PAL
If
you're looking for some undemanding anime
action then this recent television series (which aired in late 2002 and on
into 2003) just might fill the bill.
Set in a
future Blade Runner-esque city it follows the
travails of a special police unit whose task it is to prevent crimes
before they happen. However, unlike the precogs in
Minority Report they have no actual ability
to predict the future. Instead their police work seems to consist of
randomly following whatever hunches they might have.
Consisting of an entire three members, they are:
(a) A twenty-one-year-old whippersnapper whose main job it seems is to get
into trouble and then be rescued by his partner. Otherwise his day seems
to consist of slacking off and being hassled by the unit's secretary to
finish his paper work (which he never does finish).
(b) The unit's secretary whose main job is to harangue and nag above
twenty-one-year-old into doing his paperwork.
(c) The
guy who seems to be doing all the actual work: the Heat Guy J of the title
- a high-tech android with superhuman strength and capabilities. In fact,
he is the only android allowed within the city's borders - like
Blade Runner, all other androids are
strictly verboten. He is called Heat Guy J because, well, he has to
literally blow off a lot of steam now and then ? and I mean literally!
Vents appear from his body and they discharge steam!
It is peculiar aspect of this particular division that they are so
cash-strapped that they have to sign a form each time they are
requisitioned bullets (only four at a time!) and yet they can afford
having a high-tech super-android around.
Anyway,
Heat Guy J's biggest asset is its animation which is quite
well-done with some good CGI thrown in as well. The plots aren't
particularly original for the genre, but at least they are more coherent
than a lot of anime efforts out there. Heat Guy J isn?t a
genre-bending work like Cowboy Bebop (or as
good as that show), but is fast-paced and quite watchable. And besides,
that bike driven by one of the series? characters makes the ones in
Akira look like tricycles . . .
RECOMMENDATION: It's not Cowboy Bebop (although it's similar
in many ways), but Heat Guy J - despite its crummy-sounding title -
is fast-paced and action-packed, making for not-bad anime.
