Harimao's Treasure
Heavy Metal Fakk 2
Here is Greenwood

C-Pol's rating:
C-Pol's comments:

The Keystone Cops meet the Gummy Bears as seen in the MTV version of Streetfighter the videogame directed by a 1970s inspired John Woo on serious hangover. That's probably the best way to describe Harimaos Treasure. The second best is probably that by watching this movie I must have burnt of at least 100 years of purgatory. It's bad. It's worse. It's so bad that it's actually pretty good at times. After all, what can you say about a 70-year-old 007 vs. The Transvestite Nazis from Amsterdam?

Harimaos is so full of archetypes that finding something that isn't one is a task worthy of Sisyphus. The crazy Indiana Jones wannabe thief, the femme fatale, the beautiful yet treacherous secretary, the secret agent, the silent killer, the martial artist cum monk, it has them all. Oh, and don't forget the ramen eating persistent yet good-guy cop out to get our hero (he satisfies himself with arresting the transvestite Nazi in the end) and a submarine made wholly out of gold and you've got the ingredients for the most painful 90 minutes of your life. This probably beats going up against the Gracie family in a 24-hour ultimate fighting marathon.

As for the animation it's stale, bland, static and the crew uses stills direct from the storyboard at least ten percent of the time and expects us to believe that they're animated by panning over them in slow-mo. Music inspired by 'read directly stolen' from the Asian power-pop scene and repeated endlessly. Comments on the level of 'ah' and 'oh' and jokes a demented ten-year-old might have laughed at if they fed him enough Prozac.

To sum up; Lupin 3 is about as much fun as running the Boston marathon while accompanied by a whole accountant's convention on tri-cycles. Oh, well, at least I've exercised my willpower by watching the whole thing. And those 100 years less of purgatory might come in handy some day.

Treefinger's rating:
Treefinger's comments:

After C-Pols review I feared the worst, but actually, if you've seen Lupin before, this one can be quite relaxing to view. They overreact a bit on the cop's ramen eating and the other personalities and it's quite far off the epicness of Castle of Cagliostro. But all in all, watchable.

Treefinger's rating:
Treefinger's comments:
The thing I liked about this movie was that it was quite radical unlike other anime. Computer effects are heavily used and makes this a crossover between hollywood space movies and anime. The soundtrack is just as it says, Heavy Metal, which I really want to have in more anime. There is a cinematic sequence where our girly hero leaves for a spaceport accompanied by some metal which I really liked.

Treefinger's rating:
Treefinger's comments:
Nothing that marks this anime from other anime can be said, there is some romance, some humour, no action. The characters are mostly well thought out and most of the story bases itself on the various characters problems and how they solve them. But if you got nothing to do it can be quite relaxing...