"ONCE, THE GOSHOGUN team were the champions of mankind, a group of six friends dedicated to the eradication of evil and injustice. Now forty years have passed and the warriors have parted, each taking a new path away from their turbulent and adventurous past..."
"BUT NOW A CHANCE event has brought them back together again, as Goshogun's single female crew member, Remy Shimada, lies barely alive after a near-fatal accident. As her team-mates look on, powerless to prevent her from slipping away, the comatose Remy is drawn into a strange and dangerous dreamscape, reliving her past as an orphan in France and facing a bloody and violent death in the present."
"TRAPPED IN THE DARK world of her subconscious mind, Remy and the Goshogun team must challange a fate already written, or forfeit their lives!"
Director: Kunihiko Yumaya Screenplay: Takesui Shudo Character Design: Hideyuki Motohashi Copyright: Tokuma Shoten/Ashi Productions Language Format: English Language Running time: 90 mins Certificate: 18 Label: Manga Video Catalogue no: MANV 1131 Price: £13.99 Release Date: 5th February 1995
The movie sequel to a long-forgotten Japanese video series which featured the Goshogun group, adventurers who travelled around the Galaxy. The movie is as strange as its title, and I'm rather surprised to find it turning up as a Manga Video release. Some forty years on, retired adventurer Remy Shimada, who refused all rewards, is a recluse, while her former co- adventurers have become wealthy or successful in various professions. While the police in a future city chase bank robbers, Remy, in a hurry to make a meeting she has set up with her former colleagues, interferes and forces the robbers off the hover-road. She then crashes her hovercar while swerving to avoid a bird and is critically injured.
Her former comrades gather at the hospital. In flashbacks we relive segments of her life, and in particular a time when they were trapped in a nameless city, peopled by religious fanatics of Arabian appearance, with their deaths foretold for a date a few days away. The images of a young, vigorous Remy, contrasted with the older, dying woman, are unbearably poignant. The city is, perhaps, a metaphor for Remy's struggle for life.
The fan subtitled version is one of my favourite pieces of anime. Even though much of the animation isn't very good, there are some scenes, such as the dark Arabic city, and the fight to reach the temple, that work well. A great story, very odd stuff, dramatic and ultimately very moving. Make up your own interpretation. The MV version gives the heroine an uncertain French accent but otherwise is okay. (****) [Geoff Cowie]
OX-11: I just saw Time Etranger, and I must say, it was a really good flick. Its the Goshogun team back again (2nd movie) but there isnt a giant mecha anywhere in the entire picture, which I must say was very refreshing. Instead what we have here is a well crafted psychic-psychological thriller-suspense movie about one member of the goshogun team whos fighting for her life on a hospital bed, and the support of her teammates. Jennifer Nolan: I saw this, and I was also impressed. Guess I'm just a sucker for the 5-man team... ;)