Compiler

Title: Compiler Overall: Rent Keywords: 1994, Action, Artificial Girls, Comedy, Fan Service, Modern, OVA, Sci-Fi, Silly-funny Notables: ASAMIYA Kia MATSUI Naoko MIZUTANI Yuko SASAKI Nozomu YAMADERA Kouichi Meet the ultimate in user-friendly software! When a world of 2 dimensional beings discovers the existence of our universe, they send a team of beautiful Domni-Matrixes into our world to prepare it for total integration. However, once liberated from their flat and dreary 2-D existence, Compiler and Assembler quickly discover that cybersex with 3-D guys is a lot more fun than world conquest. Now, in between interfacing with their boyfriends, assembler and Compiler must protect the Earth from being deleted by their former masters and an army of killer programs.

Overall	Art	Animation	Character Design	Music	Series Story	Episode Story	Reviewer
Rent 4							Stretch	#
Compiler This is a crazy show which makes me smirk when I think back about watching it. A couple of months before I actually got my hands on these VCR tapes I had read some reviews of Compiler. By and large, they had been so pathetic that at the time I had sworn off the series. But I did recall one critic coming out strongly in favor of the show, and when an opportunity to acquire brand-new tapes for 99 cents each presented itself, I figured "what do I have to lose?". As I prepared to view the first episode, I told myself "This will either suck or be kinda amusing--It certainly won't be great. Don't take it too seriously". The episode began with a disclaimer: "The following story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental"--I'd never seen a statement like that before in a work of anime. Next, the basic premise of the show (pretty much the entire synopsis above) was explained in text before the animation began--clearly no time was being wasted getting this series underway! Were these good omens or bad? The OP song was kind of catchy. The show opens with cyber girls Compiler and Assembler already living with their human boyfriends, the brothers Nachi and Toshi. Within the first two minutes, Assembler's raving and going SD had me laughing. I know it's sacriledge, but somehow it reminded me of Catgirl Nuku Nuku. A hilarious argument rages back and forth across the apartment ("You guys repeat the same love comedy every week! On the other hand, Compiler is satisfied to be a slacker!"). The four of them decide they need a vacation, and choose to visit the city of Osaka. It soon became apparent that this was nothing like the pathetic show I'd been dreading it would be. This is not "Cyberpunk", even though Compiler and Assembler are supposedly computer programs. Nor is it really "Action-Comedy", because the action is so laughably absurd. The keyword that seems to fit best is "Silly-Funny". I was repeatedly laughing out loud. The charachters never seem to say what you expect them to! Half the time you are asking yourself "what the hell did that mean?"--but you're almost always laughing, even if you didn't get the joke! This is comedy, my friends! There was no need for me to warn myself not to take this episode seriously, because it never takes itself seriously! At the end more text appears, giving you a lesson on the Baseball rivalry between Osaka and Tokyo, the significance of the American player Randy Bass, and the aftermath of the 1985 pennant series--and you realise that the jokes you were just laughing at really did make sense after all. Photos that accompany the cute ED song explain that some of those bizarre shaped objects you were just seeing really are based on genuine Osaka landmarks--who would have thought? Much to my surprise, considering my modest original expectations, at the end I said to myself "Well, that worked out pretty damn good!". This show is crazy--why didn't it get better reviews? Well, last night I watched episode two, and frankly this is not comedy, my friends. It's not much of anything--practicall­y no comedy at all, nothing to do with the "killer programs" that are being sent after Compiler and Assembler, just a dull, meaningless romance story whose only effect was to make me think that maybe Nachi is a total jerk. The final episode, called "Compiler 2", was on a seperate tape but is 50, rather than 30, minutes long. It does not return to the outlandish comedy of the first episode (though it is funny at times), but rather is a respectable action-comedy with some drama as well. Compiler and Assembler have suddenly been informed that they have three days to return to the "Electro-Dimensional World", where all their memories of living in the 3-dimensional world will be deleted; if they refuse, this world as a whole will be "deleted". Not bad... though I almost feel as if I must have missed several episodes between this one and the last one I saw. Who is this Megumi charachter (played by none other than Megumi Hayashibara)? What are "combs" and what do they do? What's with the satelite? Still, I'm relieved the ending was acceptably good. Assigning a rating to Compiler as a whole is extremely difficult because the three episodes are so disjointed, so completely unlike each other. So I'll assign ratings to each individual episode. Rent number one, avoid number two, and, if you liked episode one, rent number three as well. Even if episode one is the only one I ever rewatch, $3.98 for both volumes (including postage, which was actually more than the tapes themselves) has got to be one of the most cost-effective investments I've ever made in comedy anime. P.S.: I've just rewatched episode 1, and I must admit that though still fairly amusing, it wasn't nearly as hilarious the second time around. I guess that once you more-or-less know what to expect, the unpredictable madcap humor loses a lot of it's edge (still, you must see it once!). On the other hand, "Compiler 2" came across as funnier than I remembered from the first time. Compiler's irrational hatred of Natto, the TV show that Nachi was watching, the Osaka landmark that has somehow become imbedded in the brother's Tokyo home--all were great. And I daresay the plot made sense and was even slightly heartwrenching at times. (Don't even joke about me rewatching that second episode of the first tape, though!). My favorite line: "A gracious tower where terrorists from all over the country visit bearing lanterns!" --Nachi Also: "Gay assasins cannot threaten me!" --Compiler And: "Shut up! Eat your beans until you die!" --Compiler Last updated Saturday, February 09 2008.