Back in the late 90’s, these was an anime series released called Space-Time Detective Genshi. It is a 39 episode series based off the manga by Hideki Sonoda; who is one of the people behind other anime like Samurai Gun and the Machine Robo series. About a year after the anime came out in Japan, Saban (The company behind Power Rangers) did the usually localization that was practiced at the time (Of changing the names, characters, and stories to be more “Westernized” to the American audience; and censoring, altering, and re-editing episodes) and released the show on the Fox Kids block during the year 2000. However it doesn't appear that the series proved to be that popular in the states because, outside of DVD and VHS releases of the show, the only remaining element of it was the licensor Sanrio filing a lawsuit in 2012 in response to illegal copies of the show floating around California. Meanwhile, over in Japan, apparently Genshi proved to be such a popular franchise that the characters were included Sanrio's Puro Land and Harmony Land theme parks, with the former park rivaling Disneyland Tokyo in popularity and it's Genshi-themed ride being similar to Disneyland California's “Star Tours” ride going by the description.

However, prior to the writing of this review, none of this was actually know, aside from the source material for the anime. In addition, as having yet to watch any of those anime involving Hideki Sonoda, the opinion given here is with practically no bias brought upon by the author’s other work. So, this is perhaps the most vanilla review of the series one can given. And, with that being said, it would be a good time to actually talk about the show itself.

The opening premise for the show is that the Land of Time is attacked by a mysterious masked man, with his attack releasing all of the space-time monsters across Earth's history. One of these said monsters, Love-Love, encounters a couple of caveman in the distant past, Genshi and his father, and they instantly become friends. Not long after, Genshi, his dad, and Love-Love are turned into fossilized eggs by the series' weekly villain, the time thief TP Lady. However, she isn't able to obtain their fossils, and concludes to recapture them later when she gets back to her time. Fast forward to the 25th century, humanity has perfected time-travel to the point that grade school field trips can actually go to and experience any point of time in the past. This is TP Lady's day job as she disguises herself as an instructor at the local school. However, before she can retrieve the fossilized eggs as part of a school field trip to an archaeological dig site, a couple of her students, twins Sora and Tokio, find the fossils and manage to revive Genshi and Love-Love. However, Genshi's dad awakens only to still be partially fossilized as a stone slab, so the uncle of the twins manages to make a compromise by turning Genshi's father into a stone axe that he can use as a weapon. Immediately, TP Lady attacks their house to retrieve Love-Love, but Genshi fends her off. This battle convinces God that Genshi would be the perfect person to retrieve all of the lost space-time monsters, and requests that the Time Bureau turn Genshi into an official space-time detective.

From there, the series progresses with each episode being about one of the monster being discovered during a specific point in the past, and the struggle that take place between TP Lady corrupting the monsters for her own purposes of wanting to win the affection of the masked man and Genshi wanting to make the monsters his friends and bring them to the 25th century. It's a really simple and silly series with a formula that mostly works in each episode. They go to a place in time where (Often) something significant happened or was the turning point in someone's life, they find trouble taking place as a result of the monster existing there, TP Lady eventually gets the monster's head stamped with her special “P” symbol that turns the monster evil, then Genshi beats the crap out of the now-evil monster and TP Lady, and convinces the monster to become good again because “Remember the good times that you had with** [Insert episode specific circumstance].**” The only real change in formula that happens later on is that a vampire name Kyouichirou follows the gang around the various time periods for no other reason than because he absolutely desires Sora’s affection, often times resulting in him getting hurt as a result of it. As for the interpretations taken upon all the various time period they visit and the people living there, all you can really say against it is that they're questionable in the liberties taken, but it does give one enough reason to actually search up that week's “star” if you don't know of them. Which is understandable as the series is very much a children’s show.

But, for some reason, it feels like the tone of the series slightly changes when you get into the final third of it. Earlier episodes mostly had this laid-back and childish feel of a ramp through Earth's history, with more of a focus on antics than action. To compare to other series, it’s like time-space Pokemon in trying to “catch them all” with friendship. However, the final third of the series seems to become more action-oriented, almost like they were trying to cast a net over a wider audience, and comes across like they studio was trying to find a way to finish the story off. In the earlier episodes, the biggest “threat” that Genshi faced was an empty stomach. Much later, however, after the many repeated failures of TP Lady, the masked men eventually provides her with the support of the “Elite Four” space-time monsters of the underworld, and these newer monsters really start to push Genshi to his actual extremes, causing him to rely upon support more often and being unable to win battle on his “fighting spirit” alone. With said support often coming in the form of the previously befriended monsters who can “super transform”. And, all this leads up to an ending about how friendship and companionship was the TRUE reason humanity was able to survive all those millennia of genocide, war, famine, slavery, human sacrifice...you know, all the things that make reading history so fascinating and pleasant.

As for the series' animation, it's your rather standard affair of mostly simple animation, repeating frames, using as few distinct actions and scenes as possible, panning across images, and some image manipulation and effects that obviously look computer generated. This isn't declaring that the series is stilted or terribly animated. It's just average and serves the purpose of a decent series. Though, I do wish that the show was more close to the animation of the intro and credits for the series. However, considering the rest of the show, I do not think it would have really made it any better than it already was. In regards to the art style, the show mostly comprises of slightly detailed and roundish characters and environments. However, a some of the later episodes seem to switch between animation styles that are either more focused on following the character models and guidelines or going slightly off-model and becoming somewhat more artistic in appearance. This isn't anything drastic that you're going to notice, but it does make it apparent that certain episodes changed hands during production.

In regards to the audio, the music for the series has a handful of main selections that indicate either mystery, action, or silliness. In addition to that, there are a couple of “character themes” that play in the earlier episodes of the series, but they seem to be removed or forgotten about later on. For the sound effects of the series, it all sounds like stock samples that companies have been using since the 80's. That isn't really a sin against the series because, remember, this was first broadcast back in 1998, so the samples probably were not that overused at the time, but it does take you out of the experience when you notice the same familiar sounds that you heard from other shows across the globe. And, as far as the voice acting, it feels like the more “human” characters are disconnected from the rest of the world that Genshi, the space-time monsters, and TP Lady’s gang are occupying. In fact, boiling it all down, it feels like the human characters of Sora, Tokio, and their Uncle do not really belong in the series and are only added for the reasons of “grounding” it in some manner with possibly “relatable” characters.

Overall, Space-Time Detective Genshi is a simple silly series for children. That's not to say that it's bad, or give it a glowing review. It's just an average show. And, if you're looking to waste time with the series when knowing this, you're not going to be disappointed.

[img]http://www.dragonflycave.com/wpay/mew.gif[/img]

So, I watched three different OVAs. They are Dream Dimension Hunter Fandora, Vampire Princess Miyu, and Youtouden.

Let’s begin with Dream Dimension Hunter Fandora. The premise of the series is that the in the (Then) future year of 2002, God abandons his rule over the universe and humanity is finally able to breach the dimensional barriers. As a result of this, it causes a disturbances across other dimensions that results in the disappearance of the jewels of Endora and Lupia, who’s powers are needed to maintain stability between the dimensions. Fast forward several decades, and we get to the part of the story the show depicts. With the absence of both of the jewels, criminals have been causing havoc and reek trouble across all dimensions. In response to this, a sort of dimensional police have been created, along with a department created for dimensional bounty hunters. This brings us to the main duo of the series, Fandora and Que, a team of inter-dimensional bounty hunters. Fandora tends to have a more carefree attitude, meanwhile Que is the more cautious one and sort of acts as Fandora's guardian. In addition to this, it is revealed that Fandora has gained possession of the jewel of Lupia and is using it to help collect bounties. And, while in the process of hunting down criminals, she happens across the antagonist of the series, Yogos Sogos, the biggest and baddest inter-dimensional criminal who has somehow gained control of the jewel of Endora after being driven mad as a result of losing his dimension and girlfriend. And, each of the three episodes shows how Fandora attempts to stop him.

To cut it short, it comes across like this series was not exactly planned out. Both of the first two episodes of the series play off of the other rather well and makes an ongoing story of Fandora's inter-dimensional travels. However, the third and final episode feels like it was written as the final act to a Hamlet inspired story, but was latter adapted as a conclusion to DDHF. It's not exactly jarring, but it does feel like a drastic shift in tone. Especially with the first two episodes having Fandora slaughtering criminals without a second thought, while she becomes extremely hesitant and timid in the third episode about the concept. To summarize it, it just doesn't feel consistent or flow very well.

As for the animation, DDHF has a beautiful art style and very well animated, but suffers at the expense of having a choppy frame rate. This doesn't effect majority of the series, however there are often animation errors such as transitions between events losing any flow in animation or obvious jumps between character movements. As for the audio of the series, it has a very fantasy feel to it with all of the 80's sound effects, however the soundtrack is lacking outside of ambiance and the “bigger” action scenes where a soft-rock song is used.

Overall, to describe Dream Dimension Hunter Fandora, it's a short, simple, cute, and violent 80's fantasy OVA. It could have gone on longer to make a more cohesive and fantastical story, but it feels rushed in the final episode. I wouldn't exactly give it a recommendation unless you're looking for a highly stylized OVA to watch.

Moving onto the next OVA discussed is Vampire Princess Miyu. The premise for the series is that demonic gods known as “Shinma” used to rule the Earth, but retreated to their own dimension when humanity started populating the planet. However, not all of them have left quietly, which brings us to the main characters of the series. Himiko is the “protagonist” of the series, a spiritualist who travels around to resolve various otherworldly problems. However, the latest cases have resulted in her being introduced to the Shinma, who are far beyond the spiritual affairs she has previously encountered. While investigating, she comes into contact with Miyu, a “guardian” of the Shinma who's task is to extradite the remaining Shinma to their dimension, and her bodyguard Larva, a Shinma who's devoted his life to protecting Miyu. Seeing Miyu as dangerous herself, Himiko starts investigating further into the Shinma incidents around Japan while also searching for a way to remove Miyu.

The setup for the episodes themselves are pretty cut and dry. There's an incident involving the possibility of a Shinma being the cause, there's some investigation into how the incidents piece themselves together, and then the episode end with some sort of battle with Larva and Miyu sealing away the Shinma. It's not that deep of a series for story structure, however you remain watching it because of the unique atmosphere that the series provides. The story pulls you in with each episode's mystery. Although, once you actually finish off the series, it leaves an empty feeling of hunger as there is no actual conclusion. Upon researching the series online, the reason becomes apparent as one learns that Vampire Princess Miyu is actually a small franchise. In addition to the OVA, there was also a manga that was released the same year. This leads me to assume that the OVA series was actually released an advertisement to interest viewers in the manga that was then currently in print. And, to be quite honest, it does make me want to see about reading through the manga when I get chance just to see what direction the story takes.

Moving onto discuss the animations, it has it’s trade offs. The art style is actually much more mature than DDHF, with characters looking more defined with humanistic features and details. And, personally, I do like this look. However, the trade-off is that the animation takes a noticeable hit. There’s no problem with the smoothness, nor there being any errors, but the animation is much more limited. Aside from relying much more upon panned images, there’s also the issue that the cell images used look like they were copied from other works. This is mostly noticeable with how the actual character movement appears stilted and robotic. And, this is a weird criticism to make because, looking at the company’s history of works, they’ve made beloved actions series like Legend of Lemnear and Bubblegum Crisis (Granted, however, I have not actually watch either, this is just opinion I have heard). So, this shouldn’t be an issue, but it does effect the viewing experience. To talk briefly about the audio, it does a great job of giving off this eerie feeling for the show. All the sound effects are loud and concrete, and you have a soundtrack gives off a slightly unsettling atmosphere to the show. As for the voice actors, it comes across like the only type of voices they can make are plain, excited, or soft-spoken.

Overall, Vampire Princess Miyu does a great job serving as an advertisement for the manga series, however it contains little content itself to stand up on it’s own. Personally, I would recommend going straight to the manga and not really bother with the OVA given it’s light and empty delivery.

The last series that I will be talking about is Youtouden. It's a three episode science fantasy series based during the Warring States period of Japan, particularly the years 1580 through '82 with each episode focusing on a certain point during one of those three years. The starting point is that Oda Nobunaga has been leading his campaign to conquer Japan, and he has been doing it through the usage of magic and demons to do it. In addition, Nobunaga has also wipe out the three original ninja schools of Hyuga, Kasumi, and Hagakure as they pose the greatest threat against his conquest. However, one student from each of the schools managed to escape the slaughter, each of them wielding a magical blade, and the students joined forces for the purposes of bringing down Nobunaga and end his reign of terror. And, all of this has to be done before the passing of a prophesied comet that will cement Nobunaga's reign forever. That's as much as I can say about the plot without revealing the story too much as the final episode explains the circumstances behind the series' events. The show spends much of it's time focusing on the drama taking place with all the series' leads being caught in the middle of this war, that none of them wanted to be involved with, the betrayals and subterfuges they face, and how they're focused on getting revenge or just hoping for all of the conflict to end. It is well paced and doesn't feel like the show is rushed, however I do wish there was more material showing the changes in the characters during those three years because their attitude adjustments feel more sudden than gradual.

In regards to the animation, it is the best of the three that I have watched during this time. The character designs, while stylistic, are extremely detailed and appreciative to look at. The show does a great job of displaying character actions and emotions without being too exaggerative. Also, the one thing I really like about all of the animation is that it is extremely fluid. It's like the animators really gave it their all to make the animation as high brow as possible without compromising on quality. There wasn't really any point in the show where I saw any animation errors or cheap production and it's just a beauty to watch. To talk about the audio, the music does give the show the wrong impression. The first two episode have music that make the show out like it's going to be some adventure or long-running drama, but the final episode really establishes that this is the end of the show. It's more of a bickering issue than an actual complaint, so it doesn't really do anything to effect the show's quality. In addition, the music is never really overpowering, but is great at setting the tone. As for the voice actors, it sounds fine for the most part, but there are a couple of moments where it seems like they were far too loud for the production studio and their voice's end up crackling.

Overall, I'd say that Youtouden is a great series that is worth watching if you're interested. But for some reason, for me, I just didn't really care for it. Don't know why though, because I loved everything else about it.

[img]http://www.dragonflycave.com/wpay/mew.gif[/img]