When Sybel, a freelance reporter, discovers a military plane crash, she is thrilled by the prospect of getting her hands on the latest inside scoop. However, she is unaware that the plane was carrying two top-secret prototype android assassins who will stop at nothing to destroy their target. As the military frantically tries to clean up its mess, Sybel races against time to find and protect the robots' targeted victim—all while documenting the military's misconduct—before it is too late.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Creator_Kun
I’ve had conversations with some people who have either general or diverse opinions over older anime. There are tons of older anime series, but people will either pass them off or think they are all like Dragon Ball. It's to be expected because the majority of them are outdated. But there is a difference, I think, between "classic" and "outdated." As for Black Magic M-66, I believe it fails to reach any sort of “classic status” and as always, I plan to explain my reasoning behind my claim. Released in the year 1987, Black Magic M-66 as a whole is somewhat... well, FRUSTRATINGLY mundane. Of course,it was directed in part by Masamune Shirow, and he did the Appleseed, which was awesome, (maybe I’ll review that one) so I don’t understand how M-66 came out as a bad anime. Well, it IS of the typical type of anime ova-- a cyberpunk, action-based free-for-all that delivers a lot of blood and gore and horrible plot structure with hit and miss characters, yet, these ovas usually contain decent animation and value that aspect over all things, despite their crappy music and a butt load of major issues with the ova itself. So, now I wish to address those issues.
The story begins by showing a fighter plane flying through a storm. The next thing you know, this plane that was introduced only ten seconds ago goes down and explodes into a billowing ball of fire, crashing into the trees, and (finally) hits the ground hard. The title screen is shown, then, a naked girl appears on screen and walks out her house unclothed….
...It only took one minute for this ova to throw me for a loop. I know that barely anything happened yet, but the things that did happen are complete B.S. I feel that there are no aims to ovas like this, because all they do is show of horrendous plots and titillate nude women (no pun intended) and fanservice for the majority of the show.
Moving on, there seems to be more going on in this ova than what seems to be, but actually, that’s the main problem with this one. There’s too much crap thrown into the beginning of the anime and as a result, it distracts from the important elements of the plot and ruins the entertainment factor. All in order, there’s the spectacle of an explosion in the first 30 seconds of the anime, the title screen is dropped, a naked girl is immediately thrown into the focus of the camera and all she does is scribble on some film containers and go streaking. Next, some government people are in the forest where the plane from earlier crashed and we learn where the M-66 robots come into play. But after a brief introduction and explanation of the components of these robots, they story shifts and continues to shift between the main characters Sybil and Leakey, then onto the military grunts, then to a girl with barely any clothes on (seems to be a recurring theme in this anime), then to a weird professor, then all of a sudden the military is back in the forest, and apparently Sybil is too, and gets captured. Then a bear is shown dead with its blood and ribs pouring out, and the M-66 robots begin to do random things and kill anybody they see in the forest, and then we jump-cut back to the apprehended Sybil about to be killed before FINALLY the heart of the story takes place and the robots start to wipe out the military forces. Afterwards, the characters find out that the aim of these combat robots is to kill the professor’s granddaughter, named Ferris, shown briefly in a bra and panties moments ago. And all that happens in roughly 15 minutes.
Now, I’ll admit that there was a pretty solid twist that starts off the action, but I only have one small complaint. I have but one, tiny, miniscule problem with this…
Everything I explained previously about the story of M-66 is arbitrary.
I didn’t spoil the anime nor did I ever hint of a climax. I’ve only BEGUN to explain the opening of this anime. That is absurd!! This is what ruins anime ovas, a bunch of useless, unimportant garbage thrown into opening scenes and information and actions that are irrelevant to the main plot! M-66 might hold the trophy for the worst opening ever in an anime because there are so many unnecessary things thrown into it. Ovas are only so long, too, so you’d think that more time would be spent on developing a decent story, but M-66 goes off the deep end and flounders its writing. Between those first 15 minutes, there are so many things introduced, so many random events happening, and so little time for any narration or explanation that the story is incomprehensible. The frequent scene switching and jump cuts screw the flow of the story over even more. The only worthwhile part to this is watching the soldier at about 14 minutes and 52 seconds into the anime being turned into visceral. Yeah, keep rewinding that over and over. It’s better than sitting through the rest of M-66. M-66’s opening story is very flawed; it’s like watching Genocyber all over again…
Buuuuuuut Genocyber was 100% bad… and I have to say that… the latter half of this anime is quite decent. I’m actually impressed. They didn’t screw around when the better scenes came along. There are many points that drive home the suspense and those are periods while watching that I really hoped that Sybil would make it out to the end alive with the girl Ferris, who ends up being a target of the killer robots. The drama works with many of the more intense action scenes and I’m sure that you would agree that everything falls into place well in some moments of this half of the ova.
Surprisingly, there are actually very few “action” scenes in this ova that aren’t just a robot killing a bunch of military grunts. However, the scenes that exist are worthwhile and very well done, despite this being just one of those ovas that are just an excuse to show copious amounts of blood onscreen. It doesn’t hinder the experience much this time around, and by the time Sybil has to keep Ferris safe from the renegade combat robots, the “excuse” is justified: these robots are going to tear up anything and everything that stands in their way in order to complete their goal. However, the resolution to the story is unsatisfying, and does NOT justify what I went through watching the beginning of the story, which was a lot of bewilderment and confusion.
Moving on to the characters, I think they suck. Sybil is the only interesting one, but only because she’s a bit comedic and if I ignore the moment where I see her nude in the first 60 seconds of the anime, I dare say she’s kinda cute. The professor who created the M-66 robots is too dumb to live; In fact, he’s probably even worse than the people in the story who go up to the super-powered killer robots and fight them out of free volition. Why do I think so? He let these killer robots get close to his only granddaughter, and one of them became familiar with her and went apeshit, so naturally it wants her dead. The plot of M-66 is all the professor’s fault. Leakey is seemingly Sybil’s grunt worker. He’s uninteresting. Ferris is the professor’s granddaughter and she’s very annoying, and I don’t like her. And there’s a Major of the military and some other military guys who help out or go against Sybil, but the thing is that this story spends zero time on character development. Although, for Sybil’s character development, it’s all decked out for fanservice. There are plenty of one-shot characters as well, who usually die right after they are introduced since they take on the M-66 robot bullheadedly. The plot simply leaves characters dead and just goes right on into the action. I guess getting to the point is not a bad thing for an anime and in an ova, there’s hardly any time to pull out anything good like what FMA does with its characters. Unfortunately, this anime fast-forwards to the action at a bad place. This anime should’ve gotten to the point right after the title screen and THEN explained it’s characters if need be, instead of crapping all over its introduction and skipping the character development so that they can focus on the action.
Looking at the sound of this ova, the acting is fair. The dub is certainly far from fair, but it’s not as atrocious as Lily C.A.T. or Violence Jack. It’s tolerable, and if subtitles bother you as much as they bother me, try the dub. Otherwise, stick to the original Japanese audio and dialogue. The closing theme is actually a wonderful song by Kitahara Yuki. If a song from an anime makes me feel like searching for it in Google, I think it is pretty good by default. For me, it’s a memorable song, but the rest of the score is disappointing. Most times, the music is ignorable, because the music doesn’t stand out much, but other times (the final scene on the rooftop for example) the music does not suit the mood of the situation. Outside of that, most of the score is unimpressive.
M-66 looks visually unimpressive as well and not just because it’s an 80’s ova. Lily C.A.T. is garbage, but it had fluid animation scenes and stunning (and gory) designs of its monsters. Comparing M-66 to Lily C.A.T., the animation seems to be done on the cheap for most of the ova and the most important parts have an art style that is just like standard animation for an 80’s anime. The blood from the dead people and animals looks more of a magenta color than bright red. The robots are interesting characters on their own, but look like nothing more than the dolls you see in the windows of clothing stores with wigs on them. The animation isn’t flawed, but it fails to impress.
For the most part, every aspect of Black Magic M-66 is generic. The outstanding aspects are usually the worst parts. If you didn’t catch everything I explained or need a bit more clarification as to why this anime ova is a piece of crap, in my opinion, I’ll gladly clarify on my points, which is something M-66 never does once.
Creator-Kun’s Score:
Story: (3) Quite appalling. There is no consistency for much of the beginning of the anime, with random events occurring left and right, and the way the story introduces the combat robots only confuses me more. This story doesn’t pull itself together until 30 minutes have passed. It’s a 45-minute ova…
Art: (5) Not good, and not up to par, even for an 80’s anime ova. Even though this was released prior to Lily C.A.T., that’s not an excuse.
Sound: (5) It’s plain and mediocre. Can’t say much about it. I do find some solace in the theme by Kitahara-san.
Characters (2): This ova has a severe lack of character development overall. They all felt very loose, at least the main characters did. Other characters don’t even last that long before they meet their doom. I don't consider the androids characters either.
Enjoyment: (4): I only enjoyed three things about this ova: the ending theme, Sybil’s humor, and again, minute 14:52. The guy just takes a hit for the team. That scene will stay in my head for a long time to come.
OVERALL: I bless Black Magic M-66 with a 4.
Between the surprisingly good action and chase scenes, horrible characters, and a mediocre score, I could’ve just passed off this as an average ova series and considered the flaws mentioned very miniscule actually. But the thing that destroys the entire flow of the ova and the enjoyment factor is the horrible beginning. I don’t need to say much else because you know how I feel about it. I don’t like it. It’s as if Shirow wasn’t thinking when he directed this. Outside of the suspense, there is not one quality aspect to the rest of the story since the ending is sub-par and most of the plot is pathetic, with its crappy beginning and incessant portrayal of men being turned into ludicrous gibs by the robots. It wears on your patience FAST! It's not enjoyable in the least; it’s BELOW AVERAGE! The flow of the story of this anime is bad, cased closed!
Once again, this is the part of my review where all the exaggeration ends and the seriousness begins. I don’t think I can speak for people from the 1980’s when I say that this story is flawed. It was a different time back then, and most ovas have come a long way in huge strides. But the point of this review is to review the anime ova and see if I could recommend this to people out there, not to focus on reviewing other periods of time or other people’s tastes. However, when it comes down to me labeling M-66 as “recommendable,” I don't think that I will do that either…
RuriTenshi
This was one of the most entertaining OVA's I've watched in a long time. Made by the people behind Ghost in the Shell it's obvious these guys can really pull off even a 50 minute OVA. Now when watching this, it reminded me a lot of Terminator and I really mean a lot but I didn't have a problem with that since I am a Terminator fan my self. Unit M 66 is basically a Terminator with one job. Eliminate the target. The action in this anime was overall very impressive especially for an anime approaching the age of 30. Some the scenes were designedway ahead of its time and the suspense was amazing. The art was of course, amazing. But what can you expect from the same guy who illustrated Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed.In fact there is an Appleseed reference in this show, which was kind of amusing. The sound was pretty good. It was appropiate to all of the events happening and it had the smooth 80s suspense music that fed me so much nostalgia. Music score is very similar to Terminator's music score. There really is so much a like between this and Terminator. Characters act similar to the leads in Terminator but here you don't really get to know them that well but I give it some slack since this was only 50 minutes and there is no other anime for it, which personally I think it needs a reboot. The story is rather interesting. I'm not sure if the similarities between this and Terminator are coincidental or on purpose I don't really know. If you got some time to burn, watch this. I wish there was more to this classic. It probably is a VHS and DVD copies as this was a minor hit in Japan and did receive some attention here in the states. But overall this series is very interesting and entertaining to watch.
barcaman101
Two of the military's top-secret android weapons, called M-66 units, are lost and go berserk. One is hunted down and destroyed at the cost of quite a few men, but the other escapes, with orders to kill the granddaughter of its creator implanted in error. It comes down to an intrepid photojournalist, Sybel, to save a girl from a situation she has very little control over. Will she be able to do what the military could not...stop the doll-like M-66 from its mistaken mission of death? This is a really nice anime,its fast pace and comes off as a confincing sct-fi action anime.the animation is quitegood,i loved the colours used and the drawing looked quite realistic.overall nothing spectacular but still a good anime.
Luquillo
Black Magic M-66 is a simple story on the puppet master losing control of his puppets. The two androids are suppose to be the perfect robots and at times they seem to be, by utilizing stealth tactics and later on displaying a wide range of all out attacks. They quickly make short work of the military forces. The story begins to develop more of a plot when the target is finally revealed. The main character Sybel, a journalist whom was captured by the military learns who the target is and decides to protect the person. Surprisingly, even for a short film(48mins.) character development is present. Sybelis well developed, and she eventually puts her personal goal aside to try and save the very possible victim, therefore it's pretty easy to cheer for her. However, the androids are the standouts to me despite having no dialogue.
The characters of the M-66's are developed and greatly enhanced by their robotic demeanor. They fit my vision of a true robot: A being whom happens to be cold, emotionless, and cannot be reasoned with. They are cold blooded killing machines with cruel tactics and they will accomplish their mission by any means. It doesn't take the action long to begin, and it delivers once it gets there. The action scenes are pretty cool during the first half. There's a good amount of violence with minimal gore, but it never becomes over the top. Later, the action scenes lose a small amount of appeal when the plot turns into just another chase.
The animation is pretty fluid during the battles. Some of the close in battles and shootouts are pretty good, with well animated choreography which switches between swift fisticuffs and weapon use. I really like the character designs of the two robots, because they come off really creepy looking. Their facial expressions tells the story completely.
The soundtrack may not be spectacular but it's well used. I really enjoyed how the soundtrack was put to work. Before the androids make their full appearances the BGM enhances their menacing nature, by speeding up to a more sinister tone when they were in pursuit of their possible victims via first person view. In this area, the BGM was also well assisted by the camera work.
I don't quite understand the deal when it comes down to older anime; but a majority of the time the dubs aren't really up to standard. The sub clearly outshines it in terms of better voice acting. The dub has a small amount of foul language though. There's also a small amount of fan service that doesn't get out of hand.
Black Magic M-66 also has a pretty good ending and surprisingly it doesn't feel rushed. Those out there whom truly believe that Blood: The Last Vampire can be excused for having a phantom story due to length should see this. This movie managed to pack quite a bit in its short run time. It's actually interesting to think what this could be should it ever be remade with better production values. I recommend this title only to the most die hard anime fans, fans of older anime, and fans of Shirow.
Perry_R
Black Magic M-66 is the sort of action OVA I wish all action OVAs could be - an all killer, no filler romp through a cyberpunk dystopia. It's got a lovable main character, a phenomenal art style, stunning animation, and nearly non-stop action. Sure, it may be light on story - but that's not really the point of Black Magic M-66. It came to give thrills, and as far as I'm concerned, it's a roaring success. Also, there's an important distinction to be made between story and character. The story, the actual plot of how everyone gets from point A to point B is weak, butI must reiterate - the protagonist, Sybel, has an unbelievably strong character. She steals every scene she's in with trademark Shirow tomboy spunk and snappy dialogue, letting her bounce off the rest of the cast with ease. Seriously, she's on a fast track to being one of my favorite sci-fi anime protagonists.
Oh, and it has androids vs military action. You really can't go wrong with that.
Biisoo
I was casually strolling through MAL and I stumbled upon this work by Masamune Nightow, who is the author of the acclaimed Ghost in the shell series. Instead of watching this Ova first I read the manga to get the gist of it and it let me down so much. It was so random and hard to read due to huge text and unclear story. Didnt like that much. But when I started watching this I immediately knew this adaptation was better because its more in line with Ghost in the shell and its just a classic terminator esque robot kills everyone flick, It was goodfor what it was.
Obviously wasn't expecting it to blow me away, but considering when it was released I'd say it was good.
Not a must watch,but by no means a bad watch eother.
Neimaj
"My favorite anime of 2021 is Osama bin Laden Ranking." - Neimaj, 2022 I'm not sure what I was expecting when I saw the cover art and the title for this OVA. Black Magic M-66 is gonna be the name of my new indie metal band; talk about a sick name. Very straightforward anime here. Sexy, naked, tanned, anime lady Sybel is hoping to get a new big story or scoop for whatever news channel she's working for. It's never really clarified who she works for, but it doesn't matter. She discovers that the military is hiding some kind of secret weapon and tries to get moreinformation out of the situation by spying on the military. She does this with the help of her not so helpful partner in crime. He's not important at all and you don't need to remember his name. Turns out, the military was hiding these robot assassins that go on an insane killing spree once they escape, and it was fascinating to watch. The fight choreography and animation of the robots were pretty damn good. The military stood no chance and it was a solid gold ass whooping.
If I could describe this entire OVA in one phrase it would be, "Discount Terminator." The robots have a specific target they must kill, which is the granddaughter of the man who created them. I can't remember why they're after her, but Sybel encounters her and protects her for the entire episode. It was a fun 48 minutes. If you just want to watch a stone-cold, cybernetic killing machine causing a lot of collateral damage to kill a single girl for 40 minutes with above-average animation, be my guest. It was cool. The robot is absolutely terrifying because of the amount of resources and tricks they had to use to actually put the thing down. Other than that, it doesn't have that much substance and is lacking a real story. It has no real rewatch value and everything I said in this review is the OVA. The OST is mediocre, nothing special. I'm not sure what compelled me to write this review. Definitely one of my shorter ones.
I would give Black Magic M-66 a light recommendation. 6 out of 10.
NeonGod7
On the Verge of Shitshow and Meh! I came to watch a glorious 80s/90s OVA, alas, I was showered with shit! This anime is horribly boring and dull. The storytelling is on the floors. I dreaded to finish this. Action is drawn insanely bad that most of the time I could not understand whats going on (I mean I understood but it gave me headaches), or even lost my sense of orientation by some movements. There were some minorly interesting points like the elevator chasing scene, but that is all. And even that was very bad but it shone because of the otherwise shittiness of this horribleshitshow. I gave this anime not a 1 in all aspects because at least the overall production quality was OK. I mean at least it animated somehow.
DISKOWN
Black Magic M-66 is a classic Ova that should be on everyone's radar. The narrative is intriguing and lends itself well to the action/thriller vibe the anime is going for. The animation holds up and is a delight to see. It is well paced, never feeling overly long or drawn out. All that being said, the best part is the character writing. The characters aren't unique or complex but, the main lead Sybel is an excellent example of a strong female character, and straight up cool. She has a lot of courage and doesn't run from danger. Thesoldiers are also well written, being competent and professional throughout. Black Magic M-66 holds up well and is extremely enjoyable to watch.
Gregory_Senpai
Black Magic M-66 is an OVA by the author of “Ghost in the Shell” made several years before he began working on that iconic masterpiece. That sentence alone should be enough to get you to watch this OVA (it’s only about 45 minutes long, what is that, in the great span of your life really?), but because I’ve got a word count to deal with, I suppose I’ll write a proper review. According to some quick Wikipedia research, this OVA was based on one story from the original doujinshi published by Masanori Ota a.k.a Masamune Shirow in 1983. It’s short, and to the point. No complicated details aboutanything, for the most part; this film has a plot, some good lucking characters (and character design) and great set pieces. It’s a very simple action movie that doesn’t get weighed down with existentialism or any of that other cyberpunk philosophy stuff, and instead just sticks with the bare nuts and bolts.
There’s a crazy military-grade robot on the loose, and because of a programming accident it’s trying to kill the granddaughter of its creator and the only one who can save her is Sybel, a gutsy, front-line war reporter! Sybel’s character design reminded me of Ellen Ripley. That should tell you basically all you need to know about her (assuming you’ve seen Alien).
The OVA plays out like a mish-mash of all the popular western action movies from the 80’s and it works kind of brilliantly. I can imagine Masanori Ota sitting in a movie theater in Osaka on a late afternoon, drinking a beer, and smoking a cigarette, and getting inspiration to create this movie… but then again, that’s just my imagination, because the original doujinshi for this predates most of those movies by a good bit.
Moving on…
Because there’s not really much of a backstory for any of setting or characters, it’s all left to the imagination, which is great, because it lets you just enjoy the set piece action scenes, which are pretty great, even by today’s standards.
I really enjoyed this movie, finding it very nostalgic for simpler times. The background art was extremely well done, the vehicles were all overly designed in a typical 80’s anime way, but the level of detail in just the random truck that explodes shows you how much attention to detail artists paid on the little things back then. The crazy robot looks fierce, cold, and cool. Its weapons don’t require any long explanations of science or physics to understand; they’re very lazerbeam pew pew, hulk smash kind of deal. The same applies to all the countermeasures the military takes to fight the robot. We’re acknowledged to be a smart enough audience to know what “the donut” does (because I certainly don’t remember them telling us), but I find that very refreshing not being babied. No excess exposition required. Great.
This was yet another movie I found looking through the HIDIVE vaults. Crazy to think that when you go hunting for hidden gems, sometimes you actually find them.
Hard recommend. Go, grab a pizza, or a beer, and throw this on before you get back to your seasonals. I’m sure it will be a nice change of pace.
Dentonman
When i first came across this OVA, it sounded way too good to be true. An action thriller with clear terminator inspirations based on a manga by Masamune Shirow? I was ready to cum all over myself, but it turns out that it really was too good to be true. In concept this anime has all i ever wanted, loads of inspirations from holywood blockbusters alongside Shirow's classic sociopolitical commentary and dystopian themes, but what ultimately happened is that they took all of those great concepts and tried to cram them into a 50 minute OVA. The pacing is way too fast, and the moment tomoment plot get's reduced to basically acknowledging something important to the plot for a few seconds before quickly moving on to the next thing. There is no set up to anything, nothing get's properly established, and worst of all, nothing get's time to breathe.
It's hard to care about the story, when your understanding of all the going on's is so minimal. All you really get to know is that the robot's want to kill a girl, and our main heroine decide's to save her, queue some action scenes and bam roll credits. The little context they give us is just a set of excuses for everyone to be where they are.
With that said, this OVA still has some value in it. The animation is certainly a highlight, many scenes are very nicely done, and there is even some very impressive motion shots that you didn't really see much in the hand drawn era. The aesthetics and design of everything is also very appealing, even tho you can see some corners cut in a few places.
And also the composition of some key scenes is very good, they are just undercut by the general lack of context or care when it comes to the story.
This OVA is not really bad, it has good art, and decent enough concept, but it just fails because of sloppy execution. I assume that if the studio had more time and money, their ambitions could come to fruition and we would have ended up with something truly special, but as it is, it's just an interesting piece of animation that fails in many regards.
I would still recommend it if you are a fan of Shirow's works, but if you really want to get into the Black magic series, just read the manga.
FlintPaper
Two killer cyborgs are on the loose and while the military tries to contain the situation, a clueless reporter including her camera pops up in the middle of things. Based on a story by Masamune Shirow, directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo (worked on AKIRA, GUNDAM and GOLDEN BOY). 50 minutes of cyberpunk technology and action. The characters and the plot are pretty dumb, but I still loved it. Feels like an 80s sci-fi-action movie - doesn't take itself too serious, but excites nonetheless. I also liked the designs of the futuristic cities and mecha. Artwork seems a little bit more polished than the animations. Good show!
Sidewinder51
Rate 6 English Dubbed Story From introduction to conclusion each had a kind touch. In terms of the intro it provided the right mystery. Not too revealing yet not to vague. Also, it's happenings made sense. Plot continued to stay true to the end. At the end not only was the ending slightly touching but even at the credits the viewer finds some rewards. Sure it was not thrilling to where one would be hanging to the edge of their seats but all in all a decent show. Art Made sense with plot. There were some slight art cut backs. For example the trees. They for the most part lookednatural then cue in that small running scene and they soon transferred back into art. Characters were nicely drawn.
Sound- no issues. Also, some of the characters like the doc i found to be a rather good pick.
Characters
Characters may not have had a detailed background but their attitude/ uniqueness dripped off of them. You couldn't help routing for them.
Enjoyment: I would say those were a fan of the franchise die hard would enjoy this. Even though it is not cop based.
The_Triumphant
I think the "66" stands for the amount of times I fell asleep. Highlights: - Super cool idea for a plot that takes inspiration from American classics like Terminator and Alien - The main character, Sybel, is quite likeable [and memorable] with her determination and sense of justice - Cool urban environments that make interesting playgrounds for destruction once the action finally picks up Criticisms: - The plot execution is poor due to the overall blandness that is present in every aspect of the film - The painfully boring parts could have easily been rescued with good uses of a music score/soundtrack - Poor pacing that drags along makes 1 hour feel like3
- The weaponized robot's character design is awful with its blank, non-intimidating, disinterested. gaze and old lady hair
Final thoughts - If you are in need of a nap, check this out! I seriously had to restart and rewind this about 7 times.
I really like the idea, but I wasn't impressed with this one.
5/10
