Gall Force: New Era (1991-1992) Anime OVA Series Review

Gall Force: New Era is a science fiction anime OVA series that was released from 1991 to 1992 and has only two episodes, forty minutes each. It 's the sixth entry in the Gall Force media franchise. and is the last one to feature the same creative team that involves writer Hideki Kakinuma and director Katsuhito Akiyama. Voice actress Naoko Watanabe returns as Catty but we also have in the cast Miki Ishioka, Chisa Yokoyama, Yuri Shiratori, Kaoru Shimamura and Nozomu Sasaki.

In a futuristic Earth in the year 2085, reincarnations of all of the girls (now called Ruby, Crys, Pearl and Diamond) with slightly different designs (by Kenichi Sonoda again) meet after a disaster caused by the GORN, AI that wants to destroy humanity, rises after 200 years to attack the new world. Led by Catty, the group escapes their city in a starship and must now battle the machines.

Going from space battles to post-apocalyptic ground combat, we now found ourselves in another conventional setting: the futuristic, technologically advanced world on the edge of crisis. While several space operas and pulp stories had space as setting, we never quite saw anything like the original Gall Force setting and world, but by the time we arrive at the sixth entry in the series it's very evident that it slowly turned more and more traditional and borderline indistinguishable from other science fiction stories like Dirty Pair or Bubblegum Crisis (the Kenichi Sonoda designs help to make it feel part of that series as well), but while it manages to find some ways to relate it to the Gall Force mythos and lore, it does feel like a natural evolution.

If you noticed, the girls resemble their original versions a lot more in their designs, and they were also given more outward gestures or reactions that add personality to the girls with their exaggerated expressions (this was never “missing” from other entries but it was increased here). Their roles are also more faithful to Eternal Story but since we now get to have a "fall of civilization" type of story we get to see some of their previous normal lives before joining the war against the robots. This context was pretty much missing from almost every other entry since all of them dropped us in the middle of their armed conflicts. With this in mind, I can see why some people might get more invested and might enjoy this one if they felt Eternal Story lacked explanations and strong characterizations.

The conflicts and clashes between the characters are a bit more pronounced than in Eternal Story but it usually doesn't really go anywhere particularly new or different, they are mostly there to give you a sense of how the team behaves and what they are able to do in such an extreme situation. The villain isn't anything interesting and he's the lamest part of the two episodes. Also, the animation from episode to episode is inconsistent and there’s a drop in quality in the second episode, things look flatter, movements are a bit stiffer and the colors arent quite there. This isn't a dealbreaker for me because I thought the designs were cute and I understood that the budget issues and time constraints are normal in anime so I was more forgiving but it could be distracting for others.

New Era highlights an idea inherent to Gall Force and that was an important subtext to its stories: the value and importance of human life (as a collective, a group, a race) on earth, and the sacrifices we are willing to make in order to fight for our species. The ending is kind of bittersweet, in part because of the nature of the story but also because, while a beautiful idea, it's not really much of an ending, it's more of a way to do the same set up we have seen in the first three movies. So it feels sort of like a lot of steps just to get to the same place or repeat the same old thing.

I can probably recommend this one if you had some issues with the first movie. This one has a few drawbacks, mostly because it’s a long set-up rather than a complete epic storyline, but it’s more than watchable. If you liked the previous series and OVA’s then you will most likely have a good time with New Era as well. 

Nemesis 5: The New Model (2017) Movie Review

Nemesis 5: The New Model is a 2017 action/sci-fi VOD movie directed by Z-Movie director Dustin Ferguson and written by Mike Reeb. It's the fifth and final feature film in the Nemesis film series created by Albert Pyun. It stars the usual cast from some other films by Ferguson like Schuylar Craig, Joelle Reeb, Mel Novak, Edwin Garcia, Daniel Joseph Stier and Dawna Lee Heising. However it does feature series regular Sue Price in a rather small role, a bodybuilder who played Alex Sinclair from part 2 onwards. This movie was probably made because Ferguson got the rights to the name of the series after watching the movies during the nineties and being a fan of them.

The Red Army Hammerheads have taken over Earth in the year 2077 and it's up to Ari Frost, who trained with Alex Rain, to rise up against the cyborgs and resist their conquest.

First thing you gotta realize is that this is a microbudget and very short Z-movie made strictly out of a fan's love for the original movies rather than a giant corporation trying to get a few bucks out of the few people who still remember the Nemesis movies, so you have to put up with some low production values, unpolished acting, rushed shooting and staging and some very rudimentary special effects but if you enjoy no-budget cinema this might be for you, particularly if you have some sort of nostalgia for the other Nemesis films. These conditions create a similar feel to the abstraction and surrealness of the original sequels this one takes a lot from but on a much meager budget.

Sue Price comes back for her role and you can tell it's been almost 20 years since the last flick but she still looks very good and has some fun (funny) moments that you can have a good time with. Other characters also come back or are added to continue the storyline of part 2 and 3 specifically, mostly ignoring the unrelated storyline from part four. I forgot to mention that Sue Price is about five feet, so she looks way shorter than the rest of the cast. In the other movies they played this off well enough that some people couldn't notice but as the series went on they stopped using lower angles or tricks to make her look bigger in front of the camera.

Visually there are some inspiring touches like the monochromatic color filters that give some flair and a distinguishable quality to the image, it's quite varied and well done so it never gets tiresome. The rest of the style is typical static camera and very few, if any, movements or flashy techniques. A lot of the movie doesn't really go anywhere and the plot meanders a bit too much from the central characters but I cant say I was bored while watching it even if not much impactful usually happens on Ferguson's films, this one is different in the sense that it has some conventional plot points and development for instance. Like most of his other movies Nemesis 5 is also about an hour and ten minutes long, so it never overstays its welcome.

Only recommended for those who are already familiar with the director and who know what they are getting into. Even if you are a Nemesis completist you might be bewildered by this one.

Gall Force: Earth Chapter (1989-1990) Anime OVA Series Review

Gall Force: Earth Chapter was an action sci-fi war anime OVA series that was released from 1989 to 1990 and functions as a continuation to Rhea Gall Force (1989) and it's the fifth installment in the Gall Force franchise. The same creative team with Katsuhito Akiyama and Hideki Kakinuma was incharge of it, with the voices of Naoko Watanabe, Michie Tomizawa, Eriko Hara, Yuko Mizutani, Maria Kawamura, Hiromi Tsuru, Chieko Honda and Naoko Matsui.

We follow the same human resistance against Paranoid machines. Sandy leads her group of guerrilla fighters to face off against their non-human foes traveling across Earth and uniting the entire race against the menace, awaiting Martian reinforcements and meeting a group of ecological christians, the Geo Chris, as the MME menace approaches.

I do think that the post-apocalyptic setting was a nice modification to the Gall Force formula, it was a fun way to show a needed counterpart to the space setting of the first trilogy, but while Rhea benefited from a short runtime and wonderful action this sequel OVA three-parter isn't as fortunate, even with its merits. The drama is pretty weightless and most of the plot points don't really have much staying power with you, the personality of the characters has also been put on a secondary plane, with the exposition-heavy talks taking the majority of the screentime.

It's a shame that they didn't explore more of the characters considering that this time we follow the exact same ones for an increased amount of time, would have been neat to see more of Score and Sandy developing as friends, or maybe the vagrant Mitty could have been fleshed out or could have been given a bigger role in the narrative but not much is done with them. Score never really does anything else besides being a badass chick with weapons who says one liners and mocks others, but she is very good in that role so I cant really complain about that. At certain moments they make her more sensible and she begins to worry a lot about her companions, giving her a bit of character, stopping her from becoming some sort of walking cliche for some brief scenes. Sandy is the same optimist and the intimate relationship she feels, the responsibility, is very palpable and allows her to reflect on the relationship between her enemies and herself as well as her kind. This pays off to some degree in the climax of the series.

We have some pretty awesome action but the overall animation kind of varies in quality throughout the three episodes, it never reaches the level of incompetent but you can tell there were some shots and scenes that feature some stilted or downgraded animation. Nothing awful but it's a bit distracting. The rest of the OVA series has some delightful sci-fi action that keep you entertained, but they aren't the most impressive or fantastic out of the franchise and might not be enough if you want to binge the series.

It's nothing stellar but it gets the job done as a light action anime. It's a bit convoluted at times, which hurts the engagement and the pacing, but in general I believe that even non-fans of the franchise can jump on either Rhea or Earth Chapter and get something out of it, considering that most of the essential elements were removed or altered.

I mostly recommend the show to those who are already into Gall Force and are completists, stick with it until the final OVA to see how the conflict from the previous chapters gets resolved but don't expect a breathtaking script or outstanding animation.