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In a far future post apocalyptic world where robots rule and everything has been turned in to a desert wasteland, this is a story of two opposing robots that meet up to have a grudge match. The art style as mentioned in the other reviews is gritty, and the world is pretty standard desert wasteland. The character designs are pretty standard for the time and I got heavy vibes of the old comics from Heavy Metal magazine.

Overall I would say this a decent show, the episodes overall short running time is my main complaint. There is a live action sequence at the beginning and then ... an ending credit scene where they are showing the crew working on the robot etc. other than that if you want to watch a short show that doesn’t eat up much time in your day than I would say give it a shot.

A four episode OVA from the late 80’s about our titular character Miyu and her assistant Larvae. Miyu has been charged with eliminating shinma that are terrorizing humanity. Each episode are stand alone one shots though there is a recurring character who is a spiritualist that is also investigating the strange events that are going on. There could have been more time spent on her but more on that later.

The show is dark and atmospheric at times with some good otherworldly elements and locations thrown in to boot. Eyeball trees for instance are a thing, though they don’t have any function beyond looking cool. The ... Shinma that Miyu and larvae fight are distinct enough from each other to make for an interesting antagonist.

I don’t think you need to know much about the series prior to heading in to the show, thay could have used either a little bit longer run time per episode or even perhaps a 5th episode to tie everything up nicely. Unfortunately this was (like many anime of the time) was an advert for “Go read the manga”. The padded length time or even extra episode could have been spent on developing Himiko Se the spiritualist as I felt she was a bit of a loose thread that could have been explored in greater depth.

The visuals and character designs are quite decent, though the animation is pretty run of the mill, but not horrible. Unfortunately the fight scenes between Miyu and the antagonists are quite cut, paste and repeat, most likely due to budgetary reasons. Overall I would say give these shows a watch and if they intrigue you enough than move on to the tv series, it has a little more time to breath.

Youkai Ningen Bem follows our titular trio Bem, Bela, and Belo on their adventures to protect humanity despite being monsters. This show very much reminded me of being a cross between Johnny Quest and Scooby Doo. The stories where more serious like johnny quest (with elements of humor) and episode titles more reminiscent of scooby doo. The animation is of its time (some jainkey perspectives) but the stories (for what they are) were quitw engaging.

Bem though described as a gangster reminds me more of a noir detective character, Bela and Belo’s description is pretty well on the nose. Belo, the kid is the one that ... often kicks off the helping part of the show due to him more often then naught, observing something that makes him want to get the others if it isn’t something he can handle on his own.

I would consider this show scarier than it’s western counter parts with a more realistic violence tone (like questj that deal with ghosts, foiling kidnappers, and human sacrifices to satan for reasons. So now you’ve been warned, if your sensitive to depictions of this than pass on ths series. Otherwise enjoy the hell out of it.