Customer Reviews

Green Legend Ran

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Sorry everyone who does not like this film. This is one of my favorite movies. I watched one day on the sci-fi channel about 5 years ago. Then I waited and waited until it came on again. It took nearly 2 years, I have not seen this film in a long while, until I saw the DVD version. No one else seems to like as much as i do. If you do not like it you should stick with something else. ^_^

This is a 3-episode movie, all of which contained in the DVD version. The DVD version is NOT in letterbox format, and I believe that there is NO letterbox format. It has Japanese and English dialogue, and English (regular, and hearing-impaired) subtitles. This DVD does not have any menus, it's a bare-bone DVD title.

The story revolves around a teen boy overcoming (some rather) large odds via smart-thinking and some agile actions to be together with the girl of his choice. It's cliche. The story surrounding it is something else though. Fans of Japan Anime would not feel strange of the story, newcomers beware.

The backdrop of this adventure is a dried-up earth, with huge pillar-like thing that acts as gods embedded on earth's crust. The story unfolds a bit too quickly for my taste, and the graphics are a bit old to current standards. Most of the movie is serious, with very little humor sprinkled inbetween.

A good movie to have on your collection, although I would prefer Miyazaki's works compared to this one. It has some quirky side story in it, which might be enough to make up the dryness of this movie for some people. Overall, it's an average movie.

Green Legend Ran is an anime I rented on impulse a while ago without putting much consideration into it. I thought I had some pretty good anime senses, you know, the ones that tell you when something is going to be too horrible for you to stand, but they let me down I guess. What can I say? I was hoping maybe it would be one of those little known gems you find every once in a while that makes you sit up and take notice. I've seen a few of those and was maybe hoping for another; a bit too much to ask I'd say.

Some time in the future an alien race known as Rodens come to earth, devastation the planet, sucking away our plant life and water, and then turning what is not just a big rock into a giant dessert. The few humans who are lucky enough to survive live in small communities and worship the Rodens; in return they give us food, water, and a place to live. But there is a rebel group known as The Hazard who tries to fight the Roden and reclaim the earth for us humans. Yeah them

Think "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" meets "Now and Then, Here and There" only much worse than either of those two incredible titles. We have the "humans polluted the earth and now it must cleanse itself" vibe from Nausicaa, while on the other hand we have the head strong boy who goes out of his wayto save a helpless girl who is persecuted because of her abilities from N&T, H&T. The similarities are quite stricking actually, with many of this movies plot lines and ideas being present in both of the previously mentioned titles. Whether this is by accident (to be fair I don't know when this movie was made) or not is anyone's guess.

This movie could have been so much better then it actually is, but the plot is just doesn't' make any sense at all and moves around way too fast. The characters are, for the most part, cardboard thin and have little or no personality. It seems almost like your watching a Tom Cruse movie (oops, did I go too far?). Don't even get me started on the English dub. Lets just say it makes the likes of Pokemon look Cowboy Bebop.

So yeah, go ahead and skip this movie and instead to see Nausicaa or Now and Then, Here and There. Both those titles are WAY more interesting then this hunk of garbage.

Replay Value; Very low.

Why does everyone call this a movie? Because the Sci-fi channel treats it like one?
It's actually a spectacular 3 episode OAV. Although it's a little aged (not the best quality of backgrounds in combination with the old techno/rock music) It still has a compelling story to it, very intriguing. Makes you wish it had been a TV series rather than an OAV.
The only real downfall with this DVD is that there's no menu. All you get is the 3 episodes, a music video and comments from the director at the end. But don't let this prevent you from buying it.

If you want to add this to your anime collection, its okay. A little slow, boring (has some drags), but as a whole its alright. Animation quality is good, plot is interesting enough. It's one of those post holocaust movies where water/rain/greenery is so rare. It's a long movie, but there are a lot better anime titles than this, so get something else first before getting this one for your collection. I am almost certain this is kid friendly.

This was one of the better Japanimations that I own. It is about a young boy named Ran who is bent on avenging his mother's death. While battling Hazzard, a rebel group whose leader was the murderer of Ran's mom, he meets a pretty silver haired girl known as Ira. Ira turns out to have mysterious powers and is a direct decedant of Rodo, an alien creature that came down from space many years ago. Ira has been summoned by the Holy Mother for unknown reasons, and Ira has no choice to obey. Now, Ran must try to save Ira from the Holy Mother as well as Hazzard, and the fight becomes a battle for the planet as well. END

I gave Green Legend Ran, a four star because it was not composed properly, there are no menus, no special features, no scene selections, and no Americanized soundtrack to Green Legend Ran. I, of course, enjoyed watching twice to three times a month or so, but the facts remain that it was ill-composed for what DVD discs have in common, the interactive menu's and such!

I am obsessed with the English vocal version of "Tears and Rain"!

In my day, Soundtracks were complete and their tracks came straight in order of the movies progression. DVD movies now, have menus, special features, directors cut's, scene selection menu's, etc.!

I am rating this DVD a 4 star because I enjoyed the animation, the character design, and the story. But I left a star because of the lack of interactive features all the DVD movies have!