Babel Nisei (2001)

This has been one of the worst pieces of media I have ever consumed. I struggle to even think of one thing positive about this anime besides the hilarity that comes from its absolute nonsense. The characters have pretty much no depth, the only person they even remotely tried to give depth was Leon, and that was half-assed exposition at best. The plot is like a piece of swiss cheese, and it seems like whenever the plot isn't going to go they way they want it to, just insert Lodem ex Machina to save the day. The fights make no sense, the way they announce attacks while simultaneously having no distinguishment between what the attacks actually do, and the general lack of movement and action makes them boring as hell. But far worse than any of this show's many other crimes is THE NUMBER OF TIMES LODEM SAYS "MASHTUH BABEL" IN A GOD DAMN EPISODE. I give it a 10/10 because you have to be a genius to make something this bad. This is clearly a masterpiece in creating human despair.

Once again i´m filling up a review here since its empty on the page. First of all i had some very high hopes of babel nisei, 2001 remake after seeing the 1992 4 part ova, en well it was somewhat a dissapointment. the 1st thing that crossed my mind was the change in animation, eversince most animation studio´s doing digital animation mostly since 2000 a lot changed, compared to the 90´s ova this one looked rather..... stiff and too static by movements, and another thing that putted me off was the execution of some actionscene´s. Storywise it is still the same as the originals but put in a more extended version, another change to it was 2 of the villians, in the 90´s ova they looked more mature darker and vicious, while this version is a more toned down version (kidfriendly) of most the charachters and stifflooking. What i do like is that its a more open and wider extent of the franchise in a way that it shows more what both good and bad guys are capable off, and what the tower of babel really is. Overall most of it looked like some halfassed work for digital animation compared to handdrawn technique, i,m not sayng i havent enjoyed it but this remake was unnessicary, the 90´s ova still rules over this version!

If you’re a fan of shonen battle manga, with characters powering up, lengthy fight scenes and energy blasts flying around like they’re going out of style, then you’ve got Mitsuteru Yokoyama to thank for that. Practically unknown in the west, Yokoyama is heralded as one of the godfathers of manga in his home country, second only to Osamu Tezuka in terms of sheer influence. His 1971 series Babel II (pronounced Babel the Second) might not be the first manga to feature that kind of focus on constant action and powering up, but it was certainly the first to really hit it off with the general public. Initially intending to only run for half a year, such was Babel’s popularity that it would end up spanning 12 volumes and receiving an equally popular and influential anime adaption in 1973. But despite that initial wave of success and frequent reruns of the ‘73 anime, Babel II gradually slipped out of the public consciousness, soon replaced with shows like Dragon Ball Z and Yu Yu Hakusho which captivated an entirely new generation. Outside of a solid 1994 OVA adapting parts of the manga, the IP lay dormant until 2001 when Akira Tsuburaya (son of Ultraman creator Eiji Tsuburaya) decided to fund a series of short, late night anime shows in hopes of tapping into the growing nostalgia market. These shows would adapt a variety of works from various famous mangaka, from Go Nagai (Demon Lorde Dante) to Leiji Matsumoto (Submarine Super 99 and Cosmo Warrior Zero) and Takao Saito (Barom-1). Sounds good on paper. Unfortunately, the project didn’t exactly go over as planned. Cosmo Warrior Zero did fine but the other shows churned out under Mr. Tsuburaya’s watchful eye ranged from passable to outright dreadful, with all of them hampered by short runtimes and shoestring budgets that did the source material zero favors (the ghastly adaption of Shotaro Ishinomori’s Genma Wars: Eve of Destruction is oft regarded as one of the worst anime ever made, and for good reason!). As luck would have it, Babel II was also part of this lineup. Tsuburaya’s intention was to introduce these classic IPs to a modern audience. Was Babel II a story that could work in the 21st Century? Koichi Kamiya (Kenichi Suzumura), a mild mannered high schooler, is having strange dreams. In each of them, he stands before the ruins of a mighty tower caught in a sandstorm. A voice echoes throughout the desert, calling out for someone called “Babel”. Koichi is unable to figure out the meaning of these dreams, which is made worse when they become increasingly vivid, almost as if he were really there. After winning a prestigious tennis tournament, Koichi is selected to become a member of Hades, a social club made up of the best of the best of Japan’s youth. Eager to move out from living with his distant relative Yumiko Furumi (Shoko Kikuchi) and her father, Koichi accepts the offer, unaware of what lies in store for him. Things quickly spiral out of control as Koichi discovers Hades is a front organisation for Master Yomi (Mugihito), a powerful psychic hellbent on controlling the entire world. At the same time, Koichi finally discovers the truth regarding his dreams and his unsure past. He is Babel the Second, descendant of he who built the mythical Tower of Babel, and the only one capable of putting a stop to Yomi’s schemes. Aided by his three guardians, the transforming panther Rhodem (Kenyuu Horiuchi), the monstrous bird Loploss and the mighty giant robot Poseidon, Koichi sets out to take down Yomi and Hades in a battle that could determine the fate of the world itself. Given the age of the original manga, Babel II’s plot undoubtedly feels extremely cliched and overdone. A young man with extraordinary powers fights against an evil force hellbent on taking over the world. Obviously back then it was likely a fresher concept to readers, hence the manga’s popularity during its serialization. In an effort to stay true to the original text, most of Babel II’s framework remains in the anime, though not without some wider changes. This mainly comes in the form of expanding on Koichi’s character as well as the scope of the conflict itself, with the anime tackling concepts like humanity’s capacity for violence and hatred and the inherent darkness in the human heart. Despite these new additions and changes to modernize the concept, the show still feels pretty anachronistic in places, though that might have been the intent from the staff. In regard to Koichi/Babel II himself, he’s actually a pretty likeable character. In the other versions of the story, he locks into the Babel role almost immediately. This version of the character is quite the opposite, choosing instead to keep his humanity despite it ultimately making his job harder. He routinely struggles with the task given to him, often getting his ass beat or requiring new side character Reika Saeki (Satsuki Yukino), a member of the UNIAS organization, to bail him out from time to time. While this aspect of Koichi’s character becomes less important as the plot takes center stage, his kindness and optimism make him an enjoyable character to watch regardless. Reika is a fine character too, though she doesn’t really have much backstory or development, which is something you could also say about most of the cast. The sole exceptions are Koichi and Leon, Yomi’s right hand man who gets the most focus and development as the plot goes on. Yumiko and her father all but disappear following episode 4, though they reappear for the final 2 episodes, which is a bummer as they both added an interesting dynamic with Koichi that would’ve been worth exploring. The cast are overall pretty good, which considering some of the other aspects of the show, ends up being a godsend… The story can more or less be sectioned into three distinct arcs. Koichi getting his powers and trying to understand his identity (Eps 1-5), Hades’ attack on the Tower of Babel (Eps 6-8) and the Revival of the Ancient God (Eps 9-13). Given the show’s short episode count, it’s pretty lazer focused but there are a couple of noticeably weird episodes and moments that seem to throw a wrench in the momentum. To give an example, the first five episodes follow a consistent thread of Koichi unlocking his powers, finding out more about himself and struggling with his role as a protector. Standard stuff. After finally awakening Poseidon, the next episode sees Reika getting a job in New York (?) as a coroner and uncovering a cabal of Satan worshiping vampires. While this episode does serve to give Reika a little bit of background and to serve as a bridge to the next arc, it’s such a strange turn of events. Another example comes in the final stretch where on the way to an important location, Koichi and Reika end up in an Amazonian village where a brain eating cyborg alien thing is harassing the sole survivor of a local tribe. While some elements from this bizarre detour reappear in the finale, it largely feels very pointless and the monster of the episode isn’t ever properly explained (we know what it is but why it’s even there in the first place is never elaborated on). Some elements of the story also feel poorly explained or glossed over when they should probably have gotten more focus. Koichi’s growing strength is briefly mentioned in an earlier episode but instead of seeing him naturally hone his skills, he seems to moreso unlock new powers when needed. This reaches an absurd height in the final couple of episodes where he suddenly gains the ability to fly and is then able to teleport halfway across the Earth in an instant. They attempt to kind of hand wave this in the final episode but that only adds more questions. Despite the plot’s strange sidesteps and somewhat clunky exposition, it manages to end on a positive note with what is probably the best episode of the series, wrapping up most of the story threads satisfactorily and with some decent visuals. And speaking of… Frankly the presentation here is fucki…