Bast Of Syndrome 1 – Fear & Lemons (Animé TV)
Picture: C+ Sound: B- Extras: C- Episodes: C+
It had to
happen. Sooner or later, the death sport
cycle had to rear its head in the Animé world in some way, and though Bast Of Syndrome is for games beginning
at 12, People fight robots with an X-games twist, especially inline skates and
wheel-less skateboards. Though death is
not prominent, the idea of a distracting mass sport in the future while
sinister happenings occur is here. This
first DVD offers these initial five shows:
1)
Lemon Fragrance In The Park
2)
The Secrets Of The Lemon Game
3)
Mysterious Girl, Tiel
4)
Spearhead Dream Team
5)
The Real Fight
Things
change as the real world and cyber world boundary collapse and some kind of
ill-advised magic wizardry is partly the culprit. When it does not get distracted by that
pretentiousness, it can be very amusing and even entertaining. This does not pander to one gender of viewer over
another, which helps it to be taken more seriously than most of the pandering
entries in the Animé world these days.
The characters are more developed than usual, but even that gets
sidelined at times by the technology and “magic” angle. The cyberspace idea is long past played out.
The full
frame image has some good color and consistency throughout, if only it was a
widescreen and anamorphically enhanced show.
This is better animated than most shows of its kind currently, which is
a plus. The Dolby Digital is available
in English Dolby Digital 5.1 AC-3 mix and 2.0 Korean Stereo mixes, with the
English just edging out the Korean. The
Korean is better than expected, though, including on some of the voices. This is better than the dozens of Japanese
tracks we have already heard. The
English voice actors do a better than usual job too. The only extras are previews for other ADV
DVDs, and the opening and closing animated credits of the show, minus text.
The show
works best when it sticks to the characters and comedy, having a sense of fun,
but it cannot always keep on that track.
The show does a decent job of establishing itself in these shows, so
that’s a plus. Bast Of Syndrome is just one of those shows you have to see for
yourself to decide if it works or not, but at least it is more ambitious than
most Animé shows, so it gets points for that.
- Nicholas Sheffo
