Story/Setup
Taken from Wikipedia:
“Daizaburo "Eddie" Ban, a Japanese-American, joins the New York City's toughest precinct, the 34th. On his first day he is partnered up with John Estes, nicknamed "Sleepy" by his friends and "Mad Bull" by his enemies, a cop who stops crime with his own violent brand of justice. Mad Bull makes no qualms about executing common thieves with shotgun blasts, even if they pose a minor threat. He often steals from prostitutes and does incredible amounts of property damage while fighting crime. Mad Bull's unpoliceman-like behavior often puts him in hot water with his partner Daizaburo and the 34th precinct. However, despite how reckless or illegal these acts are, a good cause is always revealed (for example, Sleepy uses the money he steals from the prostitutes to fund a venereal disease clinic and a home for battered and raped women). Perrine Valley, a police lieutenant, joins Daizaburo and Sleepy later on to help them tackle more difficult cases involving the mafia and drug-running.”
This is the basic premise of the entire series. In truth, there are separate stories across four episodes, with only thin collections across each. I say thin, because almost nothing really connects them together in any meaningful way. Coupled with the rather chaotic storylines within the episodes themselves, and you essentially have a mess of a story. It’s difficult to make sense out of it, although given how ridiculous many of the moments are, you really can’t.
Animation
Right off the bat, I can tell you that one of Mad Bull 34's core weaknesses is it’s animation. You can immediately tell that this is a show from the 90s. Early 90s, to be exact. There’s a gritty quality that you can only find from this period in anime’s history, although not necessarily the best kind of gritty. There’s a lot of dark scenes in each of the 4 episodes, and plenty of darker colors used as well (There’s a weird yellow tint in episode 3, however). This creates an atmosphere of smog & grime that’s a little over the top, even if it wasn’t completely intentional. The one silver lining within the trash that is the animation of Mad Bull 34 is that it does attempt to look a little realistic. It attempts to make things look a tiny bit western, and while it not massively successful, some small moments come up from time to time that are effective in this regard.
Oh, and be on the lookout for Engrish misspelling in the background. And gore. Lots & lots of gore!
Voice Acting
The voice acting for Mad Bull 34 is.....okay at best. On the one hand, the voice actors are trying way to hard to re-create New York City accents with most of the characters. As fellow anime fan & reviewer Bennett the Sage once said: you don’t need to sound like Meowth all the time! There is an incredibly hokey component to all of the voice acting, not just the ones that go down the New York route. Hell, even the script is one of the most out-there things you’ll ever hear, with lines that would make your jaw drop & hit the floor.....then fall through said floor for a couple more feet.
On the other hand, in a weird way I kinda love the voice acting of Mad Bull 34. Make no mistake, the voice acting within this show is flat-out meh (Or outright awful in the case of older anime fans). If you can set aside how bad it can be, it can actually be enjoyable, albeit in a weird way. The over-the-topness is a weird strength in this regard, and it’s something I can appreciate, but only in doses.
Characters
Characters, for the most part, are a bit of a joke in Mad Bull 34. On the bad guy side of things, pretty much everybody is just throwaway cannon-fodder. There’s really no personality to any of them, since they’re really there just to get blown away by Mad Bull. Even in regards to the main bad guy of the episode you’re watching, they’re really just an over-the-top caricature that’s meant to get the crap beat out of. When they’re taken out, chances are you’ll probably forget them not too long after the episode is done.
For a show that deals with New York cops taking out crime, there’s only a tiny few “Good” characters to watch. I put quotes around the word Good, because some of them can be just as bad as the criminals they fight. Mad Bull himself is insane: he bangs women like there’s no tomorrow, resorts to violence on a frequent basis, and tends to take the easy way out in certain circumstances. There are moments where he does have some legitimate good intentions, and is actually a nice guy, but they are few & far between, and really don’t quite redeem the character. The police chief is kind of bonkers, and the S.W.A.T. team that show up in the last episode are scumbags.
Only 3 characters can truly be considered good throughout this show. Daizaburo is an honest-to-goodness decent cop, who follows the law as often as he can, breaking routine only when the situation calls/requires it. Perrine Valley is also like Daizaburo in regards to her police duties, and is really one of the few women in the show that has some kind of backbone. She can kick a little ass, and look damn good doing so! Last up are the various women that show up in each of the episodes. Truth be told, the women in this show are treated as sex object. 90 percent of the time, you’ll find one of the various girls in some sort of sexual situation, whether against their will or not. The 10 percent that remains unmolested are actually nice people, who just go about their way trying to survive in a city that’s off it’s medication.
Availability & Pricing
In a twist even more shocking than Kimba the White Lion’s re-release, Mad Bull 34 got one as well. Originally it was going to be put out on DVD in the 2000s, but by 2006 the license was lost. Come 2013, and we’ve finally got the show re-released....thank God?
Anyways, Mad Bull 34 can be found in all the typical retailers I’ve described here on the Heavy Metal Otaku blog (Amazon, Best Buy, F.Y.E.). What’s interesting is that the pricing across all 3 retailers is relatively inexpensive: new copies on Amazon start at $14.14, new copies on Best Buy start at $17.99, and F.Y.E. has new copies available starting at $20.98 (Members only pay $18.88). The pricing is certainly a surprise, given the notorious reputation of this show.
Overall Impression & Rating
Mad Bull 34 is a relic of it’s time. A shovelware anime title that was brought over, and put out just to make a buck. Much of the vulgar content within the show probably helped create the stereotype that anime is a vulgar, violent, and sex-filled medium. Old-school anime fans hated it, and new-school fans that come across it will probably be disgusted by it. For me, I certainly find it very distasteful, but the warped part of me finds something to enjoy within the muck. Maybe it’s because of how psychotically stupid it all is, but there’s something within the tastelessness of the oddity of Mad Bull 34 that’s charming in a warped way. If you’re even remotely interested at this point, I can only say 1 word......beware!
I’m personally giving Mad Bull 34 a 6 out of 10. I have to turn off a massive portion of my brain when I’m watching this, but under the right circumstance, I can actually get some enjoyment out of this! More older anime fans will probably give this a 4 out of 10, maybe even lower.
See you all next time, when we’ll return to the world of Death Metal!
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For Bennett the Sage’s take on Mad Bull 34, watch the videos below:
http://benthesage.com/anime-abandon-mad-bull-34-part-i/
http://benthesage.com/anime-abandon-mad-bull-34-part-ii/
On another note, I wrote up my music review alongside this one, and I’ll probably put it up around Friday. 2 reviews in 1 week. Woot!
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