Hard Rock

Mezzo forte is a nice little action, comedy. The animation flows like water. The guns are well displayed, and Mkura is one of my favorite characters ever. The fight scenes were some of the best I've seen in any anime, rivaling that of Cowboy Bebop.

Now to the bad news. The story is okay, but many things don't seem to come all the way together. Like Mikura's ability to tell the future at random moments. If you're asking, "How can she do that?", your question will never be answered. Many others have commented on the rape scenes, and I must agree that they are totally out of place here. Somewhere between the guy getting hit in the balls with a baseball, and some other guy running out of the bathroom stall with his pants falling down in fear, the scenes don't fit in at all. Also the sound design isn't up to par for modern times at all. The music sucks also.

Sometimes anime can seem way too pretentious. I can always spot a really bad anime when it takes what should be a standard adventure/sci-fi plot and plays it up as if it contains the very meaning of life. Lines are delivered with far more gravitas than what is necessary (especially in English dubs), and the story becomes so bogged down with ridiculous half-baked metaphors that it no longer makes sense and is certainly not any fun to watch. Fortunately, that never happens in Mezzo Forte. It's goal is to give the viewer a good time with some over-the-top ultraviolent action done with a sense of humor, and it succeeds even if it isn't perfect.

The story of Mezzo Forte is set sometime in the future and focuses on a reckless trio of mercenaries hired to kidnap a powerful crime lord and end up at war with his henchmen and his psychotic mafia princess daughter. This conflict is made even worse by the fact that they botched the kidnapping and ended up killing their victim, thus appearing to eliminate any chance of holding him for ransom (although they're the only ones who know that). Aside from some confusing and inexplicable stuff about the heroine and the villain being able to see the future, that's pretty much the story in a nutshell. It's a decent story, and even manages to have a few twists, but what really sold me on this anime was the over-the-top action handled with a rather twisted sense of humor. It's a well-known fact that the laws of physics seem to work differently in most anime, and Mezzo Forte plays with this concept to an absurd effect. When a girl who looks like she weighs about 100 pounds can kick a much larger man through a brick wall and it is treated as completely normal, it's clear that the writers and director aren't taking themselves too seriously. Unlike a lot of other really violent animes that come off as either pretentiously grim or exploitative, the violence here is handled with a sense of humor that lessens the horror of what we are seeing. It's definitely a nice change of pace.

The only thing I really didn't like about this was the pacing. The version I saw was only about an hour long, and it seemed to go through everything way too quickly. I could easily see something like this spread out across 90 minutes and still be worth watching. I've also heard that there is a director's cut that features two sex scenes that are so graphic that they push this anime into hentai territory (for those who don't know, hentai is basically anime porn). Although they weren't included in the version I saw, I was told where they would appear, and I can honestly say that they would be too out-of-place in this movie. They just sounded like an excuse to show some hot sex even if it had nothing to do with the plot. I certainly didn't feel like I was missing anything.

Overall, I found this movie to be a lot of brainless, ultraviolent fun that doesn't take itself too seriously. While I wouldn't recommend it to anyone too easily offended by some of the stuff in a typical R-rated Hollywood film (or a pornographic film, if what I understand of the sex scenes in the director's cut to be true), I would recommend it to anyone who likes a lot of wild action delivered with a dark yet tongue-in-cheek sense of humor.

And I can tell this one has good humor and lot of porn and excessive nudity,heck I love this hentai that make me lose virginity imaginative and I love the violence I love the characters I love the black one too I'm not racist and discriminative,and I respect black people,and I don't say black in front of them OK. This is with the animator of grave of fireflies and akira and he made a great hentai perfectly drawn and perfectly plot related this is number one anime ever

I've been hearing lots and lots of talk about this OAV for a while now and I've been trying like hell to find it. I eventually managed to download it completely uncut (in Japanese) which is the way to see it. It does not disappoint.

In the tradition of live-action films such as Baise Moi, Mezzo infuses graphic sexual content (i.e. penetration) in its run, which is why this film has garnered lots of buzz in the anime circles. Now, it could have done without the sex scenes but it doesn't make it any worse. The action is plentiful and crazy with cute chic Mikura blasting bad guys with the ferocity and gracefulness of Chow Yun-Fat. Momoni adds an interesting balance between her psychotic, sadistic, rage-induced violent tendencies and Mikura's reactive, poetic destructiveness. In the end this is a bloody, sex-filled romp through familiar territory but with enough humor and explosions to make it interesting.

Director Yasuomi Umetsu who also created another classic animation flick, Kite 1998, in which he not only directed but was also the writer has created another 60 minute gem in Mezzo Forte.

I enjoyed the shootouts, violence, blood-flow, slow mo bullets and sex scenes.

If you enjoyed this as much as I did then check out other classic animation flicks, Blood the Last Vampire 2000, Dead Space: Downfall 2008, Immortal (Ad Vitam) 2004, Ninja Scroll 1993, Perfect Blue 1998, Renaissance 2006, Film Noir 2007, Tehran Taboo 2017 and The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb 1993.

If your interested in more adult animation you might want to check out classic Cool Devices 1995 episodes, Curious Fruit, Sacred Girl, Yellow Star and Fallen Angel Rina plus Taboo Charming Mother 2003, Behind Closed Doors 2001, Mistreated Bride 2005, Insatiable 2005, Immoral Mother 2009 and G-Spot Express 2005.