An exciting cyberpunk romp directed by Rintaro with veteran animator Kanada Yoshinori about a genius hacker and a gang of hot-rodders.
Nenhum episódio encontrado.
Download is an earlier Madhouse work that up until last week (at the time of writing), had never been translated. Well, now we've got some subs courtesy of Burger. We can finally watch this 50-minute OVA how it was meant to be viewed: in VHS quality with solid yellow subtitles. To be honest, it's not great. The story, which centers around an email that kills its recipients, is largely forgettable. The main character is an unlikable sex-crazed teen, and he's accompanied by his formulaic pals Stripper Girl, Tsundere Sister, Gangster Pals, and Nerd Boy. This page tags the show as sci-fi and psychological, but the latterjust isn't true and the former is wasted potential. Instead of a full cyberpunk thriller, this OVA's definition of sci-fi is a nighttime city and head-mounted computers. But that's enough bashing, let's talk about some of the positive stuff. For one thing, the music. The decision to make most of the soundtrack honky-tonk American country music is a weird one, but the music isn't bad by any means, and hey, it's pretty unique. For an early 90's show, the animation is pretty good. I won't bash the art and details too much; the current releases are low quality so it's pretty hard to make things out, but that's no fault of the original work. All in all, I can't say that I'd recommend Download. However, I'm still really glad that it was subbed, and I'm sure it paved the way to all of Madhouse's great shows later on.
This is an interesting little OVA if you like quirky art projects, but it's all style without much in the way of story or interesting ideas. It's enjoyable if you can pick up on all the pop culture visual cues and references, and there are some delightful moments of character animation that are remarkable for how well they convey fluidity and weight of movement - but unless you're the sort of person who likes watching animation for the sake of appreciating the technical aspects, and recognizing trademark elements that the staff on this project used elsewhere, you probably don't need to invest 48 minutes tosee this.
Do you know how annoying it is to have to search for an anime called ‘Down Load’ of all things (well there’s a subtitle but it’s a mouthful and the first part is much easier to remember)? Pretty darn hard. Was it worth the 10 minute hassle of having to track down the PC Engine video game this is based off (also called Down Load which just made things even more confusing), just so I could find a mention of this somewhere in article? Yes actually, I’d say it was. Down Load: Song in Loving Homage to Amida Buddha is an obscure and more orless completely forgotten one shot OVA very very loosely based off a side scrolling shooter for the PC Engine/Turbografx 16. I did play a bit of the game before writing this and it’s a perfectly average and unremarkable shoot ‘em up, one of dozens that plagued the system’s library. It’s only notable draw being some fairly impressive anime cutscenes for the time and the profanity laden engrish scattered throughout the game. But by the looks of it, the connection between the game and the anime is limited to sharing some basic concepts like the cyberpunk setting and both featuring a red motorcycle. It hardly matters anyway as the anime doesn’t have much of a story to begin with. Young monk/hacker/drunken pervert Shinnosuke “Sid” Murata ends up falling into a corporate conspiracy involving a deadly computer virus while out chasing some tail, so he teams up with a biker gang to stop it. That’s more or the less the gist of it, the plot is thin even for one-shot OVA standards. Characters are extremely undeveloped (though still entertaining to watch) and you could honestly fit the whole story into about 15-20 minutes, though here it’s stretched out to fit 47. But that wouldn’t be as fun would it? Down Load makes up for its borderline nonexistent plot and flimsy character development with pure style and charm. Despite its obscurity and somewhat rough look (not helped by it being stuck on VHS and Laserdisc), the OVA sports a stacked production team with acclaimed director Rintarō (Galaxy Express 999, Metropolis, X) helming the project and Yoshinori Kanada (Birth, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Akira) handling character designs and key animation, among a litany of other veterans of the industry providing their support (Tatsuyuki Tanaka, Takuo Noda and Yoshiyuki Soga to name a few). As such, Down Load is crammed full of energy and charm, from the neon colored and highly detailed backgrounds to the energetic squash and stretch animation that emphasises expressive and exaggerated movement. A character simply turning around and sitting down can be an incredibly eye catching moment thanks to this, which makes even the slower scenes featuring exposition or minimal dialogue feel vibrant and alive. That’s what you’re going to be watching Down Load for. Not the story, or the characters, but the animation. It’s basically a glorified showcase for everyone involved to flex their shit, including famed J-rock pioneer Hiroshi Kamayatsu who provides the blues/southern rock inspired soundtrack of all things. It works surprisingly well, given the clashing styles of the OST and the anime itself. But good animation doesn’t instantly make a good anime, and Down Load is unfortunately a little undercooked when it comes to some of the basics. BUT it is fun, and that’s clearly more what the team were aiming for instead of anything complex and thought provoking. And that’s okay. Not everything has to be Shakespeare. If you’re a fan of Kanada’s animation, then this is highly recommended as it has his fingerprints all over it. If you want a fun sci-fi anime to kill an hour on, then this will also suffice, though there are definitely more engaging and rewarding anime out there. Down Load is currently unlicensed and is out of print.
