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Upon watching this film, you can see this may have been a great OVA series. It has a story with so many twists that it is only fitting for it to be sold in episodic format and the main character, Armitage, is designed to be the ideal girlfriend for the stereotypical two chair consuming assed sci-fi fan. The animation is very loyal to manga that spawns these animes and the techno soundtrack is an addiction for the ears. If this OVA series is perfect, I would assume that the voice cast would be very skilled and unique. This out of print, or at least unavailable at the Bloomington/Peoria/Springfield video retailers, has a great deal of potential. As for this film, the editing makes this seem like Batman and Robin for heterosexuals. The cuts are not as noticeable as Battlefield Earth, but the pacing is awkward and there are no attempts to open up new elements to the film. I can support this argument by assuming that the opening segment of the film was probably the opening segment of each OVA episode. It is a difficult task to convert hours of OVA into a 90-120 minute theatrical film since Macross Plus: The Movie, (one of my favorite films) was the only film that allegedly impressed many anime fans enough that they considered the film to be better than the original OVA series. As for the voice acting in this B list dub, it feels like the cast is not dynamic enough. This static style is not as painful as listening to the voice of the Julian Moore character, but Berkley only has bitching and moaning tones to offer. Perhaps this is appropriate for the confused Armitage, but I do want to believe that this babe has more depth than this. Kiefer Sutherland may not be the right voice for Ross for the opposite reason. Sylibus seems like he would be a hardboiled cop, but the animation suggest otherwise. The editing and casting are leading me to a confused conclusion to this review.
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Review © 2002 Russ Stevens.