Sailor Moon Crystal: Episode 13-14 (Review)

Well, the final battle between the Sailor Moon and the evil Queen Metalia happened this month, and all I have to say was "It was intense."

WARNING! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!

It all starts with a recap of Usagi making the choice of taking her life along with a possessed Mamoru, and the Legendary Silver Crystal grows and covers both of their bodies. After Queen Metalia takes the crystal for herself, the remaining Sailor Guardians start their battle against her on Earth, and both Luna and Artemis go to the Chamber of Prayer after arriving on the moon. However, the Sailor Guardians are defeated, and Luna starts to pray for Usagi. Meanwhile, Usagi wakes up inside Metalia (realizing that both her and Mamoru are not dead) and the Crystal reveals its powers to Usagi. She then escapes from inside Metalia with a now awaken Mamoru, and even Mamoru gets one final visit with the spirits of the Four Kings. Finally, Usagi uses the Crystal's powers to defeat Metalia once and for all, with a little help from Luna's prayers. With Metalia finally defeated, Usagi wakes up to find Mamoru checking on her, and they kiss. Soon, Luna calls for Usagi to return to the moon, but she finds out that her brooch was damaged when she defeated Metalia. However, she uses the power of the Legendary Silver Crystal to return to the moon to receive a new brooch from the spirit of Queen Serenity, and she heals the Earth from the darkness that remained from Metalia. The Sailor Guardians are reunited with Serenity, and everything is back to normal....right?

Oh, wait. I forgot that we're only halfway through the series. So, at the end of episode 14, we are introduced to a new character, a pink-haired little girl who fell from the sky who calls herself "Usagi." And, she is looking for the Legendary Silver Crystal. This is going to be interesting.

From what I saw, these two episodes were pretty faithful to the events of the manga, especially the introduction of a new character. Well, all I have to say is that the story isn't over yet, my fair readers. Looks like we are going into another story arc.

Written by Nolan Schmidt

M.D. Geist (OVA): A Review

Dang. It's been awhile since I reviewed an older anime, but I now decided to go back to do my job as an anime reviewer for this blog. So, what am I reviewing this time?

M.D. Geist, huh? Well, it looks like I'm doing one of the bad titles this time.

M.D. Geist was a post-apocalyptic/science-fiction original video animation (OVA) that was released back in 1986 (with a director's cut that contained five minutes of additional footage that was created ten years later). Some of the big things about this title is that it was one of the works of Koichi Ohata (who would later direct Cybernetics Guardian, Genocyber, Burst Angel, and the Blue Gender movie), and it was one of U.S. Manga Corps' favorite titles (since they later released a special edition DVD of the anime and had the character in their logo). However, it is known publicly as one of the worst anime titles to come out during the early days of late 80s/early 90s anime that came to the United States.

But, you are probably wanting to ask what is my opinion of the OVA. I shall explain it to you now.

The first OVA episode that came out in 1986 was probably one of the cheesiest things I have seen for an anime that came out around that time. From the over-the-top violence and a scene of nudity, you can really tell that it is a schlocky anime. However, for some reason, I was enjoying how schlocky it was, and the early 90s English dub is more along the lines of "this is our first try" bad. The OVA itself is about a man by the name of Geist, who was a part of the most dangerous (M.D.) soldiers to fend off enemies, and how he "helps" an army stop a doomsday device. Pretty much, the story is pretty generic, but my question is about this anime is: "How is this different than the other doomsday device stories?" Well, the only answer that the anime gives me is "Is Geist a good guy or a bad guy?" After watching the first OVA, I couldn't really think of Geist as a good protagonist due to how the anime portrayed him. So, technically, the anime has a "we must stop the doomsday device" storyline with a main character who is very difficult to understand.

However, things get worst in the 1996 sequel, M.D. Geist II: Death Force, where the world that the anime is based in gets taken over by carnivorous insect-looking robots (Yeah. I don't get that concept either.). We find out that Geist was genetically created along with another M.D. soldier named Krauser (who sees himself as a perfectly-created hero for the world), and how the two eventually face off against each other at Krauser's fortress (which keeps the remaining human surviors). There's not really much I can talk about this one except for the story jumping around everywhere, the carnivorous robots, and the dub. Oh boy. The dub for this one is so terrible that I busted out laughing at how some of the lines were delivered and the bad writing.

So, as I can come up, M.D. Geist is indeed a bad anime. Is it the worst I've seen? My answer is no. The way I see the OVA in total is that it's one of those "so bad it's good" anime titles. However, my recommendation for this film is going to be a bit different. If you like something with a good amount of schlock and bad dubbing, I would say watch it. But, if you're personally not into schlock, I wouldn't recommend it.

Anyway, I shall be looking forward to my next review. What older anime title will I review next? I will probably have to look deep within my anime collection for that one.

Written by Nolan Schmidt