Product Details

• Actors: Artist Not Provided
• Format: Animated, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English, Japanese
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Adv Films
• DVD Release Date: April 15, 2003
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00008DDSN
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #119,993 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Neo Ranga began as a spoof of Godzilla movies on the anthology program Anime Complex in 1998, but when it was turned into a series, the story had to be expanded. The "god" of a South Sea island, the title mecha is telepathically controlled by the three Shimabara Sisters. Not surprisingly, the giant robot becomes the object of considerable media attention, attention that draws the sisters into a seamy tale of political corruption. The National Interest Party works hand in glove with the yakuza (Japanese mafia) to control the section of Tokyo in which the Shimabaras live. Ushio discovers the sordid situation when she searches for an old friend who has become a runaway. The plot includes suggestions of drug dealing and the sexual exploitation of underaged girls--a very dark setting for the broad physical comedy. (Rated 15 and older: violence, profanity, alcohol and tobacco use) --Charles Solomon

Product Description

When Neo Ranga first appeared in Tokyo, he was on a mission. But this time, he's on display. Suddenly, the mighty monster-god has been reduced to a marketing gimmick.

On the surface, it's all fun, games and greed. But things are not as simple as they seem. While everyone is having fun and making money, criminal forces are working behind the scenes. As corruption runs rampant, the conflict grows. The mystery escalates. And some rather interesting characters - including strange visitors from Barou and a newer, more powerful ASE robot - join in the action. With plot twists, risqué humor, lost innocence (and Ushio's lost swimsuit), Neo Ranga: Lost in the Spectacle is a must-see!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I HAVE TO ADMIT IT'S GETTING BETTER, June 28, 2004

By	Sesho "www.sesho.libsyn.com" (Pasadena, TX USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Man, the first few episodes, and by that I mean almost 3/4 of the first Volume was awful. I had to really force myself to get through it. But, the light at the end of Volume 1 was that the last episodes were good. So I bought Volume 2 and am glad I did. This dvd was excellent.

What we see in Volume 2 is some deeper ponderings on the nature of the media and celebrity, right and wrong, corruption, and other Shakespearean questions, along with slapstick comedy. Coming into the fore here is Ushio as she gets a job at a store and the owners use her fame to get more business and work her to the bone. The daughter of the owners, Hiromi, used to be her best friend, but the two have drifted away in recent years. Hiromi has fallen in with a yakuza gang leader and runs away. Meanwhile, Minami has gotten a job dancing with lonely men in order to support her two sisters to the consternation of Ushio, who sees it as one step removed from prostitution. Later, while she is at the bank, Minami becomes a hostage of a bank robber, and is tempted to do a bad thing. And of course there's Neo Ranga, enigmatic as ever, who will have to face an ASE robot designed to defeat him. The last episodes see the 3 sisters travelling to their mother's home island and the awful crime mystery of Ushio's stolen bikini.

There was so much in this dvd. It really deals with adult issues of temptation, lost children, people searching for hope and maybe bending the law to do it. You had some really dramatic moments with the bank robber and the runaway Hiromi and really hilarious ones with the vacation episodes. I look forward to Volume 3.

If you didn't like Volume 1, at least give 2 a chance before you pass judgement.

3.0 out of 5 stars Lost in the Episodes, May 25, 2003

By	Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

For some reason, the fifteen-minute episode format of this series seems to make is hard for me to grasp the overall intent plot. Not the intent of each episode, but long thematic arcs that usually define the reason for the existence of a series. I can make out glimmers - the issue of being responsible for a god, fighting political corruption, etc. - but they are often fragmentary hints, not broad development. Nor does it help that there is a cast of thousands to sort out. 'Lost in the Spectacle' is a very good title for this DVD. Certainly, Ranga, a god, has all the status of an oversized house pet. Perhaps this is the real theme of the story, but it has yet to materialize.

Ostensibly, this is a story about three sisters who inherit a god and their struggles as they try to do the right thing. All very well, but their version of the right thing is often different from mine. Minami is perfectly willing to try to use Ranga in a bank robbery, Ushio is only too willing to interfere in the lives of others, and Yuuhi has a tendency to be an avenging angel. Often Ranga's powers are used trivially. In one episode, he is used to fine Ushio's missing bathing suit. There are moments when I wonder if the National Interest Party might be right in trying to do away with the whole mess.

Not badly written, but often silly - it can be difficult to follow the mood swings of the story line. It reminds me of Blue Seed, which also had difficulty settling into what eventually became a mature and interesting plot. It will be interesting to see what happens to this series as it's more serious elements develop, but for right now it is still more confection and innuendo than anything else. Of course, this is a matter of taste, but for a viewer trying to decide where to invest in DVDs that refuse to get any cheaper, I would make this series a low priority.