 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | FUNIMATION ENTERTAINMENT | | | ▪ | ASPECT RATIO: | | 4:3 FULL SCREEN | | | ▪ | AUDIO: | | ENGLISH DD 5.1 / 2.0 AND JAPANESE DD 2.0 | | | ▪ | RUNNING TIME: | | 325 MIN | | | ▪ | RATING: | | TV PG | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 09/08/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 11/08/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | HOLLY ELLINGWOOD |
SYNOPSIS:
In Aoba Tsuzaki’s world, everything appears to be normal. This model-building fanatic spends her days alone in her room, happily constructing the plastic robots that dominate her existence. But something sinister stirs beneath the Earth’s surface – and a violent threat to mankind rumbles towards its deadly unveiling. In the calm before the storm, a cross-dressing kidnapper brings Aoba face-to-face with a brutal fighting machine, and her dreams of robots give way to horrifying nightmares. As the world crumbles around her, Aoba is recruited into the clandestine Angel – an elite fighting force that pits giant robots against the ancient Jinki while an unseen evil lurks in the shadows. JINKI: Extend is a world of blinding explosions, intrigue, and battle-hardened beauties hell-bent on revenge. Nothing is as it seems. No one can be trusted. And you fight till your last breath. Contains the complete 13 episode series on 2 discs in one hard shell case.
REVIEW:
Jinki Extend is a cerebrally challenging science fiction mecha series based on the manga by Shiro Tsunashima. Although the story begins with young Aoba and her recruitment into the clandestine organization Angel, the show quickly reveals there is much more than what anyone thinks is going on. With the use of flash forwards in the future and flashbacks, we are given two stories in one that are dependent on each other as they slowly reveal Aoba’s fate and the steps that led her there. In the flash forwards we see the girl Akao and her tie to Aoba is a question that troubles the viewer until near the end. Between the mecha battles and covert organizations, there is a question as to which side is actually the side of good and what is their true purpose? It is a taut and complex science fiction story with a great deal of mecha action that is underlain with human drama and tragedy. At first the show may be challenging to follow switching throughout each episode between Aoba’s story in Venezuela in 1988 and Akao’s story in Tokyo in 1991, but the stories work as a mirror to each other, paralleling the girls’ struggles as pilots in the Jinki. Neither wishes to fight and both are pushed by heinous methods to do what others desire. The show builds to a monumental finale that holds shocking revelations and many resolutions to the numerous mysteries that are shown. With all the gripping and at times hard hitting personal drama and subject matter within the series, some viewers may feel a touch of dissatisfaction in regards to certain loose ends. However there are still many matters resolved if not all the comeuppance one desires for a riveting finale to a challenging and immensely suspenseful series. The anime holds a powerful score by none other than Kenji Kawai, composer of the esteemed Patlabor movies. The opening and ending songs are good but the ending song captures the attention more so and is done by Japanese singing sensation angela. The complex story and ambiguous, often ambivalent characters attracted the attention of its director Mazahiko Murata who did another series Gilgamesh which was also neck deep in mysteries and tackling moral ambiguity. The animation was produced by Feel Production and has excellent use of action, powerful visual inferences when it comes to the hard hitting dramatic scenes, and upscale mecha battles.
EXTRAS:
Bonus features include textless songs and trailers. The series is not in a fold out or slip case with thin packs that break easily, but instead in a sturdy plastic case that holds the two discs.
IN SUMMARY:
Jinki Extend is a taut and complex mecha science fiction series that will attract fans of Evangelion. |
