KO Beast review

[Benit149]

Awhile ago, I was in pursuit of the Ushio and Tora DVD (anyone heard of U&T before?) when I found a more comical-looking anime about humanoid beasts called KO Beast, or in full 'KO Beast Century Musketeers'. I decided to pick it up, since it's just 13 episodes and wouldn't kill my wallet. Plus, I'd never heard of it before, and looking for pictures on the Internet proved to be very difficult. It's not a bad series at all, but its aspects are very elementary.

Story: Things start out with Wan Daba (a pun on the Wonderbar chocolate bar), the son of the Tiger Clan's chief, losing a fight against the Humans (yes, Humans are bad guys here) and being carted away to a prison. The tribe's sacred statue is taken as well. Fortunately Wan isn't alone: the princess of the Mermaid Clan, Mei-Mer, and her turtle-like bodyguard Mekka, plus the self-charming prince of the Bird Clan, Bud Mint, are all thrown into Wan's cell with him. Their sacred statues were stolen by the Humans as well. After they are freed by a cute little girl named Yuni and her grandfather Dr. Password, they learn about Gaia, a lost entity that, if found, could grant our heroes great treasure. With treasure on their minds, they travel the world with their 'statues', which turn out to be fossilized mecha from Gaia's time called Jinns. They must solve the secret of Gaia while avoiding the Humans and surviving Gaia's own traps.

The story has your basic start up points: there's trouble brewing, and only a select few can do it. However, their motivation isn't to save the world, but to find treasure. Wan wants lots of food, Mei-Mer wants jewels and Bud wants lots of babes. I found that to be very different from typical heroes who start off in RPGs, only motivated to go out and save as many people as possible to get sunshine blown up their skirt. These three aren't likely heroes, but if you push them too much, they'll always figure out a way to push back just as badly, if not worse. The story's progression is elementary, but it's solid enough not to fall apart.

Characters: You have two main races in KO Beast; Beasts and Humans. Beasts are basically humans born throughout generations from animals, such as dog-people, bunny-people, tiger-people, etc. They have their own human form plus a beast form they take whenever a certain quirk is performed or they get angry. Humans are just like us except that their physical structure is horribly off-kilter, making them look like beanpoles no matter which gender they are. That said, the Beasts and Humans are at war with each other.

The Beasts, in general, are much more carefree and lighthearted than the Humans. Beasts represent Nature, while Humans represent Technology, which is the fuel for this war and the theme of this anime. Our unlikely heroes have varied personalities, such as Bud's womanizing ways, Wan's naive nature, Mei-Mer's selfish silliness and Mekka's mature, rational mind. Fortunately, they don't clash so much that they make an irrepairable mess, but it can be frustrating at times. Throw in Yuni, our sole Human heroine, who is a six-year old child that doesn't really stand out except for her mysterious powers and her resemblance to Chibiusa. Only Mekka seems to pay any mind for her safety while the other three either goof off or fight big battles, making me wonder why Mekka is even there at all.

The three mecha that follow our heroes around are the Earth Totem, the Sky Totem and the Sea Totem. Earth Totem is the smallest, being a blue wolf that follows Wan. Sky Totem is a mechanical bird that obeys Bud's commands, while Sea Totem is a gargantuan sea golem of sorts that obeys Mei-Mer's orders. Mekka never gains a mecha, or else this anime wouldn't be about 'musketeers', right? ;)

For the bad guys, we have five major contenders. V-Darn is a Luca Blight-ish kind of guy, wanting to electrocute everything to death at his whim, and his seiyuu is the same as Gourry Gabriev's, which is a pleasant surprise. He's always followed around by Akumaku, a totally pointless devil that enjoys chaos and destruction. V-Sion is his partner, much more rational than V-Darn but that doesn't mean she can't fight. Too bad her fashion sense is the worst of them all. Then we have C-Seagal, a warrior cloaked in mystery who always has posing girls in heart costumes following him around. Finally we have Czar Master, the 'final boss', as we like to say for RPG battles, he's the head honcho over the Humans and obviously has malicious intentions.

The characters are sort of a hit-and-miss bunch in KO Beast. Personally, I like a majority of the cast, while others could use some work.

Animation: The animation is bright and clean no matter what happens. Strangely enough, everyone has one set of clothes for about half of the series, and then they suddenly change into something different for the rest of the series. The 2nd half produces some better clothing designs than the first, like for Yuni and V-Darn. V-Sion is still terrible, while the heroes improve somewhat, but not a lot. I learned from the DVD that the animators also did Lamune Knights, and that's where they got the inspiration for the Humans' designs. It obviously shows. The characters are drawn in a more comical way to produce humor even during serious moments, and that kind of hurts the series for me a little b/c I'd like to see what the heroes look like when they're truly serious. Even C-Seagal, an overall serious character, manages to squeeze in a stupid expression or two, and I wasn't fond of that.

Genre: There's emphasis on humor, but it falls way too short overall. The animation is funny, but I prefer funny lines over funny falls. There's action, but the musketeers are portrayed as incompetent fighters on their own, and it's predictable that they'll fall back on the Jinns, Yuni's powers, or Gaia. As for the mecha, be prepared for some blatant sentai show references b/c even the musketeers' Jinns combine into the SUPER ULTIMATE KILLING MACHINE like you see in Magic Knight Rayearth or Power Rangers. As a veteran anime viewer, I saw that one coming from a mile away. Again, bare bones basic.

Misc.: The DVD extras were pretty good, providing some background information on the production team's ideas, plus some hilarious outtakes for the English version. The Japanese VAs weren't bad at all, and I instantly recognized Mei-Mer's voice as the same as Mimete's from Sailor Moon. Bud's Japanese voice is original, combining normal Japanese with occassional bouts of Engrish, which I haven't seen before. So there are some recognizable talents in KO Beast.

Overall, KO Beast is a bare bones, elementary anime that would be excellent for starting off, but it's not easily found b/c it's so obscure. I managed to find it at Wal-Mart for cheap, and it won't hurt your budget since it's only three DVD volumes. If you're a veteran anime fan like me, KO Beast can either be avoided or viewed for comparison's sake. It's nothing groundbreaking, but nothing as disastrous as the Toshinden anime.
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"Luca Blight, patron saint of population decrease." -- Benit, MST149

Benit149: First Lady of Addervon, Princess of Slight Fever, defender of the Nameless.