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Mezzo - Danger Service Agency
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Animation - 6.7 |
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Sound - 6.2 |
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Story - 5.3 |
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Character - 5.6 |
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Value - 4.7 |
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Enjoyment - 5.4 |
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Average - 5.6 |
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| Average |
3.7 |
| Animation |
4 |
| Sound |
4 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
3 |
| Value |
3 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| Take the humour out of the original OAV and you will get something very much like this. For fans only.
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| Average |
3.8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
3 |
| Character |
3 |
| Value |
1 |
| Enjoyment |
2 |
| Die zweiteilige Mezzo OVA hat mich damals schon kaum begeistern können und fiel allein durch ihre übertriebene Darstellung von Gewalt, einem mehr als dürftigen Skript und tellerflachen Figuren, auf. Von der Serie versprach ich mir, neben ordentlicher Action, nun wenigstens einen HALBWEGS interessanteren Handlungsfaden und das man sich angesichts der Länge von 13 Episoden etwas mehr auf den Cast konzentriert hat. Nun ja, zumindest was die Action angeht kann Mezzo DSA in der ersten Episode schon mal zählbares vorweisen und glänzt vom Start weg mit gut animierten und turbulenten Szenen mit gehörigem Knalleffekt, auch wenn das Geschehen zuweilen ein wenig übertrieben zu sein scheint. Ich wagte früh die erste Prognose dass sich dieser Anime wohl zu einem erheblich großen Anteil auf Action konzentrieren und der Rest (sprich, Cast und Story) eher unauffällig im Hintergrund dümpeln wird, also dass die Serie eher den Weg eines “Burst Angel“ einschlägt. Das ich mich nicht täuschen sollte wusste ich dann 3 Episoden später, als ich mich immer noch fragte wann Mezzo DSA endlich mal anfängt eine Story zu entfalten, denn das stellt sich wie erwartet nicht ein. Stattdessen wird man als Zuschauer mit einem episodischen Verlauf abgespeist, der sich so darstellt das die 3 Mitglieder der DSA immer wieder einen Auftrag bekommen, diesen erfüllen und dann warten bis der Nächste vorbei geflattert kommt. Die einzelnen Episoden sind vom Skript her zu 90% sehr simpel und streuen obendrein noch wie aus heiterem Himmel unpassende Elemente wie Geister oder Aliens mit ein die die ganze Chose recht paradox aussehen lassen. Außer Kopfschütteln fiel mir dazu nicht viel ein… “Gut, halb so schlimm die Action ist ja noch da und die haut richtig rein!“ Tja, mit diesem Gedanken klammert man sich, nach der ernüchternden Erkenntnis dass nicht nur keine Story gegeben ist, sondern auch die Figuren so uninteressant und flach sind wie man sie aus der OVA kennt, an den letzten Strohhalm mit der Aufschrift “Unterhaltung“. Nur schade dass die Action nie wieder das Niveau der ersten gut 2 Episoden erreicht und sowohl von der Präsentation als auch von den Animationen her merklich abbaut. Und siehe da: Auf einmal hat Mezzo DSA gar nichts mehr was sich lohnt angeschaut zu werden und wird zwangsläufig immer langweiliger. Ich kann diesen Anime letzten Endes eigentlich niemandem empfehlen, denn er hat nichts an sich was sich lohnt gesehen zu werden. Spannende Story, interessante Figuren und unterhaltsame Action findet man überall nur nicht hier!
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petran79 |
(2007-11-30 06:43:03) 2006-02-23 08:29:43 |
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| Average |
3.0 |
| Animation |
0 |
| Sound |
0 |
| Story |
0 |
| Character |
0 |
| Value |
2 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| Usually whenever I watch animes I prefer to know about them beforehand, whether from other reviews or if they're top on the list. For Mezzo:DSA I was completely without any information. I hadnt watched the prequel Mezzo Forte either. So the choice was risky and in the first episodes I was wondering whether I made a good choice. Especially episode 4 was perhaps one of the worst 25 minute episodes I've seen.
Fortunately after that the anime got slightly better with some nice action scenes that kept me hooked till the end.
True there isnt any story at all. Except some nice flashbacks relating to Mezzo Forte. The whole concept of one underraged girl, one hacker and one retired policeman forming an agency that undertakes the most dangerous missions (and on top of that their base is a bus on the top of a building) looks insipid and silly. Add also that the world they live in is full of paradoxes. From where did suddenly aliens and ghosts pop up?
But putting that aside the characters can be funny sometimes, especially the puns of kuro san. I havent listened to any voice actor talking that way and with so many impossible to translate jokes. I also liked the barber guy. Unfortunately he appears for a very short time in the series.the rest of the characters are mediocre.
As for animation and sound, nothing special though I couldnt stop myself from listening to the opening theme. It may be the worst but perhaps the most addicting OP. I dont know how they managed it.
It can be enjoyable if you look for a light action anime without taking anything from it too seriously. Thats why renting or downloading it is the best option. I wouldnt buy this at all.
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| Average |
9.3 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| It may seem strange for a female to admit to loving Mezzo Forte, but I do! and I don't even mind the garuitous sex scenes *lol* I always thought to myself Mezzo would make a wonderful anime without the hentai and so when I found out about Mezzo DSA I was really excited about watching it (I treated myself to the new ADV DVD boxset for Xmas ^_^). I can happily say it surpassed my expectations and I loved every single minute and was entertained to the max.
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| Average |
8.2 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| Here what you DON'T WANT TO EXPECT when watch this series: Sex, Boobs, Massive Violent, Anger & Hates, and anything that will raise your sexual feeling.
Mezzo is all about drama and mostly play on detective part. The story go slow pace with not many soundtrack between. This make the series really go smoothly(jazz music) with a good actions scenes when it really matter. Since the story go slow you might got a little bore for all you action-freak but this really remind me of Kaze no Yojimbo. Good drama with good action when it count.
Mezzo-DSA is a good drama, character detail, mystery cases, and a little goodie touching romance O_O
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| Average |
3.7 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
4 |
| Story |
3 |
| Character |
3 |
| Value |
2 |
| Enjoyment |
3 |
| Very useless and boring anime. Not even worth remembering, unless you want to appreciate an anime that has nothing but a cutesy, wannabe-agent main character with two lackeys who just tag along in the action with their own corny personalities, and a girl that comes in later on who looks up to her that just adds with a variety of flaws on its given-cliché concept. The ending theme song that was given was so tacky and annoying. One episode that I thought was infuriating during the middle of story was when she was singing in the car almost non-stop with her little Karaoke machine or whatever. Even though this wasn’t as bad compared with Kite, it just wouldn’t be as great as you might think. Don’t waste time on this, it will never be good when there are of course countless amount of anime that are being made and are exceeding each other with a far better quality of a storyline, concept, character value, and all the other things that you could be missing out.
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| Average |
7.0 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| I have seen 9 episodes, probably i will finish this anime tonight, so i guess that i can give a review according to what i have watched.
I also think that this anime have been a little be underrated. Its not a masterpiece neither the worst anime ever. Mezzo is an average anime that created a lot of expectation because of the popularity of the Ovas.
I really enjoyed the first 5 episodes, even if the animation has a lower quality than the Ovas. The best episodes of the whole series (4-5) has the worst animation, but a great story.
Mikura is a good character, but I think that Harada Kun is my favorite. I really enjoyed episode 6 because of the sneaky view that we got from his past.
As for Asami and Kuro San, they can be really annoying sometimes, but at least Asami is cute. Kuro San speaks funny, but his dialogues are terrible.
And if you hope for some hot action scenes, probably you will be disapointed with this anime. The DSA is really a lame association that fail in almost every case they get involved.
Mikura is a hot fighter and Harada is a high tech genius, but their talents aren´t exploited by Kuru San, a lame leader in my opinion.
Overall is not a bad anime, but it is not the best around, so i wouldn´t recommend it except if you don´t have anything better to watch.
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| Average |
7.4 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
0 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| A bit underrated, I must say. I mean, yhea it's not the best anime out there but definitely not the worst. What it really was is disappointing. Basically, just like in Mezzo Forte, the writers had a chance to actually create something out of pretty interesting characters, but instead, they choose random episode to episode plots with hardly no character devolpment. I thought they finally did something at episode 5 when we discover a bit of connection to the OVA story, but they just ignored it completely in the next 8 episodes, as if they only made the "discovery" in episode 5 to let people know that there's an OVA, in case they didn't know. I don’t know if the producers of this show are the same one from the OVA, and I don’t really know if this anime has a manga, but if there is, I bet they've ruined it here, cause the characters have the potential to be awesome, but according to this TV and the OVA, it seems like nobody wants to 'develop' them, but instead just let you know that they are who they are, they have stories, and that's all you should know. Sure, we find out a bit of everyone’s past, but it was hardly enough, and even though a lot of people seem to dislike this show, I have a feeling that another MEZZO show is just around the corner (that is to say,3 or 4 years from now).Hopefully, they will make a show that these characters deserve.
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Tav |
(2004-10-25 01:09:43) 2004-10-25 01:05:29 |
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| Average |
3.5 |
| Animation |
5 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
2 |
| Value |
2 |
| Enjoyment |
1 |
| One of the worst anime I have ever seen. After the first 5 episodes, I figured it was not going to get any better.
The animation is done well for the most part - but I just don't like the type of style they used. It seems to have a sleezy and dreary sort of look. Maybe that is the point - but I found it to be more annoying than entertaining.
The mixture of dark,disturbing mood and bits of comedy brought on by the male leads just don't blend in together at all.
After the first 5 minutes of episode 1, you will realise how mean spirited this anime is - and you might decide then it might not be for you.
On a side note - I was extreamly irritated by the little "packback high school girl" that wants to be part of the DSA group. Personally, she needed a slap upside the head to get her out of that WHINEY, self indulgent mood of hers. UGH !!!
Totally worthless...don't waste your time on this piece of trash.
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MistaFuji |
(2004-08-25 14:38:05) 2004-08-25 14:28:48 |
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| Average |
3.8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
2 |
| Character |
3 |
| Value |
2 |
| Enjoyment |
2 |
| For me this anime was pure... garbage. I thought, after watching the first 10 minutes, that this would be a really good anime. Boy was I wrong. After the great action scene in the beginning it all just went down hill. Every plot in each episode was dull and had barely any action. When there is an action scene it wouldn't be anything like the first episode. The charaters were some of the most annoying and uninteresting anime characters I have ever seen. A weird guy who is crazy about noodle, a punk rock looking guy who likes making crappy androids that you never see work, and a somewhat bisexual little girl who can barely say one sentence out of her mouth. I could think of better characters than that. One of the more better scenes was a flashback of an action scene in Mezzo Forte. That was so much better than most of this entire anime and that just puts its predecessor to shame because its a hentai. I don't even know why I watched the entire thing. I recommend that nobody come near this piece of work. Just watch the hentai.
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Yakikorosu |
(2004-07-17 00:35:47) 2004-07-17 00:33:46 |
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| Average |
6.3 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| A classic example of taking a good premise and having absolutely no idea what to do with it.
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| Average |
7.2 |
| Animation |
5 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
|
Continuing the Mezzo Forte storyline, I enjoyed the action and some of the stories (I especially liked the double telling of the same 'story' in two episodes from different PoVs).
Small disappointment in the animation quality between episodes 3-12 as episodes 1,2, & 13 were high quality (OVA quality) and the remainder were bordering on hentai level. My rating of 5 for the animation is a median rating, as episodes 1, 2, & 13 would rate about 9+ but the remainder rate around 2 or 3, so it's a rather tough call there.
Decent action, interesting stories (though I wouldn't call them unique) even if a few were rather ridiculous, with enjoyable characters (Asumi-chan is just too cute ;).
If you enjoyed Mezzo Forte for more than just the hentai, you'll probably enjoy this, though honestly, you won't be missing out on much if you just watch episodes 1, 2, & 13, as the other episodes are almost painful to watch when it comes to the animation quality. I do have to admit though that I did enjoy the series, but it's a disappointment as it could have been significantly better if the animation wasn't cheaped out on for the majority of it.
Hopefully a second Mezzo Forte OVA will result and rectify this ;)
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| Average |
6.8 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| The first 2 episodes were just plain top notch. The animation and the humor, hmmmmmmmnice ^^
But after that...wtf happened?
I'mn still liking it, but where's the fantastic action-animation of the first 2 eps and Mezzo Forte?
Add on:
Finished it.
What can I say, After the first 2 eps the animation keeps on being low, except for the last 2 episodes (12 and 13) which even has some nicely animated actionscenes in it.
The story is also low, but doesn't fall into clichees. Which is the main reason why I forgive the poor story. They could have sewed the first 2 with the last 2 episodes together. Why sewing it together? Well you could actually skip the middle episodes, since they don't really contribute with the story, except for some (very) little character development around Asami and the few appearances of our beloved Kazuto. Besides that, not only the general animationlevel would be higher, also they manage to pull of a pretty fine-working ending in episodes 12 and 13 (If one would see it right after watching episode 2)
All in all, it was very entertaining. I love the way Kuro-san and the Barber talks. Sometimes things are linked to the Mezzo Forte past. Mikura is sexy to see and funny to watch (her boobs keep on growing or deflating depending on outfit, environment-light and the focus of the camera ^^)And Asami is kawaii, just the way it's supposed to be :)
I couldn't recommend the series, since one need to seek other things than the story to keep oneselves entertained.
But I can ^^ recommend the first 2 episodes (1 and 2), since they are very very well animated, packed with jokes and cool actionscenes.
People should see Mezzo Forte too and preferably before Mezzo DSA, not only because it's the past in DSA, but also because it's more packing with action and cranked up with the jokes. If you don't like hentai (Forte is hentai, DSA not) check out a censured version, it won't disappoint you.
And Mezzo Forte should be seen twice in a row (so 1,2 then again 1,2) 'cause then you will see the story is really thight and is well-thought.
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Chris |
(2005-04-10 20:43:14) 2004-05-07 02:17:07 |
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| Average |
2.8 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Story |
1 |
| Character |
3 |
| Value |
1 |
| Enjoyment |
1 |
| One word can sum up this anime.
Animation started decent and then fell lower and lower each episode. Later it increased in quality but not enough to compensate.
Sound didn't impress me one bit. Intro was ok but rest didn't feel like it fit in the anime verywell.
Storyline started out almost non existant. Later the plotline took form but they didn't explain the plot branches they made, and was very confusing.
Other than the jiggle effect of the main char, there was little i found entertaining about this show.
Characters were pretty bland to me, and cause me to have a extreme dislike for them.
As for value and enjoyment, i stopped watching this anime fairly quickly.
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|
|
| Average |
8.3 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Simply put: if you watched (and liked) Mezzo Forte, you'll love Mezzo DSA, because it's everything MF was, only more of it. Minus the hentai bits, which apparently confused a lot of people as to their purpose in MF and have even led the categorization of MF as hentai (!).
I strongly recommend watching Mezzo Forte first, since an important part of the plot relies on it and it will offer useful background. Plus, if you won't like the shorter Mezzo Forte it's no use tackling Mezzo DSA.
These being said, if you know Mezzo Forte you already know what to expect. The same fast pacing action, only a bit more relaxed in between due to bigger story space.
There's a new main character besides the 3 from Mezzo Forte, plus very interesting side characters throughout the show.
I really wish people would look beyond the gore and the apparently impossible stunts they pull in all the episodes. Mezzo DSA actually has a very good plot and character development. Unlike in Mezzo Forte, this time we get to know quite a bit more about the characters, since several episodes are dedicated to past moments that have shaped the way they choose to deal with life in the present.
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| Average |
5.0 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
| Animation / Sound:
The animation and sound of Mezzo are average. Not bad, but not great either.
Story:
This is where the series really lacks. The entire series is episodic. There's no consistent plotline besides the last 2 eps. It would have been ok if they had at least made the episodes unique and interesting like in GITS, but pretty much every episode is the same and it just feels way too repetitive after a while.
Characters:
There's nothing extraordinary about the characters. They are your typical anime characters that are all outward and no substance. The series does very little in developing any of the characters.
Conclusion:
Mezzo DSA is truly a disappointing series. There are some nice action sequences, but that's about all this series has to offer. There are a lot better action series out there, you don't need to waste your time on this one.
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SouSou |
(2004-12-12 02:05:29) 2004-04-17 15:03:08 |
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| Average |
2.3 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
1 |
| Story |
3 |
| Character |
1 |
| Value |
1 |
| Enjoyment |
1 |
| Another random download. I thought this series can be better then other action anime with less corniness. After I watched the first episode, it completely disappointed me. I managed to watch the whole series, and I am completely dissatisfied.
We have a type of “a mission of the week� kind of plot in this series. The series never gets interesting until the last 3-4 episodes, which some events that can decide the future of this DSA group. Because of this way too long “mission of the week� plot, there’s no way that one could know the motive of characters. For example: the barber, and the assassin. It is also way too late to develop the characters at that point, thus leaded to some nonsensical events. Ex: The encounter of Mikura and the assassin at later episodes. Other inexcusable aspect that shouldn't be made in any story were here in this anime: There’s no conflict between main characters, the antagonist wasn’t the antagonist anymore without proper reason, the characters’ motive and their interpersonal relationship (Ex. Mikura’s father and the corrupted detective) is not clear…. Ugh!! They never explained any of it throughout the series!! I just wonder why I keep watching this anime even though there’s not a single good aspect I can think of.
Also note that this anime likes to show off Mikura’s impossible moves. In this anime, it indicated that she had obtained Xiao Lin’s martial art skills and can be able to jump around at the building without a stretch. Xiao Lin Kung Fu doesn’t make people as aggressive and repulsive as her. I mean, the staff had ridicule Xiao Lin Kung Fu in the most corny way. Also not to mention her big boobs, which jumps around all the time when she fights. Since this anime is come from a Hentai series, so I will forgive the fan services it had there.
(Since this is a rewrite, I will just keep it short.) In general, NO GOOD!! It was just a nonsensical 13 episode of anime that favors Mezzo Hentai series’ fans, and focuses more on actions. I never watched the Hentai series myself, so I guess this anime is definitely not for me. I guess the people who had watched that Hentai series may understand what the hell is actually going on.
I don’t recommend this series at all. Don’t expect any good aspect of it if you are looking for a good and soild story lines.
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|
| Average |
7.8 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| It's sad to see so many low scores for this anime.
Well, the animation part has done its job well. Nice actions, cool character and enviromental design.
For sound part, I like the OP indeed! Not to forget Kuro-san's special way of speaking ! (I did learn a few more couple of Japanese words with similar pronounciations but different meaning)
The story is composed mainly of different strange missions linked together by the assassination of Kuro-san. So for those who give up early would miss some serious part later.
I particularly like the 2 "puzzle-making" episodes which actually happened at the same time but at different places viewed separately by Mikura-chan & her colleagues. That's a intelligent piece of work!
Just relax and enjoy but don't expect something too serious. Story line is a bit loose but it's a comedy-based animation afterall.
The only thing to complaint is probably Mikuran-chan stands out of the other characters too much.
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|
| Average |
5.3 |
| Animation |
3 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| The first two episodes are really nails. The animation is oav quality so the action is perfectly done. Humour is bang on too and kuros totally messed up way of speaking always left me with a smile. All the characters are great except for one. Why the hell did they have to cater to the pedo audience and put asami-chan in. She's completely worthless, slows down episodes constantly, has a poor voice actor and just pisses me off everytime I see her. There really is no reason for her to be in this series at all.
Episodes 3-7(and presumably the rest of the series too) contain some of the worst quality animation I've ever seen. The amount of animation is probably quartered from the first two episodes and even many of the still images make the loveable characters look distorted and downright ugly. It's really hard to enjoy the action anymore and though the characters are still great mikura voice actor starts giving a really inconsistet performance.
I'm quite surprised the average for this series is still so high.
I loved the oavs btw, even with their unnecessary hentai inserts.
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| Average |
6.3 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| AFTER EPISODE 3....
How can a series descend from generally good to total mediocrity in the space of three episodes. Watch Mezzo DSA to find out.
The series starts with such a bang that the descent into budgetless hell is painful to watch. But the animation, by episode 3, is so bad that you begin to wonder if you're even watching the same show. The karaoke scene in the VW is such a complete waste of time, with so many reused bits of animation, you could SEE them stretching it out so they didn't have to put too much work in, lest the costs blow out. And according to animenfo's episode count, this might be stretched to 24 episodes. If they're going shite this early, I can only imagine the hell that awaits us.
But what about Mezzo DSA generally.... Is this a good show? Well, as I said, to begin with, yes. And most of that doesn't disappear as it goes along, it just seems to be overlayed by a whole lot of things that simply don't fit in with a series of this nature.... The paranormal aspects seem to be a cover for a lack of imagination on the part of the writers.... "If you can't think up viable earthly enemies and situations to deal with, there are always ghosts, aliens and whatnot." It is so jarring with the rest of the show that it made me want to stick my head through the screen to put me and my poor 'puter out of our collective misery.
Character designs are fine, though the designs work really badly with the ropey sections of animation. Well, they're so stylised you just KNOW they ain't gonna work that well. And the music is fine by me.... Well, I'm not often choosy about the soundtrack, so....
Characterisations are as pedantic as I'd hope they'd be, but you really don't get enough time to appreciate them all, and so they often come off as eccentricities on the part of the producers. A few episodes dedicated to individual characters might flesh this out a bit, but Mezzo doesn't seem to be the kind of series to want to do that.
Overall, so far, a disappointingly variable job.
AFTER EPISODE 5....
Having watched these two episodes, I'm starting to recognise another problem with Mezzo DSA.... The actual reaslisation of the scenes and dialogue.
What I mean by this is, when a scene occurs where the characters do and say things that don't actually make sense in terms of the plot's text, and don't actually have a point, you begin to wonder why the producers are doing this in the first place. Episode 4 is a classic example: where Harada and Kurokawa blather on in the warehouse whilst dealing with the android.... Their words are more distracting than anything else, because what they are saying for most of the scene doesn't actually make sense, at least not in the context of most of the action.
Now this might be a problem in the translation between Japanese to English. The tense and meaning is somewhat skewed. It happens in many translations where there is a lot of dialogue: the fight between literal translations and naturalistic translations. But in this case, what is translated seems of little import, and therefore not worth the viewers time trying to work out any hidden meaning behind the words, so for it to be sketchy and difficult to fathom seems odd.
The other problem, the actual realisation of the episodes, is a little easier to define. Episodes 4 and 5 are interlinked and concurrent. Episode 4 follows Harada and Kurokawa, whilst 5 follows Mikura, their paths occasionally crossing and, ultimately, concluding together.
Only this isn't exactly easy to work out by what is presented to us. The first three episodes skip over so much information, for no readily identifiable reason, that you start to believe that those moments in episode 4 where there is no explanation for events are merely the producers doing exactly what they've done before, only worse. Episode 5 clears all of this up, but if you didn't know this when watching episode 4 you'd probably give up on the series altogether.
In animation terms, the obviously thin budget is being used a little more wisely. Only the scene in the club looks dodgy, the rest of the time the ropey animation is not as important. Certainly not as poorly realised as it was in episode 3. Having scenes cut from the original Mezzo Forte oav doesn't hurt, but the difference in both the quality of the original's print used here and in its look make the segueway between flashback and flashforward look shoehorned unnaturally.
If this series was intended to go to 24 episodes, then it is disappointing. The series, by episode 5, isn't exactly leading anywhere interesting and could have done with being pared down to a more budget-conscious 12-13 episodes. At least then, with the same amount of money and time spent on it, it would look a hell of a lot better and remove a lot of the flab.
I guess we'll have to keep watching to find out if it gets any better.
AFTER EPISODE 7....
Well, these two episodes look a lot like consolidation. There is no great improvement in the quality of the animation, and the plotting is on the jaw-dropping side of cliched, but somehow the program's inherent faults really didn't seem to annoy me as much as they did earlier.
Perhaps I've developed an immunity to them. Yeah, right.
Episode 6 is not too bad, although cliched as hell, and its realisation is utterly stupid in parts. But the actual plot itself isn't too bad, and at least it fleshes out Harada as a character.
As much as Mezzo tries to concentrate on Mikura as its "face" (mostly for the fan-service element), both Harada and Kurokawa are, essentially, the most "character-heavy" of the main characters. Their quirks make them far more interesting than their usage allows. So it is nice when they get to be the focus of certain episodes.
Asami-chan is still dull as dishwater, though. Her frailty as a person makes her stand out so much in a series (and a world) with this much violence that, quite frankly, she wouldn't last more than an episode under ordinary circumstances. Episode 7 tries to give her something to do, but even then it only shows how out of place she is in this series. Her "friends" are more interesting than she is, which is saying something. One could understand if they idol-worshipped Mikura and decided to join in, but Asami just doesn't have the backbone.
Nor does she even have much of a background. I was almost expecting there to be some kind of plot twist involving her character in episode 6, where they were comparing her actions in the car to what Harada's girlfriend used to do, especially as they are portraying her as a "work orphan", left to her own devices because of the lack of parent control. It may yet happen, but I doubt it. I don't think they're really thinking this series through quite that well.
And if she had been left to her own devices, would she really be so completely gutless and helpless? I mean, I know it is a case of personality traits, but frankly she seems more like the kind of person who would go straight home from school and lock herself in her room, never to see the light of day until she had to go back to school the next morning.
Yet she lives in _this_ world, where death seems to be around every street corner, and she willingly casts herself into that, wanting to become "stronger", like Mikura. Well, she hasn't exactly shown any tendency towards achieving her goal, not even when she treads, quite frankly, where angels' fear....
Episode 7 is total cliche, like almost everything else about this show, and one that has been frequently done in anime. There is a certain nasty undercurrent about it all, but it really isn't anything that one hasn't seen in anime before. The elderly couple are like every other falsely-kind elderly couple you're likely to meet. That they turn out to be killers is no great surprise, especially in this series.
The "ghost" aspect is also something that has been done before, avenging her death by drawing Asami-chan and, therefore, the DSA, into the mystery of the building. I was impressed only with the willingness to make the old couple so eager to slaughter the two remaining Yakuza holed up in their building. I like series that treat characters with a certain amount of contempt. But really, it was one "high" point in an average episode.
They better remember that there is an ongoing plotline with the guy trying to kill Kurokawa pretty soon, though. If this thing really does go as far as it is supposed to, they're going to need something other than one-off episodes like these to keep it going. I mean, Cowboy Bebop had a lot of one-off episodes, but at least it had budget and thought behind it. Something Mezzo DSA should have had....
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