Sorcerer Hunters - Chocolate, Springs, and Other Hot Things (Vol. 5)

Rating:
Summary: Ehhh...
Review: I am a huge fan of the Sorcerer Hunters manga and feel that the TV series was awful compared to the manga... so you can imagine how excited I was to view the OVA which supposedly sticks more to the manga.

Well, for the first two episodes one cannot argue with that. The first, called in the manga "Seduction, Seduction, Whispered the Trees," consists of Carrot, Tira, Chocolat, Gateau, and Marron going to the hot springs in the winter, and after hearing of the place's reputation for nightly seduction, plot to do just that. As you can probably guess, hilarity ensues.

This episode brings in a LOT of characters who were in the manga but not the TV series, such as the Chips family (consisting of a young boy named Potato/Potee, his extremely young-looking mother Salad with whom Carrot is in lust, and their butler Jeeves/Jii). Two characters who were at first involved with Sacher in the manga are here as well, Eclaire Mocha, Gateau's little sister, and Sirius, Daughter's boyfriend. However, their backgrounds are never mentioned except for how they are related to one of the characters. They are mainly there just to provide humor; a lot of what happens is taken from another volume and another story, but I didn't mind too much as it fit rather well.

The one problem with this story is the fanservice. The manga didn't have half this much... yeesh, keep it away from the kids. It was good to see Chocolat and Tira in their manga outfits... although the fanservice of that was overdone too.

The second episode was taken from a story in the manga volumes 2 and 3, I cannot exactly remember the title. I will admit that this ended up being my favorite (which was a surprise since I thought it'd be boring since I already knew what would happen) if just because of Millefeuille. Mille is in the anime's TV series, but only as a Haz Knight; his cross-dressing, flirtatious, purple-haired persona is never shown. The OVA makes amends to that, and Mille's voice actor puts on a performance worthy of Nuriko from Fushigi Yuugi; I kept wondering if there was a new one. Anyway, this story follows the manga formula: a wonderful mix of humor, romance, and action. It has much less fanservice than the other two, and it is more serious.

I am sad to say that I was looking forward to episode 3 the most, as the Sorcerer Hunters flashbacks are always the best, but it ended up being my least favorite. The story, which is about everyone coming to visit a legendary tree that is finally in bloom that supposedly gives two lovers a happily-ever-after is composed of several different manga happenings and flashbacks, although the flashbacks are the smallest part and the rest is flagrant fanservice and outlandish humor; they only do part of one of Chocolat's back stories.

I was hoping to see more flashbacks, from Tira as well and not just Chocolat, but I would have accepted just Chocolat's if they'd done it in full, but they did not. I think that the problem was that Chocolat's story had a lot to do with Sacher, and they wanted to cut out Sacher from the OVA since it would go against what the TV series said.

There are manga-only characters in this one, too; Onion Glace, Carrot and Marron's father, makes a short and unspectacular appearance (which disappointed me, as Onion is a rather big part of the manga and one of my favorite characters). There is a brief glimpse of Apricot Glace, the boys' mother, but she doesn't say anything and I have to wonder if people who haven't read the manga will know who she is. Again, I was disappointed by this since Apricot is an extremely important part of the manga. Another cameo character is Grandpa, who appears to have just stuck in so the manga-readers would get it and giggle. Mission accomplished... I laughed when I saw him, myself.

The episode also hinted more at a Chocolat/Carrot pairing; if you watched just the OVA you would probably like the pairing more than, say, Tira/Carrot. I am not necessarily saying this is bad (although I do prefer Tira/Carrot), but the crazy OVA didn't really capture the emotions between those three.

I think that the problem is that the OVA is like neither the manga nor the TV series (it is very close to the manga, of course, but the transition from manga to anime is always tough to make) so the characters to me were like new people; therefore it was though as I were seeing them for the first time and did not see any real developments or anything. Even the animation style was different, which felt off-balance since this was the first time I was seeing it. I do not think that an OVA was enough to try to swing the series back into manga cannon.

However, this is coming from a nitpicky Sorcerer Hunters freak. If you do not mind the neverending fanservice or the humor where there shouldn't be (keep in mind that I love the manga's humor, but it didn't go completely overboard like that) I recommend the series. In fact, I think that fans of the manga should watch it to catch the references, and that fans of the anime TV series should watch it to see what it should have been more like.

The animation itself was good; I loved the manga-esque change in styles during fantasy scenes.

One more thing... it was good to see Marron back to his old sweatdropping self.

Rating:
Summary: so-so
Review: I just bought this this past weekend. I saw the whole tv series, and read some of the manga already, and this was sort of like they were attempting a hybrid of the two. It introduced characters who were in the manga but not in the tv series, but didn't do enough character development to give their inclusion any meaning. Maybe if they were releasing the whole manga on dvd, they would have time to do this, but with just 3 short episodes, they tried to cram a lot in and it was just too confusing and kept jumping around a lot. The characters were a lot more over-the-top then the tv series, and there was a lot of eye-candy for eye-candy's sake. It was a lot more risque than the tv series, which is consistent with the manga, but what we gained in nudity scenes, we lost in character charm. The tv series had a subtlety about it that added to it's charm, instead of being so in-your-face. That may be a plus or a minus depending on why you watch. I was used to the characters and the style of the tv series, so this was kind of out of left field. Big Momma singing? Gateau smacking his little sister around? It seemed kind of alien to me.

Rating:
Summary: so-so
Review: I just bought this this past weekend. I saw the whole tv series, and read some of the manga already, and this was sort of like they were attempting a hybrid of the two. It introduced characters who were in the manga but not in the tv series, but didn't do enough character development to give their inclusion any meaning. Maybe if they were releasing the whole manga on dvd, they would have time to do this, but with just 3 short episodes, they tried to cram a lot in and it was just too confusing and kept jumping around a lot. The characters were a lot more over-the-top then the tv series, and there was a lot of eye-candy for eye-candy's sake. It was a lot more risque than the tv series, which is consistent with the manga, but what we gained in nudity scenes, we lost in character charm. The tv series had a subtlety about it that added to it's charm, instead of being so in-your-face. That may be a plus or a minus depending on why you watch. I was used to the characters and the style of the tv series, so this was kind of out of left field. Big Momma singing? Gateau smacking his little sister around? It seemed kind of alien to me.

Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: I'm a big fan of the tv series, so naturally I was thrilled about the OVA, since I really didn't care for the series' ending. This DVD was a real treat. It took all of the funniest qualities of the series and amped them up to ridiculous proportions. They still manage a few tender moments here and there, but mostly this is like Sorcerer Hunters on PCP. I haven't read the manga, and this OVA is primarily aimed at the manga fans and introduces characters left out of the original series at a crazy pace. The result of all this is a great thing for Sorcerer Hunters fans, but will leave newcomers in the dark with so many senseless goings-on. A few of the treats included for fans in this OVA are: Gateau and his sister pointlessly bursting in on scene after scene tearing off their clothes and demanding "Look at meeeee!" as they flex their muscles, Big Momma singing karaoke, a perverted old man and little boy following Carrot around as he tries to sneak into girls' rooms at night, Carrot's father, Onion (yes you read that right), ridiculous amounts of fanservice and nudity, Dotta in full-on magic girl mode, a double-transformation by Carrot into a superbeast, lots of gay humor (none of it based on Maron and Gateau, either), and a little bit of insight into the pasts of our heroes.
All that said, I also enjoyed the new character designs, although Tira and Chocolate's transformation sequence was weak compared to the series and their outfits were a bit much (or too little, in this case). The new opening and ending songs are much better than what was used in the tv series, and I just really enjoyed the insanity and extra humor that they injected into this already great anime franchise. The only bad part is that there isn't any more. Don't bother with this one unless you're familiar with the series though, or you will be lost. Watch the series first and then get ready for a real treat.

Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: I'm a big fan of the tv series, so naturally I was thrilled about the OVA, since I really didn't care for the series' ending. This DVD was a real treat. It took all of the funniest qualities of the series and amped them up to ridiculous proportions. They still manage a few tender moments here and there, but mostly this is like Sorcerer Hunters on PCP. I haven't read the manga, and this OVA is primarily aimed at the manga fans and introduces characters left out of the original series at a crazy pace. The result of all this is a great thing for Sorcerer Hunters fans, but will leave newcomers in the dark with so many senseless goings-on. A few of the treats included for fans in this OVA are: Gateau and his sister pointlessly bursting in on scene after scene tearing off their clothes and demanding "Look at meeeee!" as they flex their muscles, Big Momma singing karaoke, a perverted old man and little boy following Carrot around as he tries to sneak into girls' rooms at night, Carrot's father, Onion (yes you read that right), ridiculous amounts of fanservice and nudity, Dotta in full-on magic girl mode, a double-transformation by Carrot into a superbeast, lots of gay humor (none of it based on Maron and Gateau, either), and a little bit of insight into the pasts of our heroes.
All that said, I also enjoyed the new character designs, although Tira and Chocolate's transformation sequence was weak compared to the series and their outfits were a bit much (or too little, in this case). The new opening and ending songs are much better than what was used in the tv series, and I just really enjoyed the insanity and extra humor that they injected into this already great anime franchise. The only bad part is that there isn't any more. Don't bother with this one unless you're familiar with the series though, or you will be lost. Watch the series first and then get ready for a real treat.