Customer Reviews

Guyver: Complete Box Set [Blu-ray]

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

 

 

A great set of this classic series from the cyberpunk era. The overall package is appealing and the remastered video quality can life up to even the most recent productions. Overall, it is a great revival of this classic series on BD. It is only sad that the US animes do not tell the full story as the rest was never published outside of Japan. It leaves thus some unsatisfying open threads that I would have hoped to see resolved in the story. But overall a good pick I can recommend to fans of this genre.

Guyver has always been one of my favorite series', since it was my first series and I've been watching it since I was 3 years old (the old 12 episode OVA that I has on VHS that is). When I first picked up the DVD version of this remake, I noticed quite a few differences. There are some story differences, but the creators dub this Guyver reboot as the "most complete and most like the manga". True this reboot is the most complete, but it is not the most similar to the manga.

Besides some story differences, which I assume were put in to try and differentiate this newer version from the 1980's-1990's OVA, the art style is completely different from that of the manga and the original OVA. The art style of the old OVA series is sketchier, and has so much more detail on character designs and scenery. This new art style is like the creators conforming to the anime standard, which is less details, more simplistic lines and shapes. It's like comparing the art style of the first episode of DragonBall to the last episode of DragonBall Z. Instead of rounder shapes, the art style has moved to boxier more linear shapes. I'm not a fan of the new art style used on this Guyver reboot, but it isn't terrible.

The voice acting in this reboot is a lot better, as the American voice actor for Sho Fukamachi does an amazing job of making Sho seem innocent, intelligent, geeky, and goofy but not too goofy (which was my only complaint for the voice actor of the original OVA, as he seemed too whiny). Enough of this comparison between this reboot and the original OVA. This is the more complete version, so I would recommend it.

But now for the debate as for whether this BluRay version is better than the DVD version. I would say the DVD version is better and more complete. I would give the DVD version 5 stars, but it saddens me to give this version a 3. The DVD version simply has so much more extra content than this Blu Ray version. I don't know why they couldn't have made a 4th disc for this set that contained all of the bonus features. The Blu Ray version has one episode commentary. Is it me or that just a bit sad considering how much storage space is on one blu ray disc. The DVD box set comes with multiple episode commentaries, anime to manga comparisons, and comes with little booklets that contain character bios, and history on the series. As for whether which version looks better, I can barely tell since the art style is so simplistic.

I have both version of Guyver the OVA and the new series. My major complaint with the OVA series is that it lets you hanging at the end. There were to many questions and no answers. On the new seriew all questions left by the OVA are answered and the art is fine by the new standards in anime and is brigther not so dark as in the OVA.

So if you have the oiriginal OVA and felt like me that the story was incomplete my suggestion is to get this series. The art is good, the story is good, and the image is more brigth and clear, I have the DVD version not the Blu-ray version, so I beilive that there will be some improvements in the visuals.

I am a fan of the original Guyver. I don't normally buy dvd's of anime that take 26 episodes to tell a story. This was a looong, drawn out, story that could have been told in much fewer episodes. I found myself walking away from the tv 1/2 way through the dvd's just because I was getting so bored with them introducing yet another monster, an evolved version of the same monster, and then the looong drawn out, missing time that Sho (Guyver) is "evolving" into a very effeminate version of the Guyver unit. (Spoiler) As the original Guyver, he had a cool, "guy" look but he evolves into a version that is way girly or effeminate which was a real step down in my opinion.
The animation is right up there with the original Guyver and current anime but the long, drawn out story and aweful evolution of the Guyver made me have to drop my review.
This is only for the true anime fans that enjoy the trend of making guys out to be girly looking and trying to still make them cool. The new Guyver is not the same Guyver you knew from the original. It is a step (or leap) down. He was cool the way he was. Look for previews before buying.
EDIT:
I showed this to a friend that is a huge anime fan and he said the same thing. "Why does the Guyver look so gay by the end?"