The show initially focuses on one such candidate, Ken Ando, as he applies for a position as a pilot, but also has something of a slightly ensemble feel in the initial episodes as Ken's family and co-workers come into play. DC itself seems to have something of a past but that is only alluded to in the first five episodes. Their robots look very much like cheaper versions of those employed in the Sakura Wars; owing as much to their function imperatives than anything else. The devices are smaller than the combat robots seen in most other series but these have no weaponry and are designed strictly for cleanup duty, much like the robots in the various Patlabor shows. Without spoiling the show for you too much, the paradigm of DC changes when their robots are attacked by a large robot looking much like the RahXephon or the Big O. Ken and crew are pressed into service far earlier than their limited training would usually allow for and a series of minor successes propels them into the limelight to pilot a specially designed robot that is not only much larger, but carries weapons as well; something Ken finds very disagreeable as a pacifist (another common theme in anime deals with the pacifist hero).

In Cybuster 3, the stakes had gotten higher as the mercenaries hired by DC made repeated attempts to destroy the rebel factions, along with Cybuster and his increasing fold of counterparts from the other world whence they came. Its made clear by the leaders at DC that failure will not be tolerated and additional resources get devoted to increasing the destructive capability of their robot fleet, rather than their primary mission of cleaning up the broken city. Now in the fourth set of episodes, Cybuster: Tokyo 2040 #4: Micro Black Hole Cannon, the show sets the stage for the coming battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil, with a few false starts on the part of some of Ken's old co-workers. The episodes this time were 15) The Valley of Betrayal, 16) Micro Black Hole Cannon, 17) Granzon, and 18) Warrior Robot God of the Water. Along with some mostly generic action, the show spent more time here on the bad guys with the viewer finally getting a glimpse into the real cause of the damaging earthquakes, the motivations of the DC leaders, and the introduction of yet another robot as well as a black hole cannon destined to be used against Cybuster and friends. Here's what the back box cover said about it all:

"Ryuzo's hard work has finally paid off. His reports on the mysterious death of Dr. Frank and the DC's involvement in the series of explosions result in international sanctions against the DC. Now that Shu no longer needs to conceal the true identity of his evil organization, he launches full-scale military campaigns against Ken's rebel group. Granzon, the monstrous transforming robot equipped with the secret lethal weapon, the Micro Black Hole Cannon, is dispatched to Ken's hideout. Can Cybuster save a group of youths with no combat experience from trained killers with super weapons!?"

Okay, by now, my interest in the series finally ended since so many missed opportunities were present to show creative solutions to the problems at hand that were bypassed in favor of the same old action sequences. I know those are the lifeblood of keeping young children interested but they didn't do a thing for me (and even then, they were few and far between). The ranks of the rebellion grow, the world seems to now be stepping in to address the problems at DC, and the need for secrecy among the villains is finally over but that doesn't help make the story any more compelling or the themes any more interesting. In short, we've seen this all before and it came off as a knockoff of several other shows (that borrowed heavily from still other shows at that!). I'm going to rate this one as a Rent It for those of you who've been watching up to this point but there's really nothing much here to appreciate for new fans.

Picture: Cybuster: Tokyo 2040 #4: Micro Black Hole Cannon was presented in the usual 1.33:1 ratio full frame color, as originally released in Japan five years ago. The first thing I noticed about the visuals were how the show looked muted and dirty; making me wonder if it were an artistic choice or just related to the budget of the show. The colors of the characters varied wildly, the main character of Ken looking something like a gray zombie for much of the show, and the video noise so abundant that I thought the premise of the show was to display a radioactive future for mankind. There were some compression artifacts and edge enhancement as well, making the picture somewhat worse than most recent releases. The anime style was very limited with minimal movement of the characters but this is something that many companies deal with using special effects these days so I can't be too harsh on a show that didn't use a form of trickery to disguise an inherent flaw.

Sound: The audio was presented with a choice of either the original Japanese or an English dub track, both in Dolby Digital 2.0 with a choice of optional English subtitles. The audio was better than the visuals in terms of quality with a moderate amount of separation during some of the musical interludes and battle scenes and slightly more dynamic range overall. Some of the dubbed voices seemed stilted but that should come as no surprise to anime fans. Due to this fact, I strongly recommend the original Japanese track (and readers should know that I'm not generally a dub snob) for its quality presentation. Having listened to both versions, I did notice that the subtitles followed the English track very closely so those who consider them "dub-titles" can consider themselves informed.

Extras: All there was (again) were a few trailers and a paper insert.

Final Thoughts: Cybuster: Tokyo 2040 #4: Micro Black Hole Cannon was a show I really, truly, wanted to like more than I did but it was so LCD (lowest common denominator) as to make me predict virtually every aspect of the episodes by their name alone (before ever popping the DVD inside the player). The environmental themes were played in a heavy-handed manner (more so than usual), the lack of extras made it less appealing to me, and even the technical matters just seemed so knock offish that I finally came to see what many fans had been saying online; that the show lost its steam too quickly, based as much on poor pacing as lack of original ideas. If you don't mind seeing the same old stereotypical characters do the same old things to save the day, albeit in a poorly conceived manner, this might work well for you.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVDTalk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003 and Best Of Anime 2004 article or regular column Anime Talk