Dramatical Murder

Aoba tries to live a peaceful life on the futuristic island of Midorijima, running a junk shop with his little pet dog, who can speak. Gangs are about and soon one gang is harassing Aoba, but is saved by a friend who's in another gang, Dry Juice. Soon, mysterious disappearances of gang members of Ribsteiz occur and it's possibly connected to Rhyme, a virtual battle game where two opponents battle using special attacks, but the user in the real world can sustain actual injuries from the attacks. Aoba downloads a strange email at home and discovers an old school game which makes no sense. The next day Aoba is tricked into a Rhyme with the opponent seemingly knowing Aoba, though he has no idea who it is, nor does he remember every playing Rhyme. Aoba gets badly injured along with his cohort Ren, and when it looks like he will lose, Aoba suddenly changes, becomes confident and begins to attack his opponent easily and eventually win. Still confused, Aoba continues to run into interesting characters, such as a man in a mask who calls him master, and a guy who kisses him and later challenges him to a battle. Still more gang members are disappearing, and gang tags are being painted over with Morphine group tag, who many think are responsible. Aoba's spunky grandmother Tae, seems to know something about what's happening, and secretly speaks with men in suits in a car ride...

 

This anime is based on a visual novel, and actually based on the sequel video game. This means the anime puts you right smack in the middle of the story, so you're left asking a lot of questions of who is who and where you are. The setup is interesting though, and as the world unfolds you can be amazed by all of the advanced technology, not to mention laugh at Aoba's "antiques" he sells at his junk shop. The show is essentially a mystery, from what I can tell, but there is also the concept of the Rhyme battles that give the story some much needed action. This kind of show it seems you would have to watch more of to get really engaged into it and judge it, so 4 episodes hasn't cut it for me yet. There are some interesting characters such as the guy who wears the gas mask all of the time, and seems to be permanent since he eats with it on. Aoba's grandma Tae is pretty awesome: scrappy and doesn't take any crap from him or his friends. Her characterization hints at her being involved somehow, so that is something to tune in for. Lots of guys in this show, so this will appeal to girls and fans who like to pair up guys for fun. In fact the only girl character is a young girl hanging out with 2 boys. I feel an anime intrigues me more if there is a better balance of male and female characters, but this anime and its game is specifically all guys, so if you don't like that then maybe this anime isn't for you. All in all there's nothing wrong with the anime but nothing's really jumped out at me yet, but there is theoretically a lot to enjoy from your usual anime interests. Marginal thumbs up.

 

GodMars

In the near future, A UFO lands on Earth containing an infant boy. That boy grows into a short tempered teen Takeru who joins the Earth Defense Squad which protects the Earth from Alien invasions and such. He becomes a part of the Crusher Squad, a force in charge in case of a UFO attack. During his sleep he has a rather realistic dream of the Emperor of Gishin telling him Takeru is his alien son and his job is to destroy the Earth with something called Gaia. Takeru refuses and so the Emperor condemns him to death. The head of the EDF confirms to Takeru he is from Gishin, and the Emperor contacted him via psychic connection as all Gishins have psychic powers, some of which destructive. Soon a Gishin warrior arrives to kill Takeru, but he fights back and during the chaos uncovers a giant robot in a mountain. This is Gaia, and Takeru easily adapts to using it to fight and destroy the assassin. But during the activation of the robot, he discovers Gaia IS the device that's supposed to be used to destroy the Earth as it has a powerful detonator aboard. Takeru is successful at fighting off Gishin warriors, then when it looks like Takeru is finished, 5 other unknown robots suddenly arrive to form together as one with Gaia to create a super poweful robot. Meanwhile his team is very suspicious of Takeru's strange powers and when they discover the truth, some don't want to work with him. But there's more: the EDF chief says if Takeru is killed, the psychic connection between him and Gaia will be severed, and the robot will detonate. So now the EDF must protect Takeru at all costs, but they must also let him fight in the battles with Gishin...

 

Love the classic series, and this one is no exception. I love those series where the head villain sends out a lackey to kill the good guy, (rather than do it himself) but he gets killed so what do they do? Keep sending more lackeys which meet the same fate! But this is a super robot anime as well, and one of many that made a name for the genre back in the day. 6 count'em 6 robots combine to form GodMars as if Gaia by itself wasn't awesome enough. You get lots of action not just from the robots, but also Takeru and the villains who both possess psychic powers (I guess kind of like Bison from Street Fighter), so they can emit energy bolts from their fingers or release a whole ton of energy blast from their entire body. There's also dramatic moments such as when Takeru's father explains the truth to him, and as he talks a lightning storm occurs outside--good timing! Godmars is also unique in that the hero is actually an alien and not human, though he sees himself as one since he was raised that way. It reminds me of DBZ where Goku is revealed as an alien but considers himself an earthling. Godmars also teaches about prejudice believe it or not, as some of the Crusher squad refuse to work with Takeru because he is a member of the enemy alien race, can't be trusted, and so on. Of course the gang will understand that not only can he can be trusted that they need him and his abilities on his side. So not only is this a classic anime, an action packed fun anime but thoughtful as well. It's probably not as popular as it should be in North America. Thumbs up.