Customer Reviews

Maze DVD Collection

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

First of all, only watch it in Japanese with English Subtitles. As a rule, I never watch the Dubbed version of Anime. Because the Japanese voice actors are almost ALWAYS way better than the American voice actors.

Second, don't take it seriously. If you are looking for a Cowboy Bepop/Trigun experience this isn't it. If you are looking for an intellectual experience like Lain, this also isn't it.

Third, If you are offended by off color sexual humor this is not for you. If anime like Slayers, Sorcerer Hunters, Golden Boy, and Excel Saga bother you, then you wouldn't enjoy Maze.

However...!!!...if you are looking to purchase a low cost, fun, WTF, kind of anime - I completely recommend this series. I picked it up b/c it was only 30.00$ and had 52 episodes. I figured it would be something to keep me entertained for a couple of days. Plus, how can you not buy an anime that describes itself on the cover by saying, "Maze is a college girl who one day lands on another planet, has amnesia and discovers she has super powers."

Overall, this anime is fun, fast-paced and completely wacky. And it is absolutely re-watchable. I wouldn't pay more than 40.00$ for it but I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the wacky anime humor. BTW, I have all of the anime discussed in this review, to give you an idea of my taste.

It's one of the few Anime series that dosen't center around a young girl finding herself (in the usual sense). It has a lot of elements which I haven't found in other Anime. But, I'll be honest, I usually like the really obscure stuff.

NOTICE:This review MAY contain spoilers.
Simply put, I think this is one of the most underated anime titles that ever got an American relase. Personally, I LOVED this show, it has a pretty original plot (although it has themes we've seen before like gender bender) lovely character designs, really nice animated sequences (esp. the dulger summons and the OP which I think is one of the best that was done in the 90's) and AWSOME music (the op and ed.1 are very neat songs that are worth a listen). There were a few parts I didn't understand, mainly the episodes when Maze and Mill were in a futuristic world because it kinda stated it was the fantasy world many years ago. I only have two cons about this show. The first is that some of the animation is a bit grainy. The second is the english voice of Male Maze (Akira), for Greg Wolfe made him sound much older than his actual age. Other than that this show is a whole lot of fun. I would like to see this title re-relesed (a re- master would be nice too), but it will probably never happen. Heck, I have yet to see actual Japanese R2 dvd releases of this one! So, if you have the money (this is OOP and quite expensive) check this out. I think it is worth it.

Maze is an ordinary Japanese college co-ed whose world gets dumped on its head. She awakens to find herself in a strange world. She quickly finds herself accompanied by a strange young princess who is being pursued by hostile strangers, some of whom have large mecha they can call upon. Then Princess Mil Varna calls upon her own mecha which Maze has absolutely NO clue how to operate. Then the sun sets and Maze becomes a lecherous man and things get strange.
Lots of fun and laughs.

I had worked for Central Park Media as a Quality Control Intern, and I can honestly say that 'Maze' was definitely my favorite. I could never get bored of it, like I did with other titles. Although some parts are a little corny, in the end, it was kind of sad seeing that the series was over. The corniness, the serious, everything will add to your love for these characters. Although the most bizarre is the Incestual relations in this show.

My girl friend and I rented afew episodes at a local Blockbuster and I would say it's an Anime that you have to like. I read the reviews here and saw 5 stars "best anime ever" and 0 stars "this sucks" so I want to give a better thought. It's a really intresting show, the action is so-so but I think the plotline is great. I would say it's Ranma 1/2 meets fantasy. So if you like Ranma 1/2 Im sure you'll like this too, else go rent it or something and see if you'll like it first.

In this series, we have the story of a girl (Maze) who wakes up in a swords/sorcery/giant mecha world with amnesia. She meets up with a fleeing princess (Mill), a few wandering soldiers(?) (Astur and Solude), a female knight (Rapier), and a fairy (Randy). Plus, Maze mysteriously turns into a man at night, and adventures ensue.

This is one series that completely leaves me speechless, and not in a good way. I guess I'll start with the few things that Maze does right: Astur and Solude are an amusing pair at first, and remain among the more tolerable characters for the rest of the show. Also, the voice acting is at times humorously melodramatic and overblown which leads to some humor, intentional or otherwise. Finally, for it's mainly light tone, the show contains some of the more obscene language that I've seen in anime, and seeing the characters violently swear at each other in melodramatic voices is pretty funny.

Now as for all of the other stuff: Maze contains a good deal of political goings-on, and none of them are explained well at all. there are three or four countries all waging war against each other, or launching coups, or being manipulated by someone else. Exciting as this seems, it all manages to be quite boring and incomprehensible, and while it may in theory affect the plot, it seems to do more to alienate viewers than draw them in. And since some of these plot strands become dormant for awhile and are then revived with little explanation, I had no idea who was attacking whom at the end.

Second, Mill is among the most annoying conceivable characters ever. Her voice is quite high pitched, and it's grating as hell. She's not too bad at first, but after awhile her voice gets into your head, and it will drive you insane. Whenever she talks to Maze she calls her "Big sister-brother" (because during the day she's like a sister, but at night when she turns into a man, she's like a brother; hence, big sister-brother). It really wasn't funny the first time, but the script-writers decided to make it the biggest running gag of the show. If you watch the show and decide that Mill shrieking "YOU'RE SO COOL, BIG SISTER-BROTHER!!" wasn't funny enough, there's even a special feature on the first DVD, in which they've collected a bunch of clips of her screaming that line and put them together, so you can watch Mill bleating away to your heart's content.
There's also the rather strange fact that all of the characters fall madly in love with Maze on sight, be they man, woman or close blood-relation (I'm not making this up). What other anime can claim a touching, incestuous relationship as it's happy ending?

But Maze's biggest problem may be it's utterly chaotic, nonsensical plot. Maze's plot wanders all over the place. The characters get transported into a couple of different worlds, the writers throw in bizaare explanations and plot strands, and none of it makes any sense. There is no possible way to tell what might happen next, because everything is completely done at random.
In one scene Maze and Mill find themselves transported to a strange technologically advanced world, and are approached by a young female scientist. "What?", thinks Maze, "she looks just like Mill; what can this mean?" It turns out to mean nothing whatsoever, because a few episodes later the writers got tired of that plot strand and abruptly ended it. This sort of thing happens more commonly than you might think.

So in conclusion, Maze is just a really bad show. Don't believe the voice actors in the "meet the cast" option for disc A who hilariously try to make the show (and their character) sound deep and meaningful. The primary entertainment value of Maze for me came from ridiculing it, and as I look back I think that was a survival mechanism to help me get through the last few episodes.

Don't bother with this swill, as there's far finer anime to spend your money on.

I seldom give bad ratings to things, so when I give something a low rating it means the product must be really bad. I was bored by the FIRST EPISODE and it got worse from there. The action wasn't that impressive, the comedy was flat, there was just lust rather than real romance, and the plot was incomprehensible with something about collecting five stones. I am forced to agree with the Anime Encyclopedia's rating that it is "off-the-peg" and "the plot moves at blinding pace to disguise the fact that nothing happens at all." They spend the first five episodes in the forest before coming the town while fighting enemies with silly names like Undeader. Meanwhile, Maze learns that "kindness alone is not enough" to solve her problems, or some such moralistic garbage. Further, the music stinks something awful.

I must say that I first saw this wonderful series in pure japanese. It was very funny at points, but very dramatic and sometimes even romantic at other times in the show! You'd never get bored of this anime. Buy it now!

I really can't describe "Maze" in mere words...it's very different. A lot of the plot and story truly makes no real coherent sense; however, if you want something to laugh with (or in my case, at), then "Maze" is certainly a winner. The basic premise of the story is a girl who wakes up in an alternate dimension, has total amnesia, special (phantom) powers, and turns into a guy at night. That's just the beginning, and I'm afraid it digresses from that into something totally weird. Small children, i.e. those under 35 years of age, probably should not watch Maze, and should instead be content with staring at their washing machine for hours upon end. It's not totally bad, but if you don't have a flair for something different, then I implore you NOT to buy Maze.