Anime Reviews:

Maku Senjo

(1991)

Initially intriguing two-part SF, industrial thriller. Joe Takagami made a million dollars in one year after arriving in Silicon Valley in the United States. Brought up on a remote farm, Joe's first love, Judy, left him as he moved away and went on to become the designer of an artificial intelligence called Rosa. Years have passed and Joe meets a woman called Annie Stevens who looks exactly like his old love Judy. Days later he hears that Annie is killed in a car accident. Joe begins to wonder if he is the target of industrial espionage but the truth is far more unusual.

By the end of Part 1 the engrossing build up concludes with a disappointing standard epic fight scene - somewhat at odds with what has passed before. This promising beginning all goes pear shaped in Part 2 when (a transformed, superhuman) Joe winds up helping a genetically engineered killer whale from the bad guys and defeats a enormous rhino in a one-on-one fight! The risible dialogue and cheap, simplistic animation offers no support to this confused OAV. The two parts are poles apart - the first sets up a number of fascinating ideas but the second throws them away in a moronic fighting action package. A badly missed opportunity.

Rob Dyer