Burn Up Excess - To Serve and Protect (Vol. 1) (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)After two to three years of letting the license for this anime sit on the shelf, ADV Films has finally decided to reenact this anime for US commerical release!
Generally, a person would not watch an anime like Burn-Up Excess for any sort of educational value whatsoever. It does not have heart-wrenching drama or a stunning story that makes you sit up and say "Wow!" Rather, a person would watch this if you needed something to laugh at. And Burn Up Excess provides lots to laugh about.
Enter Rio, the foremost character of Burn Up Excess (and the one you see on the front cover.) She's broke, she overspends, and her answering machine is loaded with messages from various bill collectors. To pay all this, she works at Policetown HQ. However, what's special about her (or her job, at least) is that she belongs to Team Warrior.
Team Warrior is a small elite crime squad that serves as a police special operations unit. Along with Rio in this unit are Maya, a green haired gun maniac, Yuji, a driver/pilot of all vehicles and part-time pervert, Nanvel, the mechanical genius, Lilica, the hyper computer hacker, and Maki, their boss, who is always cool and collected. Together, they face off against the many terrorist who would dare to take on the law, or Maya's big gun, or Rio's special-issue police baton, whichever is convenient.
Ladies might not be as appreciative of this series as most gentlemen would be. This series is absolutely loaded with "fan service," or raw appeal for men. There is much suggested nudity (nothing concrete), as well as four of the five Warrior ladies have huge chest that will definitely lead to back strain later in their lives. Added to this is ADV Film's patented Jiggle Counter, an extra that can be set to show how many times the breasts of the Warrior ladies bounce during the DVD. This show was obviously created with the male fan in mind.
So, if you feel you are in need of some laughs, then pick up this popular comedy/action anime, as there's a lot of fighting and loads of humor to be served up!

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Flashpoint - The First Season (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)"Let's keep the peace," is the catch-phrase uttered by team leaders as the Strategic Response Unit gears up for a hot call. It's hardly as adrenaline-inducing as "Let's roll," or "Lock and load," but I don't think it's supposed to be; in fact it sets the tone for the series. This cop drama is about saving lives and trying to bring sanity and compassion to out-of-control situations, not racking up a body count in the name of peace and justice.
Flashpoint is an undiscovered gem, hidden away behind a overused genre. If the phrases "SWAT team," "hostage negotiators," "Canadian television," and "police drama" don't exactly grab your interest, please do yourself the favor of at least reading this review and perhaps watching a couple of episodes. You might be glad you did.
The premise on its own is not terribly new: A fictional SWAT/hostage negotiation team takes on kidnappings, suicide attempts, bank robberies, and the like. What IS new is the approach. The writing of this show is steeped in the humanity, compassion, and psychological realism markedly absent from current TV.
The team members are deeply decent human beings who love their jobs and their team-mates, but Flashpoint does a superb job illustrating the real-life issues such as PTSD, stress, and guilt that come with such work.
Markedly absent is the fictional conceit that events don't have consequences. When team leader and sniper Ed Lane shoots a hostage-taker in the series premier, not only do they show his emotional reaction immediately after the shooting, they follow him through suspension, investigation, and debriefing by a psychologist. The consequences of the shooting continue to appear through the series; Ed experiences flashbacks, is sued, and in season two the hostage-taker's son even tries to kill him.
Flashpoint does not stop at portraying the team in a compassionate and realistic light; the subjects of their calls are rarely black-and-white "bad guys." Psychologically disturbed individuals are portrayed as layered individuals with reasons for their behavior. Sometimes these reasons are morally justifiable, sometimes not. Sometimes we sympathize with them, sometimes we want them dead sooner rather than later - but we are almost always given insight as to how and why they reached their "Flashpoint."
Anyone who has experienced traumatic events or PTSD in their own life or helped friends and family cope with traumas should watch this show. It is deeply validating and provides excellent models of how to cope and how not to, as well as being sensitively and realistically written.
Flashpoint is a cop show with real people and ethical, caring human beings in difficult situations. As one friend of mine put it, "It's the anti-24." If you're tired of television where the writers can't think of any better way to create drama than to set up a crisis and then torture their way out of it, try Flashpoint.
This is the (ironically, Canadian-produced) television show that jaded, wounded America needs right now.

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Flashpoint is a drama which depicts the emotional journey into the tough, risk-filled lives of a group of cops in the SRU (inspired by Toronto's Emergency Task Force).It's a unique unit that rescues hostages, busts gangs, defuses bombs, climbs the sides of buildings and talks down suicidal teens.Members of a highly-skilled tactical team, they're also trained in negotiating, profiling and getting inside the suspect's head to diffuse the situation to try and save lives.

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