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Content rating: 8
Posted 2003-03-19 by StupendousMan
Endorsed by Cacophanus on 2003-04-21 01:55:00
Let's try a review which jumps from topic to topic,
highlighting the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly for
disk 2 of the Bubblegum Crisis 2040 series.
The good:
The sound continues to entertain me. From the "click,
click" of those delicate high heels of the hard suits,
to the serene water music, to the pneumatic "whoosh"
of an expensive automobile's door opening, the sound
technicians strut their stuff. Tiny little touches
like the tapping of Mason's finger, or the nervous
rattling of Sylia's silverware -- they add up to create
a background which draws the listener in.
While much of the Big Storyline is pretty standard
stuff -- Sylia's trauma from her unhappy childhood
and the breakup of her parents, the evil overlord
cackling on his throne as he pulls the strings --
there are some small events which broke through
and touched me: Bill the deep-sea worker found out
that his wife was cheating on him, yes, and it drove
him to the edge .... but he overcame it. Linna's
job really is cubicle hell. We find out just how
much Mackay needs to play with nuts and bolts through
his actions -- not his words.
The Silver Saber rocks. I appreciate the very
short appearance it makes; the less we know
about its abilities, the more mysterious it will
remain.
The Bad:
It's annoying to hear short clips of some good
music, such as "Ame", but never more than about
twenty seconds at a time. Couldn't ADV put
some entire songs onto the disk as "Extras?"
The mad boomer in the last episode looks a lot
like the creature from alien. In fact, most of
the boomers morph from vaguely humanoid to
vaguely monsterish when they go crazy. Why?
Just because big pointy teeth look more scary?
I really hope I don't have to see Mason's doll
stick its tongue into his mouth again.
The Ugly:
The "Extras" are brief bios of the secondary
characters (the Knight Sabers themselves
having been covered in the Extras of disk one).
Whoever wrote the item for Mackay should
be whupped upside the head. Telling the viewer
that a character will be revealed as XXXX
later in the series is inexcusable. Why? Why?
(Don't worry -- it's nothing that a reasonable
person wouldn't have figured out already, but
still, why write it down?) This stupid bit
of material knocks the "Packaging" rating down
from its already low score due to lame cover
art and a spindle that won't release the DVDs.
Scenes of Priss' band are awful: the low-budget
animation detracts from the music. The characters'
motion doesn't even come close to matching the
beat. Bleah.
Overall, the good outweighs the bad. I'll keep
watching, but my pleasure is slightly bittersweet.
Equipment used when writing this review:
Sony DVD player, JVC 27-inch TV, stereo speakers.
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