I want to make a quick apology regarding my reviews this month. With Thanksgiving & Black Friday coming in a couple weeks, I won’t have much to watch & reviews. On top of that, my Heavy Metal review will be put off until the Holiday season. For this reason, I’m taking a look at anime that don’t require too much time to watch & take in. Just like today’s, for example. Today’s review is a quick half-hour watch, and a bonus, post celebration of Halloween as well. So with that said, let’s look at a quirky OVA that never made it state-side. One filled to the brim with the looks of the 80s. Not to mention the cheese as well. Let’s look.....at Call Me Tonight. Let the review begin!
Story/Setup
Taken from the Anime Internet Database:
“Rumi has met a lot of guys through her job, and it is probably fair to assume that most of them could be said to have some sort of problem, but a man who literally turns into a beast when he gets turned on may be outside of this perky call girl's field of expertise. Still, a little challenge every now and again stimulates the mind and makes life so much more interesting, so she is willing to give it a shot.”
That’s really the jist of it. At it’s core, Call Me Tonight is the definition of a hokey, b-rated 80s sci-fi movie. An exceedingly basic story, with little in the way of background. Do not go into this movie thinking there’s a gripping story, cause you will be incredibly disappointed. Instead, go into this thinking that this will be a light-hearted feature. Probably like one you’d see at a drive-in during the 80s..................I’ll be mentioning the 80s more during this review, if you couldn’t tell.
Animation
The animation in Call Me Tonight is something of a mixed bag. On one hand, you can tell immediately that this comes straight from the 80s. 1986, to be exact (To be a real stickler, this OVA came out on July 28th, 1986). There’s a dated look to everything. From the backgrounds, to the look of the character, and to their movements, it looks very old & archaic. At the same time, I think that’s the whole point. The whole atmosphere looks & feels cheap, despite how serious the animation director was trying to make things, but a part of me thinks this was done completely on purpose. On other times, Call Me Tonight actually looks okay. There’s really not much in the way of a “Wow” factor, but there’s nothing that won’t make you gouge your eyes out.
Voice Acting
Sadly, this OVA wasn’t released anywhere else in the world. See below for further details.
Characters
Like the story, the characters of Call Me Tonight are given the bare minimum for a background. Unlike the story, the characters are given a little bit of room to expand. Emphasis on the word little.
Let’s start off with Rumi. At the beginning, she’s pretty much a hooker. An 80s hooker, that is. She’s dressed up in cheesy 80s fashion, has a hairstyle at the beginning that looks like she stuck a finger in a light socket, and has an attitude that screams goldigger. About halfway through, she essentially becomes a hooker with a heart of gold. It’s not the deepest change, but it does change a fundamental aspect of her. Then there’s Sugiura, the man with the problem. He’s pretty much a shy guy for almost the entire OVA. When he gets closer to Rumi, he starts to open up a little more, and by the end is in a full-blown relationship with her.
Apart from them, nobody else really changes over the course of the OVA, apart from something small. Nobody is really interesting either, except for the “Villain” of this feature. I can’t reveal anything about here, as that would kind of ruin a part of the story. I will say, however, that she’s has a surprisingly original plan. It’s not a deep plan, but it’s one you’ll be surprised by.
Availability & Pricing
Once again, Call Me Tonight was never released outside of Japan. Luckily, there’s been some fansubs of this OVA for a while now. Youtube has a couple of them, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Veoh, Vimeo, and Dailymotion have some as well. There’s even some places were you can actually download this (That’s how I found this 2 years ago), so you can try your luck there as well.
Overall Impression & Rating
Words can’t describe how batshit insane Call Me Tonight is. It hasn’t aged well, but the sheer “WTF” factor sustains it to this very day. It’s quick, it’s simple, and if you’ve got about a half-hour (The running time of the OVA) to kill before you have to go somewhere or do something. You couldn’t do any worse!
Call Me Tonight gets a 7.5 out of 10
I’ve got another quick review coming next week. See you soon!
***
Here’s a link to the OVA. Enjoy!
Call Me Tonight
Oh, and here’s a song to go with this movie. It was released 3 years prior to the OVA, but has just as much cheese!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu_kBTbbulQ
No comments:
Post a Comment