Customer Reviews

Moldiver

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There's a lot of anime out there. Some good, some bad, some just mediocre. There are also incredible anime adventures, but they can be pretty expensive.

"Moldiver" is one of those rare anime gems that pop up now at then and a price mere mortals can afford. A fun, enjoyable romp through six episodes, "Moldiver" is a great way to spend an anime afternoon. A spoof of superhero/mecha anime, the "Moldiver" series is one of those that you just wish had continued past six installments.

Set in a futuristic city where technology has solved all of mankind's problems, the Moldiver Unit is created by Hiroshi, a brilliant, but awkward, young man working from home. The unit will make his dreams of becoming a superhero a reality.

Unfortunately, his sister Mirai gets hold of the unit, with comical results. She becomes a superheroine, which makes their little brother jealous (and he later creates his own Moldiver!).

Dr. Machinegal, who maintains a veneer of respecability as a great scientist and philanthopist is secretly plotting to take control of the city. Naturally, he wants the Moldiver secret for himself.

As the Amazon reviewer mentionms, things take a bit of a downturn around Episode 4, and the series ends on a somewhat sappy, but reasonable resolution. Even so, one should not pass it up because "Moldiver" is just too fun!

To be sure, this is not "Escaflowne" or "Project A-ko", but "Moldier" is great to watch while saving up some dough for your next, more expensive, anime selection.

This story is about sibling interactions in the framework of a cute, sweet, and totally wacky parody. Older brother wants to be superman, so he engineers this Moldiver device. Sister (Marai) figures out what is going on and modifies the Moldiver to suit her purposes. Can they handle all the attention (and duties) of being a super hero? Will little brother join in their sibling rivarly?

There's something for everyone in this one. Guys will appreciate that Marai just happens to be a race queen (Japanese motor sports bikini contest model.) Gals will appreciate that she's in a romantic rivarly with another race queen, and the targeted fellow is really handsome. Lots of outlandish mecha fights too, since the hobby-super heroes have attracted the attention of an evil mad scientist. The animation style is smooth and quite pleasing.

Tenchi Trivia note: This is Mihoshi's favorite T.V. Series. Look carefully, and you will notice her watching Moldiver in Tenchi Universe episode 8.

This isn't "the best-ever anime series ever" (typical hype statement), but it's very much worth watching. You will like this if you also like parodies such as Project Ako, Dragon Half, Fraulein Yuna, Nuku Nuku and Digi Charat.

Considering this is a 6-episode OVA series, it's a great value.

The first two episodes of MOLDIVER were pretty hilarious, with Mirai and Hiroshi fighting for control of the power. And Professor Amagi/Professor Machinegal was always funny to watch. But, unfortunately, the last four focused on the relationship between Mirai and Mr. Misaki, and I feel that this hurt them. Still, the final two episodes did have a decent fight scenes.

Rating 13 and up: nudity, minor profanity, violence, and sexual and toilet humor.

The OAV series is highly amusing and enjoyable to watch. The series does have a little bit of fan service, but I guess that is to be expected in most series nowadays.

The only reason that I didn't rate this series higher is that Pioneer did one of the WORST jobs I have ever seen in the subtitling department. The timing was way off, and the translation was horrible in places (it looks like they did a dubsub, it means that they pretty much used the dub track as the translation). There are so many poorly translated lines and horrible timing that it is painful to watch at times. The dub is much preferable to watching the subtitled version. I might give it a try watching it in Japanese without subtitles though, the subtitling job is THAT bad.

The only subtitling job this poor that I can think off of the top of my head was the 4th Utena tape that CPM put out, it didn't have a bad translation per say, it was just that the timing was at times 20 seconds off and they missed some lines completely. It is really a shame since the Moldiver OAVs are quite a bit of fun.

This is one of the worst anime I've seen so far.

Although I like the anime drawing style... very similar to that of Blue Seed, characters and storyline are rather on the weak side. I really got the impression this OVA is somewhat a rush job and a bit amateurish. Voice actings are somewhat tolerable.

The captions are somewhat less than desirable. Sometimes sentences appears before it is being spoken. The name of character in front of spoken lines are really not necessary if they had done the caption right.

Frankly I would rather watch Pokemon again and again than this.

Beyond the Project: A-ko movie/OVA series, there's very few anime out there who can compete with the whole superhero genre of series or movies available. In steps Moldiver, which was a rather refreshing storyline and character study. The story itself was unlike anything I had seen at the time when the series premiered here in North America, while it does borrow mecha and hardsuits, the Moldiver concept brought a very interesting layer to the story. The characters are typical of Japanese animation, however, somewhat more beleivable despite the super-situations these normal people are placed into. It's a great series to watch, with outstanding voice acting from Nogami Yukana [Mirai] (in which this she makes her debut, but would go on to star in Tenshi ni Narumon and Card Captor Sakura), and veteran performances from Hiramatsu Akiko [Mao] (Nene from the original Bubblegum Crisis) and Morikawa Toshiyuki [Hiroshi] (of Gundam X, Gundam 0083, Gundam Wing, and V Gundam). A wonderful and enjoyable series to watch, I sincerely wish they had continued the story.

After watching the entire series, I'm just totally blown away...Moldiver is one of the best, if not THE best Anime out there! When I saw the first episode I wasn't that impressed, but it gets BETTER! It has one of those wonderful storylines along with a great plot, that you can't stop watching. Great characters with in-depth details so good you get drawn into the movie. The animation is beautiful too with wonderful detail down to every last freckle, well almost anyway! A MUST-SEE for any Anime fan!

A complete set for a cheap price is the largest bait this has to offer. The animation is decent, but not top notch. The story could also use a lot of work. If your a teen looking for a laugh or just a silly few hours, I suggest this to any of you (even girls). This is totally NOT a fanboy/serv. video, just good clean silliness.

Yes, I admit that Moldiver is one of my favorite anime. It's number 2 on my favorites after Oh My Goddess.

Most of it is a spoof of action and super hero anime. The characters are stereotypes. The villains are ridiculous.

However, the entire combination works. It is fun.

And the music fits the action perfectly. I used to run it in the background at work just to hear the music and language.

And as I say, this is my second favorite anime.

At the time of this review, the company that brought Moldiver to the US (Pioneer) no longer produces this DVD & no longer exists. As such, copies of this are harder to track down, but not impossible to find.

The story of Moldiver follows an unlikely pair of heroes in the form of a brother & sister team. The brother (Hiroshi) has created a gadget that will give the user the form & powers of a superhero & uses it to gain glory & fans. His sister Mirai accidentally discovers his plan & superhero identity after a near-death experience. She's quick to change the looks of the hero into a beautiful young woman, which causes her brother to make her go out in his stead to fight crime.

If the story sounds simplistic, it's because for the most point it is. Therein lies the true beauty of the series, however. It's strong point is that it knows that it's a fluffy anime OAV & doesn't try to turn itself into a crime fighting clone or take itself too seriously. It's a good place to start watching anime if you are looking for something to get started on. There's literally something for everyone in it- action, romance, comedy... The english dub to this isn't half bad considering the quality of dubs during the time period this was brought over to the US (mid to late 90s in VHS form).

The extras on the DVD aren't really anything to write home about, to be honest. There's a clip called 'The Secret of Moldiver', which is more a collection of clips from the series that is narrated by the brother & sister pair of Hiroshi & Mirai. There's also a few character info sheets, but mostly the extras aren't really anything special. Still, it's worth tracking down, especially if you are looking for something for a mixed group of viewers. You should be forewarned though, there is a bit of mildly adult humor in this, but it's tame when compared to the humor used in shows like Family Guy & Adult Swim.