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Hyper Future Vision Gunnum is still a run away hit, on both sides of the Pacific.

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Battle Angel

Review by Matthew Anderson

2 OVA series

Company: ADV Films

Running Time: 60 minutes

Region: 1

Rated: R (Graphic Violence and Adult situations)

EXTERNAL EXAM

In a post apocalyptic future, a young Cyber Doctor named Ido finds a broken cyborg girl in the rubble beneath the sky city of Zalem. Excited by his find, Ido decides to rebuild her and gives her the name of Gally.

In Scrap Iron City, there is no law, no police. Hunter Warriors are used as law enforcement. Whether it is to stop brain eating cyborgs, spine thieves, or other various criminals, they do their job, and get paid very well for it. One night, Gally sees Ido sneaking out of the house.

Worried that he is a spine thief, she follows him. It is when he stops two brain eating cyborgs from killing a young woman, that she discovers that her savior is a hunter warrior. During the fight, Ido is wounded. When she comes to his rescue, Gally's combat abilities are awakened. She quickly kills one cyborg, and seriously injures the other. Enjoying the thrill of the battle, she decides to follow in her mentor's footsteps, despite his objections.

It does not take long for her to become one of the best Hunter Warriors in the city. This does not go unnoticed by several people including a local crime boss named Mr. Vector and Ido's rival, an exiled Zalem scientist named Chiren. Now Gally becomes embroiled in a seedy underworld where right and wrong are not as clear as she thought. A place where the innocent can die just as quick as the wicked.

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: Very well done. Colors are beautiful with no bleeding. This is important since the color sets the tone of the scene. The actual video is somewhat light in spots and there is some garbage, but that is due to the source, not the transfer. Lines are full and strong. A little wrinkles here and there, but not that noticeable.

AUDIO: Richer than many DVD's, it sounds great on our surround sound setup. On the Japanese track, the voices get a little drowned out by the music and sound effects. With the English mix, the music and voices are balanced out quite well.

EDITS: Japanese text titles have been eliminated from the ending and replaced with two different angels of English credits. Other than that, no edits have been made.

EXTRAS: A nice photo gallery and some character design drawings, nothing that I would get excited about.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: Battle Angel is based off of the Gunum manga by Kishiro Yukito. Pretty much all of the OVA is lifted right from the pages of the first two books, with even whole blocks of dialogue scripted into the series. There are some minor divergence's, mostly in the area of pacing. The only major change from the manga is the inclusion of Chiren. The excessive gore found in the Gunum manga has been toned down as well. It is a shame that this excellent OVA didn't make it as a series. The story of Gally goes way beyond what we see here.

ACTING: The Japanese voices are great. Good range and tone. My favorite is Ryuzoburo Otomo as Grewsha. His deep voice and mocking tone when he calls Gally "Baby" is very creepy.

With the English cast, its kind of a mixed bag. ADV regulars Amanda Winn and Spike Spenser are great as Gally and Yugo. Having become big fans of these voice actors while watching Burn Up W and Evangelion, it's great to hear some of their early work. Unfortunately, some other members of the English cast are not as "animated" as the Japanese actors.

FAN SERVICE: Not a lot of fanservice in this series. You do get some nice shots of hot scientist Chiren naked. Since this is a hard core cyber punk story, there are no real places for panty shots or anime in-jokes.

FINAL EXAM

Battle Angel is one of the first OVA's to be released in the early 90's. With it's combination of over the top violence, fast paced action, and interesting story, this DVD has earned a place in the hearts of anime fans. While not a "classic" like "Akira" or "Yamato", it definitely is better than some of the dreck (Turn A Gundam for example) that has been produced to date.

Hyper Future Vision Gunnum is still a run away hit, on both sides of the Pacific. In Japan, first run prints are getting harder and harder to find. Acceding to demand, KC comics printed a larger "Akira" sized manga. The final volume contained something for the true "Battle Angel" fan....a special DVD with a CG animated Gally. Now, with the new manga coming out, we expect them to disappear completely!

On the U.S. side, "Battle Angel Atilla" comics are hard to find. A reprinting has started, but no special DVD for us. "Battle Angel" has proven to be so popular, that copies of the original DVD pressing run at over $45 on AMAZON.COM! Very few DVD's can boast that kind of price hike.

While this is a manga come to life, it is sadly too short. Just as you start to get into the story, the second episode is over, and you are left to wonder what direction the Gunum anime would have take, if more episodes had been made. I would love to have see her in the arena, like in the manga.

On the technical side, ADV has done a great job in transferring this early OVA to the new DVD format. Looking much better than their video or Laser Disc release, the image is clean, with out blemishes, rainbows, or color overblasts. The extras are the only weak spot.

Overall, Battle Angel is an excellent DVD in both quality and story. Despite its weak extras, all in all, it should have a place on your shelf.

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