I've read the original mangas back then, they were called STRIKER here in Europe. And although it's been a while I read them I can confirm that this is very close to the source material. The designs are a bit more 90's and there is overall more comedy in this, which was a staple back then when stories became too dark (even in mangas like GUNM - Battle Angel Alita you got comedy moments sprinkled throughout the story).
The problem is that the manga books weren't outstanding in terms of their stories. There's a reason the books kinda got forgotten over the years. The stories are very episodic with no real overall arc or conclusion. The characters are all paper-thin. The only thing the manga had going was the magnificent artwork from Ryoji Minagawa. Well, the OVA doesn't have that unfortunately, since it's mostly 3D animation with a little bit of 2D action moments here and there. So the episodes are faithful to dialogues and characters, and that's pretty much the problem. Because they just incorporated the flaws from the books without any improvement.
The only thing they extended or bothered to change were the action scenes. And those get pretty dull after a while. The 3d is too stiff sometimes, the camera movements feel stale too, therefore it lacks a lot of dynamic cinematography. And full disclosure, I only watched the first two episodes, and I'm not sure if I will continue , being aware of the episodic structure and weak stories.
Comparisons to the movie from 1998 arise naturally. And although I never was a fan of the movie either (especially the character designs are ugly) at least it had better 2d animation going for it and they tried telling a bigger story. Both adaptions have their flaws and I can not really recommend them. Maybe to people who love to see some good action should maybe check out the movie. This Netflix series left me a bit bored.
5 out of 10.
The problem is that the manga books weren't outstanding in terms of their stories. There's a reason the books kinda got forgotten over the years. The stories are very episodic with no real overall arc or conclusion. The characters are all paper-thin. The only thing the manga had going was the magnificent artwork from Ryoji Minagawa. Well, the OVA doesn't have that unfortunately, since it's mostly 3D animation with a little bit of 2D action moments here and there. So the episodes are faithful to dialogues and characters, and that's pretty much the problem. Because they just incorporated the flaws from the books without any improvement.
The only thing they extended or bothered to change were the action scenes. And those get pretty dull after a while. The 3d is too stiff sometimes, the camera movements feel stale too, therefore it lacks a lot of dynamic cinematography. And full disclosure, I only watched the first two episodes, and I'm not sure if I will continue , being aware of the episodic structure and weak stories.
Comparisons to the movie from 1998 arise naturally. And although I never was a fan of the movie either (especially the character designs are ugly) at least it had better 2d animation going for it and they tried telling a bigger story. Both adaptions have their flaws and I can not really recommend them. Maybe to people who love to see some good action should maybe check out the movie. This Netflix series left me a bit bored.
5 out of 10.