"From the director and character designer of Tenchi Muyo (check-out those fab hairstyles!)"
"A.D. Vision fulfil a new level of excellence with their latest hotshot release, Bum-up W. The A.D.V production crew have collaborated with the Burn-up W team of animators in Tokyo, to create what must ultimately be one of the finest anime movies of the year. Burn-up W features aesthetically stunning character and set design, a bum-clencher of a storyline, a superb cast of outlandish characters all wrapped-up with a healthy helping of humour.... A.D Vision give till it hurts!"
"Loosely based on the original Burn-up OVA from Yasunori Ide of 1991, Burn-up W features the new generation of extraordinary all-girl crime fighters - these chicks can really kick butt! A bunch of bad-ass terrorists called the Falcon Claw take hold of an exclusive high-rise hotel containing a plethora of influential government representatives. The Falcon Claw succeed in baffling the Police Department with a series of seriously suspect demands (these guys make The Ex-presidents surfer-robbers of James Cameron's Point Break look like kids!). When the president's right hand woman decides to comply with their wishes to lull them into a false sense of security, she calls in the S.W.A.T (special weapons and tactics) team WARRIOR to pull it off. Despite having to perform a nude bungee jump off the building, team member Rio and her contemporaries deal with the Falcon Claw in next to no time. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman operating in the top-floor conference room of the hotel could be the real root of the crime...."
Director: Hiroshi Negishi
Screenplay: Katsuhiko Kochiba, Sumio Uetake
Character design: Toshinari Yamashita
Music: Hiroyuki Nanba
Copyright: AIC/MRC by the courtesy of AD Vision
[I think that this means that AD Vision helped pay
for it, but don't actually have any copyright]
Language Format: English language
Director: Matt Greenfield
Translation: Masako Arakawa & Chris Hutts
Running time: 30/35/30/30 mins
Certificate: 12/15/12/12
Label: ADV Films
Catalogue no: VHSBW/001D / VHSBW/002D / VHSBW/003D / VHSBW/004D
Price: £12.99 each
Release Date: Oct 1996/28th Jan/8th Dec 1997/2nd Mar 1998
Episode 1 was also released subtitled:
Language Format: Japanese language, English subtitles
Running time: 30 mins
Certificate: 12
Label: ADV Films
Catalogue no: VHSBW/001S
Price: £12.99
Release Date: October 1996
This is inspired by the original Burn-Up OVA made in 1991. A bunch of bad-ass terrorists called the Falcon Claw take over a high-rise hotel where a plethora of influential govermental representatives have gathered. The terrorists baffle the police by making a set of bizarre and frivolous demands (such as making a baseball team manager apologize for losing). The president's right hand woman decides to comply with their wishes, to distract them while calling in the all-female special weapons & tactics team WARRIOR. As a diversionary tactic, team member Rio has to perform a nude bungee jump down the side of the building.
All this may strike you as hugely funny, or possibly just hugely witless. I may be an old fogey, but I tended to the latter view, and can't think of any particular reason why I should want to view this a second time, since, female anatomy apart, it has nothing to distinguish it in the story, design, direction, or music departments. At £12.99 for 30 mins, it also seems rather poor value for money, and I wonder if AD Vision are not making a mistake in applying such pricing to UK fans who enjoy some of the lowest video prices in the world, and are accustomed to paying about £6 for Manga Video tapes of 30 mins (or 50 mins, in the case of Giant Robo).[Geoff Cowie]