Gundress (1999)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Directed by Katsuyoshi Yatabe
Screenplay by Orca, Kentaro Izaki, Junichi Sakai, and Kazumasa Fujie
Music by Yutaka Tominga
Character Design by Masamune Shiro
Original Story by Akira Amasawa (Orca)
Translation by Masumi Doeda

Features:

• making-of featurette
  
• English and Japanese audio
  
• English subtitles
  

Dindrane's Anime Warnings:

• tragic love
• le mal politique
• confusion over how action can be dull

Rating: 16+

Anamorphic: Nope. Widescreen letterbox.

My Advice: Stick with Armitage.

It’s 2100, and Bayside City has been built to handle Japan’s international trade. A couple severe earthquakes have left parts of Bayside City in ruins and destroyed much of Japan. For reasons unexplored, Japan has been nearly overcome with terrorism and has turned to a private security group called Angel Arms as a way to help curtail this criminal activity. Alas, the women of Angel Arms find themselves protecting a crime lord known as Hassan from another assassin/terrorist, in the hopes that Hassan will be able to help them stop an even more dangerous criminal. But what happens when one of the heroines is revealed to have past close ties with the assassin?

The characters of Gundress are sadly one-dimensional. The movie is plenty long enough to give us real characterization and development, even given that its an action movie, but instead, we have basically caricatures instead of characters. Alissa is the only rounded character, and even she is not very likable, and not even unlikable in a particularly interesting way. There are issues that the characters must confront, both internally and interpersonally, such as the revelation that Alissa has a rather questionable past… but it’s just not enough. What could be very cool is instead just kind of flat.

The art is really quite nice, providing a contrast between the destroyed areas of the city and any renewed or newer areas that post-date the earthquakes. This contrast is much like the psyches of the Angel Arms, of course, as well as like the good side of Japan contrasted with the seedy underbelly of terrorism and murder. The characters and backgrounds are beautifully drawn and nice to look at, with the colors muted or washed out only when aesthetically advantageous. Too bad the plot and execution are not so well-done.

The audio and video are good enough, but only good. The audio sounded about like an OAV from a decade or so ago, not quite as good as you would expect from a more recent theatrical release. The video was a decent transfer, including the computer animated bits.

The only extra on the disk is a making-of featurette. It has some good information and a bit of background on the film. If you enjoyed Gundress, then you’ll like the feature. If you didn’t, it won’t explain away any of your problems.

Gundress is a good idea that could have been done better. Even lovers of the post-apocalyptic genre like myself will be left wondering what was happening and why. Sometimes, a lot of the details can be right, such as the art here, but the story can still be lacking overall. If you’re a fan of such titles as Armitage III or Ghost in the Shell, then you might want to check this one out if only to reminisce about those other titles. If, on the other hand, you just want to be entertained, then you might want to look elsewhere. This movie didn’t actually do very well in the theatres in Japan (especially the first time, when it was released incomplete to generate funds), and that’s no surprise when you see it here. Sometimes, the more sophisticated anime market in Japan may censure a film we Westerners are willing to swallow, but this time, you’ll have to say their harshness was warranted.