|
|
Home
|
R2 DVD Reviews
|
|
Written by maehara
|
|
Thursday, 15 November 2007 17:00 |
 Another post-apocalyptic world, another girl surrounded in mystery, and another group of bloodthirsty military types trying to get their hands on her. Stop me if you’ve heard any of this before. Can Innocent Venus bring anything new to an idea that’s been done many times before..?
1 - Hell
In 2010, a series of huge storms rampaged across the Earth, killing 5 billion people and destroying entire countries. A new world order arose, controlled by those with money. In the remnants of Japan, the Logos took power for themselves and maintained their grip on power by the ruthless use of force. The poor they called Revinus - they were banished outside the rebuilt cities, and the military group Phantom were used to make sure no rebellion could ever take root amongst them. Their latest targets are Jin Tsurasawa and the young girl he's protecting, Sana Noto - and it seems they'll stop at nothing to capture them...
2 - Madness
A terrorist group has seized control of a nucelar power station and cut power to one of the Logos areas, so Phantom are called in to clear up the mess. With a nuclear reactor being a rather delicate piece of kit, a softly-softly approach is required - but that's really not Phantom's way, and under the command of Lenny Vikro, Phantom's no-nonsense vice-commander, the terrorists are about to receive a pointed lesson in not messing with the authorities. Meanwhile, Jin, Joe and Sana continue their efforts to stay one step ahead of the authorities, but wherever they go, trouble never seems far behind...
3 - Pirates
Jin and co are caught between a rock and a hard place - with Logos' forces chasing them on land and a pirate ship firing at them from off-shore, it's a case of chosing who he'd rather his captors be, despite an initial show of fighting bravado. In the end, the pirates win - and so the gang find themselves in the care of the Wako, an outlaw group made up of people from areas outside Logos control, trying to make a better life for themselves. The ship they're on is the Ishin - a ship that Phantom's Lenny Vikro has taken a particular interest in. But while Lenny's plotting how to recover Sana for her superiors, some of those superiors are looking for ways to reduce their reliance on Phantom's methods...
4 - Invasion
Having found the Ishin's moorings, Joe heads for the ship in an effort to rescue Jin and Sana. He's able to get on board easily enough and release Jin, but finding Sana gives them a little more trouble - especially as Toraji seems to have expected the escape attempt. Just as Joe's squaring off with Toraji, though, Phantom arrives - and as well as having orders to retrieve Sana, it seems Lenny has a personal score to settle with Toraji. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, however, and Jin and Joe soon find themselves fighting with Toraji's men to make sure Phantom don't get their hands on Sana...
Another day, another post-apoclayptic nightmare world, and I'm left stifling a yawn before we even start. The opening two episodes of the series go a long way to introducing Jin, Sana and Joe on the one hand (our forces of good), and Phantom on the other (deliberately shown to be a truly bloodthirsty bunch), along with some decent views of the world they've found themselves in - all very interesting, and the scenes showing the new-world politicians at work give a good feel of the divide that’s formed between those who live in the rebuilt cities (the Logos, where life goes on much as it did before the storms) and the slums outside (the Revinus, where scraping a living is a real challenge and roast frog could be considered a delicacy). Phantom's forces are shown initially in some unrelated operations that establish their modus operandi (leave no survivors, especially if they’re Revinus, and preferably be as bloody as possible) - never let it be said we weren't warned they were tough muthers - but of the reason why Sana and friends are such wanted people, we're told not a thing.
The list of groups that are after Sana grows as we go on, too, and the connections between them grow ever more tangled – but always leading back to Phantom in one way or another. Perhaps the most interesting bunch are Toraji, captain of the stolen warship Ishin, and the pirates who follow him – you’re never really sure if he’s on the good side or the bad. I like that kind of ambiguity in a character, which makes his scenes that little bit more interesting.
The use of 3DCG animation for the combat scenes is an issue, though. Against the more traditional-looking 2D animation used for the characters and backgrounds, the mecha look out of place, as if they’d just been dropped onto the scene after the fact – as one example, there’s a scene where some 2D soliders are hit by a 3D-rendered truck, and it looks as though the two never actually touch – the sense of perspective is all off. The 3D animation is also noticeably jerkier than the rest. Presentation and technical issues clearly aren’t the be-all and end-all of a series, but in this case it’s a really noticeable issue that gets in the way of getting yourself immersed in the action – you’re too busy wincing at the flaws.
There are issues story-wise, as well. Why is Sana so significant? Why have all these ex-Phantom people struck off on their own, and what are their aims? Could we please get some character development for Jin and Joe, as they’re as much enigmas at the end of this disc as they were at the beginning? There aren’t even any real hints dropped over the course of these episodes as to what’s going on, which leaves me with real concerns about how well it’s all going to be tied up over the remaining two discs.
Reading all that, you’d probably think I was about to give Innocent Venus a thorough slating – I can’t quite bring myself to do that, though. The world it portrays is nicely detailed and believable, there are some good characters thrown into the mix who, given the opportunity and a decent storyline, could become very enjoyable to watch, and there is a sense that there’s a mystery that’s waiting to be uncovered – if the series has enough time left to do that. The battle scenes are generally well-choreographed, and only let down by the poor CG. While the volume as a whole doesn’t quite hold up, there are periods where it is genuinely enjoyable to watch – it just doesn’t quite manage to pull everything together into a coherent whole, and isn’t helped by not being very original in its ideas.
Innocent Venus has promise, but at the moment it’s not really living up to it – too many mysteries are left untouched, never mind unanswered, there’s a real lack of development for some of the lead characters, and some flaky CG doesn’t help the overall package. If some of that promise is made use of later in the series, then this could be a good series – but for the moment the verdict has to be, “wait and see”.
|
|
