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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Buy | 8 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:1836#1552] |
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I must admit that I got quite a bit of enjoyment out of seeing Birdy the Mighty: Decode. While the series does seemingly set itself up as a typical space action-adventure about an alien agent stopping criminals, it does quite a bit to make itself stand out. It sets up Tsutomu having to share Birdy's body after his body accidentally gets wasted by Birdy during a fight with a thug. This sets up the entertaining chemistry between the two characters as they often get at odds with one another over who gets to snag control of Birdy's body as Tsutomu wants to retain whatever normalcy he can in his life while Birdy wants to press on with her mission on Earth where possible. I've seen a number of reviews online criticize about how they find Tsutomu's character to be rather annoying as he complains very often throughout the series. But considering the kid's a teen, I think his complaining is justified as he deals both with the typical things a kid his age would go through combined with adjusting to his unique circumstances of sharing a body with an attractive female alien agent. His character does develop throughout the series as he learns to cooperate with Birdy as she helps her out at some points within the series and develops a relationship with one of his classmates that the series takes enough time to properly develop and make it credible that Tsutomu would fall for her, especially as said classmate is another central character in the mission Birdy undergoes in this series. As for the central plot to the series, it is a typical case of an alien threat setting out to wipe out humanity via a powerful weapon. The show takes its time laying out its developments in regards to Birdy tracking down the alien thugs and finding the location of the weapon they brought to Earth. The series tosses in some twists in regards to who has it and what it is capable of with some elements being fairly typical and others somewhat surprising to see unfold. This becomes prominent in Birdy the Mighty Decode's second half where we get introduced to an influential human character whose plans with the weapon are fairly typical of shallow anime baddies and the weapon's nature bringing about some shocking developments involving said mentioned classmate with Tsutomu. One major flaw with Birdy the Mighty: Decode is that it makes mention to some character alliances and aspects of Birdy's past that aren't expanded upon in this season of the show, especially with the show's lack of a proper ending. In terms of visual presentation, Birdy the Mighty Decode is a mixed bag. While sporting decent-looking scenery and having moments of great animation in action scenes, the character designs look rough and don't have much in the way of detail. The show also takes occasional shortcuts with its animation featuring static shots of the characters, speed lines and some other apparent methods. While not a perfect title, Birdy the Mighty Decode made for an entertaining series thanks to its unique character chemistry with Tsutomu and Birdy, Tsutomu's developments and some of the later developments involving the alien weapon. It looked apparent that the show still had more to tell considering the hints dropped of Birdy's past and said mentioned character alliances thus I plan to give Birdy's second season a shot at some point. Last updated Saturday, September 10 2011. Created Saturday, September 10 2011. | ||||||||
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[series:1836#628] | ||||||
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(All episodes watched): I'm a big fan of the original Tetsuwan Birdy OVA series, and was therefore delighted to learn that Birdy would be getting a TV series as well. The problem was that my expectations were artificially inflated by the excellent OVAs and I found the TV series disappointing in comparison. OVAs tend to enjoy a good deal more money and talent (Yoshiaki Kawajiri, for example) than TV series, so it was probably unrealistic to expect the quality of this show to be as good. At first glance, the modified character designs seemed like a borderline sacriledge, but I won't complain too much. One thing I'm uneasy about is that in this version Birdy seems to have a good deal less self confidence than her predecessor--she makes foolish mistakes at times and must beg for forgiveness. The original Birdy would never have done that; she had a sort of "coolness" that stemmed from her toughness, her aloofness, and her ability to think quickly. Come to think of it, was Birdy's tragic past ever mentioned here? Tsutomu's personality had changed, too, from the beloved shy, geeky kind of guy (he's hard to describe), to a more average sort of male teenager. It's as if the principal characters have been stripped of their eccentricities and made more generic, to streamline the anime making process. Tsutomu's hilariously disfunctional family has been ommitted altogether, which is appalling. By necessity, this first TV episode deals with the origins of Birdy's curious relationship with "Stomu". I assumed that this version would retell the same story as the OVAs, at least as the first arc. But other than this opening it is a completely different plot, which took awhile to dawn on me and left me confused. There are some new characters ("Geegar" and "Bacillus") and some familiar ones (Gomez and Revi). Action scenes were fairly wild and neatly animated. All-in-all, definitely not as good as the OVAs. To be honest, as much as I would have loved to enjoy this show, I had a hard time staying interested. The plot seemed to be dragging (partly because I was wondering why it was taking so long to begin duplicating the OVAs), and I had little idea where it was going. Not until episode four did I realize that the plot of this series might well be radically different than that of the OVAs. I can't help suspecting that this is not a faithful retelling of a manga that exists somewhere. The numerous odd aliens that are briefly encountered seemed like hasty add-ons to thrill small children. They are often laughable; some seem to have come from Futurama while others are just talking, anthropomorphized animals from earth (even though we're visiting another planet). This wasn't a complete loss, since there were amusing touches, but by-and-large I was disappointed. I didn't understand this "Riunka" business, and had a hard time taking it seriously. I guess you can't just say "the entire Earth is in danger!" and expect viewers to automatically be excited--not unless some sort of plausible explanation has been offered. The OVAs, in contrast, had a story that moved swiftly along and kept me interested; here the story seemed muddled and weighed down by simple gimmicks. In a way, I was both pleased and disappointed to learn that this would end with just 13 episodes. Pleased because it had become tedious and I dreaded the thought of watching another season's worth, and disappointed because that meant that, barring a fantastic conclusion, the series as a whole would wind up as a major letdown. I had kind of assumed that this would be a 26-er, because Gomez had played a small part and I assumed he would do more. Stomu getting his original body back pretty much undoes the basic premise of the show--it's almost like, "this isn't Birdy anymore"! I'm left frustrated that an opportunity to expand on one of my favorite anime sub-genres seems to have gone largely to waste. Fortunately, the ending was fairly good. I got a distinct sense of surprise (mild, though) and revulsion at what had happened to Nakasugi. I didn't completely understand everything, but a clever trick (which I should have been expecting) saved everything. Despite all my complaints, based on unrealisticly high expectations going in, I feel more pleased than displeased at the end and don't regret watching. The four OVAs packed more entertainment value than the 13 episodes of this version, but any expansion of the subgenre is better than none at all. Perhaps if I hadn't already seen the OVAs the plot here would have made more sense and flowed more gracefully; but then again I shudder to think of the first impressions newcomers might be getting of Birdy from watching this version. To me, this is heresy, the OVAs are gospel. Watch the OVAs first, and this series only if you loved them Last updated Friday, January 28 2022. Created Tuesday, July 08 2008. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Official (Japanese) Series Web Site | http://www.birdy-tv.com/ |
