Blue Submarine No. 6 Review By Rashad Moore (OVA-4 episodes-First Impression Review)

	Audience:	13+
	Genre:	Sci-Fi/Adventure
	Contains:	brief graphic violence, language
	Rating:	C

Upon seeing the trailers for "Blue Submarine No. 6," I was expecting the nothing less than one kick-ass anime. Like the upcoming movie, "Titan A.E." it combined 2-D hand drawn characters with 3-D CG enviroments and animation. After getting hyped up by the trailer, I asked myself, "can this possibly be the future of anime or what?" Well, folks, sorry to say Blue Submarine No. 6 is not that anime, as amazing as the visuals are, it's nothing more but the Japanese equivalent of "Dinosaur." I heard it was coming to Cartoon Network, but I decided to spoil it and watch the first episode, and right now I can say you don't have to. Read on while I keep rambling....

In the future, most of Earth's countries and cities are finally engulfed by the Earth's rising oceans (Told ya not to mess with the O-Zone layer!) and the last remaining pockets of humanity are under attack by an army of mutant uglies led by the mad scientist, Dr. Zorndyke, who wants humanity on the endangered species list. Mankind's last possible salvation lies with the forces of the Blue Submarine No. 6, who are bent on stopping Zorndyke's mad quest for genocide. We join Mayumi Kino, the main heroine and a soldier from the Blue 6 attempts to convince Hayami, a soldier that has given up the cause, to rejoin the fight.

Blue Submarine No. 6 once again brings up the age old saying, "Don't believe the hype," While Blue Sub No. 6 once again presents us with the cliche "good guys vs. evil guy bent on destrying the world" ploy, this anime does it differently, and not always yielding the right results. It's obvious the creators tried to create an intriging storyline, but it's only attempting to disguise a plot wev'e heard a million times before (You can even see the plot twists come in a mile away.) and goes nowhere fast. The characters aren't much better, the anime strictly focuses on Kino and Hayami and that's it. The other characters are ill-defined and poorly developed, but that means nothing when we can't even give a flip about the main characters as well, Kino is the typically cute anime heroine (but not overbearingly cute), and Hayami is the cold and brooding soldier trying to find out what he is fighting for. (Combine Kyle from Lunar and Heero Yuy from Gundam Wing and you pretty much have Hayami defined). Even Zorndyke himself is shrouded in mystery. These characters are two-dimensional at best, and learning more about them is far from rewarding. With each episode(4 episodes total) running under 30 minitues each, characterzation takes a backseat to the action. But, hell, why should I complain about the story and characters when we have the animation?

From the opening scenes you can tell the animation is nothing less than breathtaking. The integration of hand-drawn characters and CGI make for some awesome action sequences. The water and smoke effects are topnotch and the characters blend in with the CG almost as well as Cowboy Bebop's effects. In short, Blue Submarine No. 6 is pure eye-candy, and with great animation, you have great music as well right? Wrong, the music score is weak and cheesy at best, coming off as a weird-sounding combination of 60's spy and beach movie music that comes off as irritatingly inappropriate and altogether wrong for the setiing and mood of the anime and only. (Yoko Kanno, where are you??)

While the animation is incredible, Blue Submarine No. 6 deserved much better than it really has. A vaguely defined cast, setting and mood leaves an empty and forgettable experience, leaving you only with the animation to gape at. Each tape only lasts 30 minutes with little time for character development. While it's very fast paced, Blue Submarine No. 6 contains no meat at all within it's spetacluar visuals. This review is only based on the first episode, in which I have yet to see the remaining three, hopefully the show will get better from there. But right now I would rather spend my $25.00 on a cool little show called "Cowboy Bebop." You just get so much more for your money that way.

Available Bandai & Cartoon Network. Image shown is not created by atek studios. Review by Rashad Moore. June 2000.