DVDFile

Linebarrels of Iron

Anybody who's ever been bullied knows that stories in film and television that revolve around guys getting a chance to stick it to those who have made their lives miserable have a certain resonance: The best parts of Sixteen Candles, Hell, even T2, and the newly-released anime entity Linebarrels of Iron (to name but a few) offer that chance - an opportunity to experience a put-out character coming into his own skin and rising above the jackasses who kept him down. Linebarrels may not have too much in common with Sixteen Candles (that might be a tad of an understatement), but its tale of a dude who goes to sleep one night as a faceless loser and wakes up as a major player in an intergalactic battle of giant robot factions definitely fills a similar void.

Linebarrels, though, gets way too silly way too fast. It's established very early that Kouichi, our protagonist, is a down-on-his-luck sort, but when a naked chick crash-lands into the kid's backyard he is given special powers in order to help save Earth from an impending attack of giant, battling droids. It's fascinating for a few moments that Kouichi goes full-tilt kid-in-a-candy-store with these novel additions to his otherwise nerdy physique - he boasts and brags like someone who banged the head cheerleader on prom night for a lot of these early episodes - but even the back of this DVD box set admits that these talents turn Kouichi "into a jerk" (it also states that the alien machines are interested in "killing him extra dead", which is funny to me).

So what Linebarrels of Iron becomes is an anime series about an asshole fighting giant robots. Sure, the animation is cool, and while it was hard for my eyes to figure out who were the good guys and who were the bad guys in some of the show's more cacophonous sequences, there is a thrill in Linebarrels found in watching grandiose things explode and crash into one another. Yet while there's a shred of intrigue to the angsty base of the series' shape, at the end of the day, Linebarrels of Iron could have used a more involving protagonist. Again, I'm all for nerd vengeance, but does the guy need to be such a douchebag?

Audio/Video Quality: Compression artifacts show up every once in a while and there are definitely certain sequences that boast unfortunate displays of noise and inconsistency, but for the most part, these 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfers are pretty nice. Color accuracy is lovely - deep tones here come through with excellent definition - and black levels, while not truly inky, are at the very least consistent throughout. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix also has some nice heft to it, with surrounds really kicking in during the show's more elaborate battle sequences.

Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks are included, as are English subtitles.

Supplements: We get one screen-specific audio commentary on the sixth episode here that allows some of the show's voice actors (Alexis Tipton and Josh Greeley) and ADR director Caitlin Gass a chance to describe their experiences working on a show like this one, as well as some TV spots, trailers, a promo video and a music video.

Final Thoughts: Linebarrels of Iron has glimmers of greatness in it, but as a whole, it falls short of being anything more than passably watchable. It looks and sounds fine on this DVD set, and comes with capable - if cursory - bonuses, so fans of the show will be relatively satisfied. Newcomers might want to point their interests elsewhere.

Comments (0)

Leave a comment

Title
Comment	smaller | bigger
Name
Email
	Add Comment