Series: Birdy The Mighty: Decode – Part One
UK Release date: 11th July 2011
Distributor: Manga
Certificate: 12
Running time: 325 mins
Director: Kazuki Akane
Genre: Anime
Format: DVD
Country of Production: Japan
Language: Japanese
Review by: Anna Attallah
This is a reworking of an OVA released in 1996, which was originally directed by the critically acclaimed Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Wicked City, Ninja Scroll). This time the lesser known Kazuki Akane (Noein, Vision Of Escaflowne) is at the helm and the story has been developed considerably. Based on Masami Yuki’s manga Birdy The Mighty, in itself a remake of an earlier manga published in the ‘80s, crime-fighting aliens (who happen to be drop-dead gorgeous) meets High School drama with an added twist.
Tsutomu Senkawa is a pretty average teenager with a rather odd hobby, namely exploring abandoned buildings. It is this unusual interest which gets him into serious trouble, as he investigates an abandoned warehouse which turns out to be where intergalactic crime fighter Birdy Cephon Altera has tracked the shape-shifting alien Geega. In the ensuing fight, Senkawa is caught in the crossfire and winds up dead.
This isn’t the end of the road for Senkawa, however, as his consciousness is able to exist within Birdy’s body whilst his own body is sent to the Federation for repair. Unfortunately for Senkawa, Birdy is more interested in fighting crime than allowing him to live a normal teenage life, but the arrangement seems to work – until Birdy discovers an evil plot to destroy Earth, which will test their friendship to the limit...
Birdy The Mighty: Decode is clearly aimed at young teenage boys (apart from being virtually naked all of the time, Birdy’s alias on Earth is a glamour model) and the overall feeling is that the writers have oversimplified the plot instead of challenging their intended audience. The first episode spends far too long introducing the characters and only begins to show promise at the very end, with a slick action scene leading to Senkawa’s untimely death. Fortunately, from there the plot does pick up, apart from a bizarre interlude involving a terrorist plan orchestrated by a bunch of dog aliens, particularly when Senkawa’s love interest Nakasugi’s miraculous recovery from a car crash begins to seem less than innocent. Each episode builds on the previous hints as we gradually begin to be drawn into Birdy’s mission to locate an apocalyptic weapon, the Ryunka, before its power is unleashed and humanity is wiped out. Unfortunately, the ending itself turns out to be a bit of an anticlimax, with everything tying up a little too neatly and various possible repercussions being ignored.
This isn’t to say that Decode is a complete washout, and the fact that Birdy has to share her body with a teenage boy offers plenty of scope for comedy. Birdy wryly comments on Senkawa’s clumsy attempts to capture the heart of the beautiful and unassuming Nakasugi, with Birdy herself being a likeable and feisty female whose maverick attitude makes her an appealing lead. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Senkawa, whose character suffers from a lack of development which can make him seem oddly devoid of emotion. He seems incredibly uninterested in the fact that he now inhabits the body of a stunningly attractive woman and the practicalities of this point are never even touched upon. His schoolboy crush on Nakasugi does intensify as the series goes on up to the point where he states he is even willing to die for her, yet this inexplicably turns to wooden indifference by the end. The true villain of the piece, not Geega but Shyamalan, a businessman who looks like a male model, is also decidedly two dimensional with the most interesting thing about him being he has a creepy collection of toy dolls (which remains unexplained).
What the film lacks in characterisation it makes up for in a number of fun and well choreographed action sequences, in particular in one episode where Birdy has to contend with an intensely eerie marionette (or robot) that has gone evil.
The music is at turns poignant and atmospheric, cleverly linking the action scenes with the more emotional ones, something which contrasts to the annoyingly catchy opening theme which will become firmly ingrained in your head. Unfortunately the animation doesn’t always keep up with the high-quality score and, at times, seems rushed, but on the whole the effect is of a relatively polished anime which redeems itself on the animation front towards the end despite some questionable character design of the final villain, who resembles a giant jelly baby on stilts.
Birdy The Mighty: Decode is an entertaining and light-hearted anime which reveals a darker edge. The plot is an odd mix of convoluted ideas and oversimplification which could have been made slicker, but there is enough here to keep viewers interested if they aren’t looking for anything particularly heavy. AA
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