108. Wild 7

• Wild 7 (1994-1995: Animate and Studio Senkan) 2/2 eps.

Staff and Background

Wild 7 is a 2 hour epic based upon Mikiya Mochizuki manga of the same name that ran for a whopping 48 volumes. The OAV was directed by Kiyoshi Egami who also directed City Hunter ‘91, some episode of You’re Under Arrest, and a whole load of other episode directing.

Story and Characters

Wild 7 is essentially Judge Dredd meets the Dirty Dozen. Crime has become such a problem in Japan that the police decide to recruit a bunch of death row inmates to become a motorbike squad who can operate above the usual procedures. So our show opens with the Wild 7 chasing some bank robbers and then killing the living fuck out of them, even those who are unarmed and surrendering. Ahhh, don’t you just miss the days who anime heroes were irredeemably bad people who we are supposed to love? There is a story but the show doesn’t seem to realise it and it doesn’t really matter. I mean, the main villain of the first episode just isn’t in the second episode and goons are reassigned to that new villain with no explanation. Oh, and there is that part where a group of guys kill like 100 civilians out in the public and then in episode 2 they somehow are supposed to become lovable icons of peace. HOW!!?!? It was all over the news that you guys went on a killing spree!! So yeah, the story doesn’t matter. The first episode is all a build up to a fight in a building while episode 2 is hunting down a dude, that is all you need to know. The characters aren’t up to much either. All the Wild 7 are variations on being a bit of a dick but in that way we are supposed to love, despite the fact they literally go around murdering people. There are a couple of women in this but they are mostly irrelevant to anything apart from one baddy who manages to perfectly land from being thrown from a speeding train but then is hit by another train going in the other direction despite her having plenty of time to get out the way, it is rather hilarious. This all may seem like I hate this show but, to be honest, it was a blast watching this. The characters were hilarious in how terrible they were, the plot twists made me giggle, and generally I had great fun. The show fits perfectly into that so-bad-it’s-good slot, I think it is the sheer absurdity of it all that makes it work. I mean, this show has fully armoured knights riding motorbikes with lances attached via their sidecars!

Audio and Visuals

I went for the dub on this one as that really is the way to watch this kind of show. The dub is bad but in the best kind fits with the general cheesy feel of the show and its manly macho tone. The music is fairly meh though, which is a shame when something like MD Geist has the best song ever.The visuals are a mixed bag. The art style isn’t anything special and the animation doesn’t have any wow moments but there is an absolute crap ton of movement in this show and there were very few points where I thought it looked bad. This is a good example of consistently decent movement as opposed to something which has those wow moments but then the rest of the show is basically still shots. It helps that the action they were depicting was pretty fun as there is a ton of crazy motorbike action, as well as guns and rockets. This thing is nuts and it is great.

Conclusion

Overall, this is not a good show but it is a rollicking good time. If you want characters and plot then go elsewhere but if you want to watch some bananas action with a couple of beers then this is your show. This is what anime used to be and it was glorious!

Final score: 3B