D7 Peacemaker: Stage 1

Original Title: D7 Peacemaker: Stage 1
Romanized: N/A
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

In the not too distant future, hostage negotiators have a new last-resort tool in their arsenal--the Peacemakers. When a situation at One American Center, Austin, Texas gets out of hand and a group of officers are mysteriously captured, Liaison Jynetik Lajiko calls in one of the best peacemakers there is--D7. Fate would have it, however, that no only will a couple of D7's classmates get caught up in the situation, but D7 will discover the door to a deeper mystery.

Quick Review

Rating: 1.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2003-06-30

This first OAV of an independently produced series by Dementia 7 Studios is polished and professional in its presentation, and the tack taken with the visuals--in essence, a comic book set to music--is a creative response to a low budget. Its strengths are its thumping techno-style soundtrack, laced with funky riffs and influences as diverse as vaguely Spanish acoustic guitar, and its slick technology-drenched style--practically a cyberpunk music video. Its weaknesses are its overly cerebral dialogue, unnecessarily confusing story, and the still-frame-based animation didn't simulate enough motion to make it feel dynamic enough.

At least as far as the first episode, the end result isn't bad, but unfortunately doesn't quite come together to live up to its potential.

US DVD Review

The DVD is pretty darned spiffy, particularly considering that it's an independent production. It includes very sharp widescreen video (although not anamorphic), crisp 2.0 and DTS 5.1 English audio, some (text) commentary by the director, a couple of step-by-step videos demonstrating how the storyboards became the finished product, a gallery of stills, and the two trailers. In an interesting twist (and nice addition for non-North American viewers), the disc is dual-sided--one side is NTSC, and the other is PAL, and since it's also region-free, you'll be able to watch it anywhere in the world. My only complaint is that the 5.1 soundtrack is DTS only (since I have a Dolby setup), but since the DVD also includes a full soundtrack CD (including extra tracks--it's 70 minutes long, twice the length of the video), I'm willing to forgive.

Content Guide

The makers rate it 13-up, and while that's about how it feels, there's little enough objectionable material that it probably could slip in at 10-up.

Violence: 2 - No apparent deaths and no blood, but some serious combat.

Nudity: 0 - Nothing.

Sex/Mature Themes: 0 - Nothing.

Language: 1 - Relatively mild language.

Notes and Trivia

The first episode of a planned series of OAVs and at least one movie centered around the same characters. Produced by Dementia 7 Studios, an independent; they have an extensive website. They have also done some work on at least one other similarly-styled project (the preview appears at the beginning of this video). D7 Peacemaker also has its own website, and although the usability suffers a bit from the same overdose of style, it looks almost exactly like this production. You can buy the DVD there, and there are a couple of downloadable trailers, which are worth a look if you're thinking about buying it.

Availability

38 minute independent OAV; available on DVD direct from D7 Studios.

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