Gokudo, Vol. 4: Witches Extraordinaire (2001)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Directed by Kunihisa Sugishima
Character Design by Miho Shimokasa
Translation by Julia Rose

Features:

• production sketches
  
• English and Japanese audio
  
• English subtitles
  

Dindrane's Anime Warnings:

• brainless women galore
• mistaken identity tripe
• a talentless contest

Rating: 13+

Anamorphic: N/A

My Advice: Skip it unless you love all comic fantasies

This time, Gokudo has to deal with a pair of Chinese witches, a curse that makes everyone switch bodies, and a rather odd panda with special powers. Silly and at times just plain brainless, Gokudo is a typical fantasy with the usual troubles, all boiled down into one title. The plot picks up where Volume 3 left off, with everyone having switched bodies. Gokudo in Rubette’s body quickly encounters a pair of Chinese witches and has to struggle with them as he continues trying to reunite his party and attempt to sort out the soul situation.

The problem with the series seems to be that the writers are tossing out everything they can think of in order to continuously top the visual humor of the previous scenes. The result isn’t a clever commentary on Jerry Springer, Chinese lore, and other elements, but rather a hastily-conceived mish-mash of elements that just doesn’t work. It could end up being clever and fun, but right now, as the writers are still relatively new to the series, it’s just stupid and almost grating.

The cast is relatively interesting and well-chosen. Everyone seems to play nicely off of everyone else, leaving very few lulls in the comedy and showing clearly why each character is there in the first place. The voice acting could have done a little better job highlighting this sort of variety, but that usually improves as the series wears on and the actors learn more about their characters. The art and sound are both good, and the title is a pleasure to look at. Too bad you won’t particularly care about the lovely characters on the screen as they aren’t given much to do that’s worthwhile.

The extras are also rather uninspiring. We have some production sketches, which are nice, but that’s it. No outtakes, storyboards, interviews, or liner notes. It is, however, nice to have four episodes on a disc; too bad the complete story arc does not really fit.

Overall, it is funny in places, but that’s it. The plot isn’t particularly clever, the fantasy isn’t really engaging, and the voice acting is mediocre at best. The production values are rather high, but that isn’t enough to save a series by itself. Given that even the comedy skates perilously close to irritating much of the time, I would skip this title until we can see some real improvement in the writing and planning. If you’ve enjoyed the earlier episodes in this title, then you will probably love this disc, or if you are a die-hard fan of fantasy comedies, like Slayers. If you are a harder sell, however, you might want to just give this one a rent and see if you have a taste for it. Otherwise, just skip it until it chooses a direction and sticks to it.