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MOEYO KEN TV: SHINSENGUMI ON THE PROWL (VOL. 1) |
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Monday, 12 February 2007 |
 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | ADV FILMS | | | ▪ | ASPECT RATIO: | | 16:9 ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN | | | ▪ | AUDIO: | | ENGLISH AND JAPANESE DD 2.0 | | | ▪ | RUNNING TIME: | | 125 MIN | | | ▪ | RATING: | | TV PG | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 01/30/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 02/13/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | HOLLY ELLINGWOOD |
At the dawn of the Meiji Era, three women helm the Mobile Shinsengumi, a task force dedicated to helping monsters and humans live side-by-side in peace. They must guard against those supernatural creatures that refuse to be part of the peaceful Monster Registry. The challenge however, is not how they will defeat all unruly creatures and beasties, but how will Kyoto survive in the wake of the calamity these three women tend to bring with them every time to go to work!
Immediately appealing right from the upbeat theme song, Moeyo Ken is fun, it’s lively and it’s a winner all around. The day to day lives of the three girls in early Japan have a great blend of earlier Japanese life mixed with monsters on the prowl and in the streets. Some are peaceful contributing members of society like the cute and sexy cat girl Nekomata. But now and again a monster runs amuck in comedic fashion such as a giant octopus creature under a love spell wanting to kidnap all the pretty ladies in town. When such “danger” comes a calling, it’s time for the three not so competent ladies of the Mobile Shinsengumi to step in and likely make things worse before they get it all under control.
The members are each diverse. There’s sword wielding Kondou who loves to scheme and is money crazy any time there’s an opportunity to make a quick buck. There’s the quieter Kaoru Okita with her spells and supernatural helpers, and then there’s the more mature and sexy Hijikata who is an expert with guns but a little too quick to shoot sometimes. To round off the group is their newest member, the young and sweet Ryuunosuke. He’s level headed and kind hearted and in way over his head with these three hellions. Together they try to keep the peace in Kyoto with not so peaceful results while trying to stay out of debt and keep their office open.
I loved this anime. It was such unmitigated fun. It’s completely undemanding while being sweet and funny throughout. The only real angst occurred towards the last episode on this disc when some dramatic revelations are made about Hijikata. Otherwise the story stays firmly with the fun, whether its love potions, bath house visits or finding a quick scheme to stay out of debt before the debt collector shuts them down. There’s even a bit of romance between Ryuunosuke and the girl Sayoko, if only the two could ever get past their polite kindness to tell each other. Curiously enough, the anime feels a lot like Inuyasha meets Ranma for a lighter side of comedic feudal fantasy. This is curious because although she had nothing to do with the story writing, Rumiko Takahashi was the character designer for the series which is very evident to anyone familiar with either Inuyasha or Ranma. The story of Moeyo Ken was created by Ouji Hiroi (Sakura Wars). This ended up being a great combination of talents because the appealing animation and the story is one of the lighter and more fun series to come out this year.
EXTRAS:
Bonus features on this volume include clean opening and ending animation, ADV previews, storyboards, and commentary form the comedic English ADR Director Charlie Campbell and funny man and versatile talent Edwin Neal (voice of Nekomaru).
IN SUMMARY:
Moeyo Ken TV is a rambunctious comedy well worth the time. Cute girls and funny beasties run amuck for our enjoyment and great laughs in this series. |
