Galaxy Fraulein Yuna

First let me say this is not for everybody; it is best for confirmed fans of bishoujo anime. It fits into the "magical girl" category, much like Sailor Moon, but can be very confusing to the first-time viewer. The basic problem is that it is based on a series of Japanese video games, and if you're not familliar with the games you may feel you don't know who these girls are or what's going on. Though incorrectly labeled here as Vol.1, this 5-episode DVD contains both previous VHS releases, Galaxy Fraulien Yuna and Galaxy Fraulien Yuna Returns, featuring two separate "stories", quite different in tone: one zany and full of visual puns and almost Looney Tunes-like slapstick humor; the other is rather more somber, serious and dark, with an almost tragic conclusion.

Yuna herself is a rather stereotypical anime heroine much like Sailor Moon: clumsy, clueless much of the time, slow to anger, reluctant to use her power on others, and therefore usually dependant on her friends to get her out of trouble. They provide most of the interest and humor in the series, particulary the frenetic antics of her insatiably ravenous android roomate Yuri Cube. It is poorly explained that most of them are also super heroines, and former enemies of Yuna. Yuna's best quality is her ability to befriend almost anyone, the "almost" a significent plot device in the three-part second story. Although the primary audience for the "magical girl" genre is generally the early teen years, this second story features a lot of fairly intense combat and a rather surprisingly gruesome resolution. Yuna is forced to choose between saving the life of a new android friend, or the entire Earth, a choice which causes her much anguish. Compared to the riotous slapstick and bloodless violence of the first, this is startlingly heavy stuff.

I must stress that as an anime purist, I prefer to listen to the original Japanese voice actors and read the English subtitles. This series boasts many of the excellent voices from the classic Tenchi Muyo! series: Chisa Yokoyama ( Sasami ) as Yuna, Ai Orikasa ( Ryoko ) as the appropriately-named Devil Fraulein, and Yuko Mizotani ( Mihoshi ) as Princess Mirage to name only a few. Also noteworthy is the veteran Yumi Touma as Yuna's friend and "idol" the elegant Polylina/Liavelt von Neuestein. But be warned that the English dub has the reputation of being even more inane and vapid than usual for an anime.

Galaxy Fraulein Yuna is a very well done anime OVA series produced in the mid 90's. You get the entire first OVA series(Galaxy Fraulein Yuna), which consists of 2 episodes, and the entire second OVA series(Galaxy Fraulein Yuna Returns), which consists of 3 episodes. Both are very good and are fun to watch. The first series is cute and fluffy with action and comedy thrown in. It gives you the primer on the characters and what's going on in the story. But in the second series, it gets a lot more serious and dramatic/emotional. Much less comedy and light-heartedness than the first season. In place of that, the action is ratcheted up a notch and you're give a fair dose of dramatic/emotional situations. Still fun to watch but is the "darkness" to the "light" of the first series, so to speak. Give this a shot if you're looking for an enjoyable and quality old school anime.

This is one of those animes that don't get a lot of attention. Yuna was not a major manga character, and as there are only 5 OVA episodes, this series never appeared on Amercian TV. However, don't let the lack of hype make you miss a rather good anime.

Yuna is a series that surprisingly enough is based on a pair of console RPGs. In them Yuna is a heroine destined to save the Galaxy. She does with the help of a robot who seems to spend more time eating than anything else (Yuri), and a young woman who plays Yuna's biggest crush (Liavelt von Nuelstein who plays Polylina) Yuna herself is one of the most empty-headed, but kind hearted characters imaginable and with the exception of the enemies in the anime is loved by just about every character.

Sadly, character development is rather limited in the series. Much of what I know I found out by scouring the internet for more information back when I first discovered these episodes on VHS tapes. They were such fun to listen to that I wanted to find out if more had been made. It appears taht the 5 episodes contained on this DVD are the complete collection at this time.

I should mention that the voice acting is superb and the music is solid as long as you don't mind J-pop. A good deal of effort went into the series, the only problem was the lack of additional episodes that could have been used to develop the many characters and to explain just how Yuna became friends with so many people.

THis is a good clean series that I can recommend to anyone who doesn't insist that their anime be edgy or adult. It's silly, and definitely will appeal to children, but also fun and endearing to those willing to open their hearts.