Outlanders

Synopsis:

While in the midst of an alien invasion, photojournalist Tetsuya Wakatsuki uses it to his advantage to take pictures of the horrors of war. But Tetsuya puts himself too far into the midst of the battle field and ends baring witness to a few up close murders and it’s executioner… a scantily-clad green-haired woman with a big sword. She takes notice of Tetsuya’s inquisitiveness as he’s rapidly snapping pictures of her in action and turns and faces Tetsuya pointing her sword at him as if to claim him as her next victim. She charges towards him and raises her sword to bring his life to an end but Tetsuya dodges the attack and his alien attacker only manages to accidentally set off his camera and at close range, the flash stuns her. Tetsuya seizes the opportunity and grabs ahold of her pushing her against a wall and as the two are locked in a power struggle. But Tetsuya takes notice that he’s fighting a metallic bikini-clad attractive woman and that the alien girl has stopped resisting his feeble attacks. Tetsuya backs away not knowing what to think but she quickly walks towards him and plants a kiss on his lips and introduces herself a Kahm. Before Tetsuya can comprehend the situation, Kahm knocks him unconscious and takes him aboard her spacecraft as she has decided to claim Tetsuya as her husband.


Reviewer: Endosanity
Number of episodes watched: 1 (Yeah, that's it, one 46 minute OVA)


Review:

Originally from 1986, this short film took almost 10 years to hit the U.S. and this little gem has all the story elements you could want packed within it's short 46 minute life span. You get action, thrills, science-fiction, and romance, in a neat little package that will be leaving you wanting for so much more. The thing is, even with it's truncated presentation it still manages to tell a fantastic tale. From the moment Princess Kham hits the screen you almost feel a slight hatred towards her until she realizes what she is doing is inherently wrong and she changes her status about the attack on Earth and it's amazing how this anime does this... in a matter of minutes! Your view will instantly change and you really start to like this bull-headed girl and her claim to Tetsuya as her husband. Not only that, but you also understand how Tetsuya is trying to comprehend all that is going on with everything being thrown at him at once and how he deals with it without being indecisive or overly shy. Also, this anime starts bringing in more and more side characters but the thing is they only need a moment of screen time to determine your feelings towards them as your outlook towards them will never change throughout the course of the show and this is what I really enjoyed about Outlanders. An amazing cast, a short but compelling story, a wonderfully orchestrated soundtrack, and one of the finest forms of quick but appropriate tsundere romances to ever hit the anime scene... Outlanders should NOT be passed up as the animation still stands out even after being over 20 years old.

(Sorry, no teaser video available)

Recommendation: |Very High|

Media Type: DVD
From: Central Park Media
Languages: Japanese;English
Subtitles: English

*Note - Central Park Media is now defunct and this DVD is out of print. If any of you big conglomerate anime companies are reading this, please, do the anime community a favor and pick this up and re-release it!! *AND*... and put the original Dark Horse Comics dub with it as it was fantastic... and I *hate* dubs! Can't find it? Contact me as I have two, count them "t-w-o", copies of the original VHS tape that Dark Horse released and I'd gladly lend one to anyone wanting to do another DVD release with both the Central Park Media and Dark Horse dub on a DVD... along with subtitles of course. I'm not joking about this... anybody? Hello?