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Rating: 
Summary: Building To The Climax - Another Fine Translation
Review: Star Blazers: The Quest for Iscandar Part V, contains episodes 18-21 (out of 26) of the first season of the cult-favorite Americanized Japanese Anime series from the early 1980's.For the uninitiated, here's a rundown of the plot. In 2199 Earth was under attack by an "evil" alien race called the Gamilons. The Gamilons bombed earth with "planet bombs" which destroyed the planet and emitted high levels of radiation, thus driving mankind into underground cities. In one Earth year the planet would become uninhabitable. Queen Starsha of Iscandar offers mankind hope in the form of the Cosmo DNA which would cure all mankind from the radiation sickness. She sends Earth a message along with powerful technology that will allow mankind to travel to Iscandar to get the Cosmo DNA. Earth's youngest and brightest come together to form Star Force to travel to Iscandar to fetch the Cosmo DNA. Their faithful battleship is the Argo, a renovated WWII era navy battleship remade into a Starship. There is just one minor problem though, Iscandar is 148,000 Light Years away. No one has ever traveled that far before. More importantly, the Star Force only has one year to travel there and back for a total of 296,000 Light Years... The story escalates as the Star Force ventures WAY OUT IN DEEP SPACE to the Planet Balan, the halfway point to their destination of Iscandar. The further in space they get the more the crew's fears of the unknown and of failure escalate. In these episodes we get a deeper look into the characters' personas. Even if they can overcome their own fears, the threat of the deadly Iscandarian General Lysis still looms as they venture closer toward Balan... Here is a summary of the four episodes included on this DVD: Episodes 18: Sandor and Wildstar go up against the Gamilon Magnatron Wave computer, a magnetic wave-generating machine that threatens to tear to shreds any metallic vehicle, including the Argo!!! Can they stop it before it tears the Argo apart, or worse, before the Argo leaves them behind!!! Plus, a look into Sandor's past. Episodes 19: Contact with Earth stirs up the crew's deepest, darkest fears regarding whether they can succeed in their mission. Very powerful episode where Communications Officer Homer completely flakes out from the stress of the mission and his family's deteriorating condition back on Earth. Episode 20: The Battle of Balan!!! The Star Force reaches Balan, the halfway point to Iscandar and come across a Gamilon Base. General Lysis launches his ultimate plan to destroy the Star Force, a two-front attack with missile attacks from the front and a crushing Artificial Sun from the back!!! Plus, Captain Avatar appoints Wildstar "Deputy Captain" as his health further deteriorates. Episode 21: The Star Force prepares for a final cataclysmic battle with General Lysis and all the Gamilon forces in the Rainbow Galaxy. This volume is another solid effort from Voyager. Included in the DVD special features of this edition: 1. "The Star Force Art Galleries:" There are two basic sections to the art galleries. First is the "Friends and Enemies" gallery with drawings of many of the minor Star Force and enemy characters combining both full color drawings and sketches. The second gallery features full color drawings and sketches of the Star Force's planes, ships and space suits. Overall, it's a nice extra, but not worth the price of admission. 2. Yet another shameless trailer for part 6. Overall, this is another good installment in the series. The driving force behind this edition is the collection of episodes themselves. The DVD extras, while nice, are not particularly that great. However, these episodes build nicely to the climax and resolution of the storyline. Summed up, if you were ever a Star Blazers fan, give this (and all the other volumes) a watch. It's great for a trip down memory lane. If you've NEVER seen Star Blazers, give it a try. It's a cult classic from the 80's (along with other Americanized anime greats like Robotech, Voltron, Transor Z, etc). The animation may look slightly dated, but the storyline still holds its own very well against anything out there today. Due to limited distribution this show may have slipped by the radar of a lot of people but it caught on like a fire with those who did catch it. Give it a watch and see what all the hype was about. Highly Recommended
Rating:
Summary: Building To The Climax - Another Fine Translation
Review: Star Blazers: The Quest for Iscandar Part V, contains episodes 18-21 (out of 26) of the first season of the cult-favorite Americanized Japanese Anime series from the early 1980's. For the uninitiated, here's a rundown of the plot. In 2199 Earth was under attack by an "evil" alien race called the Gamilons. The Gamilons bombed earth with "planet bombs" which destroyed the planet and emitted high levels of radiation, thus driving mankind into underground cities. In one Earth year the planet would become uninhabitable. Queen Starsha of Iscandar offers mankind hope in the form of the Cosmo DNA which would cure all mankind from the radiation sickness. She sends Earth a message along with powerful technology that will allow mankind to travel to Iscandar to get the Cosmo DNA. Earth's youngest and brightest come together to form Star Force to travel to Iscandar to fetch the Cosmo DNA. Their faithful battleship is the Argo, a renovated WWII era navy battleship remade into a Starship. There is just one minor problem though, Iscandar is 148,000 Light Years away. No one has ever traveled that far before. More importantly, the Star Force only has one year to travel there and back for a total of 296,000 Light Years... The story escalates as the Star Force ventures WAY OUT IN DEEP SPACE to the Planet Balan, the halfway point to their destination of Iscandar. The further in space they get the more the crew's fears of the unknown and of failure escalate. In these episodes we get a deeper look into the characters' personas. Even if they can overcome their own fears, the threat of the deadly Iscandarian General Lysis still looms as they venture closer toward Balan... Here is a summary of the four episodes included on this DVD: Episodes 18: Sandor and Wildstar go up against the Gamilon Magnatron Wave computer, a magnetic wave-generating machine that threatens to tear to shreds any metallic vehicle, including the Argo!!! Can they stop it before it tears the Argo apart, or worse, before the Argo leaves them behind!!! Plus, a look into Sandor's past. Episodes 19: Contact with Earth stirs up the crew's deepest, darkest fears regarding whether they can succeed in their mission. Very powerful episode where Communications Officer Homer completely flakes out from the stress of the mission and his family's deteriorating condition back on Earth. Episode 20: The Battle of Balan!!! The Star Force reaches Balan, the halfway point to Iscandar and come across a Gamilon Base. General Lysis launches his ultimate plan to destroy the Star Force, a two-front attack with missile attacks from the front and a crushing Artificial Sun from the back!!! Plus, Captain Avatar appoints Wildstar "Deputy Captain" as his health further deteriorates. Episode 21: The Star Force prepares for a final cataclysmic battle with General Lysis and all the Gamilon forces in the Rainbow Galaxy. This volume is another solid effort from Voyager. Included in the DVD special features of this edition: 1."The Star Force Art Galleries:" There are two basic sections to the art galleries. First is the "Friends and Enemies" gallery with drawings of many of the minor Star Force and enemy characters combining both full color drawings and sketches. The second gallery features full color drawings and sketches of the Star Force's planes, ships and space suits. Overall, it's a nice extra, but not worth the price of admission. 2.Yet another shameless trailer for part 6. Overall, this is another good installment in the series. The driving force behind this edition is the collection of episodes themselves. The DVD extras, while nice, are not particularly that great. However, these episodes build nicely to the climax and resolution of the storyline. Summed up, if you were ever a Star Blazers fan, give this (and all the other volumes) a watch. It's great for a trip down memory lane. If you've NEVER seen Star Blazers, give it a try. It's a cult classic from the 80's (along with other Americanized anime greats like Robotech, Voltron, Transor Z, etc). The animation may look slightly dated, but the storyline still holds its own very well against anything out there today. Due to limited distribution this show may have slipped by the radar of a lot of people but it caught on like a fire with those who did catch it. Give it a watch and see what all the hype was about. Highly Recommended
Rating:
Summary: Anime 101- An Introduction!
Review: This series started me on the road to becoming an anime fan, I was 11 when Star Blazers first came to North American TV, and it made quite an impression! It has a mixture of sci-fi, action, drama, romance, and comedy, all of these genres seem to compliment each other very well in this series. While the animation is not as breathtaking as today's, it is still very captivating indeed, and it's storyline will have you glued to the screen. Check out the Comet Empire series of Star Blazers as well, here we see the characters grow, the storyline become complex, and the animation improve in quality. There is a third Star Blazers edition called the Bolar Wars, I haven't seen this one, but I will purchase it soon!
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