Knight Hunters, Vol. 3: Lonely Heart (2001)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Directed by Kiyoshi Egami
English Version Directed by Michael Sinterniklaas
Original Story by Takehito Koyasu and Project Weiz
Character Design by Tetsuya Yanagisawa and Kyoko Tsuchiya
Music by Norimasa Yamanaka
Translation by Julia Rose

Features:

• Outtakes
  
• Production Sketches
  
• Japanese Voice Actor Interviews
  
• American Voice Actor Profiles
  
• English and Japanese audio
  
• English subtitles
  

Dindrane's Anime Warnings:

• Rambo had wittier, less clichéd dialogue
• gratuitous sex trying to save a plot
• melodramatic melodrama. And some angst for contrast.

Rating: 13+

Anamorphic: N/A

My Advice: Skip it.

Lonely Heart continues the Knight Hunters saga with five new episodes containing action and more action. In this installment, viewers get to learn the truth about Weiss' ties with the Takatori family at long last. Omi finds himself caputured by the Takatoris, and Aya has to face the truth about Persia. Will she really leave the group forever? And what will they do if she does?

The audio quality is good. Both English and Japanese language tracks were clear without noticeable hissing, crackling, or other problems. The volume was even quite consistent. The video quality is good enough, but just. While there are no animation issues, the coloration leaves something to be desired--from time to time, even within one scene, the tones shift. Also, not all of the scenes have a similar depth of color, as if some scenes were colored with richer colors than others--black in one scene can be barely grey in another. It's enough to be rather annoying, especially given the deep, dark colors and shadowy scenes used so much in Lonely Heart. The look is nice, but the colors need to be addressed.

The extras are nice enough as well. There are interviews with both the American and Japanese voice actors, a feature that I wish would happen more often than it does. The interviews with the Japanese cast is very nice--informative and entertaining. I also really enjoy seeing the outtakes; too few discs do this in my opinion, and it really makes a disc more enjoyable. Besides, it doesn't cost the production company anything extra to create them!

Previous discs in the Knight Hunters saga tended to mix plot and character development with so much chaff, but this volume finally focuses in on what the viewers really want. Given that the previous volumes had a habit of including a "cliché of the week," it was nice to see a disc pretty much clear of such things. Yes, there's still plenty of sex, violence, and conflict for those who like that sort of thing, but there's also an over-arching plot, kind of like a Mexican soap opera with a brain. At long last, there's a point to all the angst.

The character development takes center stage on this disc, as Omi copes with learning his real identity ("Luke, I am your father....") and having to fight for his life and defend his own brother. Given that Omi's personal sense of honour is much at odds with the Takatori clan, I'm interested to know how Omi will handle his current associations--will his compatriots, especially Ouka, be able to trust the offspring of such horrible people? Will Omi be able to trust himself again, or trust his former friends, knowing they're suspicious of him now? And what about Reiji? Will his lust for power destroy Japan, along with the good guys?

Basically, if you love soap operas with all their suddenly revealed secret relationships, then you'll love this volume of Knight Hunters. If, on the other hand, Jerry Springer makes you wish you were a cat instead of homo sapien, then Lonely Heart won't be your cup of saki. If trite dialogue, hackneyed character types, and boring plots spiced up with sex and melodrama don't do it for you, then you're better off looking elsewhere. Yes, it's an interesting idea that could have been much more than it is...it's really a shame that it spends more time being incoherent and pulpy than it really had to be, and doesn't juice as much fun out of "pulp" as it could have.