Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering an OVA from 1986. That OVA is "Amon Saga".
Now, I'm gonna be honest with you guys, I know very little about this thing. What little information I found is what I picked up from the DVD case. First thing I can tell you is that the plot to this thing is about a warrior, who's set for revenge against the people that killed his mother. Which sounds like a simple premise enough. The other thing I can tell you guys, before I start watching this thing, is that the character designs in this OVA are from the same guy who also did the character designs for "Vampire Hunter D". Which sounds great, especially considering that I really enjoyed "Vampire Hunter D". However, just because you have the guy who did those character designs for that movie doesn't automatically mean that this thing is going to be any good.
Now, as I was doing the small amount of further research I did on this OVA, there is something that I found rather odd. See, when I typed in "Amon Saga" on Google's search engine, it advertises this thing to be about 80 minutes long. However, the version I have on DVD has a runtime of 90 minutes. And to add on to all that, there is a version of the OVA on YouTube that's about 75 minutes long. So...someone's got their runtimes mixed up here. Either it's the DVD version I own, or it's one of the other two possibilities. I'm gonna eventually find out for myself once I start watching it, because that part is really kinda bugging me slightly.
So, with all that said, I'm hoping for this thing to be pretty good. I'm not totally sure if it will be, but I am gonna find out for myself. And the only way I'm gonna do that 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 "Amon Saga".
13 minutes later
OK, well, I *was* gonna say whatever that creature was, after breaking off it's skin, looked fucking disgusting as hell. But considering Amon just sliced that guy in half, I don't think it really matters at this point.
13 minutes later
All right, I was hoping that I wouldn't have to bring this issue up until later in the review, but I have to comment on this, because I can't ignore it any longer. The resolution quality on this DVD looks ridiculously pixelated. I don't know if that's just my TV being all like that, but it's really starting to strain my eyes, and it's probably gonna hinder the rest of this OVA, especially if it doesn't improve. I'm hoping that it does, but I sadly don't think it's going to.
8 minutes later
OK, I have a rather dumb question here, and I know it's too late to ask this, but I want to ask it anyway. So, this messenger from the king was killed. And the reason why he was held hostage originally was because one of the 9 men that had been recruited by Emperor Valhiss is believed to be a spy amongst one of them. Wouldn't it have made more sense to use the messenger as a hostage situation? In which I mean, if one of them doesn't come up and admit that they're a spy, then the messenger's life would've been spared? I understand that it wouldn't have made much of a difference anyways, but it's just a thought that came to me, you know what I mean?
9 minutes later
All right, this is starting to get a little annoying now. This is the 4th or 5th time that they've shown this flashback where Amon's mother was killed. I think we already got that point bludgeoned into our heads now. I don't need to see it again, unless you provide some more context to it. Otherwise, I'm getting tired of seeing this flashback already. This is nothing more than padding, and it's really unnecessary, too.
19 minutes later
You know, guys, I would love to say that what I'm watching at this moment is really interesting and I want to see where it goes from here...but I can't. I have honestly just been kinda bored with most of what's been going on right now. I honestly just don't have a lot to say at this point, but I'm still gonna hold out some hope that it will get interesting, now that we're in the final climax and all.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Amon Saga". And let me go ahead and shut this thing off here...OK. Wow, I'm just...flabbergasted. I really thought I was in for something epic here, and what I ended up with was being really disappointed. Yeah, this thing...kinda sucked. I almost hesitate to say it's bad, but I can't necessarily go that far. It just feels very underwhelming is all.
I do have to comment on something, first and foremost. I commented on the questionable runtime that this movie has. I thought it was going to be 90 minutes, as what was advertised on the official DVD release of this OVA. But no, that's actually *not* true. And it's not 80 minutes either, according to Google's search engine. No, the runtime of this OVA is the version that was advertised on YouTube, which was about 75 minutes long. So, I have to ask: Where is the other 15 minutes that this DVD claims to have in order to be 90 minutes long? I know it probably won't change anything, considering the quality of this OVA and all, however, I hate being lied to. Again, this is the *official* version that was released on DVD. And unless there's an uncut version of this movie that I wasn't made aware of, you do *not* advertise a false runtime of something that it claimed it was going to be, only for it to be much shorter than that!
But do you want to know something that's sorta funny to me? Even though this DVD advertised a false runtime, I'm actually kinda happy that it wasn't 90 minutes long. Because if it was, then that would've only added more to the padding that this movie already has. And I may as well just jump right into the writing here. And to start with, the pacing in this movie is just painfully bad. There are scenes in this movie that could've been trimmed down or just cut out entirely, because they do not need to exist. We don't need to be reminded 4 or 5 times that Amon's mother was slain as a child. Any viewer that doesn't have the mindset of a goldfish would've already ascertained this information within their mind without it being, again, bludgeoned into the viewers brain over and over again.
And since I'm on the subject regarding the flashback, the characters in this movie are mostly flat and lifeless. And in Amon's case, that is a *horrible* thing to say, because you would think that, with a backstory like his, you have more than enough reason to care about him getting revenge on the bastards that killed his mother. But no, because Amon has the personality of dried-up paint. There is no reason for you to care about Amon's quest to avenge his mother because his personality is just so bland that it almost hurts. Almost everyone else I can say the same thing, too. The only exception to all this is Gaius. Gaius is the only character in this OVA who's almost the exact opposite compared to Amon, because he actually has something resembling a personality. And ultimately, he ended up being the only character in this thing that I actually sorta liked. There's also this blue creature that only appears two times in the movie to help out Amon, and there's *no* explanation as to who this is and why he's even helping him to begin with.
Now our story here, beyond Amon's quest to avenge his mother's death, also falters into the pacing issues as well. Because this story just feels really uneven and incredibly slow, too. Aside from Amon's own personal quest, there's another character named Princess Lichia, who was kidnapped by Emperor Valhiss. And she's being held hostage until her father, King Darai Sem, can provide him a map that will lead them to the Valley of Gold. Which, I think you can already guess what that entails to. But anyway, the story here feels very unfocused, even for a fantasy movie. Because it doesn't know whether it should focus more on Amon's personal quest or the treasure map. It doesn't really mesh at all. And had this thing been better paced, and better written, it probably could've been extended to it's supposed 90 minute runtime to help flesh it out a bit more.
But as it stands, the writing here is just not very good. This OVA is just put together in a rather clunky fashion that almost nothing here gels very well. And speaking of which, the dub for this movie is also just bad. Granted, in terms of 80's dubs, it's not the worst I've heard, but it's far from good. The dub here is kind of a mixture of being flat, to being a little overly campy at the same time. And as someone likes some campiness, this isn't exactly the good kind of camp that I normally would enjoy. It just fell kinda flat here. Now thankfully, there is an option where you can watch it with the Japanese audio and English subtitles. So if you have to watch this movie, it's recommend that you watch it in that version.
Animation here feels really cheap, as there are some moments of recycled animation that is used here. Mostly in the beginning during the flashbacks. And I don't mean Amon's mother being killed on repeat, I mean there are moments where there's people running, and it will use the same frame of animation at least two or three times. Now thankfully, it's not for entirety of the OVA, but it is still very noticeable. I will say that the art-style is really good, though that could be attributed to the character designs being made from the same guy who created the designs for "Vampire Hunter D". But that's just character designs, the color palettes here are used very well, too. So, I can't say that the animation is all cheap-looking.
I haven't talked about this in a while, but I need to talk about the picture quality on this OVA. Or, at least, the version I have on DVD. Now again, I don't know if this is just my TV that's causing this, but for some reason, the resolution looks very pixelated. And what I mean by that is that there are shots in this movie that looks very low-res. And I can't pick out any particular shot, because it happens a lot in this movie. The most noticeable patterns I've noticed about these shots is whenever a character is suppose to be seen from a faraway angle, and for some reason, they look very pixelated. And I can't figure out as to why this is. I don't know if this is from really shoddy compression issues, or if, again, that's how my TV shows it at times. And what's weird about this is, whenever I pop in any anime movies in my DVD player, sometimes those issues will pop up. But that's only very rarely, and they don't get in the way over the whole experience. The only time I can think of whenever I complained about this issue is when I reviewed "Belle" last year. Those issues popped up a lot, and I theorized that it could either be my TV or if it's just the DVD I own, and that these issues don't happen on Blu-ray. I don't know, because I don't own a Blu-ray player, and I still have no plans to own one.
But yeah, guys, that to me is what mostly turned me off about this OVA, because this one, for some reason, has this particular problem the most. It may just, ultimately, be an issue on my TV, so I'll have to check into that at some point whenever I get the opportunity. But anyway, guys, beyond all of that, the sound-mix here is mixed fine, and the music here is not too bad either. It's not great, mind you, but it's still decent at best.
So, when all is said and done, guys, am I able to recommend "Amon Saga"? If you can, somehow, find it for cheap anywhere, whether it's on DVD or Blu-ray, then I would say give it a shot. Or, if you want to watch it for free on YouTube, it's up on there, at least at the time that I'm writing this review, then sure, go ahead and give it a watch there. But if you plan on getting a physical copy of this thing, make sure it's somewhere within the $5 range. I bought this DVD at one of my local video stores for $12. And that, to me, feels a little bit too high for my tastes. That, plus the OVA's not all that good anyways, so I'm gonna be kinda happy to trade this thing in the moment I get that chance. For now, though, I'm gonna go and watch something better. I think, since I mentioned a couple of times in this review already, I'm gonna go and watch my copy of "Vampire Hunter D", because I'm kinda in the mood for something better right now.
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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