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Virtua Fighter


Episode 2: Kokoro no Sakebi
(Cry of the Heart)


Copyright: ©2000, SEGA/TMS, AnimeWorks
Length: 22 minutes
Rating: 3+ (suggested rating), PG (Parent's Guide Rating)
Format: Original Japanese Dialogue, English dub (VHS)


synopsis:

Akira and the restaurant owner have Pai locked up in a room to protect her. Pai however, doesn't like that and manages to escape. After escaping, she sees a young boy, Wei, being chased by bullies and helps him. Akira later meets up with them and tells them the best technique, run away. Meanwhile, the Koenkan decide to go after Pai again and they use Wei to lure out Pai to capture her. However, things don't go as planned.


capsule review:

It's beginning to look like this is going to be a show where the Koenkan keeps trying to capture Pai. This is also a more violent episode, and a young boy's life is in danger. I have to give this episode credit, there is some good, if not slightly misguided advice. Unfortunately, bullies don't usually stop beating up others if they're told it hurts. While this episode didn't contribute much to the continuity of the series as a whole, as a single episode, it was fairly entertaining. There was a lot of action, as can be expected from a fighting game based series.

Technically, this episode is about the same as the first one. The animation looks a bit worse in places, but the fight scenes are still about average. The acting is a not as good as the first episode, I think. Pai's getting annoying. Akira's acting is good, and the children aren't too bad. But Yang, the main bad guy so far, suffers from the usual maniacal evil guy overacting. No change in music.

I am not overly impressed with the Koenkan member, Yang. He just seems far too shallow. None of the characters show much character development so far, other than Akira. Pai is still the same, stubborn girl. Akira seems to be the only somewhat 3 dimensional character so far.
- JDA, 2001.03.17


café rating (english dub):

Story:

3 stars

[3 / 5] - More violence. However, this episode was a bit better as a stand-alone episode.

Direction:

3 stars		 [3 / 5] - The series doesn't progress much, as this episode doesn't really contribute much.

Acting:

2 stars		 [2 / 5] - About the same, but Pai's constant yelling is getting annoying. Other characters are sounding overacted.

Animation:

2 stars		 [2 / 5] - Animation quality seems to be a bit worse, but still rather ordinary TV animation.

Music:

2 stars		 [2 / 5] - The music is still very unimpressive.

Translation:

 [ N/A ] - Based on the English dub.

Overall Rating:

3 stars		 [3 / 5] - Still not bad, but it's still early in the series. Filler episodes are to be expected.


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Page last modified 2001.03.17