Metal Fighter Miku - VHS Rental Classics 2

[Sinom Bre]

VHS Rental Classics, Sinom's Case File 2 - Metal Fighter Miku

Pictured is the front cover of the DVD. From left to right: Ginko, Miku, Nana, and Sayaka.

The Fine Print: First released in Japan in 1994-95 by JVC/TV Tokyo (according to the DVD cover). Software Sculptors quickly picked up the first rights for US distribution and presented the series on VHS beginning in 1995, as it says on the first VHS tape cover, which I also own. The AnimeWorks division of Media Blasters distributes the Perfection Collection DVD 2-Disc set.
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The story starts out relatively fresh and interesting, although the opening plot mechanics aren't brand new, by any means, but it has an honest feel to it that helps to hold one's interest. We have the Pretty Four, the champions and only member team of the TWP neo pro-wrestling league. The owner is also trying to get the girls to become idol singers, and they do finally put out a song, but it's window-dressing to the main story. Miku is their newest member and somehow becomes the star, although it's not clear how they decided that so early in the show.

The owner of the much larger league, the SWWP, is a scheming old man named Shibano, who has a history of bad blood with the owner of the Pretty Four. However, it's Shibano's daughter, Yohko, who is in charge of the neo pro-wrestling division of their company. Shibano Yohko is gritty and not afraid to get her hands dirty in the business, but she's also honorable to a degree, especially when it comes to women's neo pro-wrestling, which she adores and secretly participates in. She violently disagrees with her father's tactics and even goes so far as to help Miku deal with them later.

The first nine episodes of Metal Fighter Miku are fairly solid, and it runs surprisingly like a shoujo-fight version of the Rocky story. Episode by episode, the Pretty Four learn to deal with their drunken coach, who actually knows what he's about, learn a new lesson in neo pro-wrestling, and, perhaps, learn a new lesson in life before beating their opponents. And there are some wacky neo pro-wrestling teams that the Pretty Four have to face, and this part of the show is fun. My personal favorite are The Crushers: rather large, ogre-ish ladies in metal suits patterned after earth-moving machinery. One even calls herself "Dump". :D

Old man Shibano and his son, Naoya, initiate increasingly nasty schemes to do away with the Pretty Four so as to discredit the owner. In episode 9, Miku finally loses to the Shibano main team because Naoya has tampered with her metal suit. Yohko (AKA Sapphire) finds out and declares the win null and void and challenges Miku to a fair rematch (her honorable streak rearing its ugly head :), and it is from this point forward that I feel this series starts to decline.

An inconsistency in the story mechanics shows itself a little later, but the "fix" appears in episode 10. Old man Shibano finally hires a mercenary to put the Pretty Four out of action using a military mecha made by a different division of the Shibano conglomerate. The mercenary succeeds in putting Sayaka, Nana, and Ginko out of commission, but Miku, aided first by Sapphire and then by Aquamarine, defeat the military mecha. From here on out it's one-on-one metal suit battles, and that's the problem, as I see it.

We started out with a team tournament, and the series spent a lot of story time building a cohesive and believable team out of the Pretty Four. However, we all know that at some point Miku will face Aquamarine one-on-one, especially since Aquamarine, the current Queen of Neo Pro-Wrestling, is not part of any team. Ergo, we have a plot problem that needs a solution.

Answer? Miku loses to Sapphire in a team match, Sapphire discovers that Miku's metal suit was sabotaged, Sapphire declares for a rematch, Shibano-ojiisan hires a military mecha, mecha busts up the other three of the Pretty Four, and now we are free and clear to concentrate on Miku's solo matches. The team tournament is never mentioned again in the story, and the other three of the Pretty Four are relegated to being additional audience for Miku.

Lame, especially as a fair amount of time was spent on Ginko, who had seeds of doubt planted in her by Naoya until she finds her arduous way back as a team member.

Even the fights post-team aren't as interesting. The writers suddenly developed a need to philosophize on the nature of metal suit wrestling that might normally arise if the plotting had spared any time developing towards that end, but here it just feels tacked on. Much of episodes 11-13 are spent dealing with this issue, and there's even an example of synchronicity in the thoughts of Miku, Aquamarine, and the drunkard coach during the last fight that wants to play like the three are reading one another's minds, and even then, it might've worked if the passage hadn't been so long. The very end is actually kind of neat. We get a big, warm, fuzzy, three-way sportsmanlike rivalry set up between Miku, Sapphire, and Aquamarine.

Don't quite know what to say about this series. It has some genuinely sterling moments, but the ending is rather weak--it largely fails to deliver a climactic and satisfying ending on the initial promise shown by the series. We do see Miku fulfill her childhood dream of meeting and defeating Aquamarine but only at the apparent last-third story expense of the rest of team Pretty Four. It is entitled Metal Fighter 'Miku', after all. :)
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Anime Rating (out of 5): 2.8

DVD Rating: No frills, but no problems with playback--picture was good. No extra key art or stuff, either. Rather plain all around.

Recommendation: To be honest, prior to purchasing this DVD set, I had only seen the first three VHS tapes via rental from back when, and as I've stated, the first part of this series is pretty good, so when it came on sale at RightStuf, I picked up the two-disc collection for $22 US. If I'd seen the whole thing beforehand, I waffle on whether I would've bought it or not. Might be best if rented and viewed before considering it as a purchase.
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Feed the subz and starve the dubz.

--Sinom Bre

Note:  Apologies to Jason Liao for not mentioning earlier his excellent proofreading of the Dominion Tank Police review. Thanks again for the help and where were you tonight when I needed you? ^_-

[Dracos]

Good to see  more reviews from you, Sinom.  ^_^  You write excellent reviews and I'm glad to see you sharing 'em here.

Doesn't sound like my cup of tea either on this one.  Sounds like one that lost direction midway, or had the wrong direction at the start.  Seems more like the start though given your go-over of the beginning.  There's a lot to be said for good teamwork stories and plenty of examples of how well they work.

Dracos
Who falls asleep midpost

[DB]

Yeah, it didn't really work well for me either. Kind of standard for the genre of the time, I thought. Having to watch all 13 eps in a row(it was a one day rental at $3.00 for the whole thing, so that was a bargain) didn't help either. Not that it was bad, just cliche, I thought.

Nice review, BTW. I need to do one for the 13 eps of Peacekeeper Kurogane soon to get back into the groove.

Looking forward to more.