Review: Innocent Venus (2006)

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I really don’t want to be the reviewer for this series. Not because it’s terrible, but because it’s just average. If it was bad I could tell you to turn away as fast you could, or drop the disc into an acid bath so no one else will ever have to witness the misery of it. If it was a great watch then that would be an easier sell of: just go watch it. But when the material is just middle of the road it gets harder.

The world undergoes rebuilding after massive super-storms ravage the planet, wiping out a huge chunk of the population of the world. Japan gets back on its feet quickly due to powered mecha they use in rebuilding and defence. When the rest of the world stops attacking them and sign non aggression treaties with Japan, the Military forces once used to defend the country are then transferred to the more Orwellian purpose of stopping the working class population from rising up in revolution against the now rich rulers living in their safe city.

Into this world we meet Jin and Joe two guys that have kidnapped a young girl, codenamed Venus, from the oppressive rulers. Why she is important to both sides in the conflict is never explained in the first disc but when you kidnap someone from an airborne flight under heavy guard then they must be pretty important to someone. With Venus in their care, Jin and Joe along with annoying comic relief character set off to find a safe place to keep Venus out of the hands of the bad guys. All this is parallelled with action involving the special ops team that is hunting down Jin and Joe and other assorted rabble rousers including an ex member of their team who has taken off with the latest in state of the art submarines to play pirate on the high seas.

So here’s where it gets difficult for me. The part where I point out good bits and bad bits and whether it’s all worth it. The problem I’m having is that while there is nothing specific holding it back – apart from a stupid comic relief side kick that you just really want to hurt although that may be his purpose – there is nothing that I haven’t seen before in something better. It feels like a greatest hits of anime series only they did a remix that doesn’t quite sit right with people that have seen the same story lines before. The tendrils of story feel like S-Cry-Ed’s world, with the conspiracies of Noir, Elfen Lied, and Gasaraki with some of the characteristics of its mecha. This is really odd because I liked most of these, but I just can’t get excited by Innocent Venus. Maybe the honeymoon period of reviewing for the site is finally over and the reality is setting in or I’m just getting sick of seeing the same old stuff.

I should love Innocent Venus. It’s got giant robots; conspiracies and some nice gun play every now and again, with animation that does its job commendably well. There is just some X factor that is holding it back from being that stand-out show that I can really recommend to all.

6.5 Important (for some reason) conspiracy girls out of 10.
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