The Fake OAV was produced in 2000 and brought over to America in 2001, making it one of the first shounen-ai animes to hit English-speaking shores. The anime takes place during Act Five, when Dee and Ryo travel to backcountry Britain to enjoy a few days of doing little more than sitting back and relaxing. Dee has plans for his time alone with Ryo (what else do you think he would do?) and can't wait to get his scheme into play. After all, it cost him $100 and his dignity to get Bikky to stay at home and open up a clean shot at his goal. Unfortunately, the tranquility of the area and Dee's plans are shattered after the murder of another guest, the ensuing mystery case, and the "certain people" who show up, much to Dee's dismay.
FAKE makes a really awesome anime with the perfect balance of action, mystery, romance, and laughs. It's really cute and has several helpful flashback scenes to introduce new audience members to the characters (and satisfy us experienced members with happy joy-joy scenes!) The character voices and Japanese scripting are excellent. The voice actors are absolutely wonderful *stands with stars in eyes* I love it with all my heart, but it sometimes irritates me because the animation's far from the excellence of Matoh-san's drawing style, the color key is somewhat questionable (the clothes *twitches in horror at Ryo's pink pjs*), and they add some really cheezy things into the plot. Have you ever heard of a cop driving a motorcycle through a window to save his koi from death by kitchen knife? And the guy who gets hit by the motorcycle only gets his glasses broken? Riiight.... -_-¡
The English version of the OAV is surprisingly bearable, although not much to look at. The dvd is very plain, with no extras and boring menus, but the sound and visual are good. The subtitles are excellent, with perfect timing, accurate translations, and suitable color and size. Even the dubbing is good, which says something (although I still strongly recommend subbed in its place). There are three different versions available.
DVD Release
$23.00 on Amazon.com Used on Ebay |
VHS Releases
Avalible used on Ebay |
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