Review of Psycho Diver: Soul Siren

Introduction

A psycho diver is someone who must link minds with a troubled person to try to find out what is wrong with them. It is a dangerous profession as overloading the brain can have some nasty results.

When a certain psycho diver is asked to take on the case of Yuki, a talented pop singer he is disturbed to find that the previous one literally blew his mind. Still, he tries to help her, distracted by her attractive manager, Kyok, with whom he sarts an affair. He realises that they are both in danger because he has got to close to finding out the truth about Yuki`s possession. He must try to prevent Yuki from destroying herself and him.

Video

There are no signs of any problems with the transfer or picture quality. The animation is very stylish and entirely appropriate to the lurid storyline. There is plenty of blood and violence as this is certificate 15. The wide-eyd look of the Japanese origins is much in evidence.

Audio

A thoughtful English translation gives us a hard boiled detective-type narration that suits it well despite its Japanese origins. The actors voices are very good and totally unlike my previous experience with Japanese animations. The music created especially for the English version is frankly odd but not unbearable. Unlike many other animes there is no original Japanese track to compare with the English.

Features

A collection of over the top trailers for other titles form the extra content here, along with the original trailer for Psycho Diver and an image gallery from the film.

I`m at a loss to know why the image gallery is included here.

Conclusion

I just wanted to try it out your honour in my defence and it was not as bad as previous experiences. It has a certain something that makes a change from other films and I was curious to see how anime differed from the run of the mill animated tale. I was pleasantly surprised by the experience although the plot is completely bonkers. Psycho Diver does not lurch from one fight to another and has an interesting plotline with the soundtrack of hardboiled detective noir-style being a nice touch.

I`m a bit concerned at the price with this being quite a short feature with little by the way of extras and this will put off casual viewers like me.

So comics aren`t just for children anymore; I think I get it now having missed out all these years, occasionally borrowing graphic novels from the library because they are not `real` books. Well I`m on a mission to find the `graphics` that suit me. This could mean a return to my youth of reading Spiderman and Superman comics and tracking down the DVD equivalent, all suggestions, gratefully received.

This DVD is not the Holy Grail for me but it does inspire me to look some more.