Venus Wars
"In 2003, the enormuous ice asteroid P-12 collided with the planet Venus. The impact stripped Venus of most of its atmosphere and the pulverised ice formed vast acid oceans on the surface of the planet. In 2018, the first group of colonists landed on the northernmost continent... Ishtar. This marked the beginning of the Venus Year 1. Now..."
Venus Year 72: 2089AD. Venus is divided between the two nations at war for domination... Aphrodia and Ishtar. At this time an independent reporter arrives from Earth to Io, the Aphrodian capital. Her name is Suzan Sommers. After the full body inspection at the Io customs she heads off to an underground bar. On the TV they're broadcasting a game of BattleBike. A somewhat brutal game where two teams race against eachother on some sort of motorised monocycles. The teams racing today are the Killer Commandos (red) and Venusian Barbarians (blue). The KC are being led by a strong willed girl Miranda with Hiro as her "second". He's the best driver in the team so after he destroys his bike one of his teammates is forced to give him his. Meanwhile Suzan is informed about the Aphrodian war status by the bartender, who turns out to be her contact on Venus. But before the BattleBike game can end there's a sudden air raid on Io by Ishtar army. Aphrodian Capital is taken by surprised and their army anihilated in no time.
Well, Suzan being a reporter she takes off to do her job and starts filming the advance of the Ishtarian forces, putting herself in great danger while doing so. Meanwhile Hiro is trying to find a way to their base but is almost overrun by an Ishatrian truck... Suzan, On the other hand, is almost overrun by one of Hiros friends, Will. After she calms down she forces Will to give her a lift. Soon after the war for the capital is over and they all end up at Gary's.
It is March 7th... and the battle to take back Io is about to begin. This time Hiro, Suzan and their friends are forced to join forces with the Aphrodian army in order to regain their freedom.
An anime movie made in the late 80'. 1989 to be more precise. The year it's been produced in and the fact it's set in space almost certainly mean one thing: apocalyptic theme. And that is exactly what it is. It is however well (if not great) animated and offers an entertaining story without any major plot holes, a great mechanichal design and a pretty nifty disco soundtrack. It's all packed into a nice and neat package that is worth the money you pay for the DVD. It's not something you'd call special, it's something that has a high entertainment value and can be watched a number of times. On top of it, I really like the oldish flair these things have.