Unkai no Meikyuu Zeguy

Mask of Zeguy is a bit of a tease. It's one of those OVAs that would've made a really good television series in the mid 90's, but it's these kinds of tiny quirks that always gets my blood going and encourages me to watch more flavors of anime back in the day. Zeguy had the recipe for success, all it needed was a cook. Or at least three more episodes. STORY (5): It's story is pretty typical for it's era. Girl warped in strange world, magical item/doomsday tool, save world, Toshizo Hijikata as a love interest (wait, what?) You're not really told a lot,but you can see that there definately could have been more. I really liked the idea of featuring heroes from different eras of history to unite and defeat Himiko (which might be another historical reference. I'm not near my resources) from using the power of the mask to take overthe universe/ destroy the world/taunt someone with it, etc. ART (7): The world in this venture is fairly bright and vibrant, although not too spectacular in terms of a fantasy setting. There wasn't too much that was done with the setting of the world that the tale took place in, which is kind of a letdown. The characters look fairly good, mainly Miki herself. She personifies looking really basic and really hot at the same time, especially when she modifies her sailor fuku into a mini-skirt attire, complete with a sleeveless top and using her ribbons to tie down the torn cloth from her skirt around her forearms and calves. Combine this with her tomboyish short hair cut, and she really looks cool. The villians look really good, but I wish they had a chance to be properly utilized. SOUND (5): These voices are incredibly over the top, but it's charming in that really cheesy old English-dubbed style where the actors are trying just a little too hard to the point where it's comical. The music isn't too bad either, but nothing spectacular. The score during the end theme is pretty good, however. CHARACTER (6): As it's pretty short, character development is rather clunky. There's a fight at the beginning between Hijikata and Komei, a bad guy who kinda reminds me of Phil Ken Sebben from Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law a little bit, that just kind of comes out of nowhere, then it's cut to a high school with two girls fighting for undisclosed reasons. Not much to develop, though I really like Miki's interaction with Old Guy (I don't remember his name, or if he had one) and Hijikata, who just rules in almost every anime he's been in. ENJOYMENT (8): If you want something that doesn't riddle your head with bloated, etheological jargon and simply gives you a tale of a teenage girl battling the forces of evil with the most bad-ass samurai ever (Yagyuu Jubei is awesome as well!), this is a really fun little opus to watch. It's got great replay value because of it's simplicity, yet at the same time, you would wish for a series to be made because of the latent potential it has. One thing I found kind of weird is that the mask itself is a little downplayed. Strange. OVERALL (7): Mask of Zeguy really gets me choked up because I'm never going to get anime like this anymore. I'm not comfortable with everything being all dark and methodical when all a show needs is just to let the plot to tell itself. Titles like this one I think should be viewed by everyone who enjoys to anime to their friends. it's far from a masterpeice, but it makes a great anime to show some friends who are over and are just getting into the medium. A nice, basic tale like this makes great starter anime for people on the fence about it.