I admit that I am positively biased towards this anime. Kia Asamiya has been with me my entire life as an author. I met him back in the 90s in an Italian magazine called Kappa Magazine. At the time they were featuring the followup to his delightful Compiler named Assembler Ox and it was brilliant. Not long after Italian Panini Comics published Silent Mbius his first iconic success. Asamiya is one of the most genuine authors you can find openly admitting to a somewhat lax attitude and a tendency to lose interest in his projects or stories quickly which is why Silent Mbius took nearly 12 years to finish despite its relatively short run 12 volumes. 220https://shibuyaconfidential.wordpress.com/wpcontent/uploads/2024/11/image1.png?w=384 These ladies are so cool. Mainly unknown to international audiences we Italiansand the French back thenwere lucky to witness the work of authors from that era who are now mostly forgotten. Manga was a new and untested market in the early 90s so publishers had to be selective and we mainly saw highquality works compared to today. I know I sound old but publishers had to choose carefully what to publish back then. With this context in mind the two Silent Mbius OVAs which make up a long feature film will be reviewed together since theyre essentially two halves of the same story. In 2024 Katsumi Liqueur travels to Japan to visit her dying mother set in a less gloomy Blade Runneresque backdrop. After all Asamiya admitted that everyone in the 80s was inspired by Ridley Scotts iconic movie. But once in Tokyo Katsumi is caught in a web of monsters from another dimension and mysterious powers that only she possesses. The two movies depict how the AMPthe name of the police unitis assembled completing the main cast. There are so many familiar patterns here starting with the almost Sailor Moonesque dynamic among the cast which makes sense since Asamiya is a great fan and friend of Naoko Takeuchi the mastermind behind the Sailor Soldiers. Asamiyas character design honed from his background as an animator is iconic and memorable. Ive always loved his portrayal of women something I feel anime nowadays lacks is women in this sensenot just girls. His female characters are charismatic strong and nuanced a rarity today where we often see an overemphasis on the cutesy aspect in young characters. The AMP team members are all unique and beautiful: Kiddy the cyborg Nami the priestess Yuki the psychic Rally the intense and at times ruthless boss Lebia Rallys devoted righthand woman and Katsumi a woman who wanted a simple life but like Shinji is forced to enter the damn robotonly in this case her power is rooted in black magic and sorcery. 220https://shibuyaconfidential.wordpress.com/wpcontent/uploads/2024/11/image.png?w=780 One of my favourite clothes designs is the AMP official outdoor dress. The story is primarily a prequel to the main storyline that continues in the tragically underrated 1998 anime. Asamiya didnt invent anything groundbreaking here hes primarily known as a pop artist with an occasionally lazy attitude which made him somewhat forgettable to newer generations. Yet he has always been uniquely pop and at times exceptionally distinctive. The OST of the movie is fairly forgettable with parts that sound almost like a remix of Nausica of the Valley of the Wind. The ending theme screams late 80s city pop and its marvellous. Silent Mbius is a product of its time so if youre into retro anime I highly recommend watching the first two OVAs before diving into the anime series. In my opinion its a beautiful experience that stands well above average even when compared to modern fantasy/scifi panoramas.