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| 8. Marshal
of Manga 
How does one dissect the mess that is Elf Princess Rane?
Let's begin by advising that the speech is faster
than an announcer at a horse race, we frequently have two or more characters speaking
simultaneously and at cross purposes, not to mention that some things just don't
make sense, and that is compounded by a major character who has a tendency to
speak backwards - the people doing the subtitles took the opportunity to sport
a few jokes as well as throw in advertisements in such quantities as to border
the gratuitous. I had to pause the show about twenty times just to decipher the
backward speech and keep up with the plethora of activities underway at any given
second. Under the premise of the treasure hunting
escapades of the geeky Go, the creators throw in the most eccentric and clueless
characters, stirring them together to create some soppy soup. Not much of a plot,
not much character development, and not many episodes either. Cluttered,
convoluted, and confusing are three words that spring to mind on first impression,
but be patient enough to watch this a second or third time, and you may appreciate
the energy that has gone into the production. There
are many instances calling for hearty laughs and merriment as we track the actions
of Go, who is in turn tracked by elves, a myopic childhood friend, and his sisters
who all look identical (like the Nurse Joys and Officer Jennies in Pokemon). A
three for the storyline, a four for the fun, and a five for the creators' efforts
makes this a quality anime overall. Verdict: Watch
with a clear head and the remote in your hands. Lose yourself in the craziness,
and hopefully return with your sanity intact. |
| 7. Iodine
 
A short, frantic comedy aimed squarely at the teenaged male.
Our hero, the enthusiastically moronic Gou, is essentially a Carrot Glace clone
with a fixation on his own delusions of treasure-gathering. He runs into Rane,
a good-hearted bimbo who doesn't mind going along with his insanity. The bespectacled
neighbor girl, Mari, is similarly indulgent. There is a good amount of humor in
the snappy dialogue, the sheer madness of Gou's multiple lookalike sisters, a
hapless bishounen who talks backwards, and a little elf witch who gets a bit sidetracked
in her dastardly mission. This helps to elevate the OAV somewhat above similar
sex-farce shows, but there's still so much gratuitous nudity amongst the girls,
anyone remotely female is almost certainly going to be turned off by it. Like
most other short episodics, there really isn't time to develop any of the characters,
but in this case, there's not much that can really be done with them anyway. There's
nothing particularly distinguishing about the animation, design, music, or voice
acting. The writers managed to hold the comedy aspect on track fairly well, though
the plot as a whole doesn't contribute much. The American subbed version is a
hoot to watch, if only for the hidden jokes in the backwards text. |
| 4. Cross
Scars  
Rane is as hyperactive a series as you're likely to
find, where the pace rarely slacks and where keeping up with the subs is a job
in itself. Not only that but it's a pretty wacky series as well with a diverse
set of characters and a plot loosely based around Go, our main character's, treasure
hunting adventures. All this makes Rane stand
out as a series slightly unique in its craziness and what little there is of this
series is good to watch. It's always entertaining and amusing but the fact that
it gets cut off after only two episodes means you are left bemoaning its incompleteness,
which is really the only bad point about Rane. Despite
this, if you've got a spare hour and want an anime that's nothing too serious
and guaranteed to keep you entertained then Rane is sure worth a watch. |
| 1. Tempy
Elf Princess Rane is very very energetic. Go is an adventurer
in search of treasure. Somehow a small elf appears, and Go snatches her up and
exclaims his luck for finding an elf. Lots of confusion ensues as there's a language
barrier to overcome (Rane's talking is interpreted as complete nonsense), everybody
speaks in a machine-gun pace, and there's a character who likes to talk backwards
(well, the subs appear backwards, I'm not sure what he's saying in Japanese. Pausing
the dvd shows that the subs try to promote Media Blasters' products). Another
elf pops up, explosions ensue, there's more nudity, and my brain starts melting
:-) It's all very cute, very energetic, and there's quite a few laugh-out-loud
moments. Unfortunately it probably takes a couple of views to really know what's
going on and get every joke (a lot of which loses something in the translation
I bet). Even worse, there's only 2 episodes and they feel like the beginning of
some big adventure which we'll never get to see. Too bad, because what there is,
is very enjoyable. |
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