Bring On the Murderous Pretty-boys!
Jenny Cadaver | Gotham City Sewers, 3rd Fortress of Evil on the le | 09/29/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This latest series (we call it "Gluhen", but I see it's now called "Eternity File") hasn't been very well-received among us fanfreaks, because of the changes to the character designs. They are very jarring if you're used to the old designs. But if you're new to the series, it won't throw you, except in flashbacks. And SOME of us have gotten quite fond of Aya's new metre-long, wine-red, oh-baby-please-wrap-it-around-my-neck-till-I-faint braid. But whose LSD-crazed idea was it to bring Schuldig back in that skintight color-clashing outfit and a Nazi-fetish-stripper hat? Oyyy.
Sena, as the new Omi character, must necessarily be a hysterical squeaky teenager whose stormy emotions bring him down-- he's definitely more effective in Japanese than in the English dub. Kyo, the tormented new big-brother type, well... he sleeps gloriously naked, which is the most interesting thing about him. Aya, as an undercover schoolteacher, is now WAY too nice to people. I miss the snarling, seething ice-prince of yore, but then, he's finally finished adolescence. Ken and Yoji are mostly the same people as we remember... but they don't really come in until this 2nd disk. Just in case you were wondering where they were on Gluhen 1, don't give up. And if you haven't seen Gluhen 1, then I won't give away what happened to Omi.
The animation in "Gluhen" is much better than the paper-cutout original series, and the fight-sequences less wooden. The villains are more believable... and some of them are recurring (oyy, Nagi, what happened to you during puberty??). The first story arc is nice and tightly focussed, centering on the School Of Evil rather than random nightly Weiss-missions. And the explosions are MUCH better than ever before. The stories & characterizations both draw you in quickly, so you have to watch more episodes at once than you did in the more piecemeal first series.
However... the material at the end of this disk starts to get really cryptic, unless you're already a fanfreak who has at least dabbled in the import-only Crashers mythos & Side B manga. In fact, if you haven't read "Weiss Side B" yet, the very ending of Gluhen may have you screaming "NOOO!!" & throwing the DVD across the room to stomp it into a bloody furious agonized death. Of course, if you're not quite so emotional, then go for it. But you've been warned."
Hooray For The Original Weiss!
K. M. Page | On Kritiker's Computer | 07/28/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Yay, the return of everyone's favorite Yoji Kudou, and the return of Ken. Of course, understanding Ken would be easier for the newbies if the OVA had been released in the US. *sighs*
After 5 episodes of the Kyo's guilt-association, and Sena's whining, the rest of the gang - thankfully - returns!
Aya is no longer left with one whiny *bleep*, but instead he gets his old pals, who are just as sexy as always!
Gluhen really picks up once Ken and Yoji arrive, and I am sad to say that Yoji still has to kill off his girlfriends - poor guy.
But hey, he gets to blow up a building!
More clues are left as to Todo and his creator, and everyone who's seen the first series know where the Sena thing is going. *sighs* What is it with the Omi-like characters? it's kind of...weird.
Enjoy! :)"