Customer Reviews

Garzey's Wing

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

 

 

There are great anime. There are good anime. There are mediocre anime. And there are anime whose eye-searing badness tears holes in the universe.

Guess what kind of anime "Garzey's Wing" is. This is not just a simple, ordinary bad anime -- it's an incoherent, incomprehensible, brain-melting mess, graced with choppy editing and a dub that makes my ears bleed. It's literally impossible to understand half of what's going on, and the other half makes no sense.

Chris is driving to his hometown when his spirit is swept away by... a giant goose. I am not kidding. After getting dropped through some kind of dimensional rift, he emerges stark naked in a medieval world, with a pixie tangled in his necklace and a pair of giant wings on his ankles.

The sight of him causes the Metomeus tribe, who are slaves to the Ashigaba kingdom, to rebel against their masters in the next two minutes. They believe that Chris is a holy warrior destined to help them rebuild their country, but the Ashigaba army is hot on their heels. Chris must protect the mystical priestess Hassan and defend the ex-slaves from the dinosauresque War Beasts.

And to make matters even MORE complicated, Chris' body is TOTALLY UNAFFECTED by the loss of his soul, and they communicate through a magical necklace. All of his friends, by the way, immediately accept that his soul is off fighting in another world instead of getting him psychiatric help.

I still boggles my mind that "Garzey's Wing" was not only directed but WRITTEN by Yoshiyuki Tomino (who created the Gundam franchise). It fails on every single level of storytelling,

Instead we get an eternity of choppy, dull scenes about people discussing bells, how to make nuts and bolts, and occasionally having unintentionally hilarious battle scenes (Chris attacked by a chopped-off head). Even worse? Almost NOTHING is ever explained to the audience -- we're just thrown headfirst into the story and given nothing to guide us.

The hatred of the Fellario? Never explained. The goose and the foot-wings? NEVER EXPLAINED. The names of half the characters? NEVER MENTIONED! How does Chris spontaneously become a master swordsman? NEVER EXPLAINED! Who is the Yamato Takeru no Mikoto? WE STILL DON'T KNOW! You can basically make trading cards of all the things that are never explained.

But I honestly doubt if explanations could help this turkey. The dialogue was directly translated from Japanese to English, so it's clunky ("The bells around Lord Chris' neck are rattling because it is time for him to become a Holy Warrior!"), nonsensical ("If you had a convenience store, then I would live with you"), and sometimes just... INSANE ("I am just half! I cannot act like an ancient Japanese man! AAAAAAAAA!").

And the voice actors are all uniformly terrible -- wooden, loud, and completely devoid of any emotion. It sounds like the company just yanked some random people off the street and stuck a microphone in their faces.

"Garzey's Wing" is the Santa Claus Conquers the Martians of anime -- so bad, so inept, so stupid that eventually cognitive dissonance takes over... and you start laughing at the sheer wretchedness of it all.

I came across Garzey's Wing with a two pack deal for 20 bucks with Legend of Lemnear.

I've been a fan of Anime for about the last 6 years of my life, and have seen Evangelion to Wings of Honnemaise, Rurouni Kenshin to Golden Boy, to Magic User's Club to You're Under Arrest and Initial D.

Let me say this, Garzey's Wing is not a masterpiece, but its not a piece of trash. There are some certain incongruities to it, like reference to gunpowder by people who've never heard of a gun. (I'm guessing thats more translator's doing). However, at times its an interesting well thought out universe, unique in its own way than other fantasy settings. The idea that someone can be taken into another world and still have a part of themselves stuck in this one certainly isn't used often, and is, amusingly sometimes, used where the two Chris's talk to each other about problems!

The more you watch it, the more you find yourself appreciating it or chuckling at little things. The animation is decent, not low cost, but not glitzy by any means either. Its on par with other animations from that time period. The Character designs aren't bad and the music isn't either. The storyline is original, with the exception of a couple plot device of going to another land, as an example.

Actually, my only real complaint is that it ends abruptly and to my knowledge, in medias res. Its a 3 episode OVA, and I'm not sure if more episodes were ever made or not. I watched the subtitle version only, a strategy for almost everything I've ever watched. (You don't get disappointed by horrible voice acting otherwise).

Overall, its not a bad show. Its worth the money I paid for it,(10 bucks, since in two pack), and definitely one that I enjoyed.

I saw this movie right after seeing Legend of Lemnear (bought the 2-pack), so maybe anything looks better but I didn't mind this movie. True it's not the greatest movie I've ever seen but it's entertaining. There's interesting fighting and the typical fantasy theme of normal person sent to another world. I even found the idea unique that rather than his whole self being sent there, only his subconcious is and his physical mind and body are left in his world. Oh yeah I was kinda surprised that he spends the first five minutes naked and fights demons in the nude as well. Hmmmm, nope, nothing wrong with that. Heheh, it's not like they showed anything and it's a welcome change from seeing naked women all the time in anime.

So as long as you watch this subtitled in Japanese, it's possible to enjoy yourself. However I found watching it dubbed quite humorous. It turned a simple fantasy anime into a very hilarious comedy.

"you.. HAVE.. failed..the college entrance.. exams tWice"

"No .. I shall go TO THE.. pool... party..tomarrow."

"YOu ...ARE so EASY....going"

It truly sounds like these voice actors are trying to do a bad job. How is it possible to sound this way. I don't understand. It's like those old kung fu or Godzilla movies that everyone always makes fun of. Actually, it's more like when someone is making fun of kung fu or Godzilla movies and puposely exagerating how bad it can sound. Oh gosh this movie is funny. Actually you may wanna buy this movie just to hear for yourself how bad the dub is.

Alright, just to be fair I must say I'm not incredibly experienced with Anime. All the anime I have seen I can probably count with two hands. I saw Ninja Scroll and fell in love (not literally) with this form of animation about a year ago. That's it. But productions like Garzey's Wing here, can only repel me from the ever increasing popularity of this genre. Let me explain why.

#1 The script- things are commonly being said like, "Why are you doing this to me?" and "This isn't fair!" A bit too irritable and noticeable to ignore. Now, by commonly I mean, more often then a telemarketer tries to rip you off in a day, more than a bulimic model gags herself, mor-alright you get my point.

#2 The Voice Acting- this is what really takes a blow. This is some of the worst acting I have ever seen in my life, and believe me, I have seen a lot of Sylvester Stallone movies. Bad scripts can be made good, or atleast unnoticeable, with just a little effort. But noooo, that would be too much work for a simple anime. These characters rarely speak in any thing more than a monotone, and when they do, it's overly whiny, or overly manly, and the tenses are all [messed] up. Such as, "WHAT are YOU talking aBOUT?" Someone with a stutter, tracheotomy, and no will to live, would do better.

#3 The Plot- Some guy wants to go to a school reuninion. but, what do you know, he gets warped through a portal, naked, into another dimension. OK, not too bad, though a bit cliched, I think. Suddenly, the naked guy can fight fantastically, gets big ol' wings attached to his feet and has to save the planet (same planet, long time ago). However, a form af himself is left behind in the original setting, and if one of them dies, the other will perish as well! Oh no!!! I think I've heard that bewfor as well. And this wouldn't be bad but that's it. No twists. Just a lot ofalmost pointless scenes!

Now this is the part where everybody gets mad at me. I never finished the movie. And boy am I glad. It appears that I'm not the only one. And you wont be either if you try to watch this. Even muted! Just say no! ..., it will screw up your mind forever. Through bad scripting, horrible voice acting, and a cliched plot, your enjoyment with this will be little to none. Unless, of course, you're too young to make much judgement. Young as in infant.

Guy gets his ghost kidnapped by the AFLAC duck who carries it to another dimension. There he has wings that come out of his feet, meets a fairy who he says he'd live with if she had a convenience store, and also meets a mercenary named Giant Towelrod. Goes back to earth after making rocks fall on a bunch of bad guys and flies off (literally) on his motorcycle with his girlfriend. You like anime and MST3K? Give this a shot.

I find myself at a loss, my paltry words far too inadequate to describe the opus of ineptitude one witnesses upon placing this DVD in their player. Confusing, cheap, rushed, literally translated and poorly acted- all these descriptions will spring to mind when trying to sum up the glorious mess of "Garzey's Wing". But don't be mistaken, this mini-series is more than just the sum of those parts, which actually combine into a perfect storm of cinematic failure.

The original Japanese scriptwriters could have learned a lot about pacing and exposition from Ed Wood, and the English voice actors could have learned almost as much about their craft. If you enjoy cinematic cheese you OWE it to yourself to watch this mini-series, preferably with friends.

This is the funniest anime i have ever watched. The voice acting is ridiculous, The story makes no sense and has its own vocabulary that sounds like it was made up from a 2 year old babbling gibberish. The characters are stupidly funny mostly because of their tendency to point out things that are so obvious or have never been explained and never is LOL so if you love to watch bad movies and such, i definately recommend Garzey's wing. Laughing at how low the price is, is only the beginning!

"...your story of mind-body separation must therefore be true." That's a quote from the english dub of Garzey's Wing, a ridiculous adventure with lots of plot and no story. This had to be one of the worst things I've ever seen, but I gave it two stars because its very repulsive awfulness almost made it entertaining. My friends and I were alternately laughing hysterically and staring in disdbelief as we viewed Garzey's Wing: a title which is repeated countless times in the dialogue and quickly becomes the most annoying two-word combination you'll ever hear. All kinds of things were happeneing, and lots of characters were talking and yelling (especially yelling), but there were little or no explanations for anything. Whole sections of character development seemed to be missing. It ran like a highlight reel of bizarre action sequnces (almost all of which were pretty boring). This was definitely a disappointment as a serious story, but not without unintended value. If you're still curious, be sensible and rent before you buy. "My wing-roots are oily!" ---ewwwwww!

I think you can enjoy this anime if you have an understanding of some of the Japanese culture and you listen to it in Japanese and read the subtitles. This anime is directed by the same director for the Gundam series, and therefore it has the same rather noble young hero in it who is thrown into a situation, and just does his best (his coming froming a family where his grandfather teaches archery and he is well-schooled in this art form, is eveident in his ability to immediately center himself and to automatically get into a "zone" to start attending to whatever comes his way). (I can't remember - but I think he also was carrying a shinai )for Kendo)? What I like about this anime is what is just normally shown in the dvd as just a routine part of life (for example - how many people do you know have family members who teach archery and who have their own archery practice area in the back yard?) and the way the grandmother takes care of the hero of this story in a simple calm way.
I loved this anime because it is so old world-Japanese, and all the values expressed are of of a quiet noble character. This is a very traditional anime, and although it does not have flas hy animation, I really enjoyed the appearance of all the realistically drawn characters, and the still frames increased your enjoyment. If you are not into heroic/action stories forget buying this. But if you liked the way the male characters of Gundam Wing were presented, you may like this.
The plot is basically about a modern day teen in Tokyo, in the middle of trying for college exams (he's flunked out twice) goes to the countryside where he is from and as he is passing a shrine dedicated to a fighting God, he lets out a half-cynical prayer, and the God answers (!) and whisks him away to another place that seems like a combination of ancient Mayan or Incan and middle England (!) battlefield. Got all that? There is cute comic relief with a little fairy elf (when asked how many of the giant enemy animals are out there, she is flying and uses her fingers and all her toes to show the number (cute!). She also cries upside down clinging to a flower leaf - so cute! Anyway, he is immediately involved in all the action, and he uses his other self in the other dimension to look up warfare tactics, and they communicate by the bells that his Grandmother got blessed at the temple (this is so Asian - grandmothers do these sort of things - go to the temple and have water, or charms blessed by the priests, then present these items to various family members).
Character's are attractively drawn without the male characters looking feminine. I liked the cover for this DVD, but this is the old cover. The new cover (also on sale at Amazon, and it is cheaper) is so different from the actual art - which is a shame. It looks awful - some orange colored artistic mess where you can't distinguish features or anything. I liked the original cover on the VHS (the one shown on this dvd), (which I cut out and placed over the new DVD's icky new cover - it came as a 2 package deal with another anime - the awful Legend of Lemnear))
I've made this a permament part of my collection just because of its "japaneseness" - I don't know how else to put it. Makes you want to eat simple food like chazuke (tea over rice with flavoring)!! Also. I love the ending song, so positive and so uplifting! The song is aboout trying and doing your best and that you willmake it! Wish I could find the soundtrack or that song. I think the subtitles were good - it is a US Manga production so it is pretty good

Do not waste your money on this DVD!!!
I rented it and could not finish it.
First, I watched it in English.
The script and voice acting sounded like it was done by a five year old.
So I decided to watch it in Japaness with English subtitle, it was just as bad.
It was so painful to watch that I just had turned it off.
The only good thing was that I rented it and did not buy it...