Rio: Rainbow Gate! Special

Does Linda dream of electric sheep? STORY Being an OVA, the story is pretty basic. Split up into two smaller stories, it follows Mint's teddy bear, Choco, as she becomes a real person (like in that one episode) and tries to buy Mint a camera. Meanwhile some aliens crash and give Linda the ability to dream. Yes, the plot is as odd as it sounds. And, gotta admit, the section where the crowd turn into robots and point at Mint and her friend was legit actually kinda creepy. ART Honestly quite surprised by how well animated this was. Being as it was made as a pack-in with the DVD/Blu-Ray releases itseemed like it would either be a hastily thrown together OVA or a clip show. But it was neither (there were references to previous episodes but even those had some extra animation). There are some pretty well animated moments and overall the OVA looks better than the show. SOUND Not much to say in the sound department. The voice acting was good. No complaints there. The soundtrack was pretty great. There was a fantastic Chinese-inspired track that may have been in the series but I forgot. There's also a bit (around the 14 minute mark) where they use that Naruto track again (see my review for Rio: Rainbow Gate) but overall the OVA features a lot of the more fun songs from the show. CHARACTER The whole OVA feels very fun. It's clearly just a showcase of weird/funny segments and that's exactly what it does. I was surprised to find myself actually a little sad when Choco turned back into a teddy bear again, having enjoyed life as a human for a while. No, seriously, it did. I was emotionally moved by a fun OVA based off of an ecchi series about gambling. What the hell is wrong with me? ENJOYMENT Yes. My answer is yes. I enjoyed. A lot. Seriously, just like the show, it's fun to watch. Nothing mentally taxing, just lots of fun things happening with a cast of characters I've grown to know. OVERALL If you enjoyed Rio: Rainbow Gate (judging by the reviews, I'm guessing that's not too many people) then this is a great watch. Kinda treat it like it's a "Several months later" episode set after the end of the main series. Or, maybe, if you don't want to watch 13 episodes of Rio, but do want to know what the series is like, maybe give it a try. Either way, I'm gonna give this an 8. Yes, that is one point higher than what I gave the series, but that's because this OVA was 25 minutes of fun.