It's decently animated by a relatively unknown studio, and that's all we care about for this section. The combat is mediocre but not poor, and I'm glad they kept the mechanics from the game in check (unlike some adaptations out there). Everywhere else, it's merely ok even by OVA standards, this isn't anything notably impressive. It really shines when they animate some concert scenes with Lumen, the pop idol who just so happens to be an extension of Joule. Gunvolt was animated by "LandQ studios", and they did an alrigt job, even with the borderline "generic LN" character designs. There mainly there just for the sake of putting them in this scenario to advertise the game, and it shows since almost none of them have a personality that goes beyond the basic archetypes. It's a lukewarm cast with a lukewarm hero (Gunvolt, who I'm sure is more interesting in the games), damsel in distress (Joule), and Gunvolt's now ex-organization, QUILL, and Nova, the headmaster of the evil organization, The Sumeragi Group. Everyone feels stale and generic, but not stupid or excessively generic. I understand that in 21 mintes, it's hard to really sell a cast of characters, especially when it's an adaptation of a video game, but shows like Steins Gate have proven that to be possible, making us love the cast by the end of episode 1. Well, let's move on.Īnother reason this OVA was boring was due to its characters.
Maybe it was him who fired the shot? He hates adepts, so, why didn't he help kill the enemy adept? We'll never know. Oh, we also see his rival, Copen, randomly because of course we have to shoehorn the rival character to advertise him. All of this may seem too benign for a 3, but, in 21 minutes, it stacks up really quickly, and with no flavor or anything to really mitigate the damage. It all ends on a lazy advertisement of what's to come in the games, as was the case with the other glorified ad anime that came out recently. This was clearly made for fans, as they make no attempt to explain much about anything here, leaving newbies, such as myself, in the dark. In said fight, Gunvolt powers up out of nowhere, and he gets helped by an unknown sniper who isn't even seen by the end of this (unless there is context in the game to prove that it was someone we know), all in the middle of a generic and boring fight scene. However, specifically involving Gunvolt's fight with an adept by the name of Marik, and even before that, that proves to not be the case. If the story was written tightly around that, with no asspulls, deus ex machinas, or any of that, this would be perfectly fine. Gunvolt breaks in, gets caught, has a poorly placed and poorly excecuted flashback, kicks some ass, finds the "core" that he needs to destroy, goes AWOL because it's the hero way and because he can relate to his target, and kicks more ass before getting kicked out. It's all basically a search and destroy mission and a generic OVA. So, why didn't this electrify me in the slightest? Well, let's find out, shall we?īasically, this is the story of how an adept, named Gunvolt, saved an adept by the name of Joule, with the framing decide being that Joule remembers being saved 6 months prior (how did she remember the stuff she wasn't there for? Did Gunvolt tell her? Dunno.). This is coming from the perspective of a newbie that is planning on getting into the series, so maybe fans of the games will have a better time with this one than I did. Even still, when compared to other OVA promo prequels for beloved video games (like Megaman X's "Day of Sigma), this OVA falls flat.
Now, is it as bad as those few? Oh, hell no! It would be a sin to put this in the same ball park as the latter two abominations from yesteryear, and it's not as ridiculously bad as the former title either.
When tearing up Fate/Grand Order: First Order, and it certainly didn't stop us from obliterating Mars of Destruction or Skelter+Heaven. Some of you might bemoan me for ripping on a glorified advertisement for a video game, but that didn't stop us last month I'm not sure how fans will react to this OVA, but I'm not impressed by it. Since the franchise has been a success, it would pretty much be inevitable for someone to make an anime to either adapt or promote the games. From the footage I've seen, it looks like a lot of fun.
Azure Striker Gunvolt is a beloved action platformer series that has spawned two games, with more probably on the way in the upcoming years.