One trend I really like in anime nowadays is that many companies are re-releasing a series in a boxed set after the volume-by-volume release has finished. Not only do you get to buy the whole series at once, but they are often at a much lower price. This way people who were on the fence about a series, or don't mind waiting a little, get to see it at a discount though they miss out on the internet discussions about the show while it's being released. Manga has recently done that with an older release, Virus Buster Serge. Now you can get all three volumes of this show for slightly more than just one volume would have originally cost you. While this is a great deal, the show isn't all that hot. Director Masami Obari, the same person who was at the helm of Gravion and Fatal Fury, creates another world filled with fan service and odd looking characters, but once again forgets to put in a good story.

In the year is 2097 Neo-Hong Kong's most elite fighting force is STAND. They are a group of highly trained tough-as-nails police officers who protect the town fighting in their Variable Gear armored suits. Now keep in mind that this is TOTALLY different and not at all like Bubblegum Crisis. BGC takes place in Neo-Tokyo, and their elite fighting force in powered armor is called the Knight Sabers. Not at all alike.

Anyway, a new villain is troubling Neo-Tokyo: Incubator. This entity has developed a virus that can infect both humans and machines. The disease takes over the infected person of object and causes them to run wild. This could be STANDs greatest challenge.

Enter Serge, a young man who has had troubling dreams and tries to kill STAND's enigmatic leader, Raven. He doesn't succeed of course, but he is noticed by Raven who decides that he'll be a great addition to the team. Being the 'reluctant hero', Serge doesn't want to join but eventually does. This will come as no surprise to anyone since his name is in the title.

So, with their new member STAND fights the Virus and tries to run Incubator to ground.

If you've seen Bubblegum Crisis, you pretty much seen this series too. It's hard to watch this and NOT draw comparisons to BGC, there are so many parallels. There isn't really a lot that's new here, and this program lacks a lot of the charm that BGC had. The characters aren't as interesting, and the mysteries and questions that the show raises didn't grab my attention at all. I just sat there thinking
"I've seen this all before, haven't I?"

The show is very disjointed too. It takes a while before they actually get around to explaining what the plot is, and they never really focus on advancing it as much as I would have liked. They just jump from one idea to the next without developing a coherent theme for the show.

I really disliked the character designs too. While the Variable Gear suits were pretty cool, the individual characters looked oddly grotesque with exaggerated body parts while being heroin-junky thin. I think the director was trying to go for a sexy look in both the males and females, but I thought they looked like living zombies.

This boxed set consists of the original released packaged together in a thin slipcase. Each disc comes in a keepcase with an insert.

Audio:

This show has both an original language Japanese track in stereo and an English dub in 2.0 and 5.1. I started out alternating between the two languages but soon stopped listening to the English tracks. The dub was really bad and should be avoided. Though the 5.1 sounded nice, the actors just didn't bring their characters to life, and the lip synching was especially bad. They didn't really make much of an effort to match the lip movement to what they were saying, and it ends up looking just slightly better than a Sandy Frank movie. The Japanese track sounds pretty good, but not superior. The sound wasn't as crisp and tight as I was hoping, though there was a good amount of range.

Video:

This show was made in 1997, but it looks older than that. The full frame image has a lot of grain to it, and the colors are muted and a bit dull. This could be the look the creators were going for, and if so it really made the show look old and worn. The image wasn't as sharp as it should be either, and aliasing was a problem. While this show doesn't look horrible, when you first start the show, your first thought will be, "Wow, this doesn't look very good."

Extras:

The extras on this are the same as the original releases. Each disc contains the same set of text character profiles, and there are some design galleries. The third disc has a 15-minute interview with director Masami Obari which is sort of a pain to watch. Each question is asked in English, translated into Japanese, answered in Japanese, and then translated back into English. I wish they had edited this footage and just subtitled the answers. I guess you can't have everything though.

Final Thoughts:

This show is just not that great. It comes across as a low budget BGC wannabe, with none of the charm or engaging ideas. The plot is a mess, and the character designs are awful. Add to that the fact that the dub is horrible and the video quality is below average. If you are a big Masami Obari fan, this boxed set is a great deal. Everyone else should stay far away. Skip it.