Gasaraki - Perfect Collection

Gasaraki - Perfect Collection
by Ryôsuke Takahashi

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Movie Reviews of Gasaraki - Perfect Collection

Movie Review: Slow-moving complex political drama in animation form
Summary: 5 Stars

Gasaraki is a slow-moving complex political drama with some excellent mecha action thrown into the mix. The series starts off right in the centre of a weapons development programme in Japan and goes on to develop a story about global political manoeuvring played on very high stakes. Adding to this heady mix is the incorporation of some mystical and supernatural elements coupled with traditional Japanese dance theatre to drive this complex political drama along.

Mecha fans should rejoice as this series features probably the most realistic depiction of a military mecha unit, so realistic that it could possibly be built in the very near future. Considerable thought has been put into how a real military mecha would be used, their strengths and weaknesses - e.g. a bipedal mecha unit in a sandstorm will suffer from having fine sand clogging the joints and actuators.

Not only is the mecha frightening realistic, some of the political events featured and how these are all presented (via cable and satelite news) are spookily like the real thing. The political manoeuvring is a delight to watch while the philosophies and thinking are quite interesting.

By now, you're probably asking whether the ending is satisfying in light of what some have written before. It all depends on how conclusive an ending you are looking for. All I can say is that I'm quite satisfied with the ending. Without giving out any spoilers, I can tell you the ending of the series will provide an explanation of what Gasaraki means which ties in with one of the overall themes of this series.

There is an unfortunate aspect to Gasaraki though, as given the amount of detail and depth of the story, something usually has to give and in Gasaraki's case, character development suffers. This is due to both insufficient time to properly realise the key characters as there are many things that are left unexplained, and the large number cast of secondary characters involved.

Considering that this is a relatively recent series, the animation quality throughout the series is very good. There is one very pleasant surprise though, the English dub for the series is excellent and is a match with the original Japanese track. This is most unlike quite a number of anime series out there where the English dub just doesn't match with the characters on-screen.

There are no special extras with the boxset (except that it, of course, comes with a box) as it is just a collection of all the 8 DVD volumes into one neat package held in a cardboard box. If you are ready to commit to the series, this Perfect Collection boxset is a cost-efficient way to pick it up.