Meltylancer, Vol. 1: Alpha (2003)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Written by TENKY
Directed by Mori Takeshi
Based upon the game released by Sony

Features:

• Textless opening and ending
  
• Glossary
  
• Special clip
  
• Mechanical manual
  

Dindrane's Anime Warnings:

• Predictable as all hell
• Pretty girls with big guns
• Inexplicably silly title

Released by: Bandai
Region: 1
Rating: 13+
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format

My Advice: Rent it.

For years, the Galaxy Police battled a race of dangerous aliens bent on destroying Earth, finally defeating them with the aide of the crack police troup, the Meltylancers. But now, a new alien menace has appeared, and the Galaxy Police have called the Meltylancers out of retirement to face this danger, though their real assignment might not be quite what they’ve been told it is.

The girls of the Meltylancer troup are comprised of the standard police Anime female types. We have: the smart, moody one; the cute, chipper one...even the wet-behind-the-ears male manager. These cliche characters would be impossible to watch if it weren’t for the solid voice work of the actors, especially the English cast, who truly get into their characters and breathe new life and individuality into them.

The plot is also something we’ve seen before umpteen times, and while the animation is gorgeous, it’s just not as much fun to watch as it could be. The storyline is about as predictable as you can get: the government is going to screw these girls over, the sooner the better, and then we’ll get down to the real action and menace. Until then, we’ll get some half-baked jokes, gratuitous cleavage, and some mediocre action sequences.

"Mediocre" in fact sums up Meltylancer at this stage. The plot is hackneyed, yes, but it’s that way for a reason. It's used so much because it provides a decently balanced mixture of character development and action. The near future science-fiction elements work when they’re drawn well, and they certainly are here. It’s just too bad that the creators didn’t do more with the plot or characters; they could have created something more unique and interesting, instead of just rehashing stories we’ve seen a hundred times before in a host of other titles.

The only exception to the "mediocre" appellation is the production values. There is a good batch of extras on this release, including some clean opening and closing sequences, a very nice glossary section that will make sense of this series for those of us who never played the game, and a mechanical manual for fans who like the nitty-gritty of the mecha and such. There’s also a “special clip” that is basically the opening from the old game.

The sound and video are also both quite good. The show looks marvelous and sounds just as good; it’s just too bad that it isn’t more fun to watch. My hope here is that the artists inspired the writers to do something creative, and future discs will reveal more of interest here.

In short, if you like police ensemble anime, then you’ll probably like Meltylancer. They took no risks, however, so if you’re at all tired of such films, then there’s nothing here to draw you back into the fold. Give it a chance if only to keep up in case the storytelling and world design catch up to the art and production standard.