Najica Blitz Tactics - Volume 2 (DVD)

Introduction

I'm trying to come up with a meaningful and intelligent opening paragraph, but all I can think about are panties. It's amazing the source of wonder and fascination a commonplace garment can inspire in legions of the mildly perverted. We're not talking about the ephemeral floss gossamers that get bought for exasperated girlfriends by well meaning boyfriends, but substantial garments, made of sensible white cotton, and just one step below being classified a surgical appliance. I think this anime is killing my higher brain functions. Not that I mind. This unhealthy obsession can only mean one thing. I've been watching Najica Blitz Tactics again.

Najica Hiragi by day works for cosmetics firm CRI, where she puts her highly trained nose to work creating some of the world's most exclusive perfumes. Her real job is far more interesting though, a secret agent, she gets sent on the toughest missions, armed with the latest gadgets, to battle criminals and terrorists, and save the world when necessary. But in this future world where earthquakes have submerged much of the Earth's surface, and megalomaniacal villains can be manufactured, Najica's going to need help, whether she wants it or not, and she's soon partnered with a lifelike android also known as a Humaritt, named Lila. It's just that Lila is a little naïve when it comes to the ways of the world.

Volume 2 contains four more episodes.



Mission 5. The Fragile Dream with a Crimson Coloured Horizon
Ricardo Kidel has been buying black market ICBMs. He's a political exile looking to avenge himself on the government that so harshly rejected his talents. He's also got a lethal Humaritt on his payroll, which means getting close to him will be difficult. Najica and Lila will need all their skills, talents and gadgetry to sneak aboard the ship transporting the missile and Kidel, and Kidel has more than a few surprises in store for the intrepid agents.

Mission 6. The Beautiful Beasts, Eyes with a Lonely Shadow
There's a battle taking place in a demilitarised zone claimed by no government. Both sides want the contents of a large case, but when the Humaritt within escapes, lacking a master or even basic programming to limit its lethal capabilities, both sides are outclassed. The creators of the Humaritt want her back, but this one is a combat model, and Najica and Lila are totally outclassed.

Mission 7. The Murderous Bullet Shot with a Wry Smile
With Lila out of commission and healing in a nutrient bath, Najica is back to working alone, and suddenly she finds the absence of Lila to be distracting. She has some questions about the nature of Humaritts, and when Gento isn't forthcoming, perhaps the next mission will provide some answers when she has to protect a defector named Dr Swaney Kwanikowa from agents of her country who don't want to lose her services.

Mission 8. The Sky of Desire with a Swirling Battle Flame
Najica and Lila are posing as security at an international arms fair, but their real target is a stray Humaritt known as Toni who's working for an illegal arms dealer. Rasse Pewnt wants to get his hand on the latest stealth fighter. The glamorous agents find themselves competing for attention with the Beauty Queen daughter of an arms company chairman, but wind up having to rescue her when Toni kidnaps her for collateral along with the plane.

Picture

Made in 2001, Najica is beginning to look a little long in the tooth. It's a show that came about on the cusp of the digital revolution in anime production. The animation is then exceedingly crisp, sharp and full of bright primary colours and strong shading. There's none of the nuance and depth of recent animations, but it works well enough for the purpose. The 4:3 transfer is clear and sharp, with no significant problems with compression artefacts or banding. There is the occasional bout of aliasing, but nothing

Sound

You have a choice between DD 5.1 English and DD 2.0 Stereo, with optional signs and translated subtitles tracks. The dialogue is clear and the shows themes have a cross between sixties spy glamour and seventies funk to them. Choose the English dub for some extra surround goodness, but as usual I preferred the original language track, and found the stereo to be effective enough for my purposes.

Extras

Your usual anime extras to be found here, animated menus, jacket picture, the clean credit sequences, and trailers for Full Metal Panic, Angelic Layer, Zaion and Slayer's Return.

You'll also find the original Japanese TV spots, more promotion with Lila's On Call Mission Announcement and a Production Sketch Gallery containing 15 images.

The main feature is the commentary with Andy McGavin (Gento) and Mike Kleinhenz (Majima). Whereas the commentary on the previous volume was more a girly gigglefest, this track sounds like a convocation of perverts. Dirty old men of the world unite and worship at the altar of the holiest of panties. You could have had 20 minutes of Sid James' laughter to similar effect.

Conclusion

Take review of volume 1, rinse and repeat. What more can I say? Najica Volume 2 offers more of the same superspy antics coupled with more glimpses of female underwear than a seventies sex comedy. This is a series that is made for the teenage fanboy, although from the commentaries accompanying the first two volumes, it's obvious that age, maturity or even gender merely mask an inner Beavis and Butthead in us all. Najica Blitz Tactics is saucy, even rude on occasion, but when it comes down to it, utterly harmless. Questions of misogyny and exploitation are rendered moot when it is the female characters that carry the show, and are the strong prominent role models, while the male characters merely play second fiddle.

In terms of story, it's a sort of bastard love child of Blade Runner and James Bond, with the Humaritts providing the philosophical questions of the nature of intelligence and humanity, while Najica provides all the suave sophistication, unflappability, and exotic gadgetry that any self respecting secret agent requires. The Bond homage is made even stronger in this volume, with the first episode on the disc lifting a plot device from The Spy Who Loved Me, and the second paying homage to the opening sequence of the same film.



All four episodes concentrate on the growing Humaritt problem. Although it seemed that Shinba Industries had just lost the one model, Lila. It turns out that they were more careless than that, and that villainous androids are two a penny in the wide world. It falls to Najica and Lila to hunt down and retrieve them, but with Gento not being all that forthcoming about Humaritts, it becomes obvious that something is amiss.

The nature of Humaritts comes under scrutiny here. Najica was initially reluctant to work with a childlike machine, but Lila has grown on her, and as we begin this volume it is apparent that she is treating Lila like a person rather than a machine. How much affection has developed between the two only really becomes clear when Lila is badly damaged and Najica has to take on a mission alone once again. Also, most of the Humaritts that they have faced so far have been programmed to serve villainous masters, so naturally they act maliciously when ordered to. In the second episode, they go up against a Humaritt that is essentially a blank slate. Acting solely on instinct, it defends itself from any perceived threat with lethal brutality, but everything changes for Najica when it is cornered and shows fear. From then on, she's interested in just what Humaritts are, why they were built and what that means for her relationship with Lila. It's obviously going to be a source of friction between her and her employers in the final volume.

And that is about as serious as it gets, because once again, Najica Blitz Tactics is all about the humble panty and the female anatomies that it adorns. Just when it gets to the point that you feel like your IQ may be engaged, there is a gratuitous panty shot, resulting in a mindless 'Gaaah!" from the viewer. And there is nothing wrong with that. Now to screenshot this disc without getting a nosebleed…