AKA: N/A

Genre: Sci-fi

Length: OAV, 47 minutes

Distributor: Currently unlicensed in North America.

Content Rating: 17+ (violence, nudity, adult themes)

Related Series: N/A

Also Recommended: 3x3 Eyes, Akira, Urusei Yatsura; GI Joe the Movie (non-anime)

Notes: Based on the manga by the same name by Manabe Jouji.

Rating:

Outlanders

Synopsis

In the midst of an alien invasion, the princess(and sole heir to the throne) of the aliens rams her ship through her race's blockade, and, in order to save humanity from destruction, BEGINS A BLOODY, SWORD-WIELDING RAMPAGE. This, in turn, leads to her meeting (and then trying to kill) a young cameraman. Through some sort of misunderstanding, he ends up not only engaged to her, but on her ship bound for the imperial home planet of the aliens.

Review

I am kicking myself in the head for not looking into the content warnings on things I watch(although, in hindsight it doesn't matter, nobody has 'em for this show anyway). I can't believe I wasted 47 minutes on this thing, and now I'm going to punish it severely for doing so.

Seeing as the whole thing is sub-average in all fields, I'm going to start off with bashing the story, which, BLOODY RAMPAGE aside, is mostly stolen from Urusei Yatsura. Now, I've never seen UY, but even I noticed similarities. Underdressed alien princess? Check. Bumbling, lecherous idiot? Check. Earth spared from destruction because of the lech? Check.

Granted, this may have been a staple of sci-fi shows from the 80s, but in this case it's not only poorly done, but it often relies on knowledge of the manga to explain things. That, or they meant for there to be several Star Destroyer-sized plot holes. As an example of the lack of information, and in what was apparently a key story point (again, it's unexplained), the lead characters only survive at the end because the evil general's ships begin shedding. Yep. Huge spaceship is unable to fire its omegadeathcannon because it's shedding.

Character wise it's also badly lacking, with the aliens inexplicably considering humans primitive, and yet they mix (apparently often) with some sort of cat/wolf/human hybrid. Me smells a whiff of hypocrisy in the air. The two lead characters are supposed to be falling in love, but have nothing in common other than that they're both young and stupid (and since that's common enough on TV now anyway, a pox on both houses). There is a slightly sinister old general who is plotting *something* evil, but that's never explained (more blame shifted to the manga, I'd hope). The only characters that are even 1/10000th decent are the little peeping-tom Alligator Jawas, who somehow manage to combine adorable and horrifying in a reasonable balance.

This was definitely animated in the early 80s. I hope so, at least, 'cause if it was any later than 1988 (and that's being generous) then it's inexcusable. (Editor says it's 1986. I believe it.) The fight scenes aren't even laughable, and the huge spurts of blood when someone is killed are excessively bizarre. The backgrounds are nicely detailed at least, but the ships seem to have been stolen from Cobra-la(which is from the G.I. Joe movie). There being a substantial amount of nudity, they find a way to show their inability to properly animate anything besides backgrounds by having bits of female anatomy appear and disappear in successive frames, which, while amusing, shows how poorly done the animation is.

A sonic treat this is not. The music throughout is dull, and the ending theme is cheesy. The acting is awful, and the voices sound somewhat hollow. Well, the acting wasn't 100% awful, 'cause there were those little Alligator Jawas. They sounded funny.

Now, this would *just* be a bad sci-fi flick if not for the senseless nudity. The princess has just declared herself engaged to the idiot, and instantly everyone's fluttering about stark naked. Must be an alien thing. At least it's just nudity. I shudder to think what they could've done had they involved the Alligator Jawas.

My recommendation to readers? Stay away. As far away as you can. Go watch something -anything- else instead.

This star is solely for the AlliJawas. There's not quite enough violence to appease carnage aficionados, there isn't any romance to appease the romantics, and there isn't anything beyond some rather pointless nudity to appease the perverts. — Samuel Arbogast

Recommended Audience: There's blood, gore, adult themes, wanton nudity. No kiddies permitted.