Harmagedon (Collector's Series 20th Anniversary Edition)

Starring:TÃ´ru Furuya, Mami Koyama, Masako Ikeda, Keiko Han, Kaneto Shiozawa, Kenji Utsumi, Yasufumi Hayashi, Hideyuki Tanaka, RyÃ»ji Saikachi, Tomoyo Harada, KÃ´hei Miyauchi, KÃ´ji Yada, Mugihito, Masako Ebisu, Yoku Shioya, KÃ´zÃ´ Shioya, YÃ»ko KatÃ´, Noriko Aoki, Masaharu SatÃ´, Takanobu Hozumi
Director: Rintaro
Studio: Us Manga Corps Video
Product Type: DVD

Description

The evil Genma has already savaged half the universe, and now he's on the way to Earth. Only by mobilizing the world's greatest psychics does humanity stand a chance.

Customer Reviews:

Trust me, you can do better. Didn't age well........2007-04-17

Okay, this is my 3rd and final try to review this title. Hopefully it sticks THIS time. I'll cut to the chase:

1) Harmagedon and Genma Wars are SEPARATE titles, as far as I can discern from available online resources... They follow different plot lines and characters, but may be derivative works from the same original Japanese novels? They share an antagonist named Genma. That's about it. This review pertains to Harmagedon, NOT Genma Wars.

2) The plot is so-so. The usual "kid develops psychic powers / must save the world from the evil being from space" schlock that some other series/movies use.

3) The animation may be from the 80's or a very good knock-off. In my opinion it didn't age especially well. It looks campy, stereotypical in just about every respect, and uses at least one but maybe more repeated cut scenes. One or two of which take place in the "final battle." That really doesn't play well.

4) Character development? What development? Most characters are just dumped on the viewer all at once with no explanation. Remind me why we're supposed to care when they all team up at the end? There's one main character the rest are just useless fluffy filler.

5) Watch just about anything else. Really... Spriggan, I liked. Akira is a classic. Ghost in the Shell is a "new classic." Ninja Scroll and Wrath of Ninja do fighting better. Even Samurai: Hunt for the Sword I enjoyed more, and I don't know if that's saying much... I guess what I'm saying is money can be better spent on one of the othertitles just mentioned.

If you're really into campy 80's anime, or are an anime "completist" get Harmagedon, if not, any of the above are better. Or try something new: Texhnolyze, Haibane-Renmei, Rahxephon, Wolf's Rain - Collections 1 & 2, Virus Buster Serge, Escaflowne, Legend of Himiko, El Hazard The Magnificent World, The Alternative World & The Wanderers, etc. etc.

Genma Taisen is a timeless story........2004-07-25

Yup I gave this 5 stars, deal with it. Yes, this show has horrible animation. Very bad, I agree completely, especially considering when it was produced. However, the I felt was one of the most wonderfully complex and multi-layered stories I have come across in an anime. I've never put too much emphasis animation, although I do enjoy great animation direction, but I can overlook it in some cases including this one. I wish more anime fans could do that instead of being obsessed with how technically advanced the animation is. Obviously this isn't for your run of the mill, immature anime fan who just wants an instant pay-off with flashy animation, instantly relatable characters, and spoon-fed plots. This anime I felt is good because its based on very good source material, and that is why I give it 5 stars. These 5 stars I give less for the producers of the anime and more for Shotaro Ishinomori and Kazumu Hirai who were two of the most brilliant and creative minds that crafted some of the most wonderful stories in fiction. Ishinomori, in particular I consider one of the 3 most important manga-ka in history. This anime is based on Ishinomori's interpretation of Kazum Hirai's Genma Taisen novels. I'm not sure which ones though, since no information is available on them in English. The Genma Taisen series of novels is reportedly incredibly long, having started in the 60's and still ongoing today. The story is said to be one of the most complex and multi-layered sagas ever put to word. This anime relates one of the chapters it this story that follows the lives of the twins, Loof and Jin. I won't go into spoiling the story for you, but subtitle of Eve of Mythology is a good one, because I do believe this is a grand story of mythic proportions. Obviously though, this wasn't the best execution of this story possible with the very badly executed animation, but I still appreciate it much. Perhaps, they had very little budget for animation, but I am grateful I got to witness this story because the Genma Taisan novels and manga probably have a very small chance of making it over the US any time soon. You could defiantly argue it wasn't great, but giving it one star and completely writing it off is just immature and disrespectful. I also feel complaining about the style of the character designs is utterly idiotic. These are the original style of the character designs from Ishinomori's manga. Ishinomori was an apprentice under Osamu Tezuka and his character designs are very similar to Tezuka's. This is the style that all other character designs, including your favorite shows, evolved from. Despite the flawed animation, I enjoyed this show a lot. I suggest picking up the cheap 4 disc collection, which at some places can be found for as low as $23. Also check out Harmageddon which was based on the same series of novels and manga that Genma Wars is based on. However, Harmageddon may be more to the liking of most otaku due to the brilliant animation direction of Rintaro.

A land mark for anime........2004-07-25

I enjoyed this film emensely. Its a great science fiction story from Kazumu Hirai's very long and fabled series of Genma Wars novels. The direction from Rintaro in this film is excelent and visionary. Katsuhiro Otomo's character designs also give this film a nice touch. Hamragedon is the americanized name though. Its real name is The Battle With Genma (or perhaps simply Genma Wars). This film was highly influential in Japan, especially for its realism, and it is considered a landmark among many otaku and those in the industry. The anime tv series Genma Wars is also based on the same novels (and manga by Shotaro Ishinomori), which I also liked dispite extremely low budgeted animation. If only that series had the animation and direction of this film. This special edition DVD is also a very nice package, with a good, remastered transfer, aswell as a very interesting commentary by Rintaro. Highly reccomended.

Possibly the worst anime I've ever seen.......2003-08-02

When I ordered Berserk, which is a spectacular anime, volumes five and six I recieved a demo disc along with them. On the disc were single episodes from five different animes. One of them was Genma Wars. This is quite possibly the worst anime I have ever seen. I'll admit that I've only seen one episode of the series and in most cases it's hard to make an accurate judgement based on that, but Genma Wars is in a completely awful class of it's own. The animation is terrible, the plot is so convoluted you'd think a three year old wrote it and the acting (dub, the only option available on the demo)was probably done by junior high students. With all that said, I did enjoy watching it in a Mystery Science Theatre kind of way with a friend of mine, so if you're looking for something so awful it's funny, rent Genma Wars. Otherwise spend your money elsewhere.

excellent anime! akira even better.......2003-07-21

i love this anime! its great i saw it a year ago then i got it on vhs its a great violent movie its mangas new masterpiece this animes highly recomended

Average customer rating:

A landmark for anime.
Certainly not the worst...
Harmageddon is the Worst Anime Available in the U.S.
Harmagedon, Feels Good

Harmagedon
Starring: Wendy Walker
Director: Taro Rin , and Rintaro
Manufacturer: Us Manga Corps Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Sci-Fi Action | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

Animation | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

Robots & Androids | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Anime & Manga | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Animation | Genres | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: 1562197231
Release Date: 1998-08-05

Customer Reviews:

A landmark for anime........2004-07-26

I enjoyed this film emensely. Its a great science fiction story from Kazumu Hirai's very long and fabled series of Genma Wars novels. The direction from Rintaro in this film is excelent and visionary. Katsuhiro Otomo's character designs also give this film a nice touch. Hamragedon is the americanized name though. Its real name is The Battle With Genma (or perhaps simply Genma Wars). This film was highly influential in Japan, especially for its realism, and it is considered a landmark among many otaku and those in the industry. The anime tv series Genma Wars is also based on the same novels (and manga by Shotaro Ishinomori), which I also liked dispite extremely low budgeted animation. If only that series had the animation and direction of this film. However, get the special edition DVD instead of this obsolete version with horrible picture. The special edition DVD is a very nice package, with a good, remastered transfer, aswell as a very interesting commentary by Rintaro, unlike this crappy disc.

Certainly not the worst..........2001-02-14

...but hardly the best either. Speaking as an anime fan starting back in the 80's, I thought I should add a few comments based on my own experience with the movie.

The visual images are pretty darn good (especially in the imagination sense) for anime of the period. Enough so that I chased down this movie years later so that I could finally see it in a subtitled (preferred) form later and understand the story.

The story does have many weaknesses, as previously described, which can make the movie a miss for some folks and indeed some expository pieces can be painful in the dubbed version. However some parallels can be drawn to the classic Seven Samurai style plot, and can be enjoyed as an adventure story rather than endured and studied as a piece of critical work.

That is certainly an unfortunate thing, since better developed and written, this could have been as good as Akira, since some of the same kinds of elements are there. But seen as a movie that did set the stage for movie's such as Akira, it does have it's place.

As such, it's on my shelf and I like to watch it every few years, but you should definitely consider it a rental until you know if you like it or not.

Technical comments:

* Dubbing, as is usually the case with anime (with a few noted exceptions such as Monoke) is very poor and shouldn't be endured. If I understood more Japanese, I might feel different, dunno.

* The DVD has problems working with some DVD-ROM software (computer based watching). It worked fine in my PS2 player, but a cautionary note for PC-DVD users.

Harmageddon is the Worst Anime Available in the U.S........2000-05-12

I would like to say that I am a fan of subtitled over dubbed. Even so, this is far worse in the original Japanese than even the worst dub. The characters are one-dimensional and caricatures of real people. The movie spends so much time building up the first 3 characters that you would expect to feel something for them; you don't. The remaining cast is not developed. You're torn between hoping that they'll die or the movie will just end now. It never seems to. If only good anime was released with this many minutes of viewing! The "evil" character has no motivation beyond wanting to destroy the universe. If you are new to anime, trust me, this will drive you away from it forever. If you're experienced, you know this is everything that you never liked.

Harmagedon, Feels Good.......1999-11-30

While the animation is somewhat dated, it is a very long and engaging story. Not the best, but very good.

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