Brain Powered, Vol. 1: Birth [DVD]

Features

• Type: DVD
• Studio: Bandai
• Language(s): english, japanese
• Subtitle(s): english
• Actor(s): Miya Asakawa, Brian Drummond, Alex Doduk, Don Brown, Saffron Henderson, Maggie Blue O'Hara, Matt Smith, Ellen Kennedy, Lalainia Lindbjerg, Cathy Weseluck

Hime, a seemingly normal girl, has her life forever changed when she witnesses the birth of an antibody (a type of mecha) and becomes its pilot. A new life full of danger, excitement and intrigue awaits. But is that what she wants? Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino ("Gundam") and animated by Sunrise ("Cowboy Bebop," "Macross Plus"). A two DVD set with over 3.5 hours of content. Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino and his crew obviously concentrated on the designs for the snazzy-looking robots, rather than the script for this 1998 TV series. A mysterious organization is attempting to raise a ruin from the ocean depths using cyborgs called "Grand Chers" (although they don't sing or wear wigs). When Hime, an ordinary Tokyo girl, establishes a psychic bond with a particularly powerful escaped robot, it precipitates a crisis of faith in 16-year-old Grand Cher pilot Yuu. Their encounter leads Yuu to break with his parents' organization a year later and join Hime in Novis Noah, a group that opposes their goals. Raising that ruin somehow represents a threat to human civilization. But such key points as how the undersea ruin could threaten civilization have been omitted, and the story makes very little sense. Recommended for hard-core mecha fans only. Rated 13 Up: Violence, minor nudity. --Charles Solomon