Silent Möbius, Vol. 1: Earth Under Attack (1998)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Character Design by Michitaka Kikuchi
Directed by Hideki Tonokatsu
Original Story by Kia Asamiya

Features:

• Textless opening
  
• Reversible cover art
  
• Mini-poster
  
• Mini-comic
  
• Japanese and English audio
  
• English subtitles
  

Doc's Anime Warnings:

• Too-reluctant heroine
• Mystical mumbo-jumbo
• Bewildering plot

Rating: 13+

Anamorphic: N/A

My Advice: Own it.

Take equal parts sword & sorcery, giant robots, ass-kicking cyborgs, gun-toting detectives, and threats of demonic destruction of the known world, toss all of this in a blender, and make all the leads female, and you have, in essence, the formula behind Silent Möbius. A handful of women, mostly young and all attractive, form the AMP (Attacked Mystification Police, in a particularly wince-inducing bit of Engrish). The AMP is essentially a supernatural SWAT unit, designed to handle all those threats that are simply beyond the ken of normal cops. In this dystopian Tokyo, such threats are surprisingly common.

The biggest of these threats are the Lucifer Hawks, a newly-arrived demonic lifeform from parts unknown. And the more powerful among these creatures are too much for even the AMP to handle. Until they manage to recruit one Katsumi Liqueur, a latent sorceress descended from a legendary wielder of magic. She rounds out the already diverse set of skills and abilities present on the team, which includes a cyborg, a psychic, a Shinto priestess, a techno-whiz builder, and a "visionaire" (not clear on what it is, but it seems to involve acting as the team's "tactical mind," looking a few seconds into the future to plan the best course of action). Herein lies one of the strengths of the series as a whole - there's something for absolutely any variety of anime fan. Guns, spells, swords, cyborgs, you name it, and somebody in the AMP uses it on a regular basis.

Once duly swayed to join the team, Katsumi finds herself hurled into combat on a frighteningly regular basis. The Lucifer Hawks are drawn to her, you see, because of some hinted-at connection with her father, and a cataclysmic magical event a decade ago at the center of which he stood. So much demonic tail is kicked, large quantities of high explosives are deployed, and Katsumi's magical power grows and grows, hinting that she may indeed eclipse even her father's staggering magical might.

The nine episodes covered in this first set do a fantastic job of setting up not only the wide array of major characters, but also in laying the groundwork for the conflict with the Lucifer Hawks around which the series revolves. The narrative pacing is tight and well-constructed, balancing nicely between character development, action, and plot exposition. While occasional episodes are dedicated to one facet of the show or another, most episodes manage to perform all three of these functions in approximately equal parts. Such careful balance among various story elements is surprisingly rare in an ongoing anime TV series, so it's particularly refreshing to see it pulled off here.

The episodes look very good, as well. Given the relatively young age of the source material, this is perhaps not too surprising, but even for a recent anime series, the video is top-notch. Very sharp images, no artifacting, and rich color saturation combine to make the show look every bit as good as it must have in its original airing (and maybe even a bit better for going digital). The sound is likewise solid, and the voice acting in both versions is quite good. The English translation seems to be quite solid, without any loss of euphemism or colorful turns of phrase.

The remainder of the DVD treatment is a little soft, though not bad by any stretch. Some art galleries, concept sketches, or character bios/profiles would have been nice. Instead, we get reversible jacket art, a miniature comic book, an a small poster depicting the main cast. Beyond these, the only feature to speak of is the textless opening sequence. Nonetheless, Silent Möbius is a worthy addition to any otaku's DVD shelf.