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The 26-part Silent Mobius TV series and the two preceding features were based on a popular manga by Kia Asimiya. In the early 21st century, powerful, carnivorous monsters called the "Lucifer Hawk" are attacking Earth. Humanity's bastion against this invasion is the Attacked Mystification Police (sic): Shinto priestess Nami, mechanical whiz Lebia, relentlessly cheerful Yuki, and tough-as-press-on-nails cyborg Kiddy. The balance of power in the war shifts in mankind's favor with the appearance of former secretary Katsumi Liqueur, who inherited magical abilities from her father, the "Archmage" Gigelf Liqueur. She also inherited a mysterious knife from her sorceress mother and an enchanted talking sword. These first nine episodes do little more than introduce the main characters and a few minor ones, including Rally Cheyene, the head of the squadron, and Katsumi's boyfriend, officer Robert "Roy" Device. All of the female characters have troubled pasts, which are explored in lengthy flashbacks that occur between attacks. Katsumi, who holds the key to the gates of the Lucifer Hawk world Nemesis, remains at the center of these battles. The setup and action in Silent Mobius strongly recall Bubblegum Crisis. Concept designer Yasuhiro Moriki's Blade Runner-influenced images of a half-ruined, dystopic future Tokyo are more interesting than the animation, yet art director Eiji Iwase uses a monochromatic palette with exceptional panache. Rated 13 Up: Violence, profanity, brief nudity. --Charles Solomon ... Read more

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These six episodes form the second sequel to the 1975 Tekkaman TV series. Ten years after the end of the first sequel, SK Tekkaman Blade, Earth is still at war with the Radam. The only effective weapon against these aliens are the Space Knights, who fight in armored mecha suits. Klutzy blonde Yumi Francois is the newest trainee, and a computer accident gives her the power to use the latest super-weapon, Reactor Voltekker. This power feeds into the standard rivalries and frustrated attractions that occur among the Space Knights between high-tech battles. The key conflict pits D-Boy, the hero of the previous series, against Dead End, the suicidal transvestite survivor of a group of Tekkaman rebels. Blade II feels like a longer plot that was severely compressed: the story ends before it really begins. Unrated; suitable for ages 16 and up: Nudity, violence (mostly between robots), alcohol use, sexual innuendoes. --Charles Solomon ... Read more

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Revelations, counter-revelations, flashbacks, dream sequences, and illusions pile up until even the filmmakers don't seem to know what's going on in the second set of television episodes based on the 1991 feature film. The original plot, in which the all-female AMP or Attacked Mystification Police fought the Lucifer Hawk, flesh-eating monsters from another dimension, gets hopelessly lost. The attempts to add depth to the characters needlessly complicate the story: cheerful Yuki is the product of yet another program of illegal biogenetic experiments and was once lost in time. Tough cyborg Kiddy resists a deadly mecha virus that threatens her police-officer boyfriend. Katsumi's long-suffering beau Roy breaks up a high-level plot to turn police officers into monsters capable of fighting the Lucifer Hawk. Apparently members of the Lucifer Hawk can breed with humans to produce "human children with the power of demons"; both AMP chief Rally Cheyenne and Katsumi are described as "half Lucifer Hawk"--although both Katsumi's parents have been shown as humans in several flashbacks. Stunned by this revelation, Katsumi refuses to use her powers "against family" and leaves the squad for six months, but that absence may just have been an illusion created by the sinister Ganossa Maxmillian. The limited budget of the TV series appears to be stretched very thin in these episodes: designer Yasuhiro Moriki's Blade Runner-influenced images of a dystopic future Tokyo lashed by acid rain have lost much of their initial punch. Rated 13 Up: Violence, profanity, brief nudity, alcohol use. --Charles Solomon ... Read more

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Any vestiges of a coherent story line vanish as this second set of televisionepisodes based on the 1991 feature film concludes. The revelation thatKatsumi is half alien--which shattered her emotionally in the previousepisodes--doesn't seem to be a problem anymore. She's back on the job withthe AMP or Attacked Mystification Police (sic), fighting aliens. Loveenables the long-suffering Roy to overcome the evil Ganossa, and his presencemagnifies Katsumi's powers enormously. When Ganossa kills Roy, Katsumidisappears for another six months but returns as Ganossa's disciple. Whatbegan as a story about an all-female police unit fighting the Lucifer Hawk, arace of flesh-eating aliens, suddenly becomes a tale of witchcraft. Newcharacters and plot elements proliferate. Ganossa "sold his soul" to theunseen King of the planet Nemesis; a Lucifer Hawk merges with the AMPbuilding until the satellite Donald zaps the structure. An enormous, badlyanimated CG serpent appears in the middle of Tokyo; Katsumi is imprisoned bythe Demon Sword Medium but is rescued (offscreen) by Avalanche Wong. AMPchief Rally Cheyenne sells her soul to rescue her sister from theclutches of Nemesis--apparently with no lasting ill effects, and by episode25, Ganossa has been identified as "an incarnation of the Devil." SilentMobius ends on a cliffhanger, with none of its story elements resolved:the filmmakers must have planned another season that was never made. (Rated13 and older: violence, profanity, nudity, implied sexual situations, alcohol use)--Charles Solomon ... Read more