Babel II, Vol. 1: Call to the Gods (2001)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Directed by Takeshi Ushigusa
Original Story by Mitsuteru Yokoyama

Features:

• Textless Opening
  
• Dub Outtakes
  
• English and Japanese audio
  
• English subtitles
  

Dindrane's Anime Warnings:

• Weird pacing and jumbled plot
• Giant bird attacking Tokyo
• Policeman wearing a false mustache

Rating: 13+

Anamorphic: N/A

My Advice: Rent it.

The show opens by introducing Koichi Kamiya, schoolboy. Quickly, we see that he possesses some kind of psychic powers, as he foresees a falling I-beam and is able to save the life of his distant “cousin.” We also see his powers as he excels at tennis, knowing where his opponent will send the ball next. The result of winning this important tennis tournament is that Koichi is invited to join a secret school society for the créme de la créme, the Hades Club, by the student body president Hikaru Homura. Homura displays his own telepathy, but Koichi is given more questions than answers about the Hades Club, as he is given his own secret code name, “Babel II.” At this point, Koichi passes out, and the Hades Club and their pet doctor run some tests on him to determine that he really is the heir of the first Babel.

Yomi, the secret real power behind the Hades Club, wants to see Koichi now, but first Koichi receives a psychic emanation from the real first Babel and learns part of the history of the Babel Tower. Koichi also meets his spirit guide, a talking panther named Rhodem. Soon, viewers learn that Babel I was an alien who had come to the Earth to help humans, but his technology was too far beyond us, and something went wrong. Babel I set the control tower to watch for the return of his personality and his perfect genetic match who would come back in the future: Koichi.

If all of this seems hopelessly complex and a bit jumbled, it is. The show has a wonderfully complex plot, but just doesn’t take the time to spell it all out clearly and in a natural manner. So we are yanked back and forth to watch explication in a rather disorderly and almost too pat manner. For a while, it seems that every time we see Koichi’s foster father, saying something like “oh, yeah, I should also have told you...” to his daughter. The show’s pacing is just not right, even though the storyline could be quite intriguing with elements of mythology and history woven together with an overarching plot.

The characterization could also have been a bit better. Koichi is supposed to be a sympathetic character, and viewers can certainly feel for his confusion, but he doesn’t seem to have much intent in this series; he just floats along until someone asks him to give up his personality. Certainly we can sympathize also with his desire not to hand over his psyche like that--and yet it feels almost like a footnote in the show, when it could instead be a moving struggle to prove that he is capable without subsuming himself.

The animation is mediocre, but not bad. There are a few places where the computer graphics don’t quite blend properly with the cel animation and where outdated animation styles attempt to blend with more modern styles, but if the storyline were good enough, one could overlook that. As it is, however, it’s just another place where there is tension between competing styles. But maybe that’s the point: to underscore the struggle within Koichi’s psyche as he attempts to maintain his own personality in the face of Babel’s powers growing within him.

The audio quality is similarly mediocre. The voices are neither annoying nor particularly moving, but given the rushed and disjointed storyline, viewers have to feel for the actors trying to find their way in what could quickly become a morass. I determined no real problems with the audio, such as fuzzing, and the music comes across nice and clear.

The extras are kind of nice: we get a textless opening, which is always good for fans of a given show’s animation, and we also get a selection of outtakes from the English dub sessions. These are, as always, a mixture of funny and not, but I like to see them offered on a disc in general.

Overall, this could be a really interesting story if the next few episodes muddle through this complex tale and make some sense of it. It’s worth a rental in case it works itself out as the rest of the thirteen episodes play out, but until we see whether or not it generates more logical congruity and ethos, then I’d say it’s just a rental, not a purchase. It’s not quite a mess, but it balances precariously on the edge of becoming one, though to be fair, it could also become something quite interesting.