Venus Wars

I first saw this back on the Sci-Fi Channel when they used to show Anime on Saturday morning at 9 pm. I may have been 15, and it was my first exposure to anime, and I watched every single week. One week they showed Venus Wars, and I loved it when I first saw it. Something about it really stuck with me, atmosphere, story... I never forgot about it. Then recently I had an opportunity to order a copy and I did. I popped it into the DVD player, hoping that it would be as good as I had imagined it... it was. This movie just plain rocks. Every character is textured and believable, and the animation, while not being mind-blowing, is just perfect... it relays the grim reality of war time on Venus perfectly and the atmosphere it generates is what I remembered the most about it.

If you like anime that has an awesome story, good animation, I would suggest tracking this down.

Recommended to any space opera lovers with no reservations.

In The Venus Wars, mankind now resides on two planets: civilized Earth and fractious terra-formed Venus. In the midst of fighting between the two nation-colonies of Ishtar and Aphrodia, a group of monocycle racers accidentally befriends a feisty reporter (Susan Somers) who hopes to advance her career through gritty reports on the war from the Aphrodian side. There are plenty of opportunities for the characters to demonstrate their different attitudes and spirit. It is nice to see characters that are true to their natures and which do not exhibit that nasty tendency to change personalities in midstream just because it was convenient to give a shortcut to the plot. There are no shortcuts in the plot and it is a fast moving action-filled drama in true grand anime style.

The characters have genuine quality character designs and the mecha designs are detailed and innovative. The director was also willing to experiment with different artistic filming styles. As subtitles go, Studio Nemo (an Arizona group) was competent and placed the titles so that the action was not obscured.

Some people may compare this movie to Akira in grandeur, but there are differences. This movie is darker in color (more tones instead of bright colors), grittier in plotting whereas Akira used shock value instead, and has a stronger moving plot than does Akira with a definite goal in mind. A telling difference is that the soundtrack of Venus Wars is much more listenable with strong catchy vocals and epic background music for the sequences that need it. What's similar? Both have lavish budgets used to develop high quality detailed animation for theatre release. This movie has a timeless animation style and fluid plotline which makes it worthwhile in any anime collection.

It's 2089 and Venus is a thriving Earth colony, but it strives for independance and wars with Earth breaks out. Venus is split into two parts, and we follow a group of friends living on one side of the divide who before the war spent their time racing motor bikes, but they end up fighting in the war. A young reporter from Earth follows them around and eventually becomes part of the Venusian resistance.

Nice animation, well developed characters and plenty of love loss and struggle ,makes for a great film, worth watching if you're an anime fan :)

The animation is good for 1989, but the plot is nothing more than an idealized war story with kids. And it is all happening on Venus of all places. The heroes are a bunch of motorcycle kids who want to save their city from the invaders. They are not even alien invaders, just a bunch of other people. They get some weapons, mount a rebellion which amounts to little, but in the process they get the attention of the army proper and they are conscripted. The day is saved.

The problem with the characters is that they are all teens. However annoying they may be, they are acting according to their role. Damn unsympathetic, though. The glory of war pop music on the background was also irritating. Bottom line: lame story, but good animation.