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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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 Forbin
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[series:440#1573] | ||||||
Analysis:
Last updated Sunday, December 03 2006. Created Sunday, December 03 2006. | ||||||||
| Buy | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
 Midnighter
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[series:440#94] | |
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First and formost, Devadasy is a BLATENT Evangelion clone. That said, it was one of the better clones out there, even providing a nod to its influence by naming the lead character Anno, after Eva's creater. Kei Anno is a high schooler with raging hormones and an aversion to math. When a recruiter for a military special ops unit called SPIRITS approaches him, he jumps at the chance to escape the tedium of everyday life. Dogged by his friend Naoki, he goes through training to become a pilot of the captured and modified superweapon Devadasy (pronounced dave-ah-Deshee), an organic(?) mecha that looks like a cross between an Eva unit and the Escaflowne. With its power, Kei and Naoki fight the enemy on an even footing. As I mentioned above, Devadasy is one of the better Eva knock-offs out there, with fine animation, a reletively interesting story, and good mechanical designs. Sadly, it falls short with it's feebly underdeveloped characters, with Kei coming off as a generic male lead and Naoki portrayed as a one demensional plot device. Amala, a dark skinned green haired girl present at the Devadasy discovery provides an interesting character, however, her significance is never explained fully and she ends up being relegated to yet another emotionally brittle Ayanami clone by the end. The animation is very nice, with some well done mecha battles and a consistent, fluid feel. Very little stock footage is reused. The character designs are irritatingly Ranma-esque giving the series an unfortunate late-80's look, however, I gave the series an over all high character design rating based on the Devadasy, the real star of the show. With an insectoid look and a unique quadropedal movement system, the Devadasy is a stylish, unique looking mecha. Recalling the Escaflowne in both look and its ability to transform in limited flight, the Devadasy steals the spotlight in every scene it's in. Looking like a hellish alloy bird of prey, the Devadasy, splattered with blood is truly a sight to behold. Like the Eva units, the pilot feels what the mecha feels, and although this has become too overused to be interesting, it still provides a bit of a "cool factor," particularly when Kei is nearly eviscerated in a battle. The Japanese voice cast is excellent, and as usual, Anime Works provides a very good English dub. The story was pretty much a retell of Evangelion's. You know the drill, aliens invade earth, earth captures/copies alien weapon, uses children to pilot it, teen angst ensues, series ends indecipherably. At least Eva's Anno is given lip service in this one, unlike so many others passed off as "origional." Overall, at only 3 episodes, Devadasy is easily affordable and worth picking up for veiwers who like Evangelion and don't mind rip-offs, or for people who are fans of mecha action. Despite lack of origionality, I still thoroughly enjoyed Devadasy and feel it's a worthwhile purchase, and a decent way to spend an evening. 9-4-02 Last updated Friday, September 27 2002. Created Wednesday, September 04 2002. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| The SPIRITS Research and Development site | http://www.devadasy.com/spirits/ |
| Yeah, it's in Japanese, but I like having links in my reviews. | |
