Unkai No Meikyuu Zeguy

This retro OVA caught my eye, Unkai No Meikyuu Zeguy. What a weird name even if its official translated English title is Labyrinth Of The Cloud World, it made me wonder if it had anything to do with another retro OVA that I watched many years ago, Labyrinth Of Flames. Short answer, no. But it was still intriguing for me to check out as the synopsis states about a girl being blasted to another world and being hunted down by a baddie who wants to rule the world via obtaining some items. Not the most original of ideas but hey, it’s back in the year 1993!

Episode 1
At the end of WWII, Koumei Shokatsuryou (Zhuge Liang AKA Kong Ming) and his monster troops barge into some old guy’s house to get the Zeguy mask. However this set is incomplete as the bell that comes along with it has escaped through time and in the hands of a descendant. For now, Koumei can use the mask to return to the other world and summon Himiko. After finishing off this guy, he is attacked by Toshizou Hijikata. However he escapes but not before Hijikata puts a tracker on his craft. With Gennai Hiraga, they chase after him. With the help of a fat cat, Yukinojo, they find themselves flying among a graveyard of planes in the clouds. Before them is a giant gate now opened. It is a sign that Himiko has control of the mask. What now? Can’t let the power fall into the hands of zombies. That’s right. We’re going to travel through time to stop this! In modern times, Miki and Sayaka have a fight. They’re not talking to each other even if they’re taking the same bus to school. This WTF moment as the bus driver stops and gets out to talk to an old lady, somehow the bus’s brakes are set loose and the bus rolls back into some tunnel. Miki and Sayaka are so deep in their sleep they don’t even know???!!!

We see a revived Himiko who wants the priestess and the bell to be brought to her so that her power will be at its peak. Then she can control all of nature! Her underlying, Leonardo Da Vinci isn’t pleased. Because if her wish comes true, that means she will have no further use for him and his inventions. Koumei wonders if he can open the gate himself if he has the Crown of Shamas which amplifies the priestess’ abilities. Da Vinci asserts he can and won’t need Himiko’s powers in that case. When Miki wakes up, she sees werewolves taking her unconscious friend away (as she is in possession of the bell). You mean she is going to run after their tank? Of course she loses then. She tries to talk to some villagers for help but they don’t understand her. Koumei explains people here communicate via telepathy. He believes Sayaka has gone back to their world and is more than glad to lead her to the portal back to hers. But halfway, he senses he needs to attend something urgent so he points the direction to where she needs to go. We see Sayaka as Himiko’s prisoner. She is the one in possession of the bell. Once she awakens, Himiko will put on the mask to chant some lines that will lift the huge excavated bell up into the gate. And when both bell rings, the gate will open.

Miki finds herself in a village when suddenly the children bring her to a statue of Priestess Shamas. Because her crown is glowing, they think she is the priestess who will save their village from droughts and other disasters. She tries to deny that she is not who they think she is when suddenly Himiko’s army of tanks destroy the village! Luckily Hijikata and Gennai save Miki. Koumei realizes Miki is the real priestess and sends his goons to get her. Holy sh*t! Mad Max, monster version! Miki learns of these historical characters as they too learn her friend is a descendent from Shamas and hence Zeguy’s priestess. Believing that Himiko is at the gates, that is where they’ll head now. Miki wants to follow too, believing Sayaka is there. Hijikata objects since it is dangerous but after she puts on those convincing tears that she hasn’t apologize to her friend over their petty fight, who is to say no? But of course, they have to stave off the chasing pack as Hijikata cuts down the monsters who jump aboard. I swear, this is looking more like Mad Max. Once they lose them, Gennai continues to explain how the mask caused the gate to open a crack and this is causing the disasters and disrupting the balance of nature. But they have to continue their escape because now we have Mad Max, cyborg versions on their tail!

Episode 2
Hijikata already has his hands full fending off one. Another jumps on board to cause havoc. What can an old guy and a high school girl do? Nothing. Oh sh*t! Gennai just got slashed! Don’t worry, Hijikata just finished his fight so he rides his bike up and smashes that cyborg’s head! Holy sh*t! Unbelievable! Gennai is still okay but with a little patching up, he is good to go. Yeah, unbelievable he is still so healthy at that age. Meanwhile Himiko is stumped that despite attempts in her ritual, Sayaka is still not waking up. Heavy sleeper, is she? Hijikata and Gennai leave Miki back at the village since it will be too dangerous for her to follow. But they leave Yukinojo to guide her. As she walks through the ravine, she stumbles into Koumei. He tells her not to fall for Hijikata and Gennai’s lies as well as the true power of the mask. He wants her to join him so they can shape the world they want and usurp Himiko. Then he hypnotizes her to force her to reveal the whereabouts of the crown. However she is just spouting high school stuffs. It seems Hijikata knows Miki is the priestess because of how the crown reacted to her. Koumei gets desperate to get it out of Miki and why the f*ck only now Yukinojo reacts to attack him? This has Yukinojo’s scarf drop and reveals the crown that Hijikata hid in there. Sayaka snaps out of her hypnotism but since those undead cyborgs corner her, she becomes desperate and unleashes some power that blows up a crater in the entire place! Hijikata and Gennai find Miki and she’s alright. Just a little tired.

Miki and the guys take a break. Miki talking to Hijikata about Japan being in its most peaceful state ever although they lost the war in WWII. Nice guy Gennai even makes a hotspring bath for Miki. Get your 2 cents worth of fanservice here. Yeah, only Yukinojo gets the privilege to stare at her bathing! Next day as they continue their journey, they are spotted by Da Vinci who is not impressed that Koumei has died in the blast but what is more unforgiving is that the cyborgs he made were also destroyed. Those were his best works? Laughable! Hence he sends the monsters to attack them. Get ready for some discount Flash Gordon action! Monster version! The unbelievable part is when Da Vinci blasts a hole right through the ship. Miki is holding on for dear life as Hijikata tries to get her. However she lets go. He too jumps to save her. Free falling to their deaths? No. He uses his cape as parachute before Gennai steering his ship to collect them. I thought his ship has a hole?! Yeah, no wonder Da Vinci is in disbelief. Where’s the science in that! When they try to escape, Da Vinci has his goons fire harpoons at it to lock it down. Not sure about the engine Gennai has but it rains down beams and destroys Da Vinci’s giant fortress! Damn. Safe to say that guy perished too?

Meanwhile for the umpteenth time, Himiko can’t understand why the gate won’t open. Until she realizes Sayaka isn’t the priestess! TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH DUMBASS!!! So how? She tries to kill her as sacrifice! Getting desperate, isn’t she?! Our heroic trio is here to save the day. Hijikata fights her but somehow she manages to activate the giant bell. Gennai gives Miki fire a fireworks cannon at it to send it off its course. Hijikata thought he has killed Himiko but she resurrects. Looks like she somehow got Zeguy’s power. She summons a giant griffon to kill Gennai and Miki but they win although it’ll be the last time they use that fireworks cannon as it is now broken. Now she summons a giant bone monster so Gennai hurries his ass to tinker with Da Vinci’s contraption to fire at it before it gets Hijikata. Phew. Himiko still wants to kill Sayaka but Hijikata pushes her off the cliff. With the gate slightly opened, Zeguy’s power reacts to Miki as becomes the priestess and blows Himiko to smithereens. The day is saved. Gennai deduces Zeguy’s power change to match the heart of its user. In the aftermath, Miki and Sayaka made up and are best friends again. Miki spots Yukinojo loitering in the school grounds. What’s this? Hijikata is a transfer student in their class?! Man, how old is this dude???!!! And Gennai is the grounds sweeper. Oh well, no power to go back to their past, huh? Maybe they can teach the young ones about the truth about their history now?

Ze Guy With Ze Mask Rules Ze World!
Well… That was weird. But satisfying in that sense. I guess back in those old days when things weren’t that complicated, shows were really more straightforward and to the point rather being filled with convoluted plots and twists. Because of only 2 episodes here, everything that happened right in the series just feels sufficient. I mean, we’ve got everything that we need. Some bad guys wanting to obtain great power and hence going to great lengths to get it. Good guys trying to stop them. Cute high school girl gets involved. Some fights. Boss battle. Day is saved. Return to normal time. Resume happy high school life. It can’t get simper as that, can it?

So like many retro OVAs churned out during that time, everything from the plot to the characters and the action were just very straightforward. Perhaps if it was made into a single cour TV series, more could have been drawn out but I have a feeling that it would dilute the spontaneous experience. I mean, when you have historical characters with great minds like Koumei and Da Vinci working together, you know that this is going to be one hell of an extraordinary league of (not so) gentleman. Heck, what if they got a few more interesting historical figures, it would’ve been more epic. Oh right, we had that in Drifters.

The characters are shallow as hell but I don’t really care because it’s such a short series and it wasn’t all that bad. After all, Miki is thrust into the limelight only because of her desire to save her friend. Speaking of which, Sayaka is perhaps the easiest character. She’s been asleep for the most of her part in both episodes! Uh huh. I bet she doesn’t even know what hit her. Yeah, save her from all the trauma. Yukinojo being the pet mascot doesn’t do anything much in particular. Even if it did, I was just confused how it resonated with stuffs. Not that I understand it very well except for the need for plot progression. Hijikata and Gennai being the dynamic duo, I guess we need a typical hero who fights and another one who tinkers with inventions so as to bring a fusion of past and present technology into this anime. Uh huh. Seeing all the machines and technology here, makes me feel so old and dated. You can’t get more futuristic than that in 1993!

Then we have Himiko being a typical one dimensional villainess because yeah, villains must take over the world by getting more power! Thank goodness she’s powerless without the set of items she needs. All you need to know is that she is the final boss that needs to be defeated as per the script period. Eventually all the items were useless to her so she decides to descend into a real villain to take a life. Sorry, did you not know the unwritten law that cute high school girls cannot be killed! On a trivial note, I know this is a retro OVA and the voice acting is just average. But I really feel that Himiko’s voice acting is a bit weird because she makes weird screaming noises at times. Like, huh?! It just makes her sound comical!

The action parts are probably the draw of this series and even though it is nowhere near a masterpiece and most of the time is laughable, I can’t see myself to actually hating it. While I might be laughing at some unbelievable moments but at least they were entertaining by my standards. As you might guessed, perhaps whoever wanted to do action for this series has drawn some inspirations from Mad Max as you can see the dystopian setting and the kind of weird bikes and contraptions they use.

It goes without saying that the art and animation style really shows it is from that era and how anime has come a long way ever since. Oddly, I find Gennai to be looking more cartoonish than anime. Uh huh. Is it me or does he not look like an old man from Disney?! More accurately, that Professor Archimedes from Disney’s Tarzan! Okay, close enough. Even more so when you see Miki and Gennai pairing up in the final fight, somehow it makes me feel like a Disney moment. Da Vinci also has this weird look like he is a cross between Sonic’s Dr Robotnik and that Porco Rosso dude. I believe those cyborgs are supposed to be Koumei’s subordinates, Kuan Uu and Chohi (Guan Yu and Zhang Fei) but they look more like characters that came out from Fist Of The North Star. Really. Is it me or does Hijikata look more like Yuusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho and even more so when he becomes a transfer student?!

Overall, this anime is actually only average and more of the lines of popcorn entertainment. But because of its simplicity and amusing action scenes, I’m going to rate this slightly higher than average. Those who love retro OVA animes of yesteryears can check this out and add this to their collection of strange early OVA titles. Especially when you have a mask named Zeguy that is so out of place. Not sure if it is a pun of sekai (world), but if it is going to take a mask, some bells, a crown and a huge gate to take over the world (and to wait for the full moon to boot), perhaps finding the Infinity Stones for the Infinity Gauntlet sounds a lot more easier.