Birdy the Mighty

Original Title: 鉄腕バーディー
Romanized: Tetsuwan Birdy
Literal: Iron Arm Birdy

Plot Synopsis

Tsutomu's just your average high school kid, busy studying for his senior high entrance exams. Out for some fresh air the night before the test, he (literally) runs into a guy fleeing a pretty young lady. Well, as with many anime guys, Tsutomu's not a particularly lucky lad, so it shouldn't come as much of a shock that the guy is actually an interplanetary criminal on the run from Federation agent Birdy. Worse, the mean man throws Tsutomu at the good guy and gets him killed. Bummer. Fortunately for Tsutomu (and Birdy's conscience), there is a way to keep him from taking a one way trip off Earth. Unfortunately for both, it involves merging Tsutomu and Birdy's bodies together.

So now Tsutomu's stuck sharing a body with a rather attractive and very strong space police agent while trying to keep his apathetic family and girlfriend from finding out about his woman problems, and to make matters worse, Birdy's still got to do her job, which involves taking on a rather secretive group of very bad aliens planning to perform some sort of maniacal experiment on the unsuspecting inhabitants of Tokyo. And you thought you had problems.

Review

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2005-07-04

Birdy the Mighty isn't original in any way, but it wraps plenty of action, just enough convoluted plot, and a selection of can't-help-but-love-'em anime characters in an appealing package, making for a thoroughly enjoyable little series. Add a few marvelously awkward situations with a guy trying to keep his "feminine side" a secret and a couple of moderately cool police investigators involved in their own little mystery, and you've got some good old fashioned anime fun.

The storyline isn't the high point of Birdy the Mighty, but it gets the job done. The basic framework is a mystery investigation with a sci-fi twist. Birdy herself doesn't make much of an investigator; she pretty much just wanders around until some bad guys show up for her to duke it out with. That alone would have been pretty weak, and relegated the story to the afterthought department, but the two cops pick up the slack, and their investigation, despite being spread thinly throughout the series, ties things together.

Actually, it's the viewer that gets to put the pieces together from fragments uncovered by the police and cutscenes with the villains, since the police and Birdy have almost no contact with each other. Giving these "backstory only" characters a small plot thread of their own is one of the nice touches in the series, and if you bother to pay attention to the plot, connecting the dots that they find keeps things interesting enough.

The only major weakness in the plot is that it's left wide open for a sequel that hasn't happened. The conclusion is sufficiently satisfying, though, so it's not an issue.

More fun than the plot is Tsutomu's social circle; his rather awkward relationship with his girlfriend provides an emotional hook, and the interactions between him and his somewhat dysfunctional family serve up most of the quirky humor (the raunchy humor you might be expecting is actually very sparse--it's a remarkably clean show given the premise). On the weaker side, the series takes a rather unsuccessful shot at giving Tsutomu some angst in coming to terms with his condition; there's some brief internal struggle early on, but a lot more could've been done with it.

In any case, Birdy the Mighty offers a nice blend of story and humor, but the biggest treat is the action, which ranges from good to great. Fans of psychics will find plenty to like--an extended brawl in part 3 is one of the best superpowered free-for-all fistfights I've seen in quite a while. The rest of the series has it's share of wild and wooly action as well, including some sharp-looking fights with an ongoing string of cannon fodder robots.

The director, Yoshiaki Kawajiri (of Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, et al, fame), probably deserves much of the credit here, though Birdy the Mighty has little else in common with the dark subject matter of most of his films (his style is likely where the two investigating detectives get their panache).

Fast and furious action is nothing without good animation, and Birdy the Mighty manages to work within a moderate budget to serve up speedy and smooth action throughout. The animation elsewhere compensates by being less smooth, but the character animation is so good that you aren't likely to notice--Birdy in particular has a wonderfully expressive face that adds tremendously to her character.

The expressive faces more than make up for Birdy and Tsutomu's character designs being the least original of the distinctive lot, with some particularly cool villains. The aliens, however, are something of a disappointment--with the exception of Birdy's superior, they just look like mean seafood.

There is really only one potential weakness in Birdy the Mighty, and that's the acting in the dub. In fairness, almost all of the voices are quite well cast, which helps, but the performances throughout much of the series are just sort of flat. Not badly acted necessarily, but a wild action/comedy like this can really benefit from a little over-the-top acting, something the dub is conspicuously lacking. Birdy is probably the best of the lot (particularly in the more emotional moments), but the general lack of force (overacting would have been an improvement) takes some of the punch out of an otherwise great action flick, and does a real job on some of the humor. Kudos, though, to Tsutomu's family--in part due to the language transition some of the jokes fall completely flat, but by and large they have an amusing sense of dysfunction to them, and I particularly love his dad.

The Japanese dialogue isn't spectacularly better, but it is much more even and appropriately energetic, with Birdy and Tsutomu's family again being the most memorable performances. The largely average soundtrack does kick in some rockin' and rollin' action themes at most of the right moments, though things actually seem a little quiet early in the series. The end theme in the first three parts, by Cherry, is the exception--bubbly and very catchy.

In all, Birdy the Mighty is a fine little action series with a healthy helping of comedy and awkward situations in the grand anime tradition. The acting in the dub lacks force, and it's a shame the series isn't longer, but if you like solid action, fun characters, and all the problems that come from having a high school student and a space police agent sharing the same body, this one is definitely worth a look, and there's even a convoluted mystery thrown in for good measure. Everything you'd expect from classic anime, and all done right.

Related Recommendations

The setting was very different, but the feel has a lot in common with MAPS. Also bears some similarity to 3x3 Eyes. You might also think of Tenchi Muyo- or Dual-style sci-fi harem shows, but although the mood is similar, the harem angle is definitely not part of this one.

US DVD Review

The DVDs are functional, but little more. Aside from acceptable video and audio transfers, a gallery of stills and a trailer or two is about the extent of the special features. The English credits are printed on the reverse side of the jacket insert with the embarrassing note "no information regarding the Japanese voice actors is currently available"--as with the old VHS release, only English acting credits are found at the end of the video, though at least they subtitled the songs this time (ironically, the Japanese-language credits are left intact). Maybe they should've had a look at the cast translation we had up in back in 1999.

Content Guide

A few bits of more mature humor (although surprisingly little), a bit of nudity, and some fairly graphic violence account for USM's 13-up rating, though you could conceivably call the 2nd episode 16-up on account of the nudity.

Violence: 3 - Low body count, but does get pretty graphic on occasion.

Nudity: 3 - One low-detail scene in the 2nd part.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - A few randy comments, but pretty mild all things considered.

Language: 1 - Nothing of note.

Notes and Trivia

Based on a mid-length comic series (not available in English as of this writing) by Yuuki Masami, better known for the long-running Patlabor comic series.

Birdy the Mighty is directed (and scripted, in the final episode) by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, famous for dark, often erotically-charged movies such as Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Wicked City, and Ninja Scroll. This series is nothing like the movies he is famous for, however.

Availability

Available on two hybrid DVDs of two episodes each, from US Manga Corps. Was previously available on two subtitled or dubbed VHS volumes.

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