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Ruin Explorers

Ruin Explorers

List Price: $29.98
Your Price: $26.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing.
Review: Isn't it amazing how an anime can be so similar to the Slayers series, yet still be so completely different hurts? With such crazy antics and super deformed modes from Dragonhalf, this anime can prove to be an hour ((or more)) of sheer delight or extreme boredom ((to those of us with lives and no sense of humour)). Ruin Explorers is a cheerful combination of The Slayers, Dragonhalf, and somewhat like the Record of LoDoss War. Anyone who likes decent halfwitted anime comedies about a tom-boy sorceres who turns into a cute little mouse will absolutely adore this anime. Cheers!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing.
Review: Isn't it amazing how an anime can be so similar to the Slayers series, yet still be so completely different hurts? With such crazy antics and super deformed modes from Dragonhalf, this anime can prove to be an hour ((or more)) of sheer delight or extreme boredom ((to those of us with lives and no sense of humour)). Ruin Explorers is a cheerful combination of The Slayers, Dragonhalf, and somewhat like the Record of LoDoss War. Anyone who likes decent halfwitted anime comedies about a tom-boy sorceres who turns into a cute little mouse will absolutely adore this anime. Cheers!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great, short anime, but the ending's a bit disapointing.
Review: O.K., here's the story: it's set in a fantasy world where adventurers go exploring ruins searching for treasure and any magical items they can find. If this sounds like any D&D game you played, don't let that throw you off. This has enough action and comedy to satisfy most. I mean, it's not DRAGON HALF, but then few shows are.

Our protagonist is Ihrie, a tomboyish sword fighter who due to a curse inflicted on her years ago is unable to use magic, at least not without a price. (You find out exactly what the curse is in episode 2. Let's just say it's simular to Ranma Soutome's.) To make up for this short coming, she brings with her Fam, a ditzy wiggen (half human, half cat creature) who draws her power from the spirits but often blunders in all things, including magic preforming. They are on a quest for the fabeled Ultimate Power, which could supposedly grant the lucky finder whatever s/he desiers. Ihrie and Fam soon run into another team of ruin explorers-Ragna, another sorceress who has a secret phobia of mice, and her arrogant swordsman partner, who start off as rivals but eventually form an uneasy alliance with our heroines. They are joined by a slimey merchant/con artist, and Lyle, a former prince whose kingdom was wiped out by an evil wizard and who has embarked on a quest for revenge.

The only thing that knocks this down by one star is the ending. Read no further if you hate spoilers. Well, lets just say that I thought Ihrie was supposed to be the main hero, but in the final battle she ultimately didn't seem to really do anything useful, despite her efforts. Also, I wasn't really clear exactly on whether she ever got her curse removed or not.

Anyway, this one is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great, short anime, but the ending's a bit disapointing.
Review: O.K., here's the story: it's set in a fantasy world where adventurers go exploring ruins searching for treasure and any magical items they can find. If this sounds like any D&D game you played, don't let that throw you off. This has enough action and comedy to satisfy most. I mean, it's not DRAGON HALF, but then few shows are.

Our protagonist is Ihrie, a tomboyish sword fighter who due to a curse inflicted on her years ago is unable to use magic, at least not without a price. (You find out exactly what the curse is in episode 2. Let's just say it's simular to Ranma Soutome's.) To make up for this short coming, she brings with her Fam, a ditzy wiggen (half human, half cat creature) who draws her power from the spirits but often blunders in all things, including magic preforming. They are on a quest for the fabeled Ultimate Power, which could supposedly grant the lucky finder whatever s/he desiers. Ihrie and Fam soon run into another team of ruin explorers-Ragna, another sorceress who has a secret phobia of mice, and her arrogant swordsman partner, who start off as rivals but eventually form an uneasy alliance with our heroines. They are joined by a slimey merchant/con artist, and Lyle, a former prince whose kingdom was wiped out by an evil wizard and who has embarked on a quest for revenge.

The only thing that knocks this down by one star is the ending. Read no further if you hate spoilers. Well, lets just say that I thought Ihrie was supposed to be the main hero, but in the final battle she ultimately didn't seem to really do anything useful, despite her efforts. Also, I wasn't really clear exactly on whether she ever got her curse removed or not.

Anyway, this one is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fam you idiot!
Review: Ruin Explorers, a.k.a. Fam & Ihrie, is the story of two adventurers pillaging the ruins of an ancient civilization for the "Ultimate Power". Though this could easily be bad from the start, the slapstick humor and goofy characters are surprisingly entertaining. The 4 episode series only begins to falter when the heroines and their rivals get caught up in someone else's quest for the Ultimate Power. Unlike Nadia where there is plenty of time to explore the Nautilus' goal and how the main characters fit into it, the shift of focus is too quick and just doesn't come off right. The music, performed by the Versailles Chamber Orchestra, is above average. The English dub is quality stuff; Jessica Calvello's Fam is superb. The Japanese track is equally as enjoyable and both audio tracks are Dolby Digital 2 channel. The menus are pleasant to look at and browse. A small cell gallery is included as an extra. The strength of the duo of Fam and Ihrie really outshines this 4 episode OAV series, and would be great material for a TV show. I give this disk 4 stars for the strength of the first few episodes and the quality DVD. For a fantasy fan there is a lot to like about Fam and Ihrie, others may find the story not quite enough.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fam you idiot!
Review: Ruin Explorers, a.k.a. Fam & Ihrie, is the story of two adventurers pillaging the ruins of an ancient civilization for the "Ultimate Power". Though this could easily be bad from the start, the slapstick humor and goofy characters are surprisingly entertaining. The 4 episode series only begins to falter when the heroines and their rivals get caught up in someone else's quest for the Ultimate Power. Unlike Nadia where there is plenty of time to explore the Nautilus' goal and how the main characters fit into it, the shift of focus is too quick and just doesn't come off right. The music, performed by the Versailles Chamber Orchestra, is above average. The English dub is quality stuff; Jessica Calvello's Fam is superb. The Japanese track is equally as enjoyable and both audio tracks are Dolby Digital 2 channel. The menus are pleasant to look at and browse. A small cell gallery is included as an extra. The strength of the duo of Fam and Ihrie really outshines this 4 episode OAV series, and would be great material for a TV show. I give this disk 4 stars for the strength of the first few episodes and the quality DVD. For a fantasy fan there is a lot to like about Fam and Ihrie, others may find the story not quite enough.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fun-Short-Series
Review: Ruin Explores is a very short, 2 hour long, 4-part series that contains everything necessary for a great story. All of the characters are basic, but well developed for the story-line. Nothing is missing, no questions unanswered.

The story goes as this, six companions are in search of the Great-Power, all for their own reasons. Selfish, greedy, personal or for a kingdom. All of the reasons are described in some way or another. I don't want to give anything away. Then comes the "bad-guy", with reasons of his own. A big fight and then the end.

This anime is the reason why animes are fun. It contains a great story that could never really be done with real people, or atleast as fun, well developed characters, Fast-paced as far as anime is concerned, good animation, very good English-Dub for us non-Japanese speaking people, and good sound.

Not a lot of extras, but this doesn't really matter to me.

The only complaint is the ending, it feels as if this series could go on, the further adventures of the Ruin Explorers.

Buy-it Rent-it Watch-it!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fun-Short-Series
Review: Ruin Explores is a very short, 2 hour long, 4-part series that contains everything necessary for a great story. All of the characters are basic, but well developed for the story-line. Nothing is missing, no questions unanswered.

The story goes as this, six companions are in search of the Great-Power, all for their own reasons. Selfish, greedy, personal or for a kingdom. All of the reasons are described in some way or another. I don't want to give anything away. Then comes the "bad-guy", with reasons of his own. A big fight and then the end.

This anime is the reason why animes are fun. It contains a great story that could never really be done with real people, or atleast as fun, well developed characters, Fast-paced as far as anime is concerned, good animation, very good English-Dub for us non-Japanese speaking people, and good sound.

Not a lot of extras, but this doesn't really matter to me.

The only complaint is the ending, it feels as if this series could go on, the further adventures of the Ruin Explorers.

Buy-it Rent-it Watch-it!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great show, smooth animation, good story
Review: The characters are very humorous, and action oriented. The animation flows smoothly, and the story is vey involved. I have this and want to get the second. Check it out!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not at all what I expected.
Review: This anime series for me seemed to start off on a bad note. Every second that passed all I could think of was how horrible this show was compared to The Slayers. I watched the full tape and just couldn't get into it. Good anime shows distort your sense of time and make you think the video you just watched only took 10 mintues to watch. This video made me think about what else I could be doing. The show did have its strong points. However, I just couldn't get into liking the main character in a story. Which is a very big requirment to me. The main character seemed to be even more irritating then Akane Tendou. And Akane is a very, very, hard person to surpass. The secondary character was extremely annoying. A little perfect goody-goody airhead.

The only reason that this film didn't get a 1 star from me was the dog that appeared that tried to eat off the secondary characters hand. Now maybe if this had gone more the slapstick comedy route it would have worked. But it combined into something trying to be serious and funny at the same time. This can be successful such is the case for: The Slayers, Ranma 1/2, Birdy, Phantom Quest, and Blue Seed. But here it tried to combine to many different elements into one story.

My personal recomendation on this movie is that I think some will like it and I think most will not. I have nothing aganist serious Anime, but when it tries to be so many different things all at the same time it just looses any charm. Don't pick this movie up. Go for The Slayers if you like the sorcery anime. And if you're done with The Slayers this is not the place to look for a replacement.


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