SUMMARY
It is the year
2046, and mankind has settled on Mars. St Lowel, the largest city on
Mars was built with help from the Conception Corporation, and their
new humanoid robots, the Seconds. Seconds can now be found in offices,
stores and restaurants doing jobs people used to do.
Police Officer Ross Syllabus
arrives on Mars and immediately becomes involved in a strange case of
murder. Someone is killing human like robots The look and act so much
like humans, you can't discern from the two. Called Thirds, there is
more to them than just illegal modifications.
To aid him with the case, he is assigned
a partner, Naomi Armitage. Affectionately known as the Gun Toting Terror in
Hot Pants by her colleagues, she prefers to dispense justice in her own way.
Armitage has a secret, and that secret will affect Ross for the rest of his
life.
When it is discovered that the Thirds
can get pregnant, things start to get complicated. Ross and Naomi have little
time to solve the murders before the Earth Government steps in.
DVD VISION TEST
VIDEO: Pioneer
always has the best looking transfers. The bright colors are blended well, with
no pixels or color bleeds. The source print is clean and free of defects.
AUDIO: The English 2.0
audio track is pretty sharp and clear. It is also louder than the Japanese 2.0
track. It has some directionality, but for the most part, its pretty center
speaker based. Then Japanese track has a higher pitch, and better directionality.
EDITS: None to the actual
episodes. The ending uses English credits.
EXTRAS:
We get LD covers, concept art, backgrounds and previews of a the other Armitage
movies. The brief segments at the end of the VHS release have been omitted.
WIDESCREEN REVIEW
STORY: The story
is excellent. One of scriptwriter Chiaki J. Konaka early works, Armitage
III has become a cult classic.
The plots are quite interesting with plenty of action to keep things from
getting dull. Many of the themes of humanity versus alternate existence
she would tackle in other anime (The Big O, Lain, Hellsing) are firmly
in place in this OVA.
ACTING: A
bit of a disappointment, compared to Pioneers other releases. Most of
the American voice actors
seem to deliver their lines a bit on the flat side. Mind you, it is better
than the Poly Matrix movie.
On
the Japanese side, one of the better jobs. I like Hiroko Kasahaara's Armitage,
playful yet sexy, with a lot of emotional range. Yasunori Masutani is a better
Ross Syllabus. The rest do a fine job.
FAN SERVICE: Well, there
is Armitage, who is the living embodiment of fan serve. Unfortunately, there
are no shots of her completely naked. Just her in her S&M club clothes.
There is some nudity, but it is brief and fleeting.
CONCLUSION:
One of the early Pioneer releases,
like Tenchi Muyo, it became a cult classic. The animation quality was some of
the best of it's time, the stories were interesting, and you could get a whole
bunch of extra stuff with the videos or LD's. Now, long overdue, Armitage III
is on DVD.
This was and still is, one of my favorites.
Like the AD Police OVA, Armitage tackles the age old question of man vs machine.
While AD Police showed the dark side of robotics, Armitage shows that human
androids actually can serve a positive purpose. The idea of using Androids to
help aid in reproduction makes a lot of sense, since fertility problems remain
a constant concern in today's world. This was a good one for Pioneer to release
early on. While Tench covered the light side of anime, Armitage showed that
there is room for intelligent anime as well.
Despite my enjoyment of Armitage, it
has not stood the test of time well. The animation that looked so great 10 years
ago, now looks decent. The voice acting that I loved, now is a little stilted,
as far as the English cast goes. The writing is good, but you can see that Chiaki
Konaka is still developing her craft. Her work on Hellsing is the best I have
seen, so far.
For some reason, a lot of people
say that Armitage is confusing. Honestly, I think most of the confusion
comes from the movie version. The poor scripting and bad acting are so
distracting, you don't really have the urge to listen. Now, people can
see the full story, including the missing pieces excised from the movie.
Technically, this DVD is fine.
The video and audio are great. I am dismayed at the loss of the additional
"extras" from the original VHS and laser disc releases. I also
would have loved to have the cool posters included in this release.
Despite it's age and minimal extras, Armitage
is still a pretty good anime. With all four episodes on this DVD, the price is
right to enjoy this cult classic.
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