Birdy the Mighty

Original Title: 鉄腕バーディー
Romanized: Tetsuwan Birdy
Literal: Iron Arm Birdy

Plot Synopsis

Tsutomu's just your average high school kid, busy studying for his senior high entrance exams. Out for some fresh air the night before the test, he (literally) runs into a guy fleeing a pretty young lady. Well, as with many anime guys, Tsutomu's not a particularly lucky lad, so it shouldn't come as much of a shock that the guy is actually an interplanetary criminal on the run from Federation agent Birdy. Worse, the mean man throws Tsutomu at the good guy and gets him killed. Bummer. Fortunately for Tsutomu (and Birdy's conscience), there is a way to keep him from taking a one way trip off Earth. Unfortunately for both, it involves merging Tsutomu and Birdy's bodies together.

So now Tsutomu's stuck sharing a body with a rather attractive and very strong space police agent while trying to keep his apathetic family and girlfriend from finding out about his woman problems, and to make matters worse, Birdy's still got to do her job, which involves taking on a rather secretive group of very bad aliens planning to perform some sort of maniacal experiment on the unsuspecting inhabitants of Tokyo. And you thought you had problems.

Quick Review

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2005-07-04

Birdy the Mighty isn't original in any way, but it is a nifty little action romp with all the trimmings. The top-notch superpowered fights are the main course, with sides of awkward "kid with a secret feminine side" situations and a selection of can't-help-but-love-'em anime characters, and the whole thing is sprinkled with a couple of cool police investigators looking for the pieces of the convoluted plot that ties it all together. Serve in a visually appealing package (look for Birdy and Tsutomu's marvelously expressive faces), and enjoy. The only real downsides are the somewhat flatly-acted dub and that it's a little too short.

Fans of action and good old fashioned anime fun should find plenty to like in Birdy the Mighty--everything you'd expect from classic anime, done right.

US DVD Review

The DVDs are functional, but little more. Aside from acceptable video and audio transfers, a gallery of stills and a trailer or two is about the extent of the special features. The English credits are printed on the reverse side of the jacket insert with the embarrassing note "no information regarding the Japanese voice actors is currently available"--as with the old VHS release, only English acting credits are found at the end of the video, though at least they subtitled the songs this time (ironically, the Japanese-language credits are left intact). Maybe they should've had a look at the cast translation we had up in back in 1999.

Content Guide

A few bits of more mature humor (although surprisingly little), a bit of nudity, and some fairly graphic violence account for USM's 13-up rating, though you could conceivably call the 2nd episode 16-up on account of the nudity.

Violence: 3 - Low body count, but does get pretty graphic on occasion.

Nudity: 3 - One low-detail scene in the 2nd part.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - A few randy comments, but pretty mild all things considered.

Language: 1 - Nothing of note.

Notes and Trivia

Based on a mid-length comic series (not available in English as of this writing) by Yuuki Masami, better known for the long-running Patlabor comic series.

Birdy the Mighty is directed (and scripted, in the final episode) by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, famous for dark, often erotically-charged movies such as Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Wicked City, and Ninja Scroll. This series is nothing like the movies he is famous for, however.

Availability

Available on two hybrid DVDs of two episodes each, from US Manga Corps. Was previously available on two subtitled or dubbed VHS volumes.

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