Burn Up!

Original Title: バーンナップ
Romanized: Burn Up!
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

Meet Maki, Reimi and Yuka: Three cops with something of a reputation for... well, using heavy weapons in the pursuit of criminals. When cute little Yuka gets herself kidnapped by a slavery ring, the remaining two of the trio are going to break out the military-grade weaponry to get her back.

Quick Review

Rating: 0.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2006-07-22

Burn Up! is, as you might expect, the predecessor to Burn Up W. While I can see the potential for a decent remake/sequel (as far as the comedy/action girls with guns sort of thing goes), it really doesn't come with that much to recommend it.

The characters are predictable--the cute one, the violent one, the techie--as is the plot: the cute one gets kidnapped by the evil slavers and the others have to go rogue and single-handedly take out the bad guys.

Other than being short, shallow, and not particularly attractive (the art and animation are dated and uninspired), Burn Up also has less action (or less cool action, at least) than I would expect to see in a one-off like this, and certainly less than I wanted to. Pretty much the only good parts--parts, that is, that pull off the sort of light-hearted violence that makes things like the Dirty Pair enjoyable--are a short action scene at the beginning, and some of the climactic battle at the end.

I'll go ahead and give away the only really good bit right now, since it's not worth watching just for it anyway: A bad guy accidentally shoots the meek techie's gadget, and she goes berserk with an automatic weapon (and rocket grenades) in revenge. Fun, but if that sounds like it's worth sitting through the other hour for, go for it.

Otherwise, this is yet another girls with guns show, and one that falls way into the sub-average end of the spectrum at that.

Notes and Trivia

Burn up was one of ADV's earliest releases.

Availability

Available in the US from AD Vision on hybrid DVD. Was originally available on subtitled and dubbed VHS, among ADV's earliest releases, now out of print.

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