 'Hard Rock Saves Space!' shouts the cover & the opening credits. I
suppose if Minmei can save the planet by singing, Oji can save it by
rocking. I'll resist the urge to say "rock on!" at this point...
1 - Stairway to Heaven
New girl at the office, Layla, has a secret - her real
job is in the military, and we're not talking any Earth-based forces
here, either. She's been sent to recruit Oji, depressed salaryman who
still dreams of his days as lead guitarist of Black Heaven, a
heavy-metal band from some 15 years previously. His glory days may not
yet be over, either, as Layla seems to think his playing can save the
world...
2 - All Night Long
The easy part: playing guitar to save the world. The hard part: making
sure the wife doesn't find out you've been sneaking around at night
with a beautiful alien woman. Just as well Layla has her accomplices to
keep Yokko occupied while Oji's playing. Yokko's noticed the recent
change in her husband but still isn't sure what's going on - can Oji
continue to keep his new double life a secret?
3 - Hot House
Yokko seems to think it's a special day, but Oji can't seem to remember
why. Before she gets the chance to remind him, Layla arrives at the
house - in reality to research into why Oji's music has the effect it
does, but as far as Yokko's concerned it's purely work related. Just
more distractions to keep Oji from remembering that it's his wedding
anniversary...
4 - Space Child
It's highschool reunion time for Yokko, so Oji's left to look after son
Gen for the day. The chance to play his guitar leads to some bad
parenting, however, as Oji runs off with Layla for another mission -
Gen follows suit and finds himself in one of the less-safe parts of
Layla's starship. Time for Oji to become the heroic father-figure and
save his son, before the ship's auto-defense systems leave him with
some difficult explaining to do...
So far, so reasonably normal. First scene of episode 1 involves some very
cheap CGI (which is stock footage & reused several times over these
episodes), so I was initially a bit worried. Fortunately the bulk of
the animation is fairly well done - Black Heaven wasn't blessed with a big budget, and it shows, but they did the best they could with what they have.
Story-wise, not an awful lot yet. The first episode introduces the
premise - that Oji's stellar guitar-playing can be used as a defence
against alien invaders - and gives us a chance to get to know Layla
& her 3 stooges. From there, it's 3 episodes of Oji sneaking off to
play his guitar with the beautiful alien woman, and what the other 3
girls have to do to keep Yokko from finding out. If there's something
deeper hidden in there, it's not showing itself yet.
The shallow plot works just fine, though. While it's never going to be held up as a shining example of classic anime, Black Heaven is still enjoyable to watch. Just don't be put off by the OP credits, which don't give any indication of what the show is about!
Overall: curious to see where it goes, but what I've seen so far seems to be worthwhile. |
