Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be checking out an OVA from 1992. That OVA is "Tokyo Babylon".
Now, the story behind this OVA's release is a little bit of an odd one. See, this thing was first aired as a mini-series in 1992 in Japan. Then the mini-series later ended in 1994 with a grand total of two episodes. Which, OK, that's totally fine. But here's where it gets odd. You see, the DVD wasn't released in Japan...up until 2000. U.S. Manga Corps, the company that distributed this movie in the U.S., didn't get theirs released until 1995. Now, it's possible that I may have some of this information wrong, because most of everywhere I looked online never mentioned whether or not the 1995 release was talking about either the VHS or DVD versions of the movie. It's very well possible that it could be the VHS version that they were talking about, but still, I thought to bring it up anyways since the details of it's release are rather hazy at best.
Now besides that, I don't really know much else about this OVA. From little I scanned on the back of the DVD case talks about a powerful medium trying to solve crimes before they take place. Which does, admittedly, sound kinda interesting. But whether or not it makes for a good OVA is something that I'll find out eventually. And the only way I am gonna find out as to whether or not this thing is any good at all, is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Tokyo Babylon".
15 minutes later
Well, guys, I believe I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that this dub here is a little bit shaky. It really hasn't been all that great, and I'm not totally sure if I'm gonna get use to it or not. The good news though, is that the music here is pretty good. So...at least that's something. Granted, I know that's not a huge positive, but still, I can count that as a positive for this thing so far.
10 minutes later
All right, I have a question here, and I'm not sure if it will get answered or not, so I'm gonna ask it anyway. So, all of these accidents that have been happening around Project 5 all involve Nagumo, and that he's been able to get out of all his situations Scott-free, while the victims all died. Now, it's been said that he's been wanting to get to the top of the corporate ladder of the MCC, but is there actually a reason as to why he hasn't let Project 5 finished being completed? The only thing I can think of is that Nagumo wants it built in his own vision so that he can take over once it's been completed, but again, it hasn't really been established yet. Mind you, I'm just spit-balling here, but that's honestly the only thing I can think of at the moment.
3 minutes later
OK, so the detective *did* explain that, yes, Nagumo, is going to take over the MCC once everyone in his way has been killed off, and Project 5 has been completed, So, my theory was right after all. At least the OVA was nice enough to do that much.
5 minutes later
So...by releasing Koni, which is Kazami's dog in case you weren't aware, his spirit is now able to take vengeance on her brother's killer. Does that imply that Kazami killed her dog in order for this whole thing to work? Cause, if that's the case, then I gotta say, that spirit of Koni looks kinda cool. Granted, the implications behind it are certainly fucked up, Still though, at least it looks cool.
11 minutes later
All right, guys, well, that was the first episode. It was...certainly interesting, to say the least. Kinda vague, but still interesting. I'm hoping the second episode's gonna be just as interesting as this one was. But, we'll just have to wait and see.
10 minutes later
So, this new spirit medium has the ability to see into the past...interesting. Granted, I'm not totally sure how much of the past you're able to see with this "post-cognition" that she has, but I will say that her power does sound rather unique.
7 minutes later
You know, guys, I find it kinda weird how Subaru is bringing up the fact that if this killer isn't brought down soon, he will kill again and again. And what's weird about all this is that we've only seen *one* killing happen throughout this episode, which was at the beginning. Don't you think that if we had seen this murderer kill multiple victims firsthand that *maybe* then it would make finding this killer a little more impactful? I'm just saying, guys, perhaps maybe if we had gotten to see more of this killer, and the reasoning behind his murders, then it would make this episode a little bit more better, you know what I mean?
19 minutes later
Wow, so that one cut from when that guy tried to save Mirei caused all that blood to appear all over his body? Admittedly, that's a little suspicious, because I don't believe that much blood would appear just from that one cut. But then again, I'm not a fucking psychopath like this guy is, so what do I know?
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Tokyo Babylon". Let me go ahead and shut this thing off here...OK. So, um...where exactly do I begin here? Well, to be honest, guys...I'm not totally sure how to feel about it. Like, it's not entirely bad, far from it, though there are a couple of things that do hold this OVA down a bit. That said, I'm not totally sure if it's something that I would personally sit down and rewatch again at some point.
I guess, instead of just me rambling about how I feel about it, let me try to talk about it in more detail. Let's start with the writing. Now, as I mentioned before, this thing was originally a mini-series that was divided into 2 episodes. So, I'm gonna go over a brief analysis of these two episodes and try to talk about them. The first episode is pretty simple, in which it's about our main character Subaru Sumeragi, who is a spirit medium that is being called in to try and figure out what's been going on at this construction site, otherwise known as Project 5. Somehow, all of these accidents have been leading into the deaths of either the workers or any of the higher-ups at the MCC. And at the center of these accidents involves Nagumo, who has been secretly killing them off so that he can get a higher position once Project 5 has been completed and that he can take over the company. Problem is, no one has any evidence on him, so like I said, one of the guys there actually called Subaru in, and this was just before he got killed off too by Nagumo as well.
So, for the most part, it's a pretty straightforward plot. Which, it is, and it's mostly really easy to follow. However, if I had to be honest with you, guys, it feels kinda bland and somewhat vague, too. Most of the blandness is, admittedly, gonna come from our main character, Subaru. He really doesn't have much of a personality to his character, other than being a spirit medium, and a rather weak one too. I'm gonna get a little more into this later, however, I should let you know firsthand that Subaru's character in this movie is ridiculously shallow. He has a sister who is ridiculously annoying, and his other friend, Seishiro, who I'll talk about in a moment. But overall, guys, when it comes to our main cast of characters, most of them aren't really that well developed.
With that being said, that leads me into talking about episode 2. And I'm gonna say that this episode was really good. The story for the second episode involves another spirit medium named Mirei, who has the ability to see the past, at certain angles with her hands. And it doesn't matter on the limitations of it either, because as we see later on in the episode, she is using her powers to look into the past of a serial killer as a child from 15 years ago. So, any limitations that she may have on how much she can see into the past are irrelevant. It's a really unique power, and it is a rather interesting take on the whole spirit medium angle. Which is funny, because Subaru and his friends are also in this episode as well, and yet, they're still rather weak on character depth. Mirei, on the other hand, has more layers of character depth than any of our main characters combined. Which is kinda sad, when you stop and think about it.
Now, I do kinda want to talk about Seishiro for a moment. Because his character in this movie is very vague at best. Now, I know someone's probably gonna mention that he had more depth in the manga. However, as I've done with many other adaptations in this series, I review adaptations of whatever medium by their own standards rather than compare it to it's comic book/video game counterpart. So anyway, he's one of Subaru's friends, and it seems like he plays a very important role in all this, however, it's only kind of explained at the start of the second episode, that he has to look over Subaru, as Subaru is suppose to be the head clan of the Sumeragi clan. And for whatever reasoning, he's always there to save Suburu at the end of each episode, and he also comes off as a Gary-Stu as well. Basically, guys, I want you to imagine if instead of Sailor Moon finishing off the bad guys after she gets rescued by Tuxedo Mask, Tuxedo Mask is the one who rescues her at the end of each episode and *he* is the one who defeats the monster and saves the day instead of the main protagonist. It's basically like that with Seishiro, and it just leaves me to believe what sort of role does this guy really have? Well, the OVA hardly explains it, so good luck in trying to figure that out, especially if you haven't read the manga.
So with all that said, the writing for these two episodes is a mixed bag at best. The first episode was sorta interesting, but kinda bland at the same time. While the second episode had really good writing for the most part, though for different reasons that I already explained. Now with all that being said, let's talk about the English dub for this OVA. And boy howdy, is this dub kinda shit. Most of the acting here feels very stiff and awkward. And the worst actor, by far, would have to go to whoever voiced our main character. The actor who voices Subaru has only one type of voice he gives for this character, and he gives out no range on him whatsoever. Which makes his acting all the more sterile and weak. I would almost argue that it's on the level of terrible acting that Chuck Norris gives out, considering the guy has no real range of emotion within his voice. Same goes for Subaru's English voice actor here. He has no emotion in his voice, and he just did not care to put in any sort of effort within his voice. Now again, most of everyone here in this cast weren't very good either, but Subaru's actor is a special case because the guy just sucked ass in this thing.
What didn't suck ass though, was the animation. The animation is mostly really good. For something that came out in the early 90's, this is some pretty decent-looking stuff. What helps it the most is one of the animation studios behind this movie, which is Madhouse. And I've talked about Madhouse quite a number of times beforehand in my previous reviews for the movies that they have made, and just about all of their animation styles have looked really good regardless of the quality of the actual content in question. This OVA is no exception. The art-style is really good, the color palettes are used really well, and the backgrounds all look really gorgeous, too. So, animation wise, this thing looks really good for it's time.
Sound-mix here is mixed fine. The music here is pretty good too, except for this one bit where, during the first episode, there's a song sequence that plays involving Kazami's character and the song sounds like shit. Well, to be more accurate, it's this one lone singer who sounds like shit. The song itself isn't really that good, but the singer providing the lyrics really sucked, too. The lyrics, I should mention, involve the word "kiss" a lot, and I have no idea why. I'm sure there's some sort of "symbolic" reason as to why those lyrics are there, but I personally don't really care about that kind of shit. I just know that the song really sucked. So, I'll just leave at that and move on from there.
So ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "Tokyo Babylon"? Um...kinda sort of. Like I said, this OVA's writing is a mixed bag at best. I would probably recommend it, but only for the 2nd episode. The first episode, I can't really guarantee that you'll like it at all, but who knows? Perhaps maybe you'll find something more out of it than I did. But as for me, personally speaking, I did find some enjoyment out of this OVA. Though honestly, I just don't think it's something that I'm gonna rewatch ever again. I really was kinda hoping for something more out it, but it just didn't quite meet up to my standards. So with that being said, I think I'm gonna go and watch something different. And you know what? I do have both volumes of the rarely seen uncut dub of "Shaman King" on DVD. So, I'm gonna go and watch the first 3 episode of it right now, since it does sorta tie into what I just watched.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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