Well, I promised myself that I'd be reviewing something or other about a month ago, but today, I decided that I'm in such a good mood, I'd review the latest animé series I saw in full. I'll be your host, and the series is "Burn Up Excess", taking a slight dive into "Burn Up-W", but only sneakily, and on the side.

I picked up the series at a fairly good deal price, at a local music store. Interestingly, I bought the first volume as an impulse, suggestive title, and it suggested that I buy the entire series, just out of curiousity. Maybe I'm just easily led, these days, I don't know. But, however, this series promises a lot of fun, a lot of laughs, and a lot of well-endowed female police officers. Next, please!

There's a no brainer to the plot, we are situated in a place known as "POLICE TOWN", and crime is rampant. Well, not really, Police Town is fairly peaceful sometimes, but then there'll be some big crime event, like a government official being held captive along with a large number of hostages, or, perhaps a series of unexplained fires at specialist diamond stores, involving a huge loss of expensive merchandise. Either way, crime is as un-real as it is in our own lives, and when such horrid situations as major kidnap and panty theft occur, Team WARRIOR are called out on duty! These are the good girls, the people you are cheering for, so go crazy.

Team WARRIOR consists of several people, I'll list them simply in a short description. There's little else to know about them, other than their past, personal lives.. and that would be giving away the ending for you, now, wouldn't it?

Rio. - The beautiful, blonde bimbo! Simply put.
She has a bad track record of lending money from people and not paying it back on time. She's in so much debt, she uses WARRIOR as a way of gaining cold, hard cash. Then, she spends it, and the cycle repeats. Rio is the self-professed leader, you might say. She is definitely one of the driving forces of WARRIOR, despite her own personal faults. Rio is more of a fighter, than a thinker, naturally. And her chest size is beyond belief, too!

Maya. - Has a sexual fetish. Firing off her load, right into your face.
That's right! Maya is obsessed with guns. Any kind, any type, any size. If she can blow off a few hundred rounds working with WARRIOR, she'll be happy. Woe betide, if she doesn't get to shoot someone, or even draw her fire-arm. Maya is a pretty headstrong sort of girl, quite like Rio. Since they work out where the action is, together, a lot, they are definitely the brawn of WARRIOR. Despite Maya being so butch and macho, she's as beautiful and as well-endowed as anyone else in the WARRIOR team.

Lilica. - The pretty, pink haired computer geek. Anything involving computers is right where Lilica is at, she can work up a storm with a keyboard on Maki's command. Lilica is quite blatantly emphasised on being a young girl, despite her age and experience with Warrior. She's short, has a small chest, and sometimes wishes she could be like the other girls in WARRIOR. You only see her in the heat of battle in one episode of Burn Up-W, which should tell you that Lilica is more about brains, than muscle and force. She can deal with hostage situations in a snap, too.

Nanvel. - Nanvel is the lady who designs all the gadgets for WARRIOR, such as the "Pinkiri" miniature cockroach, and the crappy samisen/banjo smoke-screen gun. Ahem, but seriously. She makes some pretty amazing inventions, and her knowledge is on par with Lilica, I'd say. However, Nanvel prefers to create than to sit at a computer all day. She's made many things, including a fabulous diet machine, and a robot that allowed her to fight alongside Maya and Rio on one occasion. As she said herself, she "wished she could be more like" Maya and Rio, so we can safely say Lilica and Nanvel are the intelligent type, and Rio and Maya are the shooty-punchy type. Did I mention Nanvel has large breasts? Alright, then that's clear, too.

Maki. - Maki is quite mysterious. She is the real Leader of WARRIOR, as she formed the team of elite officers to rule under her own thumb. She's a matured beauty. Intelligent, strong-willed, and with distinctive large, owl-eye glasses. There's something bothering her about the past, though. I wonder what that could be, hm? And, while Maki is never out in the thick of battle, she is always on the field of crime to lend her advice. A truly great Boss, who commands WARRIOR very well.

Yuji. - IT'S EXCITINGGG! Yuji will often yell, as a stream of blood pours down his nostrils. He's a vile, perverted, seedy.. though pretty handsome sort of guy, really! He is never seen without his video-camera, and never seen without being in the vicinity of the ladies locker room, or between someone's legs with his lens getting a clear view. He's a terrible lech, but a real sweet dude at heart. Despite his pervy ways, he definitely has a thing for Rio.. but will she ever be able to see him as anything more than a dirty peeping tom? Oh, well. We'll see.

Miss Ruby. - Miss Ruby is Miss Ruby. She's a very mysterious lady who seems to be involved in a lot of shady operations. The villain of the series, she is irritated to discover that WARRIOR are stepping onto her toes once too often. Is she a lone wolf? Or, is Miss Ruby is merely taking orders from another operative? And for one thing, who could this 'Harry' fellow be? You'll have to watch, if you want to know that one!

As I've ran down the more major cast members, I'll give you my own personal opinion on a closer level, now. "Burn Up Excess" is definitely not going to impress any elitist anime fans. For one, it was made years ago, the animation is rather dated on comparison to, say, a newer series. It was made in the nineties, for one thing. Two, the series does feel like it is being dragged on, thanks to the two-parter episode, "Slam Tank!", which is really quite boring. Rio is assigned to watch an amazing new design of powerful military tank, however, the plane it is loaded on with her crashes in the desert due to an attempt to steal it. Rio and the tank are all alone. There's a whole bizarre context in there, that plays on the fact the tank's AI has fell in love with her, and is protecting her from harm and so forth. I just found it quite cheesy, and rather pointless. This was the point I also discovered Rio does not make a good character to leave on her own, in terms of entertainment. She whines, whines some more, and constantly shouts at a huge metal tank for virtually no reason, other than to be an annoying bitch.

Third, there's a whole lot of dirty humour. Not a lot, but it always draws quite close to the line.. very close indeed, infact. If you are offended by heaving cleavage and rear/pantie/between the legs camera work, then I wouldn't even go near this. In closing, heavy stuff, there is a lot of obvious fan service in this one, so you either like it, or hate it. Your choice.

As for the good stuff, there was an abundance in my eyes. The comedy is almost directly taken off in the series of later years, "Excel Saga", other than the million or so references to obscure anime that we've never heard of, obviously. I'm thinking of one of my personal best moments, the four or five "Yuji's Additional Theatre" that take place after certain episodes. These are basically Yuji, having his own T.V News Reporter show and doing perverted things that he hopes that millions of people will be watching. There is a great mock-up of a Japanese dating game, in two such episodes, Yuji always seems to end up with having unlocked "2% GRAPHICS" or so, each time! And there's generally just funny comments coming out of him, constantly, such as "IT'S EXCITINGGG!", "OHHH, MY GAWDDD!" and the ever popular wolf-call, "AROOOOO!" Keep in mind, these are in Engrish/Japanese, so are all the more hilarious to hear.

Great dialogue, too. I've watched the English and the Japanese, and I'd say that in terms of comedy, the English one has a lot more put into it. The voice-acting is bearable, and the English cast have done well I'd say. It even has Spanish dialogue on each DVD, unfortunately, I don't speak Spanish.. but then again, I don't speak Japanese. Actually, if you listen to Spanish, you can almost mistake it for Japanese, actually.

I don't mean to offend people who hate dub-acting, but here's an example of one of the funniest lines I heard in English.

English - Maya's Father: "Looks like someone got a visit from the Titty Fairy!"
Japanese - Maya's Father: "My, how much you've grown."

See? You have to hear it, obviously. But I liked the English dialogue, too. I am English, and I don't get some elements of Japanese humour, as I shouldn't do. The wordplay jokes, for instance. Why listen to it in a foreign language and read? A lot of laughter can be found in the English translation, especially all the blows ADV make at nerdy otaku in the dialogue, sometimes. Especially regarding the panty thief.

However, there are some awkward moments in Burp Up Excess, for instance, the series begins as a really light-hearted comedy, and then turns into a serious, comic drama toward the closing episodes. To someone who has got used to laughing at the antics of WARRIOR, you feel a little upset and alienated when a member gets seriously hurt, or someone is in a tough situation. I am of course referencing the final ever episode, here.

Now, I mentioned there was a whole two episodes I found boring. However, I did have personal favourite episodes that I've watched three or four times, up to now. The first is the second episode, in which a nerdy, otaku panty thief is caught by Rio, and the trail leads to a transvestite bar. The owner, Chimama, is a gruff man in make-up, with thick stubble, who dresses in a kimono. The whole transvestite dialogue was hilarious, almost Monty Python esqué. The fact Chimama calls Rio, 'Stephanie' as a pet name is pretty funny. They also have a big dream of going to Morocco to get sex changes! And Chimama seems to be able to punch like Kenshiro, from "Hokuto no Ken." The line, "I should have gone to Morocco sooner..." when delivered after a blow to the nutsack, is absolute comedy.

Then, I was amazed to notice that in a later volume, the Trannies come back! And they've got a new twisted plot of using Nanvel's super diet machine to change their appearance. Of course, they have to keep Nanvel in a supply of sweets, despite the fact they've lost all their cash due to the prison time, and live in a shitty hotel. Of course, their new dream is to re-open the Bar Akemi, and get their Moroccon Sex Changes. Such a secret plan, they pin it up against the hotel door. Genius! The last fight with the Trannies involves Chimama becoming the size of a giant, and having an epic Godzilla battle with Giant Rio. Of course, the battle is more Rio's breasts being grabbed by Chimama than an actual fight.

Another episode I liked was the fourth one. It oddly, so early on in the series too, focuses on Maya. It is an actual episode that is almost based entirely around Maya returning to Osaka to visit her sick father, and ending up joining a fight to beat Gondo Construction in the land wars. There's a lot of Japanese movie references, especially to the Yakuza sort of deal, but done in a comical fashion. Maya's Dad is their Boss, and his gang are four complete idiots. They also have a huge painting of a shitty wooden shack, to conceal their real house! Anyway, Maya's Dad, Maya and the boys all invade a Russian double-airship, shaped obviously like two big knockers, and decide to steal the guns being sold in an auction, an auction in which Mr. Gondo is planning to buy out. There's some great comedy in this one, I can't begin to say how much I loved it. Infact, if you watched this alone, you would think the series was entirely focused about Maya, and she was the only member of WARRIOR to actually succeed in pulling off a whole episode alone. Considering Nanvel and Lilica never get the chance at all, it just shows that if done right, even a gun-obsessed pychopath as your lead can be hilariously entertaining.

Just briefly, I'd say Burn Up Excess is known mostly for the bouncing of breasts. There's so much bouncing going on, ADV took the time to invent something called a "Jiggle Counter" for you discerning fans. Now, if you have an argument over how many times Maya's rack bounces when she fires off a machine gun, you can turn it on, and sit back and watch.

Thirteen episodes is the sort of number that you can be upset with. I definitely would have liked to have seen more, and the ending actually left an entire possibility for a new series open. However, this has yet to be seen. Even after over like, seven or eight years. There was a four part series called "Burn Up-W", and according to IMDB.Com, a series known as "Burn Up!" which I assume was the very first line of the franchise, before the mid-nineties.

Now, just to mention Burn Up-W briefly. Anyone who liked Burn Up Excess will like this one, it is a four episode series that doesn't answer anything regarding Burn Up Excess at all. Anyway, to get down to it, the first episode is almost similar to the first episode of Burn Up Excess, flat-out comedy. Then, everything changes. The comedy, bouncing of breasts, and everything else you will definitely notice, but it becomes the most serious, actually rather depressing storyline after episode one. The final two actually are a lot more disturbing than the ending to Burn Up Excess, many people are killed in cold blood, and the brain drug sub-plot comes into full force. There's corruption and betrayal on the police force, and two vicious murderers with code-names which I forget, come to murder officers inside the actual building. One is a scrawny, super-fast guy with big knives, resembling a goblin, and the other is a huge, beefed up guy with an invincible body and a huge gatling gun. There's also a corrupt officer controlling all this from the central computer inside the police building, so Rio and Maya are virtually forced to go out and take on of them on each. While Lilica and Nanvel do virtually nothing but the technical work, as usual.

One senseless scene, during the fight with the Knife Guy and Rio in the swimming baths involves him actually getting hold of a love struck Yuji, who has come to her 'rescue', and forcing her to either watch him die, or strip off and swim naked. I just found the whole scene a little bit depraved, actually. Yuji being held at knife-point and actually almost forming a perverted bond with the psychopath as she strips off.. is, a little bit too much, I reckon? See, when Burn Up falls into this stage of drama and tension, you almost feel alienated and upset. To watch the characters you have been laughing at, suddenly be threatened and hurt? Almost like someone you've began to care about you'd rather not watch them be killed off.

And don't worry, none of the WARRIOR team are ever killed off, so that's something.

Musically, Burn Up Excess and even spin-off Burn Up-W are just average. There's an explosive theme-tune for each of them, a bearable ending theme for Burn Up Excess, while a basic average series of ending themes for Burn Up-W. Infact, just black background and white text, compared to the crayon animated sugary-sweet ending of Burn Up Excess. I had a few gripes with Burn Up-W, the opening sequence. All anime should have a great opening sequence, but this one? The first episode lacked one, the second was made up of clips from the first episode. The last two, however, had a really fun opening sequence. Why did they muck up the first two? Was it ADV? Or, merely the original format of presentation?

All in all, either series is not a dramatic, high budget recent anime series, this is what anime back in the nineties was all about, in America and England. There was "Ghost in the Shell", but then there was stuff like this floating around. It's the definition of anime comedy, and obviously has influenced a great number of future anime productions, I'll name "Excel Saga" and "Najica Blitz Tactics" just at face value. I'd say "Excel..." definitely took a few pointers from this one, all in all.

If you love nostalgia, and you like a good laugh with a hint of interest in the plot, I'd really recommend it. It's predictable sometimes, but definitely throws you off the scent as regard to the ending.

A must buy for someone who hasn't lost their sense of humour, and loves a bit of bouncing, now and again.