Shura-shurato

There is NO excuse in my eyes to write about the sequels, but not the very 1st ova-movie of the franchise?? Damn right it is! One of the reasons I like old school anime is because stuff like this still had entertainment when the credits roll, in a small corner you saw production sketches, extra deleted scenes, further development of the series and unfinished drawings with nice popmusic to listen to, I miss that. This is the 1st installment of the Burn Up serie's started in 1991, so that means EVERYTHING was handdrawn, probably not everyone's taste these days since some animation, especially the girlshere are looking a bit 'stereotypical' but you can look past that. As for the plot it's a not too complex police story for the time, quite easy to follow. Art is typical although I like 1 particular scene then a police car drives on a interstate and the camera zooms out while its driving from above..... well done, Rockmusic tracks together with badass police chicks was always a fav thing to me. And as I said before about the 'stereotypical girl look' , it soon chances as things got more serious and action-packed, leaving the innocent look behind making the chara more likable. Enjoyment is mainly on the comedy/ecchi side I would say if you are a big fan of those genres.

Voivodian

Story: Mostly conforms to your typical, over the top 80s police thriller flick. Buddy cops going rogue to take on the bad dudes with some serious artillery. However, while most 80s villains deal with drugs, these ones happen to traffic female slaves. A serious and rather dark issue for an other wise extremely light hearted OVA. Indeed, this story aspect and all its implications is never seriously touched upon by the OVA. There is overall nothing wrong with the very standard plot apart from the ending which seems rushed and abrupt. Also keep an lookout for 80s pop culture references that do not add anything tothe OVA, apart from make it more blatantly a 80s product than it already is. Art: The animation and art is standard of late 80s, early 90s anime OVAs. A lot of the more intense and usually; vehicular based action scenes are of a higher quality or are at least, more ambitious; ie the shifting multi angle continuous shot during the opening chase scene. Also typically 80s is the mecha design a.k.a. fcking awesome. The mech design seems to take cues from (and indeed pretty much every other aspect) from good old Bubblegum Crisis and indeed, AIC would go on to do BGC 2040. Sound: Once again, the music is your stereotypical 80s glam/hard rock. While mostly only people who lived during the 80s can appreciate that overused drivel, it is still far superior to the could be alternatives for a mindless action anime. It fits and does its job. The sound effects are average. They do the job of bringing the cars and various automatics to life. I wouldn't be able to say much about the Japanese voices but the English dubs are actually above average for an early 90s OVA. Character: The main girls remind me of laid back versions of BGCs main heroines (minus Sylia) in their personalities. The reckless yet loyal action girl characters of 80s anime never gets old and their spunk is always more than enough to single handedly drive an anime and Maki is no exception. Reimi is your typical supporting sidekick character while Yuka (reminding me ALOT of Nene) is the cute character and comic relief though all three characters have comedic moments. Not to also mention, that black cop who's only purpose seems to be spooking our three protagonists. The main villain isn't particularly memorable or formidable but he scores extra evil points for the aforementioned human trafficking. Enjoyment: Like most 80s action flicks, don't take this one seriously and try to enjoy the anime girls shooting the crap out of everything trope that the 80s did so well. Unlike most 80s action flicks however, it seems a shade less in violence and explosion count. Less people and things seem to be blown away than many other 80s action OVAs of same length. This can be probably blamed on the 'climactic' firefight which is nowhere near as high octane or spectacular as the opening chase sequence. Female main characters always means fanservice. Skin is bared but surprisingly, I don't think any boobs slip. However, there is still a fetish fuel torture sequence and of course, human slavery isn't the prettiest topic either. One last thing to mention; while its not great, Burn Up! somehow got popular enough to turn into a franchise!?