KIMERA (1996) is a pretty boring work of anime, sort of the anime answer to Tobe Hooper's 80's horror/sci fi/disaster film Lifeforce. Only Kimera doesn't have the benefit of the lovely Mathilda May walking around nude for half the picture and Patrick Stewart getting all girly alien-vampire possessed.

First, we meet cereal salesmen Osomu and Jay, who while driving through the country happen upon the Air Force uncovering wreckage from an alien spaceship that has crashed. Not being anything like you or me, after they are told to leave, a perturbed Jay is swatting at the guards machine guns and Osomu wanders into a tent where they are keeping a specimen, Kimera. And, unlike you or me, he finds Kimera attractive, which is really odd because Kimera is neither male or female, leaning towards the male side, with a mans chest, angular jaw, but no penis or testicles, yet, to each his own and Osomu favors to think of her/it as female. Very quickly Osomu is making out with the glass on Kimera's cage. Anyway a couple of vampire-like aliens start fighting over Kimera; Osomu and Jay are taken to a secret Air Force base, where co-incidentally (yeah sure) Jay's father just so happens to be leading the program studying these strange visitors. Anyway, it turns out these aliens, Ginzu and Kianu, are fighting over Kimera, the first hoping to use her/it to overthrow the planet, the latter wanting to stop her/it. The bewitched Osomu lets her/it out of her/it's cage and soon she/it is leaving withered corpses in her wake; she/it is captured by Ginzu and a scientist who hook her up to to a machine so she can start breeding a race that will whipe out humans. Let the final battle begin. yawnnnn

With a total running time of 47 minutes, it will almost take me longer to write this review than watch the anime. As I said, Lifeforce was clearly a big inspiration. Though Lifeforce was a massive big budget blunder, it was also very entertaining. Kimera completely lacks the same charm and the story is so scant and filled with contrived and predictable sci fi plotting it is a bore despite it's short running time. It is clumsy on every level, character, horror, sex, action. The meat of the story, the background details, are all told in very dull exposition, three scenes- Jays father explaining it all, Osomu having a dream about Kimera and her home planet, Ginzu giving a Bond Bad Guy explanation about the entire invasion plan and his alien races history with Earth. Despite the dream flashback, Kimera is an empty androgynous vessel, zombielike, and very disturbing in a scene where two young guys gleefully take advantage of the sexless creature. The heroes are stereotypical, and so is the villain, who may fire out some tentacle-y appendages and grimace/laugh maniacally like the best of em' but is completely forgettable.

The DVD: ADV Films

Picture: Full-Screen, Standard. Not the best animation, not the worst either, but pretty sloppy. The disc doesn't have any glitches, but the animation is pretty cheap and haphazard, lacking detail, simple, and with proportions out of whack in some scenes.

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Japanese or English dub with optional Yellow English subtitles. The sound is fine, the score and fx unremarkable. The English dub is really weak, particularly the villain Ginzu who has a terrible voice actor completely ruining and already stale character.

Extras: 10 Chapters--- ADV Preview Trailers for Super Atragon, City Hunter: .357 Magnum, Excel Saga, The Devil Lady, Colorful, Wild Arms

Conclusion: The transfer is fine, but the material is barely worth a rental and only in the most extreme case of someone being an anime buff with absolutely nothing else to watch. Otherwise, ovoid this one. You are better off watching/re-watching Vampire Hunter D, a far better anime/vampire fantasy.