Sorcerer Hunters

Original Title: 爆れつハンター
Romanized: Bakuretsu Hantaa
Literal: Exploding Hunters

Plot Synopsis

Meet the Sorcerer Hunters: Five extraordinary humans charged by the powerful entity Big Momma with the task of traveling the land in secrecy and hunting down evil Sorcerers who use powerful and forbidden magic to enslave the helpless masses. Sounds good, until you meet them.

Take, for example Carrot Glace, a lecherous young lad without many other talents. But they do keep him around for a reason: He happens to have the ability to transform into a giant demon by feeding off the power of those bad sorcerers. To keep him in line (or literally whip him back into human form), there are the Misu sisters: Tira Misu, an unassuming woman who, when faced with a challenge, presents her rather... "dominant" alter ego, and her sister Chocolate Misu, who's more forward most of the time, and even worse when she's ready for action (hint: she fights with a needle-tipped garrote wire). Then there's Marron Glace, Carrot's much cooler younger brother, a master of defensive magic and both the team's toughest and coolest member. Finally, there's Gateau Mocha, the party's burly (but not that dumb) muscleman.

Together, this band of misfits searches out the bad guys with help from Big Momma and her cute angelic right hand babe, Dota.

Quick Review

Rating: 3 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2006-07-16

Sorcerer Hunters is kind of like Slayers with less breast jokes and more actual breasts. Actually, Sorcerer Hunters is distinctive enough to be judged on its own, though it's hard not to compare two series about a bunch of weirdoes on a quest through a fantasy world full of somewhat funny bad guys and usually funny bad jokes that both star Megumi Hayashibara. Seasoning the classic formula with plenty of mildly raunchy humor, S&M styling, and a surprisingly sentimental romantic streak, Sorcerer Hunters is unoriginal and very inconsistent with its moods, but it is passably fun, especially if you're a softy. The art is nice but the animation sorely lacking--don't come looking for action. Brett Weaver's Carrot makes the entire dub worth watching: hilarious, yet just sweet enough at the right times. The Japanese version is less noteworthy--underpowered, particularly Hayashibara's disappointingly mellow Dominatrix.

A fantasy yarn that is by turns mostly silly, entirely sappy, and moderately dramatic, Sorcerer Hunters is worth a look if you like good but dumb jokes and sentimental romance, but the back-and-forth combination won't do it for everybody.

US DVD Review

The original DVDs are more or less ADV standard issue for when they were released; the video is crisp and the audio in both languages sounds good. Extras include the original trailer and some character bios, but the best part of the discs are that they include lots of episodes--6 or 7 each.

The series has since been re-released on a trio of remastered 2-disc "Essential Anime" sets.

Content Guide

Despite what it looks like (and the sexed-up advertising copy), it's not all that bad. I'd call it 13-up based on occasionally raunchy humor and skimpy costumes.

Violence: 2 - Generally not that serious.

Nudity: 1 - Lean outfits, but no actual skin.

Sex/Mature Themes: 2 - Some mature jokes.

Language: 1 - Not much.

Notes and Trivia

Based on a relatively long manga series of the same name written by Satoru Akahori with art by Ray Omishi; it is currently available in English from Tokyopop. The manga version has a similar blend of moods but is much weirder in the humor department, and in my opinion is quite a bit better once it gets going.

This TV adaptation aired early in the day (6pm) on broadcast network TV Tokyo, so for the sake of broadcast standards the costumes of the female characters were toned down somewhat from the manga version. This apparently disappointed many male fans. As is often the case, the randier OAV version had no such restrictions.

This is probably obvious from the recognizable ones, but all of the main characters' names are European desserts (Japanese dessert names are frequently taken directly from the European country of origin). Tira Misu is of course the famed Italian dessert, then there's Chocolate Misu, Marron Glace (a French candied chestnut dessert popular in Japan), Carrot Glace (either candied carrots, which I've never heard of, or just a reference to Carrot cake), and finally Gateau Mocha, French for "chocolate/coffee cake". There are a number of other food-based names elsewhere, while other sets of characters have names with different themes.

Availability

Available in the US from ADV on hybrid DVD in the form of three remastered 2-disc "Essential Anime" sets. Was originally available on four individual hybrid DVD volumes, which were later combined into a box set. Even earlier, there were six subtitled or dubbed VHS volumes produced, but the VHS release was cut short halfway through the series, at episode 14.

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