Mylee (who can sleep with her ordained champion and still remain a priestess ^_^), Mille (who's name is kinda tricky for me to remember exactly) the cunning thief chick who's got MJ and MrOni written all over her, and then DA MAN, Louie! heh heh... Claims to be a powerful mage, but the fact is, he's called "Rune Soldier" in the intro for a reason. (yes ladies and gents, he's more fist fighter and like 0.000000000002% mage) [lol]

Capture: I got the DVD and OOOOHH SWEEEETTTTT... I think I'll include the package design here too. The INSTANT I saw the cover (I also remembered seeing the opening intro sequence with the song "Twinkle Trick" and remembered it's badass-ness... (sp?)) I new I had to had this sucker. Thank God I did. It's by ADVFilms and yes, it looks GOOOOD... If you slow mo punks who use fansubs as an excuse to NOT contribute to the original artists by STEALING anime saw this, maybe you'd get a real job. The cover is sweet, the anime itself is painted very artfully, though it's old, it doesn't overuse CG to certain extents. (think well defined cg scanned coloring, no 3d overcrap) How does this shape up? VERY good...

Sound: The music is by Kenji Kawai. Hmm, most of you I'm SURE HAVE heard his music but didn't bother remembering him I'm guessing. To be drowned out by the likes of Yoko Konno and L' Arc En Ciel and Dream, Two-Mix, etc. I hear near NO recognition for this guy! Ok, this thing was a domestic DVD. My vote LISTEN TO THE DUB GAWD DARN IT!!!!!!!! It uses some of ADV's newer (but NOT bad) VA's and Jason returns (Think Illpalazzo and Marron Glace) Being the voice of Louie is sooooo him. He does it very well too. From being stoic and reserved to just screaming like a freakin' psycho maniac. (and being very believable I might add)

Action: Ok, the action. Opening scene, 3 babes, Swordswoman, Priestess, and Knife-tossin' Thief kick the crap out of, and retreat from a mob of goblins. They need a magician to open a sealed door to a ruin. Heh, all the female mages they seek are all bookworms. Only MAGE that seems to be ready for adventure is Louie. (He's not that good at bein' a mage either... oh well...) Other things. Melissa (the priestess) has a head priestess constantly suggesting that she make love to Louie (if that's not a good reason to get this for comedy, I don't know what is...) There's LOTS of exposed feminine flesh, and yes ladies, you get to see Louis shirtless multiple times. His ragtag femme trio also comment on his affinity to shedding his clothes that they're praying to the Gods that he doesn't continue... (hmm, what could that mean?) He's as bishonen as they come ladies... Think Gourry. Yes, that's quite an avid resemblance...

Lip Synch: 3 letters: ADV, once again, ADV... I thought it meant Anime Distributor Vision, but I think it can now be synonymous with "Awesome Dubbed Voices..." ^_^

Effort: ah, this anime is kinda old, and it's WAY to goofy/sexy for the serious type, but oh lord does it deliver. Not just that, but ADV threw in a nice chunk of extras into the DVD Case. It's reversible (ALWAYS ALWAYS A PLUS, THOUGH I did say the alternative was quite goofy and probably wouldn't sell as well as the regular one) Temp Tatoos (I'm not a fan of those) and some episode background/line art. I liked the Excel Saga extras better but REVERSIBLE COVERS PWN ME!!!!!!!

Overall: 9, most definitely a 9... It has a slight tone of seriousness, but I can sum up this anime as Lodoss Wars on Acid... and Viagra... ^_^

Reviewable: I'm gonna watch this thing till my dvd melts... The gags never stop, I'd mention some, but hey, that'd ruin it. One thing I will say, swinging around a dead 800 lb. Wild Boar is NOT the normal way to take out an angry mob of demons, but LOUIE can do it! ^_^


My vote definitely a keeper. I sometimes (ok, nearly always) buy anime on impulse cause I have only been disappointed by 3 anime I've bought: Appleseed (come on, swearing by BAD VAs can only be tolerated to an extent. At least Angel Cop made more sense...) Psycho Diver (didn't get into it... hmm...) Debutante Detective Corps. WAAAYY too short, though the music was good. You MUST AT THE LEAST rent this baby first chance you get, but if you're into Slayers, oh wait... Let me mention the like/dislike here:

You WILL LIKE IT IF:
You don't mind laughing till you need an operation to have a lung repaired.
Don't mind looking at LOTS of exposed female bodies.
Like looking at half naked perverse heroes (in room filled with women of same clothing ^_^)
You liked Slayers and wanted better lookin' art. (dudes and babes, the COVER says it all, and no, it's NOT like Record of Lodoss TV, that series was BADLY done...)
You like nice opening intros / endings...
LOVE the comedy of sexual innuendo... ^_^
Like girls wearing only towels in a sauna... (or wearing nothing... ^_^)
Epic mystical D&D style comedy... Or like I said before, Lodoss with Fanservice and comedy as the flow...

You will NOT like it if:
You hate my reviews and simply hate me, tough shit then fool :p
Serious depressing anime where everyone dies pointlessly at the end making you glad you saw them die (me, I see no point in seeing everyone in the universe die simultaneously, waste of me time I say...)
You DON'T like looking at powerfully depicted women bathing... (I shit you not, these girls can practically kick the crap outta anything ^_^)
You can't stand the thought of watching a perverted hero in anime (um, why watch anime? You've just killed a good chunk of the "fun" stuff :p)
Nothing makes you laugh....
You find comedy weak or didn't like the Lodoss / Slayer sorcerer/medevil type character designs...
HATE HATE HATE comic anime due to extreme sense of humor or comparing this to Slayers... (in my op, it's better than Slayers...more naked people :p)

Once again, I could REALLY use a teammate for this, since hearing the ravings of one fan with LOTS OF TIME AND EXTREME TYPING SPEED at his fingertips can be overbearing. I hope this review helps.

I'd like to send a thank you to my beloved cousin Priuscomet (Jackie ^_^) for her contribution to my DVD collection, and NO I HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET AND IF HE'S THE DIRECTOR, I'VE GOT NO GRIPES!!!

(for you nosy people, she bought me the b-day present of "Labyrinth of Flames: Tale of a Wannabe Samurai") from the look of it, it's ALL ABOUT THE PANTIES BABY ^_^

[OmniStrata]

Merrill’s the name THAT'S THE THIEF'S NAME DOH!!!

Scoring:

Originality: 8
Capture: 10
Sound: 10+ (good music and hey, it's ADV, anything less, is just hentai :p)
Action: 9
Digital FX: N/A (no overbearing 3d really)
Lip Synch: dubbed, 10+
Effort: 10
Overall: 9
Reviewable: 99 (yes, that's not a typo)

whoa......... 8)