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DISGAEA: THE NETHERWORLD PRINCE (VOL. 1) |
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Wednesday, 07 March 2007 |
 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | GENEON ENTERTAINMENT | | | ▪ | ASPECT RATIO: | | 16:9 ANAMORPIC WIDESCREEN | | | ▪ | AUDIO: | | ENGLISH AND JAPANESE DD 2.0 | | | ▪ | RUNNING TIME: | | 100 MIN | | | ▪ | RATING: | | 13UP | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 01/09/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 03/08/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | HOLLY ELLINGWOOD |
An angelic assassin that will kill you with her cuteness, a demon prince who gives a whole new meaning to being a hellion, and a conniving devil with her eyes on the throne, welcome to the wacky world of Disgaea, an anime like none other based on the hit Playstation 2 game.
Demon prince Laharl is awakened from a long slumber only to discover his father, the Overlord of the Netherworld, has died and the underworld has been thrown into chaos. A demonic brat containing otherworldly powers and a wee bit of a kind heart, he goes on his violent rampaging ways to get back the throne and claim the title of Overlord. Joining him –whether he likes it or not – is the angel assassin from Celestia who is determined in her warm fuzzy feeling ways to open the demon prince’s heart to love and all things fluffy and warm. His other vassal is the scheming devil girl Etna who is as much trouble as she is sarcastically funny. Together this unlikely trio of supernatural characters go into the underworld to create a chaos of laughs wherever they go.
This has more fun than you can shake a pitchfork at! The anime is fast, vibrant and hilarious. The frenetic action and character designs are both entertaining and ironic – the assassin is a sugar-sweet angel with wheat blond hair and a lollipop voice, the heir to the Netherworld is a wee brat with huge red eyes and a big cape, and the conniving Etna is cute too. The lively animation is enjoyable and the antics in the story keep it vigorous and exciting. The closest series to it would be the hyper anime Dragon Half. Disgaea has its own array of weird and wacky fantasy characters and it is equally energetic.
Disgaea has an interesting array of bizarre quirks thrown in I think just for the hell of it (pun intended). It spoofs sound effects and has anime parodies of different American science fiction series. Examples in this volume would be the Robby the Robot like character seen throughout the anime, sound effects that are a sly wink and a nudge at Star Trek and The Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman, and there is a recurring Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers type character.
This anime series hits the ground running with the wacky comedy and does not let up. It’s more fun and energetic than many comedy series put together.
EXTRAS:
Bonus features include a reversible cover, fold out insert, Geneon previews, clean opening animation, and a video interview with Japanese voice actress Kaori Mizuhashi (Laharl) and Sohei Nikawa (Original Creator).
IN SUMMARY:
Disgaea is hellacious fun! It’s manic netherworld mayhem at its most entertaining. |
