You know that bad rap that anime gets for being crude, raunchy, vulgar, and highly sexual? Well, 'Heaven's Lost Property' is one series that reinforces that negative stereotype. As if it was written by a horny adolescent teenage boy, more time is spent on throw-away dirty jokes and gags than actual plot-furthering story. There's a decent story at hand, but only about 90 minutes of the 336-minute first season propel the story forward. The majority of the show is wasted on stagnant teenage sexual fantasies and escapades - none of which are actually entertaining.
While I'm not opposed to crude gags and sexual content, they're improperly used here, never earning laughs or serving any entertaining purpose. Also, it's odd and offsetting to have so many moments containing 99-pecent-nudity in an animated program – especially of underage characters. To be honest, the cartoon nudity is quite disturbing and tasteless.
'Heaven's Lost Property' centers around Tomoki, an unsatisfied high school-age virgin with a wild insatiable appetite for sexual fantasies, and his close group of friends – Sohara, Sugata and Mikako. Sohara is Tomoki's childhood best friend and neighbor. Her character constantly complains about how big her breasts are growing. Considering that she frequently daydreams of a romantic relationship with Tomoki and that all he wants is to get into any girl's panties, you'd think they would be a couple, but that never comes up. He's always grabbing her boobs and shoving his face into her crotch, so you'd think that she would actively pursue a relationship with him, but she doesn't.
Sugata is a nerdy intellectual who gives a supposed-to-be smart lecture at the beginning of each episode that eludes to the following plot. His character is annoyingly intelligent (wordy) and sucks the life out of the already life-less series. While Tomoki constantly thinks and talks about sex, Sugata never stops talking about searching for "the new world." Inexplicably at his side is Mikako, the gorgeous and popular student body president daughter of a yakuza leader. She also sucks the life out of the series and literally never serves a purpose but to even out the human genders.
This small group of friends is thrown out of whack when an invisible godly black gate to heaven is opened above their small Japanese town and an angelic robot (known as an Angeloid) named Ikaros is sent down to serve as Tomoki's slave. Like an unlimited genie from a magic lamp, Ikaros grants any and every wish and request that Tomoki has. Instead of revealing Ikaros' celestial purpose for being sent to Earth, the majority of the series is wasted on watching the near-nude Angeloid use her powers to help Tomoki see his classmates naked and get as many pairs of their used panties as possible. A second Angeloid named Nymph is even introduced into the story with a shady purpose, yet that isn't even fully revealed (and quickly concluded) until the very short anticlimactic ending of season one.
Everything that I've enjoyed while reviewing the anime series 'Fairy Tail' – the fun characters, goofy comedy, playful storylines, creative twists on genre - is absent in 'Heaven's Lost Property.' It's too immature and unfunny. Serious in tone and nature, its pervy erection gags, barely-covered animated crotch and boob shots, repetitive peeping tom moments and panty-centric storylines are devoid of any entertaining qualities.
If I was a super-horny teenager whose parents weren't around to catch me watching this dirty series, I'd probably be into it, but as an adult, 'Heaven's Lost Property' comes across as nothing more than filthy fluff. The angel-driven story is nothing more than a vehicle that opens the door to more vulgarity and dirty-minded wackiness. If you like perverted animated garbage that feels like it was written by a peer-group of female-deprived teenage boys, then this series is made just for your niche market.
The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats
FUNimation has placed all 14 episodes of the first season on two Region A/B BD-50 discs. The combo set also includes three DVDs that contain the same content. FUNimation shipped reviewing discs only, so I cannot comment on the packing. When you insert the discs into your player, they play unskippable FBI warnings, FUNimation vanity reels and cross-promotional trailers before taking you to the loud music- and effects-filled main menus.
'Heaven's Lost Property' has been given a sharp 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Anime nudity has never looked so good – if that's what you're into.
Aside from a few instances of fade-induced banding, this is a shining example of how great traditional animation can appear on Blu-ray. The picture quality is absolutely clean and clear. The animation flows with smooth clarity. The contrast and black levels are perfectly balanced. Full of a wide range of primaries as well as many fluorescents and neons, the colors are always vivid.
Whenever characters act childish or naïve, their animation changes to an old-school low-quality anime look. This rough classic style of animation even looks fantastic with this strong transfer.
'Heaven's Lost Property' offer two lossless listening options: English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD and Japanese 2.0 Dolby TrueHD. The 5.1 track features some of most full-sounding audio that I've ever heard from an animated Blu-ray. There's always something to be heard.
From the opening of the series, the precision and high amount of love placed into giving 'Heaven's Lost Property' an astounding and rich audio mix is immediately noticeable. As objects fly across the screen, their accompanying effects seamlessly soar across the different channels in the room. On-screen objects aren't the only sounds that we hear in the mix. Just as ambient and environmental sounds are strategically placed into live-action film mixes, they are well embedded into 'Heaven's Lost Property.'
As annoying as Tomoki's voice is, it (as well as the other voices) clearly rings through the music and effects with well-balanced perfection. You can hear his whiny freak-out scream-talking while a flock of birdlike panties flap their wings and take flight set to music that you'd expect from a nature documentary. Not only is the 5.1 track well-balanced, but it's consistently top-notch.
Every negative stereotype that the anime genre carries is reinforced by this redonkulously dumb series. 'Heaven's Lost Property' is an immature series that feels like it was written by hopeless horny teenage boys for other hopeless horny teenage boys. It's nothing more than a dirty adolescent fantasy disguised as a deity-centric science-fiction series. Not only is the show unfun and unfunny, but the characters are unlikeable and annoying. It's a shame that great video and audio qualities had to be wasted on this worthless set. It features 336 of the most unbearable minutes of "original" programming. 'Heaven's Lost Property' is a worthy water-boarding substitute for military interrogations. It's torture. I'd admit to every last sin I've ever committed over having to watching season one again.
Leave A Comment
