1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Cool? No, not really. Stick to 007., June 18, 2009
This review is from: L/R - Licensed by Royalty: Complete Box Set (DVD)
L/R - 6/10
This series tried so hard to be smart and cool, yet only managed to be confusing and mildly entertaining. The pacing was off right from the word go because it opened with a bland episode involving the spy duo stopping an old man selling a fake item connected to the the royal family, the reason being to avoid bringing shame on the royalty of Ishtar - a country modeled on the UK, the exciting country where every spy lives, as all James Bond fans know. Not exactly the best way to kick-off what I had expected to be a flashy and fun little series.
The people in charge really did think they were making something stylish. An example is that whenever possible, one of the spy duo gets asked which of the two is L and which is R, and the question is always avoided. Who gives a damn? Why should the viewers care about the initial a pair of underdeveloped characters go by? Instead of throwing in lines like those, dialogue of significance should've been put in.
When the series wasn't focusing on episodic stuff of no importance whatsoever, the main plot was busy letting me down. It was never clear exactly what was going on because the episodes tended to start after the point where explanations should've been inserted, but the basic jist of it was this (spoilers): a 15 year old princess had lived her life not knowing about herself, she finds out, she reveals that her father (the prince) hadn't tried to kill his brother when she makes a speech to the public, she fakes her death under overly dramaric circumstances...and the series ended. It could've been decent but the confusion caused by the lack of explanations and the way the good guys fooled the public into thinking the baddies had tried to kill her (a mask) ruined it. Attempts and adding depth by making a simple story confusing never work out too well.
The worst part of the series? The lack of any character development. Near to nothing was revealed about the spy duo - not even one flashback was used to add depth. Plenty of time was wasted on pointless one-shot stories, yet no episodes could be spared for the unimportant business of getting viewers to care about the main characters. It was like watching Cowboy Bebop without understanding the reasoning behind Spike's almost arrogrant looking smile.
Overall, not a great series. It's something anime fans shouldn't go out of their way to watch. If you're looking for a series with lots of exciting action (not L/R) and SOME character development (not L/R), go for Black Lagoon instead. At least you'd have some hot pants and a tight arse to look at if you watched that instead!
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
spoiler alert, December 15, 2008
This review is from: L/R - Licensed by Royalty: Complete Box Set (DVD)
Agree with previous reviewer. Some things are funny - like the indecision over which side of the J's car has the steering wheel. One thing was extremely annoying. Specifically, that the series should have ended after the first half of the last episode. The 2nd half of the last episode has a death that, even after watching the last 4 episodes three times to see if I missed something, seemed uncalled for and stupid. Specifically, R dies. Maybe I like Disney endings. Maybe because I've had to watch people die. I don't know. I just hate it when people die for no reason. I watched this more than 12 hours ago and I'm still angry. I'm going to have to sell my copy as I'll never watch this again.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Moderately entertaining, February 28, 2008
This review is from: L/R - Licensed by Royalty: Complete Box Set (DVD)
Licensed By Royalty is a decent but mediocre watch. May not be recommended for purchase. Probably a rental. It doesn't use really great animation and character development is pretty weak for everyone, even the main characters Jack and Rowe. Jack and Rowe combine James Bond with Jin and Mugen from Samurai Champloo - a bit too slick and a bit too much foreknowledge-like planning. The music was pleasant to listen to but nothing really outstanding. There's a light hearted feel to the music and often times, played at completely inappropriate times.
The climax of the story builds too quickly. This is largely due to the 13 episode length and the sitcom nature of most of the episodes. There definitely isn't a lot of time to care, nor dramatic tension built up, so when things really get moving, it's not really dramatic and of course they play happy music inappropriately.
My two chief complaints are not that the animation was bad or that the series was too short or the music wasn't done right. My first complaint is that although extensive use of British accents were used, no one actually spoke British English. The accents are probably what Americans and a lot of people think British sounds. There's a decided lack of British slang which should be much more common. And the accents are too smooth. The second chief complaint is that there is far too much planning and prophetic foreknowledge. L/R somehow always have the right tools and people to pull off all their escapades. It's annoying. You can see this extensive planning in the end. They attempted a somewhat Cowboy Bebop level of drama which was very out of place with the rest of episodes, though it shared completely inappropriate music with them. You understand this overuse of planning when you consider how excessively smoke is used in the series.
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