This is the full classic and it is classic goodness.
Now for those who have not watched classic anime there are some things you should be aware of:
1. There is plenty of graphic violence. This is well beyond what you standard get in modern anime.
2. There is real fan support. This means nudity not today's "the beach episode" and "the hot springs swimsuit episode".
3. The dub is not good. People trying to do New York accents to laughable ends. Don't worry you will get used to it and may even like it. The voice acting also just plain feels different that what you get today.
4. Computer software is not used to match the dub to the mouths so it sometimes is off.
5. And yes, it is classic hand drawn animation. It has a warmth we do not get in the soulless computer assisted stuff we get today. However being hand drawn it will not be as smooth at time as what a new viewer expects.
Needless to say this is not an acceptable substitute for Nemo or Monsters Inc, when trying to keep kids out of your hair.
This movie follows a tradition that many classic anime did back in the day, rip off American cinema/TV (just like today Hollywood now feeds off Japan).
You have the badass American cop with a heart of gold and his Japanese partner. There is comedy, unintentional comedy, and blood shed galore. There is fan support like the traditional shower scene and there is enough additional nudity and risque scenes to make the creators of Queens Blade blush.
Exploding heads? This anime has got them! Concealed hand grenades? You bet! A hilarious view of America? Oh yeaaaah!
Plot wise the feature is terrible and we expect that. In fact we crave the cheese. This is 8 year old cheddar quality cheese at times. Episode 4 revels in it where you see American features from Aliens to Airwolf ripped off, it is glorious. You will cringe, you will laugh, you will cry.
Features like this are what helped make anime popular in America.
The Discotek/Eastern Star has beautifully cleaned this up like the other releases they have been putting out. They are doing really great work that is aimed past the American anime fan all the way to the American anime Otaku. If you have the old VHS release just closet it and pick this one up.
The only problem is that Discotek/Eastern Star do not put good chapter skips in their stuff. While this is an additional star worthy plus when it allows you to skip the FBI warning at the beginning it loses that same star when you try to skip over the production company to the feature or just try to skip from one chapter's end credits to the next chapter and have to scan back to where it actually started. My opinion is that not having to waste 30 seconds of your life on the FBI warning you have seen thousands of times makes having to scan through end credits worth it.
The prices of ~15-20 dollars for each of their features is also a steal to put these new high quality release classics on your shelf.
I did not give this 5 stars because while it is a classic that any real fan should own, it is not in the same league as the greats like Cowboy Bebop, Akira, Perfect blue, Voices of a Distant Star, etc.
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