Published by Takeshi Mori in 2005, and dubbed by Bandai Entertainment in 2007, Rescue Me: Mave-Chan is the story of Rei Sugiyama. Rei is kind of a wuss, and he doesn't have a lot of self confidence. Whenever he felt weak or depressed, he always retreated to his room to watch anime (like many of us do). One day, he manages to win a ticket to a convention in the city, and decides to go. Problem is, he's never been to the city by himself before.
Rei eventually sets out for the convention. When he arrives, the place is abuzz with activity. He does a few things, all the while getting overwhelmed by everything that's happening, so he makes his way to the men's bathroom. Instead of stalls, he finds a vast desert, and the door behind him disappears. Soon after, Rei's attacked by a girl that's flying in the air. After a fixed miscommunication, and the arrival of a few more girls, Rei discovers that he's in a dimension that is only accessible when anime fans congregate at conventions, and share their passion with each other (don't think dirty thoughts now, you perverts!). The girls in this dimension fight the JAM (typical enemy name) and the Demon of Oblivion, who comes when an anime's time is up. The whole premise sounds ridiculous, but if you watch it, you will understand it all.
Visually, Rescue Me: Mave-Chan looks very good. Rei looks exactly as a nervous geek should: short hair, glasses, short height, and a slightly squeaky voice. The girls all look very nice, with different bodies from one another, and different personalities to match. The surroundings, whether in the real world or the anime dimension as I call it, look very standard, yet there isn't a sign of rushed work.
The audio work isn't bad either. For some (probably stupid) reason, it's hard for me to put it into words, but everything sounds good. In regards to the dubbing, it's quite good, and that's all I got to say.
This time around, I'm going to put down the negatives first, and there's a few. For starters, there's only one episode on the DvD. That's right, just one! It's not even an episode (in my opinion at least), it's more like a short movie. How short, you ask? Try 21 minutes!
Second, there isn't much for extras. All that's available is a textless opening, a very brief advertisement for the show, 3 trailers for some other shows (one was for Ghost in the Shell), and a clean (don't ask) closing.
Third, you can tell, or at the very least, feel that Rescue Me: Mave-Chan could have gone on a lot longer. The one episode that is on the DvD feels very rushed in regards to it's story, and if you haven't watched the two shows the story references, then you'll be more confused than you already are.
Despite all the negatives that Rescue Me: Mave-Chan has, there's definitely a silver lining or two. First off, being a relatively unknown title, it quite plentiful. On Amazon, a copy will set you back a mere $2.29. The few used copies that they do have are even cheaper, starting at $1.49 and going up to $3.17, which isn't that bad. Secondly, despite how confusing the story may get to some people, it's very light-hearted and humorous. The girls start up some interesting banter between one another, and in the end, Rei finally un-wusses himself in a sterotypical anime fashion.
Rescue Me: Mave-Chan gets a 6 out of 10. It's plentiful and cheap, and the story and characters are easily likeable, but there's only one episode (that's 21 minutes long), the extras are sparse, and the story of the episode seemes rushed in some way.
Oh, one more thing. About a day or two ago, I sent another e-mail to Jon St. John about an interview. I haven't gotten a response yet, but I feel strangely positive about it. Hopefully, I'll be able to post up the interview soon.
Until next time, stay Otaku!
