Burn Up! (1991)
Animation Production: AIC
Released by: ADV Films
Running Time: 50 minutes
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

A month or two ago I had the opportunity to check out Burn Up! Scramble, the latest entry in the Burn Up! Franchise. The show itself wasn’t groundbreaking or anything along those lines, but it sure was fun and helped introduce me to the Burn Up! universe, which in addition to Burn Up! Scramble also includes Burn Up! Excess, Burn Up! W and the subject of today’s review the Original Burn Up! OVA.

Usually, going back to the roots of a popular franchise can prove to be a disappointing endeavor, especially when the latest installments re-master the original premise to the point of making the one that started it all seem outdated, but surprisingly that’s no the case here. Let’s take a closer look at ADV Films’ release of the 1991 classic Burn Up!

Story

"Maki, Reimi and Yuka may not look like ace crime fighters, and to tell the truth, they're not. For now, they’re stuck with the tedious and degrading duty of traffic patrol. All that changes, however, when Yuka gets herself kidnapped. To save their friend and co-worker, Maki and Reimi must suit up in their high-tech, skin-tight battle armor and teach the kidnapper that when you play with fire, you’re going to get burned!"-- ADV's Burn Up! Webpage

Review

The story begins with a bang as we join a high speed chase already in progress. With the situation worsening officers Maki, Reimi and Yuka are called in to join on the pursuit already in progress. Within minutes they are hot on the trail of the rogue car and through some gutsy moves manage to put a stop to the thieves and rescue the kidnapped hostage. It’s quickly learned that the kidnappers were under the employment of the Paulo Family, more specifically they were working directly for Samuel McCoy who runs a large white slave trade operation and several high end clubs and restaurants. Despite the wide known fact that he is the ring leader in this particular incident as well as several others the police chief has determined that there isn’t enough evidence to prove that he was involved in any capacity.

Kenji and Banba are assigned to the case and it’s their job to come up with a way to gather enough evidence against Samuel McCoy so that the police can put a stop to his slave trade operations. As the investigation begins it’s decided that the team, including Kenji, Banba, Maki, Reimi and Yuka travel to one of McCoy’s clubs where most of the victims seem to be kidnapped from. However, Yuka ends up becoming a victim herself and is kidnapped by McCoy’s people to be sold in the black market. Now it will be up to Maki and Reimi to come up with a plan to save Yuka! Time to take times up a notch and forget about the standard rules of engagement!

As far as storylines go the Burn Up! is as basic as they come. There isn’t a large amount of innovation in the way the story is set up for the most part and we can see a number of things coming our way, even early on into it. Is that necessarily a bad thing? In the case of Burn Up! not really, because to a degree we know from the opening scene that this is going to be a show that’s more about explosive action scenes and its characters than a police investigation drama. Since these two aspects are the ones that are most focused on it’s a good thing they’re well handled throughout the entire OVA.

Admittedly, the opening took me completely by surprise with how well done it as I was expecting more muted production values (which were typical of many of these releases back in their day). The entire sequence with all of its painstakingly hand drawn kinetic background animation, on-the-fly angle changes and large amounts of visual candy is the type of thing you don’t really see anymore unless it’s all handled by CGI. Visuals aside though the opening does setup the stage for the rest of the story and introduces us to the characters that we’ll be following in addition to giving us a taste of the kind of action scenes that we should expect in the next 40-45 minutes of running time.

The main cast is comprised of three female police officers who work as part of the reserve SWAT team. Maki, our protagonist, is the all around hot-headed leader of the team and the weapons/tactics experts; she prefers to shoot first and ask questions later. Reimi is the more technologically inclined of the group and has great skill with anything electronic. Yuka is the youngest member of the team and doesn’t really have to have any one area of expertise. In addition to this team we also have Kenji, who is Maki’s boyfriend and Banba his police partner.

With a running time of around 50 minutes character development is limited, but thanks to the small number of characters the writers are able to give us some limited glimpses into their lives, especially Maki who we learn is dating fellow detective Kenji. We also see some development of the secondary characters, the dynamics between them, and close to the end of the story, the strengthening of their ties via shared adversity.

On the production front I absolutely loved everything about Burn Up! Maybe it’s because it reminded me greatly of the original Bubblegum Crisis OVA series, but I thoroughly enjoyed the overall look and fluidity of the drawings here. The character designs by Kenji Kamiyama are superb are serve as an example of how you can effectively push forth good looking characters that are unique and don’t overboard in an effort to serve anime fanboys.

The animation quality is really good with highly detailed animation that is both smooth and colorful. Every frame and movement is hand-drawn and lovingly handled to great effect. The color palette tends to lean towards the darker end of the scale, but also has some moments where bright pastels are used. Visual effects are limited mostly to weapons and lighting effects.

The music was the kind of fare I was more or less expecting from a 1991 release with several fast moving pieces and a couple of catchy songs. I wouldn’t mind adding this soundtrack to my collection! The voice acting was solid on both audio tracks with everyone in the cast turning in a good performance.

DVD-wise ADV Films put together a basic package for this release. As far as the outside packaging goes Russell Etchen, who is credited on the box for the packaging should be given some credit for the fantastic artwork that’s featured on the front and back of the DVD box. Extras are minimal with this release with only a previews section available from the main menu. Both video and audio transfers are well handled with no real problems being evident on either front.

Final Thoughts

Going into Burn Up! I expected to be thrown deep into the world of mediocre fan service anime, a world that I dread whenever it appears on the JH radar, but it turned out to be quite a solid and entertaining title!

If you’re a fan of this series by all mean make sure to get this DVD release. If you enjoy more action oriented anime shows that feature intelligent characters and fast paced, self-contained storylines this one has your name written all over it.

Jeffrey Couto