The Most Bishounen Mecha EVER!!!!!! Ambassador Magma 1993 OVA Review

Before we begin, let's start with a Japanese lesson...

• Bishounen: A pretty or ladylike male in an anime.
• Mecha: Giant Robots.
• OVA: Original Video Animation: Essentially a Direct to Video anime.

And we continue with a history lesson:

In the 1980s and a part of the 90s, The anime industry hit a gold mine of cheap, rentable anime known as OVA's. They were for the most part unbelievable pieces of crap. Most of these are nostalgic curiosities at best. However, some of these were in the so bad it's good range, Like my favorite example from that era, The 12 episode Guyver OVA, but this ain't a Guyver blog, this is another example from that same era. Keep in mind, if it was an OVA from the 80s/90s, it was an automatic death sentence, so this is going to be a good one, and it was a series that US Renditions (AKA a purveyor of badly dubbed anime in the 90s along with Manga and Early US Manga Corps) dubbed back the day. Today's subject is Ambassador Magma...

WHAT IS AMBASSADOR MAGMA?


GOD DAMN IT, CAN I JUST REVIEW THE GODFORSAKEN ANIME ALREADY!?

AMBASSADOR MAGMA WAS A MANGA CREATED IN 1965 BY OSAMU TEZUKA ABOUT A MECHA GOD, WHO HELPED A BOY NAMED MAMORU AND BOTH THEIR FAMILIES BATTLE AGAINST GOA AND HIS ALIEN FORCES. HE HAD WEAPONS UP THE WHAZOO... THE MANGA WAS SERIALIZED IN SHONEN GAHO AND GOT IT'S OWN COLOR TOKUSATSU SERIES WHICH DEBUTED 6 DAYS BEFORE ULTRAMAN. IT GOT A FRESH NEW TAKE IN 1993 AND  THAT'S WHAT WE'RE REVIEWING TODAY...





STORY:

I discussed the basic plot above, but the OVA in particular feels like Evangellion fanfiction, which is not a good thing. The more complicated plot is that Goa (who now looks like a Power Rangers Villain) lands on earth and gets his army of aliens disguising as humans to invade the planet. There's plenty of monsters throughout the story, but they don't look all that unique compared to the Guyver. Mamoru Murakami is saved by Earth (who is essentially God), and can now summon Magma. The next few episodes play out like Ultraseven X, but the only difference is that Ultraseven X was an enjoyable non pandering show. It doesn't get interesting until the last few episodes, and this series is 13 episodes long!!!!! Guyver was cut in half into six episodes each half, and I got more enjoyment out of it throughout. This is just boring, confusing schlock for pretty much the entire show. There is attempts at some kind of message and more violence during the second half of the series, but it's so dumb it isn't even worth mentioning...


CHARACTERS:

THEY'RE ALL STOCK!!!!!!


PRESENTA... OK, I'll Elaborate...

They all feel like they were brought from the 60s manga without being updated, heck the villains are pretty much 3rd rate Power Rangers villains. Shonen manga wasn't terribly interesting in the 60s, and the reboots like this are meant to be aimed at salarymen and their kids, but if little akira-kun wants to see a shlocky anime with no character development, with audience confusion, so be it... But you've got to update the characters to appeal them...



PRESENTATION (FOR REAL HIS TIME):

It's probably the best part of the series, but only slightly. The Animations decent by 90s OVA Standards, but Goa looks like a Power Rangers villain and Magma looks like a more Bishounen than he probably should, Thats pretty much the only part they updated... The Opening theme is catchy... BURNING MY HEART ON THE EARTH!!!! FOREVER, THERE'S LOVE KEEP PROTECTING THIS PLANET!!!!  TOGETHER, WE WON'T SURRENDER THE FUTURE OF MY DREAMS!!!!! The ending theme is catchy even if it sounds like a Nazi March Athem... JET STREAM, NEW WEAPONS, SOS, SOS!!!!! The action is pretty much slow-paced and boring. This is the part where I'd talk the dub, but it's only available subtitled, at least on the internet, I can't even find the Dub online in any form in high quality. Kind of a shame because that "so bad it's good" style could've saved it, just saying...


OVERALL:

IT SUCKS!!!! The best part about this whole experience was that I got to stream it for free legally on YouTube, I can't recommend it as anything more than as a nostalgic curiosity from the 90s. This get's 2 Magma Whistles out of 4.






CLOSING THOUGHTS:


All I have to say in closing is that OVAs and the anime industry in America has come a long way from schlocky 80s/90s sci-fi violent horror fests. Some OVAs were redubbed with better dubs, anime companies are more competent these days, and we now have a little something called quality control in our animes.