BIG WARS was originally released in Japan as DAISENKI. Katsumi Kiode’s screenplay is based on the novel by Yoshio Aramaki. The film was intended as a high concept, cutting-edge animated feature upon its debut in 1993. However the film missed it’s mark, and excels really only in one area; the animation. It is truly gorgeous and close to (but not quite) AKIRA. When you name and promote a film with a title like BIG WARS, you better deliver the goods. As it is, the actual battle scenes, though well done, don’t appear until the last twenty minutes of the film. Speaking of minutes, the other main problem with the film is that it is only 71 minutes long! The other problems are the characters are mostly cutout and the story needs some fleshing out. Also, the editing could have been better to enhance the narrative.

The story takes place in the year 2416. Man has colonized Mars and turned it into an Earth-like planet. Mysterious aliens called the Gods, unhappy with Earth’s expanding space colonization efforts, have begun to attack mankind. The aliens possess awesome machines of destruction, but their first method of invasion (true to X-Files form) is a powerful mind-controlling virus. The virus is invisible, incurable, and highly contagious, and because of it humans no longer trust other humans. Even the most dedicated soldiers have come under alien control.

Earth’s final hope is with spaceship commander Captain Akuh, who has animated sexual intercourse with his cute finance. The government has created a new space battleship called the Aoba and have assembled the best crew available to have Captain Akuh lead the planet Mars to victory. But Captain Akuh’s fiancée is exhibiting nymphomania, the first symptoms of the alien plague. Before you know it, she is holding a gun to her fiancé's head. Captain Akuh must kill his loved one or die.

To make matters worse, the Aoba crew must contend with the Gods unstoppable stealth carrier (called appropriately, HELL) before it finds them. Captain Akuh begins to see bloody illusions of his dead lover. Is it some kind of mind trick played by the Gods, or is it his own guilt and remorse eating away at him? At the conclusion, the crew of the Aoba attack the Gods secret base. The humans wear robotic body armor to help them defeat the Gods in a bloody showdown!

The movie spends a lot of time unraveling the mystery of the aliens, Akuh’s sexual relationship with his fiancé, and the Aoba being launched and attempting to conclude it’s mission. They don’t really show the aliens per se, just their weapons of war. During the scenes when the Aoba is attempting to track HELL, there is some DAS BOOT-style tension where you expect a bomb to be dropped on you at any minute.

The character designs, the futuristic vistas, and the weapons designs are all outstanding and brilliantly executed. The movie (especially the ending) has a dazzling psychedelic effect complete with swirling colors.

SIGHT

This release was one of Image’s first anime releases, and holds up well. The wide screen (1.85.1) image is sharp with super detail. Colors are genuinely bright and appear accurate. Contrast and brightness are good with decent shadow detail. There is no bleeding between colors and no haloing was observed. The blacks are deep and solid. The Martian landscape look great as did the high tech hardware. Numerous scenes of detailed advanced aircraft, orbital fighters, and gigantic desert battleships locked in combat assault your senses. The futuristic cityscapes looked dazzling. This film is pure eye-candy and the transfer delivers.

SOUND

The audio was an impressive Dolby Digital Stereo Surround version. There was not much ambiance or directionality, but you felt surrounded in the sound field, even in conjunction with the English dub. The forward soundstage was crisp and forceful. The bass was effectively used also. The dubbing was a good job for once with the voice actors sound and tone matching their characters well (for instance no women dubbing little kids). Michiaki Katoh’s symphonic synthesizer and military march score did not impress me, but the hi fidelity of the score and crispness was impressive.

FEATURES

No extras, not even a trailer.

CONCLUSION

BIG WARS is not a film with substance, and it has it’s faults (characters, plotting) but fans of adult anime should be delighted with this disk, as it delivers visually and acoustically. For sci-fi fans, its definitely worth a rental. Image has done a nice job with the video and audio, but they still need to work on the menu systems and extras. With the extreme violence, nudity, and sexual situations, this one is not for the kiddies. Interesting observation: at the end of the movie, the end titles reveal that the film is dedicated to the late, great director Ishiro Honda. He died right before the film came out. For those not familiar with Japanese science fiction, Ishiro Honda is a grandfather of Eastern science fiction, having directed films like BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE, THE MYSTERIANS, WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS, MONSTER ZERO, and all the best GODZILLA movies including the original.

BIG WARS is available from DVDEmpire.com

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