areaseven Posted November 16, 2003 Posted November 16, 2003 Virus Buster Serge J.C. Staff/TV Tokyo/Plum, 1997 Manga Entertainment, 2002-2003 Directed by Masami Obari (Fatal Fury, Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer) Suggested 16+ for graphic violence, nudity, mature situations and strong language. Masami Obari - for over a decade, that name has been etched in a list of cult anime titles such as Bubblegum Crisis, Fatal Fury and Detonator Orgun. But after the success of Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture in 1994, Obari's career as a character designer and director went to a decline. Battle Arena Toshinden (1996) suffered from a lackluster plot and poor production value, while Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer was simply borderline porn. Would his luck change in 1997 with his original work Virus Buster Serge? Story: D- From the rather long and inane introduction, Virus Buster Serge fails to grab anyone's attention and bores just about anyone with its lack of plot and a somewhat non-existent character development. It tries too hard to mix Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer with Bubblegum Crisis, but with disastrous results. You're better off renting something else. Animation: C Obari's character designs looked cool at first on Fatal Fury, but the problem is that his designs became severely repetitive. It seems that every one of his recent works has extremely voluptuous female characters (derivative of Fatal Fury's Mai Shiranui) and ambiguously gay male characters (complete with leather pants and a matching hat - send these guys to the Village People, for crying out loud!). Send this anime back to the drawing board! Soundtrack: B- Nothing to clamor about. Sub vs. Dub Virus Buster Serge features Shinichiro Miki (Laocorn in Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture, Cyber-X in Hand Maid May) as Serge, Mayumi Iizuka (Reiko in Gate Keepers, Sora in Escaflowne: The Movie) as Erika, Nobuyuki Hiyama (Joe in Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture) as Jouichirou, Haruna Ikezawa (Runa in Gravion, Nana in Melty Lancer) as Mirei, Keiichi Nanba (Junta in DNA²) as Macus, Kazuki Yao (Chivas 1-2-3, Dark Schneider in Bastard!!) as Ryu, and Hirotaka Suzuoki (Tenshinhan in Dragon Ball/DBZ, Lynn Kaifun in Macross) as Raven. The anime was bad enough for me to ignore the English dub. Unless you're a fan of Angora Deb (Agent Aika, Ayane's High Kick) or Jessica Calvello (before she screwed up her voice in Excel Saga), don't bother. DVD Extras: B- Aside from the usual trailers, Manga Entertainment's DVD release includes character bios and design sketches. The Bottom Line Has Masami Obari gone senile? Virus Buster Serge seems to be proof of fact. Reference Anime News Network Quote
DestroidsRage Posted November 17, 2003 Posted November 17, 2003 Obari is crap as a director. Pure crap. -BEN-MAN- Quote
ogami Posted November 17, 2003 Posted November 17, 2003 areaseven, haven't see you for a while since Gundam.com is out of service... Quote
areaseven Posted November 17, 2003 Author Posted November 17, 2003 areaseven, haven't see you for a while since Gundam.com is out of service... What was your username there? Quote
areaseven Posted November 17, 2003 Author Posted November 17, 2003 Obari is crap as a director. Pure crap.-BEN-MAN- He wasn't that bad to begin with. After all, he did direct episodes 5-6 of Bubblegum Crisis. Quote
ogami Posted November 18, 2003 Posted November 18, 2003 areaseven, haven't see you for a while since Gundam.com is out of service... What was your username there? my username is oogami ichirou in g.com but i don't post regularly. what happened to g.com? Amuro is taking a holiday? Quote
areaseven Posted November 18, 2003 Author Posted November 18, 2003 what happened to g.com? Amuro is taking a holiday? From the way I see it, Gundam.com was getting some bad rap from the hardcore fans due to various reasons: - The information database probably wasn't updated since day one. Because it's Gundam.com, many people expect to find all the character and mecha info they need on that site. Lesser-known sites like MAHQ and Newtype Asylum have more information and reviews. - Too many newbies on the forums. Majority of them were probably kindergarteners, given the repetitive questions they ask and the poor grammar they display. As a result, more than half of a forum page was filled with locked threads. - Flame wars. There were too many for the mods to control. - SPAM attacks. Several outsiders spammed the boards with posts related to a site called "Outworld." BTW, has anyone seen that site? I had fun posting on Gundam.com while it was still around. I will be looking forward to the site's return. Quote
JELEINEN Posted November 18, 2003 Posted November 18, 2003 The only redeeming part of this show was the chuckle I got listening to all the english cuss words in the opening song. Quote
ogami Posted November 19, 2003 Posted November 19, 2003 what happened to g.com? Amuro is taking a holiday? From the way I see it, Gundam.com was getting some bad rap from the hardcore fans due to various reasons: - The information database probably wasn't updated since day one. Because it's Gundam.com, many people expect to find all the character and mecha info they need on that site. Lesser-known sites like MAHQ and Newtype Asylum have more information and reviews. - Too many newbies on the forums. Majority of them were probably kindergarteners, given the repetitive questions they ask and the poor grammar they display. As a result, more than half of a forum page was filled with locked threads. - Flame wars. There were too many for the mods to control. - SPAM attacks. Several outsiders spammed the boards with posts related to a site called "Outworld." BTW, has anyone seen that site? I had fun posting on Gundam.com while it was still around. I will be looking forward to the site's return. Too much newbie was big problem in g.com. A lot of old Gundam fans left the forum because of it. I remember I was in a post war with the wingers/kids. They think 0083 and MS08 team are bad after they watched the first EP. I cannot help myself but to fight back... (then, i got a warning) Dub vs Sub issue also made me mad. Some newbie don't understand the fun of listening to famous Japanese voice actor/actress and they think i am weird because i don't watch dub. For the SPAM attack part, i know very little about it but I did hear something like that. Amuro was not happy about it. Quote
yellowlightman Posted November 19, 2003 Posted November 19, 2003 Seems like most of the 'hard core' Gundam fans still hang out on the Gundam Mailing List, few noobs and very few BS topics. Quote
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