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Interzone
(06.29.2002)
Miko's latest and greatest
I must confess that this show is something of a guilty pleasure
for me. I love La Blue Girl.
And c'mon, isn't Miko Mido the cutest thing ever to sport
a hair ribbon? If it's wildly over-the-top excess you're after
and with tongue pressed firmly in cheek, then look no further.
In fact, La Blue Girl returns pitches itself somewhere between
the silly, sexy outrageousness of La Blue Girl while also
giving us a coherent plot a la Lady Blue. These two episodes
form a continuous story and I happen to think the producers
have finally got it right. The half-hour format suits this
series far better than 45-minute episodes. Lady Blue nearly
hit the mark but I found four episodes too long and my attention
wandered. Now all we need is a spin-off show featuring Nin-Nin,
who's (obviously) the real star.
It's been ten years since the first La Blue Girl OVA was
released in Japan, making this one of the longest running
hentai series that I can think of. So what's changed? For
a start, the character designs are new, though not significantly
different. It took me a while to get used to Miko, but I think
fans of the show will appreciate and enjoy the new designs.
Plus Miko gets a cute new outfit, making it worth the price
of admission alone! Maybe. For some inexplicable reason what
was formerly known as 'sexcraft' is now called 'carnal power'
(I had to laugh at the naming of Miko's 'Lady pole' technique).
And they've even re-worked the original theme! Woohoo!
Did I mention the animation? Absolutely gorgeous is the most
appropriate way I can think of describing the visuals. Far,
far better than the vast majority of hentai releases, I was,
to say the least, very impressed. The naughtiness level seems
to have shifted up a notch or two from the rather subdued
(in my opinion) Lady Blue
and well...I've already mentioned the guilty pleasures part,
right? The dub features an unusually 'spirited' performance
from the actress playing Miko's sister (who's had a hair cut,
incidentally) but is otherwise standard fare. But the real
selling point of this DVD is for the commentary feature Mr.
Uber-tentacle himself, Toshio Maeda (ably assisted by Producer
Rusher Ikeda)!
Well, blow me down with a feather; I have seen (heard?) everything
now.
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