Amon Saga

Original Title: アモン サーガ
Romanized: Amon Saaga
Literal: Amon Saga

Plot Synopsis

Amon is a young warrior, wandering the land in search of the city of Valhiss--a traveling fortress atop the back of a mountainous turtle. Within that city is the evil Emperor Valhiss, seeking to conquer the world. But he has a special captive--the beautiful princess Lichia. Amon is not the only one seeking someone inside Valhiss, but what will he and the ragtag group of mercenaries find when they make it into the city, and what will become of all of them in the wake of the Emperor's evil ambitions?

Quick Review

Rating: 2.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2008-02-23

Amon Saga, influenced in story and art by famed illustrator Yoshitaka Amano, is a fairy tale with its feet on the ground. It mixes a storybook plot with plenty of style and well-done-for-the-era action, but tempers that with slightly more down to earth characters, a sense of realism in the action, and a more personal feel to the central hero's quest. Although in all it's not a terribly memorable movie, it has enough style, action, and interesting embellishments on the formula to keep it interesting.

Much like Vampire Hunter D, Amon Saga is somewhat old fashioned and far from original, but it still has some style and creativity. I wouldn't strongly recommend it, but for fans of Amano or fantasy action, as well as those just in the mood for some old-school anime, it's probably worth at least a rental.

US DVD Review

The DVD, aside from attractive box art by Amano, features a 5.1 channel Dolby Digital english soundtrack, as well as stereo English and Japanese tracks, plus some character bios.

Content Guide

A fair amount of violence and one bathing scene rescue give this the 13-up rating Manga decided on, though that's probably a bit lenient.

Violence: 3 - Plenty bloody in a few scenes.

Nudity: 2 - Nothing detailed, but a lot of artfully concealed skin in one scene.

Sex/Mature Themes: 0 - Only implied romance.

Language: 1 - Nothing strong comes to mind.

Notes and Trivia

Based on a comic of the same name published in Ryu magazine, written by Baku Yumemakura and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano. Though Amano has illustrated many stories, including an illustrated book by Sandman author Neil Gaiman and a Wolverine mini-series, this is credited as the only actual comic he has illustrated.

Yoshitaka Amano, was also the character designer for the ever-popular Vampire Hunter D. He has also done image art for the Final Fantasy series of games for years, as well as art for other anime and video game productions. Although his art definitely doesn't look "anime", his loose yet elegant style is unmistakable and worth checking out.

The credits in the production were nice enough to be worth mentioning--even the dub included the Japanese cast, and each of the English voice actors is credited under a picture of their character in a little montage after the main credits. The full end theme is also included, with a sort of music video for visuals, after the main credits roll.

Availability

Available in the US from Manga video on hybrid DVD, as well as now out of print VHS.

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