Mezzo: V.2 Shell Two (ep.6-9)

Mezzo Forte: Danger Service Agency, is an action anime with 13 episodes. This is a continuity of Mezzo Forte the OVA movie, *minus the the intense action, *minus the good story, *minus intereresting characters. Mikura and her friends; Kurakawa and Harada, continue accepting dangerous missions which also touch on the bizzar. Their missions range from dealing with ghosts, aliens, a mummy and its curse, seriel killers, mad scientist, fighting a hitman, gangters and corrupt police. There is even an episode that has a gay theme to it. It basically throws everything at you and the kitchen sink (storywise). And this is my biggest problem with this anime; the fact that each episode is a mix-bag genre, losing focus of what it was meant to be: an intense action anime, dealing with thugs and mafioso types. My other problem is the boredom it invokes, it is slow paced, the action scenes are few and far apart- With long and drawn out dialog, just to explain simple things. The girl, Mikura is very good at martial arts and knows how to kick a@!, but you barely get to see her fight! Sometimes they just use guns to shoot things out, but the gun fights are weak, lacking intensity and bloody hits. Once in while when a character got shot up they just LEAKED a little blood? And this made me wonder why they held back on the blood and violence since this anime is for adults anyway! Mezzo, was never meant to be kiddy anime. The sound effects were weak. Gunfire sounded more like "pop guns", and the music was horrible; made up of [...] jazz/pop. There is awkward silent moments between characters when there shouldn't be, and worst of all: the english dub is terrible! The english actors sound like they are reading the scripts like amatures! On its positive points: artwork and animation is very good and I liked all the character designs. Mezzo: danger Service Agency is not a terrible anime, but I was expecting and action packed show like the OVA original, instead they give is this watered-down show. It CANNOT even decide what genre to be; horror, action, gangster, sci-fi, comedy, drama! Some of the episodes got interesting near the end of the series! But it was too late for me to enjoy the series overall. [...].

Well, I have to say that the first volume of Mezzo paid homage to a lot of different genres without specifically ripping off any of them. Volume 2, or should I say SHELL 2, begins to focus on the characters a little more and is the better for it.

While shopping for parts for his technological gadgets, Harada and Mikura run into his old flame that he hasn't seen in years. As Mikura mocks him we learn the story of why their relationship ended and the dark secret she was hiding from Harada. After that the DSA are hired to get rid of a gang that has holed up in an old couple's apartment building. It features one of the funniest scenes of the series yet as Mikura comes up with the brillant plan of planting a bug in their apartment by posing as a scantily clad massage girl. The ever barely audible Asami also begins to take a bigger role in things as Mikura becomes trapped in a virtual reality world right out of Jennifer Lopez's The Cell, complete with all her enemies who if they kill her in that world, kill her in ours. Asami might just be the only person who can rescue her. The last episode focuses on a serial killer who dresses up as a clown who conveniently informs his victims that he is going to kill them. You would think that this would give the police a lowdown but they're particularly inept. One of the informed soon-to-be victims hires the DSA to serve as his bodyguards. With the added complication that he has a crush on Mikura.

All in all, this series is not terribly original, and all of the women and girls in it seem to be drawn with the same fat turtle-looking faces. The character designs are truly over the top, I mean for example, Harada walks around with a tattooed lightning bolt across his eye, blond spiky hair, and shirtless whereever he goes. But it's all in good fun. Asami is rapidly becoming my favorite character. There's just something about that look of hers that makes you root for her and gives you hope that she's gonna finally beat up the girls that have been picking on her the whole series. There's just an aura of fun about this show. Give Mezzo a go.

I would also recommend these other animes: Miami Guns, Heat Guy J, and Ghost in the Shell:SAC

How some one could not like Mikura is beyond me. The episodes on this disk are pretty much fillers though.