Knights of Ramune: Blast Off...Like Cutey Honey

Monday, December 2, 2019

Knights of Ramune: Blast Off...Like Cutey Honey

It is cool that Angelfire is still around. It is also cool that if you look hard enough, you can find most of the GeoCities websites preserved on a server. If only "@Midnight" was still a thing. It is a shame that they will never capitalize on that content.

Angelfire may have kept my post GeoCities/Web Design Certification (icc.edu) site up the past 17 years, but with Yahoo's betrayal, if you have not created an operating system, I am going to put all my eggs in one basket. Thus, I am going to start moving the original AnimeFlow over to the Blogger sphere. So let us get over one repetitive tangent (look at all the It and I) and getting into repeating my earliest critical works.

Knights of Ramune: Blast Off

'Knights of Ramune: Blast Off' (English version)
© 1999 Ashi Productions Co., Ltd. / IDO International Co., Ltd.

VS Knight Ramune & 40 Fresh' (Japanese version)
© 1997 Ashi Productions Co., Ltd

Genre: Sci-Fi (Action themed) Length: 60 minutes (Two TV Episodes) Audience: 16 Up

Opinion: Any anime series that has a adorable slime ball character has some potential.

This is a review of the dubbed VHS release.

Written by Katsumi Hasegawa.

PiQu, Parfait, and Cacao - the show's heros scanned from the front of the VHS Box

This first two episode volume of Knights of Ramune starts off with our heroines, the two Holy Virgins Cacao and Parfait along with their little slime ball/spiritual advisor Piqu, being sent to find the Fourth Warrior Ramune. Their search begins by them landing on a military space craft that is destroying all possible resistance on a nearby planet. Even more shocking, who ever is in charge has captured hundreds of children that they are running experiments on. With all this confusion, one question is clear. Why were they sent to this ship?

To get rid of some of the confusion, they free all the children and make their escape attempt. Not to say they had an escape plan, but anyone that they had was immediately scrapped when they accidentally get trapped in a giant robot with one of the children. After surviving a close battle, they crash land on the now desolate planet. Our heroines now must make sense of their situation, figure out how to pilot their robot, and tolerate Piqu and their new travel companion, Lemon.

The series's villains scanned from the VHS.

Ever since I finished watching Iria: Zieram the Animation in 1998, I have prevented myself from purchasing Central Park Media (C.P.M.), an anime and manga (Japanese comics) distributor with its two video divisions being U.S. Manga Corps and Software Sculptors. The reason may sound unjust since I have not seen this company release a bad title, but their titles were being frequently shown on the Sci Fi Channel and their preview reel before their videos stunk.

Fortunately, my little brother loves watching action animes, and by him purchasing the first volume of Records of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight, I found out that C.P.M had changed their preview format from a reel to individual previews. One of these previews featured a catchy theme song and cool animation and it was for Knights of Ramune. After finding out that the writer was Katsumi Hasegawa who also worked on the multiple Slayers series (I later realized that she did not work on Slayers: The Motion Picture, the only Slayers release I was familiar with.), this $25 video cassette became an impulse buy.

Even though I was originally excited about who wrote Knights of Ramune, I failed to recognize that the character designer was Osamu Horiuchi who also worked on the only A.D.V. Films release that has a preview which shows nudity out right, New Cutey Honey. This anime turns out to be what I expected New Cutey Honey to be. Unnecessary nudity galore and a surprisingly large amount of sexual exploitation of women. And people wonder why Japanese Animation has not crossed over to the States.

If you ignore all the exploitation of women, you have an intriguing story with some funny scenes with some very likable characters. I guess any anime series that has a adorable slime ball character has some potential. Also, most technical aspects of the series are very good featuring a cute and unique character design and a very good soundtrack.

If you want something to joke around with the guys about, or if you want to see some strong feminine characters (hopefully that sounds like I have thought about the female visitors) try to find a place where you can rent Knights of Ramune. Acknowledging that most of the nudity is for a comedic purpose and look pass the crude sexual segments with the villainesses, this series shows that Central Park Media always seems to release a good, solid product. Will I buy the next volume of this series? Since I only make $55 a week and I tend to treat myself to movie outings and fast food, buying the second tape is not a top priority compared to viewing other titles.

NOTE TO READER: After looking at several other reviews on the 'Net' for this video cassette, I have discovered that I am one of the kinder critics when it comes to this title. This is probably because I interpret almost everything as some form of comedy while other critics consider it to be unjustified excuses for nudity.

No comments:

Post a Comment

The Bus's Transit of Anime Reality

This is how I became a rabid otaku. My first website was not suppose to be strictly dedicated to anime, but all things that were a 17 year-old Russ (Star Wars, Red Dwarf, and Highlander).

It became my first lesson in website design. Don't try to cover too much because you are going to be left disappointed. So I kept it to anime, and it wasn't till college took up most of my time did I ever feel disappointed by it.

I was also the creator of a fairly popular Neon Genesis Evanglion site: EvaUnit03's Tokyo 3 Station. This is where I took Danielle Scott's idea of incorporating alternative rock with the series for a critical and musical look at Evangelion.

The anime reviews for the show can be found at http://evaunit03.homestead.com/. The manga reviews can be found at Russ's Online Home.

A Critique of the Chinese Subtitled Version

Evangelion: Death

Evangelion Death is basically a review of the entire series up to Episode 24 that uses the rap around device of the first four children playing classical pieces on stringed instruments. For each kid who joins in, his story is told. Through Shinji we also learn the story of Misato and Ritsuko. Since I don't know Japanese as well as I thought, maybe that hurt my opinion on the editing. Maybe I just prefer chronological order.

There are a few enhancements to the animation to set up the second film, Rebirth, but everything else is from the T.V. series besides for the rap around device. If your like me and saw Eva through A.D. Vision, they did a lot of unreasonable editing (allegedly restored), so we missed a lot via this company. If you enjoyed the series you'll enjoy this, but if you're overly anxious for the conclusion like I was since I felt the T.V. series ending was perfect, you could get bored with the Death, and fast forward 45 minutes to Rebirth.

Evangelion: Rebirth

All of the angels have been destroyed, so what is there left for Nerv to do? On that thought, Seele decides its time to take Nerv back from Gendo Ikari by hacking in and taking over the Magi. Luckily, Ritsuko creates the 666 program through Casper which stops this invasion.

Before the hackers stuck, Misato had been searching for answers about the concept of the Third Impact. Shinji is looking for sympathy after killing Kaworu, and Asuka has become almost totally unreceptive to anything. Unfortunately, the cast can't go back to these plans because Seele has launched an assault force to kill everyone in Nerv to make sure Seele is absolutely in control.

Obviously this film sets its self up for a sequel, especially since we find out what Seele now has as their secret weapon. I don't support why the films were made, but this is a beautiful piece of animation which surpasses the quality of Gainax's last big film Wings on Honneamise. The story is superb, and I was actually impressed in the emotional performances of the voice actors. It has some of the most superb sequences I've ever seen in an anime, and its sound track lives up to the series's. Love the end of the T.V. series or not, this 45 minute film will blow you away.

On that note about the soundtrack, here's the theme song in midi form.