Jewel BEM Hunter Lime
On my "To Watch" list faster than you can say "flying catgirl"
Review by: Craig "Mr. Otaku" Norris
Length: 3 episode OAV
Genre: Fantasy, comedy
Watched: 1-3, subbed
I guess you can chalk it up to being lazy, but I seem to enjoy short OAVs more than lengthier
series these days. First of all, a mediocre OAV takes much less time to watch than a mediocre
series. And, since there's less to analyze, the reviews for OAVs are a lot easier. Plus, I just don't
have the time to watch 26 episodes in a row anymore (which is what I insist on doing for full-
length series, especially good ones). So let's hope that M.H. has plenty of free time in grad
school. Otherwise, you won't be seeing a new review of anything longer than 12 episodes on this
site for a looooooong time. (Ed. note: Just give it until the end of baseball, fishing, and hunting season, and he should be right back on track.)
Plot synopsis: The Magic Spheres have been stolen from the World of Magic, and the fighter
Bass, the disguise artist Lime, and the shapeshifter Poogie have been dispatched to retrieve them.
After chasing the culprit into the world of humans, the spheres are lost, and are scattered.
Unfortunately for humans, the Magic Spheres absorb the anger and sorrow from everyday objects
to create monsters. Now Bass, Lime, and Poogie must find the Magic Spheres before the
monsters they create wreak havoc on the city.
Artwork: About average for a mid-90s OAV. The character designs run a pretty wide gamut of
creativity. Bass's demon form obviously took a bit of imagination. On the flip side of the coin,
the enemy monsters were just bug-eyed SD versions of everyday stuff (turns out BEM stands for
Bug Eyed Monster. No fooling). So there's nothing too impressive, but it all seems to work out
okay because it's not supposed to be taken too seriously.
Music: The soundtrack is nothing to get too excited over, following the format of most comedy
OAVs. It presents a pair of catchy j-pop numbers for the opening and ending credits, while the
rest is just around for background noise. Honestly, if I had a nickel for every soundtrack that
followed this format, I'd have enough money to put this site on a server larger than CNN.com's.
But Yoko Kanno and Yuki Kajiura can only handle so many projects at once, so I guess there
will always be mediocre soundtracks around.
Characters: The characters are typical of the genre, and their traits are far from subtle in order to
expediate character development. I have heard the main characters, Lime and Bass, described as
what Akane Tendo and Ranma Saotome would be like if they fought monsters. Lime is the
somewhat bossy leader of the party. She uses her ability to change costumes at will to perform
undercover work to find the monsters. Bass is the fighting specialist whose natural form is a
three-eyed, fanged, winged monster who looks rather intimidating. His human form makes him
look a bit dorky, which more closely matches his personality. He's not a good strategist, and is
extremely lecherous, a side of him that Lime has absolutely no patience for. Poogie is really just
a lump of slime with eyes that can change into any object. Usually he winds up changing into
something Lime can use to whack Bass with. Mizuki is a human that Lime befriended while she
worked undercover in a school. Miyuki is, of course, totally oblivious to Lime's and Bass's true
identities, and conveys all the typical warmth and innocence of a schoolgirl. This, of course,
makes her a prime target for Bass's amorous advances, which Lime does her best to squash
(sometimes literally). Probably the most outlandish characters, though, are the monsters that
Lime and Bass have to fight. The monsters turn out to be little bug-eyed things that take on the
forms of common objects. The first monster they fight is a candle that wants to black out the city
to punish humans for forgetting the value of candles. The second is a coin purse that is so
clueless, he doesn't even know how to do anything bad, so he takes up being an underwear thief,
finally winding up as a sort of pet in a girl's locker room. The third is a syringe that makes the
shots at a hospital more painful to punish humans for thinking that shots are painful (can we say
backwards logic?). Easily, the characters are the most entertaining part of the anime, exhibiting
over-the-top personalities ripe for comedic potential.
Plot: The plot is simple, as plots in a comedy should be, but that's no excuse for leaving it
unfinished. There were originally six Magic Spheres, and this OAV only shows what happened
to three of them. Then it just ends, without any indication of where the plot could go from there.
Each episode is a self-contained monster hunt that avoids complexity at all costs, which helps to
keep it more fun. It's unfortunate that this OAV is unfinished, though, because there's enough of
a plot to make the viewer want to see it through to the end.
CHICKS!: There's a healthy dose of fanservice to go along with the monster hunting. Lime is
every cosplay fetishist's dream. With nothing more than a wave of her hand, she can change into
any costume imaginable. During the OAV she takes on the form of a nurse, a schoolgirl, and
even a bunny girl, with all the change taking place during a Sailor Moon-esque transformation
sequence. In my opinion, though, her natural form is the best, when she has cat ears, a tail, and
wings. Her curves are subtle, but still highly noticeable, depending on whatever costume she's
wearing. Mizuki is for fans of generic schoolgirls (and who isn't?). Nothing really makes her
stand out too much, but she's cute enough and naive enough to spark a fantasy or two. For three
episodes the chick quality is good enough, and a sufficient amount of skin is shown to satisfy
most fanservice seekers.
Overall: This is a great time-killer anime, for when you want to watch something that amounts
to little more than an hour and a half of cheap laughs and filler. When you've had too much of
anime that shoves astounding production values in your face, makes you think about the episodes
for longer than the episodes take, or are just so deep and confusing that it makes your brains ooze
out your ears, this will bring you back to equilibrium so you can finally get to watching the Neon
Genesis Evangelion platinum collection without fear of becoming totally overloaded.
IN A NUTSHELL
+ Highly amusing characters
+ Short but well-paced
- Unfinished
Rating: 7/10
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