5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Another Apocalypse Anime, February 9, 2006
Truthfully, you'd think this would get old, the post-apocalyptic settings. Almost every major anime has such a setting (Evangelion, Akira, Vampire Hunter D, just to name a few), and in all of these this setting plays an integral role to the story. Green Legend Ran is just another in a continuing line of dramatic anime dealing with this as its central conflict.
To be more specific, Green Legend Ran takes place on an Earth that has been sucked dry by strange alien statues. Now, humanity struggles to survive in small villages scattered throughout the world, and ruling the remainder of these humans is a religious cult known as the Rodoists. Using water as their means for dominance, they have cemented their place as the leaders of the planet. But a formidable foe has appeared in the form of a resistance group known as Hazzard, who's out to destroy the Rodoists and reclaim the world in the hopes that they can nurture life back into it. It's a boy named Ran who gets in the middle of both of these factions, and in truth his main goal is to get revenge against the man who killed his mother. Early in his quest, he joins Hazzard and meets a girl named Ira, with whom he falls in love with and chooses to protect at all costs. It's his love for this strange, silver-haired girl that continues to drive him, and eventually, he's thrown deep into the next struggle to prevent a new apocalypse, and one sure to wipe out the remainder of mankind.
The story itself reminds me a lot of Now and Then, Here and There and Princess Mononoke. The setting and the animation style (down to the character design it seems) is very similar to Now and Then, while the idea of not having a true bad guy is reminiscent of Mononoke. What this movie does have that is somewhat unique is an animation style that doesn't match the content. By this I mean the animation looks somewhat childish, like what you'd expect from early Ghibli Films, yet Green Legend Ran is filled with bloody violence and nudity. Every time something like that comes around you can't help but feel, "Why is this here?" For me, this was a good surprise, though for some it may be jarring.
Still, though this movie has some good things going for it, very little in it is unique. Yes, Green Legend Ran is older, but not that old, and most of the films I mentioned were made before or around the same time. So really there is no excuse for the fact that nothing in this anime adds to the genre. If you enjoyed the superior Now and Then, Here and There, you might not like this movie. If you haven't yet seen Now and Then, then check this out first, and if it interests you then by all means move on to Now and Then, Here and There. I'd also recommend this movie to true anime fans and historians, as it is one of the earlier anime to make it's way to DVD.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Green Legend Ran, August 9, 2001
By A Customer
Overall, Green Legend Ran was a good movie. Originally released as a 3 episode OAV series, it was compiled into a shorter length movie that edited out some nude scenes. This DVD contains the full, uncut OAV episodes. The story focuses around a boy who is going through adolesence. Also, it expands something that is somewhat common in anime: the use of oragnized religion as a means to brainwash and control the populace. Religious viewers might be offended, but that is part of the purpose of the film.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
this alpha and omega of anime, July 21, 2003
back in 1994, a friend was staying over at my house. it was about 3:00 am. a show called Saturday Night Anime was on the sci-fi channel. we checked it out. the feature was Green Legend Ran. it was the best anime was i have ever seen, which is saying quite a lot. green legend ran tops even yu-yu hakusho (my favorite series), cowboy bebop, evangelion and those who hunt elves (tee-hee-hee!). if you want a taste of kick-bum anime, you should definitly see it.
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