Directed & released in 1996 by Hiroshi Negishi, and dubbed in 2001 & 2004 (the 04 was a remastered re-release) by ADV Films (R.I.P.), Burn Up W tells the story of Team Warrior, Neo-Tokyo's elite police force. The girls composed of the team represent are the toughest that the police have. At the beginning of the first episode, a group of terrorists take over a hotel where a group of key political figures in the Japanese government are meeting. At first, the regular police are trying to get in, but are held at bay by the terrorist's threats.
Meanwhile, Rio, who first appeared in the original Burn Up, is stuck at the station doing boring paper work. After waiting to do...something, she is finally called upon to perform her duties as the top member of Team Warrior. There is more to the terrorist attack at the hotel than meets the eyes, but revealing it here would ruin it for you. Suffice it to say, the twist at the beginning of the show carries itself to the end, and it'll leave you on the edge of your seat the entire time.
A note before the positive and the negatives. Burn Up W has a few faint connections to the original Burn Up, such as characters & setting. The original show isn't required to watch before Burn Up W, save for understanding how the two shows are connected. If fact, you could even ignore Burn Up if you wanted, and dive into W with a open mind.
To start things off, Burn Up W's first big positives is the rush of adrenaline & the variety of themes you get in each episode. All of them are loaded with guns, explosions, robots, comedy, and lots of female sex appeal. You even get to see some blood as the girls get in up close with the bad guys as they pummel the snot out of them. This show is not for kids, nor for the faint of hearted.
Burn Up W's second biggest positive are the girls that compose Team Warrior and their characters. Rio is the pointman of the team, and the one that gets a chunk of the screen time. Rio's also blonde, hot, and gifted in all the right places, and can't really hold onto money for a long length of time. Because of her money troubles, she's constantly looking for a wealthy guy to get hitched to and get out of her police job.
The other girls got a bit of screen time as well. Maya is a lot like Rio. She's got funky colored hair, and she hot. Maya is the sniper and gun nut of the team, and is a bit of a wacko. She joined the team because she wanted to shoot as often as she could, and if she doesn't get to fire off a gun, she feels something that must be similar to sexual frustration. In fact, the bigger the gun, the more she likes it. Lilica is the short, pink-haired cutie of the team. She's the master of computers, and can hack into just about anything. Nanvel rounds out Team Warrior as the tanned tech girl. She and Maya both have the hots for their respective areas, as Nanvel has a thing for mechanical stuff and robots. A lot of the jokes that involve Nanvel & Maya revolve around either guns or something technology related.
Burn Up W's 3rd positive is it's time length. At 4 episodes that run about 22 to 24 minutes each, it's a quick show that you can watch in one, maybe two sittings. Some people might not like a short show, but if you want a quick anime fix, then 4 episodes isn't so bad. Surprisingly, the story fits into the length of time, and covers just about everything that's shown. What little is left over isn’t carried over to Burn Up Excess, as that show doesn’t really cover anything in the previous show.
The 4th positive Burn Up W has going for it is it’s pricing. Despite the lack of copies (look below), the pricing for used copies isn’t all that bad. Used copies of the original 2001 release start at $3.37, while the 2004 re-release start at $4.65. Those prices are pretty fair, but whatever you do, don’t buy a new copy. New 2001 copies start at $14.99, while the prices for the 2004 re-release range from $29.95 to $32.49. I guess the price for a new 2001 edition isn’t that bad, but for the 2004 edition, it’s just ridiculous.
The 5th and final plus to Burn Up W is the story’s structure within the show. The first episode sets up the events to come, the second episode continues things along while at the same time providing a bit of humor and slapstick, and the third & fourth episodes conclude it all, and provide a good twist at the end. Like I said during the show's time length, the story somehow fits into 4 episodes, and the leftovers don’t transit into Excess.
It's sad to say that despite what Burn Up W has going for it, it also has some things going against it. Firstly, the show can be a bit difficult to find. As usual, I always get my DvDs from Amazon, and they usually have a good selection, whether it's used or new. As I’m typing this, there are 2 new copies & 10 used copies of the 2001 edition, and 4 new copies & 7 used copies of the 2004 re-release. A link is provided below if you want to take a look.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_9?url=search-alias%3Dmovies-tv&field-keywords=burn+up+w&sprefix=burn+up+w%2Cmovies-tv%2C253
In my opinion, buy this show as soon as you can, and if you miss it, download it somewhere. I know that I recent years downloading has become the kiss of death, but for shows that aren’t in print anymore, I don’t think it’s a problem.
Secondly, Burn Up W isn't as good looking as many 90s animes tend to be. Truthfully, saying that the show isn't good looking is a little hurtful. While the show actually does look good at times, it seems to look a little rough around the edges at other times, despite being remastered. What makes it more strange is that things far away in a scene seem more clear, while things up close (especially characters) sometimes look particularly jagged. I will give ADV Films (R.I.P.) some slack in this regard, as it isn’t always easy to remaster an anime, especially an older one. People who expect high animation quality however, with more than likely have a conipshinfit.
Third, Burn Up W has little to no connection to Burn Up Excess as far as story is concerned. The two shows do have connections as far as characters, voice actors, animation studios, and settings. Yet, I find it irritating that Burn Up W doesn’t even share shreds of story with Excess. Perhaps that was the story writer’s intention to differentiate the two shows, but I don’t like the fact that the two shows aren’t related in this manner.
Burn Up W gets a 6.5 to 7 out of 10. The show mixes together a variety of themes, the cast of girls are entertaining, the episodes last for a nice chunk of time, pricing for used copies are good, and the story was setup well in the show, but it’s difficult to find, sticklers may not like the occasionally rough looks of the show, and the story isn’t connection to Excess.
See you next week, where I’ll give you an insight on how my Father planted the seeds of geekdom within me. Until then, stay Otaku!
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I forgot to add this into the official, but I feel that I must at least comment on the voice acting. The voice actors do a good job with the characters, especially Amanda Win Lee, who has been unfortunately retired from the voice acting scene for a while now. She really brings out Rio’s character, especially the sex appeal of the character.
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