Customer Reviews

Birth: A War of Two Worlds!

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

 

 

to previous reviewer:
i found the original dub of Planet Busters to be one of the most entertaining english dubs I have ever heard. After finally getting Birth i was a little dissappointed in the original japanese diologue in comparison. The animation in this feature has a lot of quirky elements and I felt that the planet busters english language edit brought out that quirkiness the best. However, planet busters edit cut out a good amount of scenes from the feature (to presumably move the story along) however the story/plot is often convoluted because of this. So I am happy that when I viewed Birth I saw alot of new animated sequences and even certain elements to the story are different (some good, some bad differences). Of course the English dub on this ADV release is horrendously unwatchable (as usual), I was really hoping the english language version would be the Orion Planet Busters cut (maybe some day).
So overall: this feature is a hidden gem of action packed and interesting animation (as previous reviewer stated), and it is different cut than the Orion Planet Busters release (which is my favorite and i will always have a spot in my heart for). Still this release is quite a unique cartoon that any animation buff should check out.

This story starts well. The artwork is highly reminiscent of the 60's stuff by Ralph Bakshi with smooth lines and women drawn impossibly sexy. The real problem is that the DVD starts to faulter about 2/3rds of the way through in a manner that suggests that they never had a story to begin with and so never had an ending that made sense. In the end you're left high and dry feeling had by the producers.

Nevertheless it is an interesting production as long as you don't get the idea that there's going to be a story in there somewhere. The artwork and the animation are pretty highly evolved for a DVD of this sort.

I watched this OVA for the first time when I was around 10 and I found it hilarious. It kept on my mind ever since and I was able to watch it again now that I'm 27 and have a big "anime maturity". So what do I have to say about this? It's still hilarious, although I can add some more things like "insanely hilarious". Nevertheless, don't expect top of the notch story here, this is something more of a scene by scene with not much content behind it stuff. Anyhow, it has some great animation and graphic quality -keeping in mind is anime from the 80's- So, if you're looking for a great lough, simple-plot (and sometimes even a litte disconnected story-line), neat animation with great graphics, sci-fi anime with cool actions scenes, here's your answer.
Oh, great character design as well

I liked this dubbed verson WAAAAYYYY better then the newer one on BIRTH,though essentialy the same movie but the newer one has different dubs,effects and restoration,it all looks and sounds great but I really prefer the older one better.It just sounds more natural and best of all Talon has the voice of Rick hunter from the robotech series lol
sweet!

Okay, ADV REALLY owes me an explanation this time. I mean, this is undoubtedly one of the stupidest, strangest, most boring anime in the history of the planet. I might even go so far as to say that it is the WORST anime I have ever seen in my life! Okay, the basic premise was alright, and the character designs were okay. But there is NO character devlopment, NO good dialog, NO good action (despite the entire movie pretty much being a series of chase scenes). And what the heck is that blob creature? What the heck? I mean, this thing is so bad I couldn't watch it all the way through (even in Japanese). The music is pretty bad but the whole thing is really quite boring and strange and just plain... Bleh! Stay far far away!

Back in the old days, lots of anime was made to satisfy the eyeballs of otaku fanboys with a lot of visual fluff but they mostly lacked plot and characterization. Such is the case with the oldschool feature, Birth. During some of the more action-packed sequences, you can almost sense that 20 years ago, people in Japan were ooing and awwing over the still somewhat impressive animation without worrying about having good characters.

The lifeforce of the Universe has become unbalanced which has led to the appearance of a race of Inorganics (robots?) whose sole mission is to eradicate the Organics (humans) from all worlds. Thats when a mysterious flying sword, named SHADE, shows up. Supposedly, it is the key to destroying the cancerous spread of the Inorganics. A human named Nam comes upon it as he is riding a giant chicken-like beast and claims it for his own. Unluckily for him, the Inorganics know about SHADE too, and will stop at nothing to obtain it. Nam is helped in his quest to understand the nature of SHADE by his shapely ladyfriend, Rasa, and a lecherous spaceship captain and copilot, and an annoying little glob whose only speech is the word "Munga!".

If you like old school anime that has a lot of storm and fury but little substance in the style of MegaZone 23 you will love this anime. After you finish watching it, you feel as though sitting through it was a pointless exercise. Most of the characters lives revolve around driving around. I mean, what do these people do for a living? The music is your standard cheesy 80s electronic keyboard music. I will admit that for being such an old anime, the animation is pretty good. The Japanese voice acting was pretty average or below average, especially the always yelling spaceship captain. I haven't listened to all of the 5.1 English dub but what little I have is preferrable to the Japanese. The only extra on here is and Art Gallery.

I saw this movie when I was a kid, but did not understand the story...Now more than 10 years later, I can see why...There is almost none, as some Japanese animations do. Still the animation itself, directed by Kanada is superb in many aspects. Any fan of good animation will love this movie. This DVD lacks the ending dialogue!!

Nam and Rasa find themselves in a race to save their world Aqualoid with help of their frends Kim and Bao, or Destroy it?

First and foremost you gotta remember, this anime was made in 1985?, WAY before anime was popular in the USA and before it had Niche' in the toy market.
I have 2 versions of this movie, the other older one is called "planet busters-the world of the talisman" which has a slightly different story line, different voice overs and a lot less boredom, i.e. the desert chase scene, in both versions the story starts solid then seems to lose itself as if money ran out on the project and they needed an ending .. Quick! but this was not meant to be a series as later animation works of its kind would be, and the end is supposed to leave you hanging in the balance saying "OK what just happened?" kinda like a 2001 space Odyssey sort of thing.
The animation {and story} reminds you of a quasi "Ralph Bakshi" production, meaning it ain't that bad, the characters are very likable and its too bad that they weren't used further in other stories, but obviously they weren't meant to be. if you can afford it, spend the $5 and get both versions to compare,
and remember that these were made a long time ago, before most of you anime critics were born, before the internet and ANY selection of Japanese works were available to us to critique at all.
overall a weird cool movie with a lot to be desired, and yet many of us keep coming back to it, almost as if next time it will have a different ending or we'll have a better understanding of it? P.S. does Nam seem to be an early Vegeta/Goku prototype or is it just my imagination?
t.
*ORIGINAL TAG LINE BELOW*

"Nam's home planet of Aqualoid has become a barren wasteland since the invasion of a menacing race of mechanical creatures called the Inorganics. He and his friend Rasa do their best to get by, staying under the radar of the Inorganic death squads that would like to see two average people like them extinguished. Then one day, Nam discovers the SHADE, a sword with the power to hand control of Aqualoid back to its people. There's just one problem: every Inorganic on the planet wants to see the sword destroyed and Nam and Rasa dead. With an impending apocalypse, army of pursuers, and a moon sized Inorganic poised in the sky waiting to kill them, these two friends have the most important battle in history awaiting them."

This title has a setting similiar to 'Nausicaa Wind of the Valley' and was made around the same time in 1984. So is it as good as Nausicaa? Not quite but it came close.

This is title is defintly a hidden gem and not known by even the most knowledgable fans which is a shame really as it's alot better than its reputation percieves. It's poor reputation is founded on the fact the title was originally released on VHS under the name Planet Busters and was given one of the worst dubs to ever grace the US. Thankfully on this dvd we have the original Japanese Soundtrack. YATTA!

The anime is made up of lots of chase sequences. So anyone who enjoyed Riding Bean, pick this title up. The Music is also very good resembling an 80's j-pop persona, so anyone who enjoyed Bubblegum Crisis should also pick this title up.

Overall i enjoyed this title as it was something very unique and i rate this title as a MUST BUY for casual fans and especially OTAKUS!

I had to watch the movie 3 times to find out what it was about, after I was done, I wished that I had never watched it to began with.

The movie is in the SD (super deformed, when the heads are much bigger then they should be) format, and considering the age of the tape the animation is good. However it is missing one major thing, a plot. I think that it is supposed to be a spoof of a different movie, but if it is then I have never seen it.