Customer Reviews

Assemble: Insert

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have to disagree with the only other reviewer (at the time of this writing.) This is a really fun anime! And I actually was laughing out loud while watching it! The other reviewer said something to the effect of Americans not understanding the pop idol phenomenon. Hey, didn't that rock-pop phenomenon actually start in America? It has mutated in Japan, surely, in that country's own way, but not to the point where this simple, fun, silly parody would go over American's heads. And no, trust me, I watched it with a friend who hadn't seen much anime before and we were both laughing out loud at some points. It's not brilliant, mind you, but it's good light fun for some laughs. Enjoy!

My first time watching "assemble insert" was back in the early 90's as it was one of those OAV's that people owned the Japanese LD's of and would either show it at anime club meetings in straight Japanese or fansubbed.

I watched it in straight Japanese and to tell you the truth, I really didn't know what was going on at the time but what I was able to pick up was that the main character Maron was just an unlikely hero that had super strength but probably not at all headsmart.

Also, found it weird that the anime would have these live commercials for a vitamin energy drink featuring two women and really, I had no idea what was going on.

Flash forward nearly 15 years later and I happen to spot this DVD for cheap and figured that I could probably have a better understanding of the two OAV episodes that I watched a long time ago.

The main story focuses on a special task force led by Chief Hattori since the criminal organization known as "demon seed" are wreaking havoc around the city and the police have been unable to stop them.

With so much destruction caused by "Demon Seed" and citizens blaming the police, Hattori goes on a search to find the face of the new task force and hopefully give them a positive image towards the public.

In comes Maron Namikaze. Not that smart but she's cute, sweet and has the ability to crush metal with her bare hands. Needless to say that's she's hired!

Unfortunately, because Maron's strength, although she's more than capable of beating "Demon Seed", the destruction in the city continues to mount as she causes destruction wherever she goes and thus giving Chief Hattori and the police a headache.

So, the two OAV's are probably a few chapters from the 1985 manga series by Yuuki Masami featuring the introduction of Maron and her taking on "Demon Seed" and obviously a parody anime series on super-heroe anime, sentai shows, pop idols and with only two episodes, you would imagine that this type of storyline would probably be best told if it was a TV series.

Unfortunately, "assemble insert" really never caught on as Yuuki Masami's "Mobile Police Patlabor" became a bonafide hit and "assemble insert" became a short OAV series that really didn't amount to much animation wise.

If there was one positive, it was the music featured in the anime series by Maron voice actress Kasahara Hiroko. Not only was she able to do Maron concert CD's for "Assemble Insert" and even perform two concerts live in Tokyo and Osaka. But if anything, it helped jumpstart her career as a voice actress where she would do countless anime and video games. But also Japanese dubs for Hollywood films such as Mena Suvari's character in "American Beauty".

Also, the anime would feature popular voice actress Kawamura Maria who plays Maron's pop rival Kagiri.

As for staff, animation director Sugiyama Toyomi would be part of another anime that would have almost a similar theme to "assemble insert" which was "MOLDIVER" while director Chibuki Ayumi will be known for his work on "Monster Rancher" but the key animator for "Windaria".

"assemble insert" is an older anime that one would pick up for its price, one is nostalgic of the manga series or saw the original OAV series and then those who are fan of Yuuki Masato's or even Kasahara Hiroko's work.

Unfortunately, this two-episode OAV series starts and ends and you just come off feeling of "that's it?".

And you just move on and anime series like this, especially since there is no manga support in the US and there have not been anything but CD releases in Japan, unfortunately these type of series fall through the cracks.

If anything, the series would serve as a precursor to Nozomi Entertainment (The Right Stuf International) emergence into the anime industry and would later come to release "His and Her Circumstance" which in my opinion was one of the well-produced DVD's for anime fans interested in the Japanese or English dub.

But all in all, I paid less than $5 for it and it was enjoyable to finally understand the series nearly 15 years since I watched it at an anime club meeting but I doubt it's an OAV series that I would want to watch again.

There's robots, explosions, and enough ridiculous pranks to keep you snickering through the whole thing, and if anything, the English dub of this amplifies the original humor by 10 (no worries, though, the Japanese audio and English subtitles are readily available on the DVD.)
The animation is not up to par with today's "standards", but this is simply because this OVA was made over 18 years ago.
If you love titles such as Dr. Slump and All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, there's a good chance you'll love this one as well.

This was a wonderfully charming little OVA. It's an hour long and consists of two episodes, which sounds short but feels exactly as long as it needs to be. Assemble Insert is surprisingly entertaining in an endearing sort of way, and while I didn't laugh as much as I thought I would, I did smile quite a bit ~ it's silly, light-hearted fun.

The story takes place in Tokyo, which has been under the attack of an evil criminal organization known as "Demon Seed." They use large mechanical robots to steal artifacts, gold and money under the leadership of the elderly (and scheming) Dr. Kyozaburo Demon. The police have been losing popularity with the public, as every encounter against Demon Seed's robots leads to wanton destruction on the Tokyo streets. To combat this threat, a special task force led by the comically inept but resolute Chief Hattori has been assigned the mission of developing a counter-attack force. The plan? ...Hold auditions to find a new idol/combat officer, and win over the hearts of the public while battling Demon Seed! They soon employ the help of young High School senior Maron Namikaze ~ a shy, sincere young girl who happens to have the strength of a mountain gorilla (actually, quite a bit ways stronger than that). After issuing her a high-tech combat suit, she begins a rise to idol popularity while trying to protect Tokyo from the forces of evil!

I went into this show thinking it was going to be a wild and crazy parody series, but it was quite a bit ways more down to earth than I was expecting. The show employs a lot of tropes for the era, but in very straightforward ways that aren't necessarily parodic. The opening sequence does seem to parody sentai series (like Power Rangers), and the overall plot seems to be a comedic twist of the idol singer craze that was popular throughout the 80's and 90's. There did, however, seem to be a few nods to other popular manga/anime of the era such as Ranma 1/2 (there's a minor character that resembles Gosunkugi, and one of the sentai soldiers in the opening sequence reminded me of Kodachi), Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl (most certainly the professor's final remark at the end of the OVA was similar to Jigoro's constant goading of Yawara to win the Gold Medal at the Barcelona Olympics, and one of the sentai soldiers in the opening sequence reminded me of Yawara herself) and finally Giant Robo/Nadia of the Secret Blue Water (Demon Seed wears somewhat similar outfits to Big Fire and Gargoyle). After having watched the video, I wondered as to what other types of parodies might have gone over my head simply because of an unfamiliarity with many of the popular works that came out during that era, and I'd like to watch it again just to see if I can spot anything else I might have missed.

I was worried that the show might be perverted since the plot revolves around a high-school idol singer, but it surprisingly wasn't perverted at all (save for one of the characters trying to pick up an Adult VHS cassette at the beginning of the first episode). The plot was surprisingly charming and lovable, and I liked/respected almost all of the characters. Even though Maron was the only female in Chief Hattori's all-male team, none of the men seemed to have an interest (perverted or otherwise) in Maron herself (well, except maybe for Masami Yuki's character, albeit it seemed to be an interest of the 'obsessive fan' variety).

This DVD may also be of interest to people interested in Anime history and late 80's/early 90's anime in general, since the member's of Chief Hattori's team are actually based on real people that worked on the Patlabor series(another manga/anime of the era, that happened to also be created by the same author of Assemble Insert, Masami Yuki). The characters are based on Fukuda Takahashi, Yutaka Izubuchi, Shoji Kawamori, Yutaka Yoneda and Masami Yuki himself. You can find a little more info about their relation to Masami Yuki and the Patlabor project in the insert that comes with the DVD set.

Overall, Assemble Insert was a really enjoyable watch. It's not the laugh-a-minute, over-the-top roller coaster I was expecting, but I love it for being an endearing, down-to-earth approach to silly action anime.

This is like watching America's Got Talent or Britain's Got Talent-> where the winner of the contest gets to be a superhero to go fight the evil Dr. It takes a superhero, since although the evil Dr. Demon advertises his name and has his name out on the front of his house the police can't find it.

Well, a parody of anime and Japanese culture it is. A brilliant one it is not. (I make that note because I've seen marketing write-ups for this anime which claimed that it was a "brilliant parody.") Nothing really stands out at all in this lackluster low-budget production of a forgettable too-cliche-even-for-a-parody storyline. Some jokes worked, but most failed to even draw a chuckle out of me. I'd give this one a one-and-a-half-star rating if I could. This one is probably best left for a rental when you and your buddies are having a drinking party with "Mystery Science Theater 3000"-type chatter.

I was disappointed with the quality of animation in this title. Because this title is a parody of the Anime genre, the characters tend to be overly stereotyped. Not as funny as a parody should be either. The built in commercial interuptions would have worked better if they had more than just one to run. Most Americans wouldn't understand the whole "Idol Singer" craze, so much of what little plot there is will go right past all but the most hardcore of otaku.