Daisenki (1993) (V)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Directors:

Issei Kume
Toshifumi Takizawa

Writers:

Yoshio Aramaki (novel)
Katsumi Koide (writer)

Genre:

Animation | Sci-Fi | War

Plot:

In the future, war rages on Mars. Captain Akuh and his crew are on a top-secret mission to destroy an...

Plot Keywords:

Anime | Based On Novel

Cast

Hideyuki Tanaka	...	Captain Akuh (voice)
Hiroko Emori	...	(voice)
Yuzuru Fujimoto	...	(voice)
Shinya Ôtaki	...	(voice)
Ikuya Sawaki	...	(voice)
Kôji Tsujitani	...	J. Doruton (voice)
Toshiyuki Morikawa	...	(voice)
Yumi Tôma	...	Dr. Lee (voice)
Masaharu Satô	...	(voice)
Hirohiko Kakegawa	...	(voice)
Isshin Chiba	...	Operator (voice)
Omi Minami	...	(voice)
Michiko Neya	...	(voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sharon Becker	...	Lieutenant Darsa Keligan (voice: English version)
Jason Candler	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Barry Chiate	...	Colonel Coleman (voice: English version)
Stacy Dawson	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Cynthia DeMoss	...	Doctor Lee (voice: English version)
Bob Heitman	...	Admiral Mikawa (voice: English version)
Socko Jones	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Michitaka Kobayashi	...	(voice) (as Sanshiro Nitta)
Dale Oliverio	...	Takeshi Hijikata (voice: English version)
B.H. O'Neill	...	Captain Kanki Akuh (voice: English version)
Jason Schuler	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Frank Senger	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Jason Sinopoli	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
David Stuart	...	J. Dalton (voice: English version)

Also Known As:

Big Wars

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

UK:18 (cut)

Company:

Magic Bus

Anime fluff.

Okay, I admit it. I saw this thing when it was first release on video umpteen years ago. My reaction then wasn't a whole lot different than now; "Huh." I've seen bad anime before. And I've seen good anime. This thing falls into a poor shade of gray, with leanings towards the poor side.

The animation itself is on par with a lot of anime. That is to say the action scenes are well done, but the character driven scenes are fairly sparse in terms of story movement. But standard anime production values can't help a thin story line. Here the main theme seems to orbit some kind of quasi-religious-sexual oriented schism between the humans and "aliens".

Truth be told I think someone (some Japanese producer) saw some conceptual art of proposed mobile land bases for the United States Air Force (see Popular Mechanics or Science for this), and thought it'd be a "cool idea" to create movie around one of these things. Well, films have been conjured from less material, and with mixed results. Only here the story is loosely held together by a single plot device. One which doesn't even see the film all the way through.

Huh.

It's not the worst film I've ever seen. As I stated in my opening I bought this thing on a whim when it first appeared on VHS. I wasn't too happy with it, but I'd seen worse. I picked it up the other day because I saw the DVD in the bargain bin for a couple of dollars. And wen I popped it into the drive all the "huh" feelings I had before when I first watched it came flooding back.

"Big Wars" falls into the realm of glamorized single-episode TV specials, only animated. In the late 80s and early 90s Japan was cranking out small anime mini-series and single titles that were barely over an hour in length. "Big Wars" falls into that category, and, unless you're a real die-hard military-sci-fi anime fan, I'd pass it up. There's just not much here to offer sci-fi aficionados and anime fans alike.