Well guys, this is it! The final 5 reviews of this massive marathon. This last stretch will go by relatively fast: I’ll get the first 3 reviews up this week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), and this last 2 will go up next week (Monday for the first review, and either Friday or Saturday for the second review). I’ve had a lot of fun doing this marathon, but now’s about time the go back to my (somewhat) normal routine around here. With that said, let’s look at the number 5 review, an obscure OVA simply known.......as Urban Square.
Story/Setup
Taken from the anidb page:
“Screenwriter Ryu Matsumoto witnesses a murder in Kobe. But his testimonial is ignored by the police because the victim's body has vanished without a trace. Eager to prove that he is not crazy and worried that he may have attracted the attention of the murderers, Ryu hires the private detective Mochizuki to protect him and to continue the investigation.”
Normally I’d talk about the story, but a reviewer on the anidb webpage (Singan) has a much better description. A description that is something better than anything I would have put down:
“Essentially, it's a classic detective story where the main character witnesses a murder and gets into trouble with the mafia; eventually, he ends up acting as an action hero, defeating the criminals and saving the girl he likes. Not only this story is rather typical in general, but it also contains quite a lot of cliches and glaring logical contradictions: the great example of the latter is the protagonist's love interest who says she hasn't driven a car since she was 14... and then rides it like a veteran street racer.
However, if you look at the story from a different angle, all those drawbacks were initially supposed to be there. You see, the main character is a scriptwriter who factually ends up being a protagonist of his screenplays, and that makes the OVA a witty parody on detective stories which may be shortly described as "B-movie coming to real life". Of course, the show never openly admits its parody nature yet it gives some very obvious hints when the protagonist comments on those events taking place as reminding him of bad detective movies.
So, the story is fine if you keep in mind it's actual purpose and don't take it too seriously.”
A good description if you ask me! If I had any comment, I’d say that this almost feels like Mad Bull 34, in that it goes for the gritty cop story. However, where as that show seems to portray all of the negative aspects of cop shows, Urban Square goes for a mix of positive, negative, and cliched.
Setting
Urban Square takes place with a random Japanese city (For the sake of argument, let’s assume it’s Tokyo). Normally I’d complain, because a lot of anime does this, but I’m not going to this time around. It has all of the typical trappings of a urban environment, yet it doesn’t seem to go overboard, and there’s a heavy feeling of film-noir just about everywhere. Granted the noir feeling is rather cheesy, but it’s not like the Mad Bull 34 style of noir.
Characters
Once again, I refer to Singan’s review on this matter:
“All characters are cliche to a different extent, so don't expect much depth or development here. However, it doesn't become a serious problem because they were supposed to be like that anyway (it's a parody, remember?) and thus they are still decent for this kind of show despite lacking memorable personalities.”
He/She isn’t exactly wrong in this department. The character have no real depth to them, but at the same time they were designed this way on purpose, so it’s no big deal.
Animation
Like a lot of OVA/shows I’ve come across, Urban Square is a product of the 80s (11/28/1986, to be specific). The design of the characters is very reminiscent of characters from the style of 80s anime, the fluidity of motion during action scenes is quite slick, and some usage of dark blue tones to add a subtle noir feeling to the movie. It’s actually managed to age quite well, apart from some small flukes once in a while (You’ll only see these moments if you’re actively paying attention).
Voice Acting
Because this was never released in the United States (As far as I know), this OVA has no dub.
Episodes & Episode Length
Urban Square is a solid movie. It’s hour-long running time contains all the action & drama, and it has a surprisingly good pace because of it. Hell, the running time makes the OVA feel like an episode of a cop show, which just adds to the value of this video.
Availability & Pricing
Because this was never released in the west (As far as I know), I don’t know about this OVAs current availability & pricing. If you want to watch the movie, click on the link below (Download it if you have the youtube downloader or other video-downloading program):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYGO1_kXgPU
Extras/Other
Since I downloaded this, I don’t know what the extras are.
I should quickly mention the soundtrack in this movie. Performed by a band known as Chickenshack, there isn’t any singing or a main theme, the jazz soundtrack has piano, sax, drums, funky guitar and slap bass. It really fits with the movie, and is nice to listen to.
General Impression & Rating
Urban Square is a fun flick. Granted it has it’s problems, but it’s flaws are small when you compared them to what makes it a fun movie. Grab a couple friends, load this movie up, and prepare for the torrent of cheese to flood your eyes.
Urban Square gets a 8 out of 10.
See you all this Wednesday. Until then, stay Otaku!
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