Welcome to Astral Animations, where we'll examine the imports of Japanese animation currently available in the United States.
This review does not represent the opinions of the general public. It reflects my personal thoughts and opinions on the movie.
That said, on to the review!
Only three people remain of the Borgman project: Chuck Sweager, Ryo Hibiki, and Anice Farm. The adjustment to a moderately normal, everyday existence is not necessarily easy, but they've all done their best. Three years have passed, and all three of them have settled into jobs where they can be content, if not wholly happy and satisfied.
Three years have passed, and Chuck has continued his relationship with police woman Miki Katsura. He himself has joined the police force as a special investigator. And soon he and Miki have some serious investigating to do. Someone somewhere has begun developing new cyborgs...a notable accomplishment since the methods used by Memory in the Borgman project were years ahead of her time and supposedly died with her. But what else can these people be? Ordinary people can't pick up cars and throw them around like baseballs. Ordinary people can't be buried by a collapsing building yet emerge from the rubble relatively unscathed. And ordinary people certainly can't jump in excess of ten meters in a single bound. So they must be cyborgs, right? But who's making them, and why?
Ryo and Anice, meanwhile, have settled in Florida, where Ryo has joined the workforce constructing a new rocket. Anice, since she can't contribute much to the project, became a waitress at a coffeeshop, but she's becoming increasingly discontent with her life. So it's understandable when a letter arrives offering her a job back in Tokyo where she can be useful. She shares the news with Ryo, begging him to come back to Japan with her, but he says that he can't go now, not when the rocket launch is only days away. She leaves alone, and back in Japan hooks up with Chuck and Miki, who ask her to help investigate Heaven's Gate, an energy project that seems to be the center of a rash of disappearances from all around Tokyo Bay. She does so, but Heaven's Gate is definitely more than it seems. Now, can Ryo and Chuck arrive in time to save Anice, and will they even stand a chance against a new breed of cyborgs?
Sonic Soldier Borgman: The Last Battle is a 45-minute (or so) anime feature that tells a very compelling story within a short amount of time, and every minute of it is worth seeing. Think about it: the last three survivors of a cybernetics project seeking to live out their lives as ordinary humans suddenly forced to rely once more on their internal machinery to defeat a madman whose plans including the melding of machines to the human race as the next step in the evolution of the species. Definitely a plot worth viewing!
Little is explained about what happened during the three years between the termination of the Borgman project and the current events (though Sonic Soldier Borgman: Lover's Rain offers a suggestion). But in the long run, you don't need to know. This is a story wholly established in the here and now with only minor references to the past. For example, it's only natural that Anice should remember events from her time in the project as she returns to Tokyo, and sadly recall happy times with her friend Memory when she sees something that once belonged to her. And naturally the reuniting of the three Borgmen would naturally result in memories and reminiscences, right?
What I find most interesting is the way the writers of this anime ensured that every action has its consequences, and not all of them are necessarily positive. For example, the rather destructive trick Ryo and his friend use to escape work on the rocket--cutting into the external structure and the fuselage and blaming it on metal fatigue--delays their arrival in Japan because the special orbital planes used to fly around the world use the same components as the rocket they tampered with and all the planes are grounded to undergo inspection. Then there's also the resultant backlash Miki must suffer from her grandfather once her role in the whole thing is explained. Even though her motives were just, the end results were not. I just wish I could tell you exactly what happened to get her into so much trouble, but for now let's just say she acted more like a private vigilante than a police officer when she asked Chuck and Ryo to don their Borgman armor once more. That should do, right?
Now, I'll be honest. Sonic Soldier Borgman: The Last Battle is listed by the American distributor, A.D.V. Films, as number VHSSO/001S while Lover's Rain is listed as VHSSO/002S, which makes sense since The Last Battle was released before Lover's Rain. Chronologically speaking, though, events in Lover's Rain occur before the story in The Last Battle. I don't know why the writers did this and I probably won't ever know. All the same, though, it's a terrific anime whichever way you look at it, so buy or rent it, view it, and enjoy!
You can likely purchase Sonic Soldier Borgman: The Last Battle on videotape at any video store that sells Japanese anime. You can also contact A.D.V. Films directly to find out how to order it from them.
Interested in buying this video? You can! Just follow the link to order the English subtitled VHS version. You can also visit the Stellar Video Store for other titles.
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