Hi everybody. Well, I wasn’t kidding when I said that my 2nd post this week was going to be later than normal. My relatives from down south came up Thursday afternoon, and I’ve been spending as much time with them as I could. Also, Tiny Tiny’s Assault on Dragon Keep has been loads of fun to play! Luckily, I managed to get some time to post something up, so here’s a review for another Cyberpunk classic, Black Magic M-66.
Story/Setup
An undercover reporter, Sybel, catches wind of a military operation out in the countryside. Along with her cameraman Leakey (Yeah, I know his name’s lame), they head out to the site of the military’s site. They find out that a aircraft crashed somewhere in the woods, and it contained two special military-grade androids known as the M-66s (Hence the name of this movie), and the military is doing everything it can to find them. Sure enough, the military does, but not without getting their asses kicked by said androids, and one of said androids performing a self-destruct program. After that, the other M-66 escapes, along with Sybel. With that situation seems contained for the moment, an even worse situation is on the rise.
It turns out that the M-66s were installed with a mission mimicking program, but in the process the program somehow gets corrupted, and the surviving android proceeds to go after the inventor of the M-66s granddaughter, Ferris. Deciding that this girl’s life is more important than her story, Sybel drops what’s she’s doing, and decides to find & protect this girl. This leads her through the woods, to the inventor of the M-66's house, and concludes with a fight/chase-sequence through a cyberpunk city.
This isn’t the deepest of stories I’ve seen so far, but it doesn’t really need to be. Black Magic M-66 is like the Commando of anime OVAs: basic story, standard characters, and lots of action. I can get behind this.
Setting
As with typical Cyberpunk movies, Black Magic M-66's city looks dystopic, and feels somewhat oppressive is some ways. Unlike typical Cyberpunk movies, you don’t see the city at first. Instead, Black Magic M-66 starts out in the countryside, which is somewhat untouched by man. The only signs of human civilization that is apparent is part of a roadway (Along with some road lights), and the house of Professor Matthews. You see the city about halfway through the movie, right when the shit gets real. Props to you movie!
Characters
If there’s a weakness to Black Magic M-66, it would be it’s characters. They’re all the standard tropes: Sybel is the gun-ho kind of girl that doesn’t put up with any bullshit, and will do whatever it takes to get a story, but develops a sense of humanity when a life is legitimately on the line. Her partner/cameraman Leakey is your standard smarmy, slimy bastard. The Major is your typical military guy, doing everything in his power to clean things up, and has a slight “not give a shit” attitude towards the average joe. The Major’s soldiers are the typical grunts, in that they follow his orders without question & most of which are going to die sooner or later. Professor Matthews acts as typical mad scientist, but is far more stable, and appears to love his granddaughter more so than other science-type characters. There’s his assistant Slade, who acts as (To a degree) the cool headed individual, and finally we have Ferris, who’s Professor Matthews’s bubbly granddaughter. She’s innocent, oblivious to the troubles of the world (Right until the killer robot shows up), and has some brains to her.
Despite the cookie-cutter nature of the characters, a couple of them I managed to like. In particular I liked Sybel & Ferris, as you manage to feel some legitimate concern once the M-66 begins to hunt them down. Ferris’s grandfather you’ll eventually manage to like, especially when he starts to calm down. As for everybody else, they’re either a take it character or leave it character.
Animation
Black Magic M-66 has some good animation behind it. If there was any flaw to it, I would say that there are certain scenes where the background looks a little lackluster, and looking at some of the minor characters moving around from a distance looks a little rough around the edges, but the characters look great (Have defining physical characteristics, look different from one another, etc), and the cyberpunk style city is always a hit for me.
Voice Acting
Black Magic M-66's voice acting has aged relatively well. Some of the minor roles have weaker voices, but everybody else sounds like they wanted to work the role they were given. In particular, Sybel & Ferris seem to be the strongest in terms of voice acting among primary characters, as well as Ferris’s grandfather, Professor Matthew (Although he sounds like the sterotypical nerdy scientist a majority of the time, and it can get slightly irritating). The Major, despite being a primary character, sounds like a standard military character: no-nonsense, serious, and gruff. His voice acting also matches his character (And to an extent, the soldiers under his command), and depending on your take, can be a good or bad thing.
Episodes & Episode Length
Like a majority of the stuff I’ve reviewed so far, Black Magic M-66 is a stand alone movie. Playing for 47 minutes, this OVA is a little shorter when compared to the other movies that I posted up here over the past couple weeks. Having said that, it’s still great to watch during an afternoon as part of a anime marathon, or something like that.
Availability & Pricing
Good luck finding this!
Black Magic M-66 is a pretty hard film to find. I’ve only seen a couple copies over on Amazon: As I’m writing this, there’s only 5 new copies available, and 10 used copies available. The new copies start out at a whopping 60 dollars in price (Which is normally the price for a full-blown show), whereas the used copies start at a less strenuous 30 dollars. My advice: go right to the used copies, and only buy a new one if you’re a serious collector.
Now, there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel with regards to availability. On July 9th of this year, a re-release of Black Magic M-66 will be made available to the public once again. My only complaint is that this release might not have a dub, which will be a pain to try & read during this action packed movie!
Extras/Other
Since I downloaded this, I don’t know what the extras are.
General Impression & Rating
I’m glad I watched this movie. Black Magic M-66, despite being a one-time movie, is actually pretty damn fun! There’s plenty of action, sci-fi/cyberpunk, suspense, violence, and a surprising touch of humor in it all. With a reprint coming in July, perhaps this classic OVA will once again be watched by anime fans both old & new alike, and it has some time back in the spotlight once again.
Black Magic M-66 gets a 8 out of 10.
See you all next week. Until then, stay Otaku!
*
Here’s a link to the OVA. Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJcEN1QkbyA
Also, here's an awesome song that should have been part of the soundtrack to this movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rmKoclkoqw
No comments:
Post a Comment