Venus Senki

Venus wars is to me a classic, Its not very very good but I watched it many years ago and by the standart back then it was quite good.
Probably not the best choice for younger fans who cant stomach the outdated animation but it is a fine example of 80's sci fi anime.

Its a decent quick watch, and a peek into the 80's, the golden era of anime, and by this I mean it's better than 90% of modern animes easily...

If you want a gritty war anime full of tanks, look no further! This sci fi ova embodies the charm of 80s anime; though very flawed, the aesthetics and love put into its making is enough for an enjoyable watch.

The premise is sound if not a bit basic. Humans have colonised Venus (out of all the planets in Sol) but thanks to ecological disasters, it is a backwater hellhole far from the supposed utopia of this world's Earth. Its people have a reckless, fatalistic and at times apathetic view towards life and peace (the ridiculously deadly bike racing games they have!). The nation Ishtar launches ... a surprise attack on Aphrodian's capital, Io and conquer it in one day. The anime then chronicles a bike racing gang's involvement in the war to recapture Io. The simple plot is made up for by a sense of scale. There is a huge array of futuristic armoured fighting vehicles with the combined arms firepower that lays waste to the massive industrial complex of Io. Rarely in anime will you see such gratuitous scenes of warfare! There is more attention to detail than you'd think. The only aircraft are all prop driven as jet aircraft do not work in Venuses' atmosphere.
At the same time, while one and a half hours is enough to craft a rich geopolitical thriller and a dose of history on top of the basic story, we only get a couple of basic anti war and totalitarian messages. The government is pretty corrupt and incompetent; that's always fun!
Instead, the runtime focuses on the biker gang. While there is no problems with good character development, this IS NOT done well. A lot of the dialogue IS unnatural as hell, their interactions do not reveal as much about themselves and the world around them as it could have and a lot of the movie seriously lacks a sense of direction. The beginning could have been condensed to half the amount of time without much difference. Definitely the weakest aspect of the anime!

The characters are decent to poor. Most of the biker gang are the standard kids transitioning to adults type characters. There is no development for most of them save the main character and the alpha male and even then it is poor. It is quite probable that you'd make no real emotional connection to any of them! This is nothing compared to the reporter character; she takes the blondes are dumb stereotype to the max and is easily the dumbest character in anime I've ever seen. She contributes almost nothing to the anime and her only redeeming feature is that she has more balls (or is it ignorance?) than most of the male cast! Literally just a dumb pretty face.

Art quality is typical 80s ova type stuff; brilliant if you are used to old anime. What really boosts this anime are the insanely over the top and extremely cool military weapon designs. The giant tanks bristle with cannons that cover all of its sides! It is absolutely ridiculous and the anime knows it. They often operate alone as assault weapons; presumably because their all round fire power is expected to cover every possible approach to the tank. In practice, there are only 3 or so crewmembers operating the tank; so in battle, half of the guns are never used! Those monowheel motorbikes are also so impractically dumb that they end up becoming cool. You know what else is dumb? That experimental section of the movie where they animated motorbikes on top of live action video footage. Interesting? Yes. Well done? No, very roughly! Its more jarring than bad anime cgi!

Sound is your typical 80s music. Its slightly above average compared to other 80s anime osts.

Yes I really enjoyed this, you don't watch this anime for the lame, unrealistic characters and the barebones plot. You watch this for the badass mechanical designs waging blitzkrieg war over desert wastes and wreaking total destruction of the intricately detailed cities of Venus. What makes this even more interesting is the asymmetrical forces of the two nations. The Ishtarians have massive tank armies while Aphrodian's prefer hard hitting mobile forces. In conclusion, this is one of the coolest war animes ever made! Recommended for fans of military sci fi, the junkyard future aesthetic and war anime in general.

I don't usually do review but after seeing this movie I had to, because I can't really recommend this to anyone.

Basically the story is very ordinary! I have seen many movies from late 80s that are written in same way and this also borrows many elements. I felt that this movie was re-written less bloody version of Akira. These two movies have many things in common!

And the characters are forgettable. I didn't even remember anyone's names.

Only one thing that is good in this anime is its artwork. I really liked how the tanks and other vehicles were drawn.

Overall an unfinished anime, which ... needed deeper more complex story and better written characters.

Original Tape version 9, Remastered 16:9 widescreen edition dvd, 5,5 at best because it rapes the texture and recording of its time, while it shows too much at the colors and stuff. Original i like it best because i saw it the 1st time on t.v back in 1994,95, and its just sooo enjoyable that way, the music tracks, the grainy resolution, sigaretburns inscreen and the shady yet movable animation thats NOT like static body movement on the remaster! A good movie in the HEYDAYS of sci-fi and cyberpunk anime that had an nice storyline to it and good fitting chara. that are involved the ... whole millitary wars thing! ok weapons design, more beautyful mortorcycle and vehicledesigns wich in 1 scene come's to and good chase!
really, some anime's shoul'nd be remastered unless its really a priority

Look, I'm just going to say it: I like Venus Wars more than Akira.

Let's get two things out of the way.

1) Reasons to compare the two movies. One came out only a year after the other. They're both about rebellious youth living in a cyberpunk landscape who are thrust into an apocalyptic conflict that is drawn painstakingly well in that 80s anime way.

2) I wrote a 4000 word dissertation on Akira at university, so I am not what you would call a 'hater'. It was one of the first anime I ever saw, so it holds a special place in my ... heart. It is a seminal piece of work, but I now feel Venus Wars has been in its shadow for long enough and deserves its time in the limelight, hence this review to get more eyes on it (and hence why Sentai released it on bluray).

Both Akira and Venus Wars suffer from thin characterisation and superficial plotting, but I consider Venus Wars a superior work because its thematically more rich and the character arcs are more coherent.

Akira is not a thematically bankrupt piece of art, not at all. For my dissertation of Otomo's movie I carefully studied the text of the work and behind the scenes interview with cast and crew, ultimately coming to the conclusion that the movie's most compelling theme is about exploring Japan's relationship to modernity. This is a meaty abstract theme to chew on, but there's no character in it. Character is what drives story, without character a story is not worth a damn in my opinion. You could have the most amazing plot in the world but if I don't care about any character, then what's the point? A paper-thin story with compelling characters will always be rewatchable though.

Despite its thin characterisation, Venus Wars still has more compelling character archetypes than Akira. When protagonist Hiro's nation is invaded by the enemy, his first reaction is a petulant sort of anger. There's no heroics, these are just kids who have an addiction to racing. They flail about as their lives are destroyed by occupation, only coming together to fight back when their rage boils over at the mere sight of a tank parked on their local stadium. One thing leads to another and the next thing you know they are part of the war effort. A plucky opportunistic journalist comes along for the ride, providing a few laughs (some unintentional).

If I were to rewrite Venus Wars to iron out its issues, I'd simply rewrite the third act a bit, add more character moments, a little more to the resolution to give some pay-offs, and also re-do the climax, as what occurs during it does feel both a little silly and a little anticlimactic despite the death and destruction on display.

Venus Wars actually has more in common with Gundam than Akira, in that the movie is a compelling depiction of not-Earth kids being thrust into war due to the insanity of adults. Gundam F91 and Venus Wars would make a fun double-bill.

The animation of Yasuhiko's movie is phenomenal and was what made me think of Akira in the first place. Both movies have incredible animation and attention to detail, the screen is constantly full of life and depth. They really don't make anime like this anymore. The soundtrack (by Joe Hisaishi!) is also an 80s banger with some nice pop tunes.

Despite the hyperbolic start of this review, both Akira and Venus Wars are worthy of attention, they are intriguing windows into the 80s, bold and kinetic depictions of futurescapes populated by jaded characters who don't fit into neat boxes, there's no cliched heroes here, just furious action and unbridled emotion.

This honestly may be my favorite war movie of all time simply because it manages to be both a highly gripping take on war but also very entertaining. You don't have to endure the extremely harsh and frankly dull monotony of death that actually makes up most of war yet you are still shown realistic fates of those thrust into a conflict in a beautifully realized world. Venus Wars excels in showing the individual in war, not just at their most futile but at their most powerful. The climax of the movie had me almost breathless and the ending made was one of the ... most respectful I've seen of it's characters. I hate a story that destroys it's characters at the end, real life is grim enough to waste your time watching entertainment that aims to depress.
But speaking of the futility of war and this movies rejection of such a principle here is a quote from one of my favorite authors and books

“I quite understand how we are driven to lead statistical lives, but I repeat that it is the duty of art to make us imagine the particular; to make us understand that the rights of one human being are not a fraction of the rights of more than one, and at the same time that in any situation of collective evil, the suffering is felt by no more than one person; only one feels the bitter agony of injustice, only one dies”
― Jacques Barzun, The Use and Abuse of Art

Venus Wars embodies this quote in the best way possible and I can't recommend it enough. And don't even get me started on the top notch world-building, I can't think of a better example of a writer practicing show don't tell. You could learn how to write amazing worlds just from watching this film!

In the not so distant future Venus has been colonized by settlers from Earth that has come to be controlled by two nations that are Ishtar and Aphordia. The two new independent nations are vying for control of Venus as tensions between the nations quickly spiral toward war Susan Sommers a carefree reporter from Earth who is arriving on Venus to report on the growing tensions between the two Venus nations. As war breaks out with Ishtar invading Aphordia's capital with giant flying ships that drop huge advanced tanks into the city Susan encounters Hiro and the other members of the "Killer Commandos" who are ... a Venus bike racing team. The rag tag group is soon faced with the horrors of war, and is forced to make tough decisions as their homes and nation collapse around them.

I had originally first Watched Venus Wars back in the very early 1990's when anime was truly gaining ground in America with such films as Vampire Hunter D, Akira, Ninja Scroll and Robot Carnival started airing in the US on the Sci-fi channel when it actually had true science fiction programming. I had originally loved the film, and I believe I would have given it five stars all those years ago. Besides shows like Robotech and Transformers that I grew up watching Venus Wars along with Vampire Hunter D and Ninja Scroll truly got me involved with Japanese Animation, so I do have the soft spot for Venus Wars, but after recently watching Venus Wars again after about eight years my views of Venus Wars have changed.

Venus Wars is based on a short run manga with the same name created and written by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, which I have never read, so I can't compare the two, but the biggest issues with the film is the paper thin plot. It's not that that the plot is bad, it's just that there it is too familiar compared to many other anime films and films in general during the 1980's, and there is no real or detailed back story to go along with the unoriginal concept. The prologue to the Venus Wars is about thirty seconds long and does nothing to explain how Ishtar and Aphordia came to be, and doesn't answer other questions like what their relationship to Earth was or how Ishtar and Aphordia came to be independent. Nor does the film give any detail Ishtar or Aphordia besides they are at war for control of Venus. The lack of backstory for the human history on Venus is continued with the characters. Hiro the main character is from a rich family and he obviously has issues with his family, but yet he only really mentions them once with how the Aphordia government pays them to do basically nothing. The same can be said for the rest of the characters in Venus Wars. Still with that said the characters like Maggie, Susan, Will and Kurtz will keep you entertained and compelled by their flawed, but entertaining stories. I think the problem with the plot and characters rest on the head of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko who was both writer and director of the film. From seeing looking up his credits I think he was the wrong choice for both writer and director. I believe Triangle Staff who produced the film should have made different choices for writer and director of Venus Wars, but Yasuhiko could have compelled the animation company to bring him on as writer and director Venus Wars. If not he wouldn't have allowed them to make a film about his comic. Whatever the reason I believe the choice of Yasuhiko to write and direct Venus Wars was the wrong one.

What works in Venus Wars, and keeps the film from being below average film is the animation, designs, action and music. While the animation is dated and even at the time of its release didn't compare to other anime film the animation doe by Triangle Staff still works for the type of film Venus Wars is and the environment of the planet. The animation is was dark and dirty that perfectly fit the gritty and desolate landscape of Venus. The designs and detail of vehicles from the advanced military tanks to the tactical assault military motorcycles are cool looking, and extremely well drawn and animated. The actions is riveting from the Venus War's brutal motorcycle races that is like a marriage between Nascar and Death Race that has so many convoluted rules, and is yet so compelling and exciting to the battles that are well planned out, beautifully drawn and animated. The action and animation is complimented by composer Joe Hisaishi score. Hisaishi who is a long time filming partner to the great Hayao Miyazaki delivers a compelling score that matches the environment of Venus as well as the tone. The combined animation, designs, action and music help to elevate the underdeveloped plot and characters tuning Venus Wars from a flawed below average film into a good action war film.

While Venus Wars isn't as good as I first thought it was when I first watched the anime film over twenty years ago especially plot and character that is flawed, but does have a decent plot and characters that is saved by good well drawn designs and animations along with some spectacular action, and a beautiful score that keeps Venus Wars from being dragged down into mediocrity. If you are an anime fan, and miss the classic films from the 1980's and early 1990's check out Venus Wars you will be entertained if nothing else.

I first saw this in 1994 during the Sci-Fi Channel's 2nd Annual Festival Of Anime (called Animation Marathon Anime '94 on air, it was hosted by Ralph Bakshi, and also featured Dominion Tank Police, Odin: Photon Space Sailor Starlight, and Project A-ko), and it's been a favorite of mine ever since. While I've never been much a fan of war films, this one particularly grabbed me. Centering around an Earth reporter and a motorcycle team who are essentially drafted into war after taking matters into their own hands against an invading army, the Venus Wars is a rather grim look at wartime life. Helped by ... the color palette of the film being gritty and muted, it doesn't have a bright and vibrant appearance, which gives it a tone that certainly isn't cheerful. Which I don't mind, this is war after all.

Much of the main cast are teenagers, and as such seem mostly complacent to the severity of the situation their country is in until it really hits home. They're not terribly concerned with fighting for their country as much as simply defending the stadium they race at, but by doing so effectively enter into the war. The characters are more or less fleshed out well, giving you enough reason to care about them once things start to get really serious, and hoping they make it to the end.

The animation is nice and fluid, not having many still frames and providing plenty of movement. And the character and mechanical designs are solid, with all the characters having very specific looks that make them all very easy to differentiate despite their similar racing uniforms many of them wear, and the various vehicles being very unique. Particularly that of the mono bikes and police patrol cars. I've always thought those were pretty cool looking. The music by Joe Hisaishi is good also, and really compliments the film well, adding much to the atmosphere of the world in which the film exists.

While not necessarily nihilistic, having first seen this the day after seeing Project A-ko, the generally solemn nature of Venus Wars was a shock to the system. I clearly enjoy it now as an adult, but I'm always a bit surprised by how much I enjoyed it when I was 13. Venus Wars isn't a fun film per se, and can sometimes wax poetic about politics, but it's great art designs, animation, and engaging story make it well worth a view in my humble opinion.

I felt inclined to write this review because so many of you reading this were probably born in the 90s, and really have no decent appreciation of how awesome 80's and 90 anime truly was. Now listen, I get it, the art style may not be packed full of lens flares and sharp lines that you modern otaku go crazy for, but each frame is bursting with detail. Honestly if your an "anime fan", then you owe it to yourself to go back and watch some of the classics like this one. Gritty, futuristic wars on distant planets . . . all ... while the main character is rocking a monobike???? Give this anime a shot, suspend your disbelief and look past the old art style, and Redruum promises you will enjoy it.

Venus Wars plays a little bit like the abbreviated version of a slightly longer story and while it definitely could flesh out some of the side characters more (Miranda is too cool to not do that much), it is nowhere near the ridiculous level of highlight-reel-pacing of your average anime compilation movie.
It concerns itself with the (very common in 80s sci-fi anime) theme of war and points at how silly large scale human conflict and nationalism is by changing the location from Earth and asking the question "why would a relatively young space colony on Venus go to war with itself?"
well, that's just ... what we do isn't it?

regardless, the real star of the show here is obviously the visuals.
this movie is only a hair below, if not on the same high level as, Akira in that regard.
gorgeously detailed, if grim, background art, a ridiculous amount of background animation, complex mechanical designs moving consistently smoothly and Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's famously cool character designs kept my eyes glued to the screen for the entire runtime.
if you ever wondered "what would it be like if all those 80s sci-fi anime could look as good as their Openings do the entire time?", this is your answer.

This is a criminally underrated movie and when I found it, it just baffled my mind as to why it had such few members. So I went into it with zero expectation and I've gotta say, I was blown away by what was presented and the quality of the presentation.

The story isnt special, its actually barely serviceable but it makes up for its lack of story with nicely written characters and an amazingly made world. I have a soft spot for post apocalyptic war torn stuff, especially in the far future where we have flying bikes and etc.

The animation is some of the most ... gorgeous I've ever seen and so is the soundtrack equally good. I can definitely see why people may not like this but me being a fan of the above mentioned things, I actually enjoyed the heck out of it.
At times it even reminded me of Akira, perhaps due to the overly detailed backgrounds and fluid animation and oh did I mention Bikes? Hahaha.
Definitely one of the lesser known yet worth watching movies for sure, Just go for it and watch it.

Venus Senki has great animation, compelling characters, is well paced, and is extremely re-watchable. Despite a simple narrative, lackluster ending, and some questionable character motivations; it is a really good movie. The animation is not at all dated and holds up well. There is not much character depth, but they are mostly likable. It is extremely well paced, spending just enough time on each plot point. The narrative, while simple, is good enough, and its lack of hard substance matter makes it easily watchable. The only negative is that the ending is less climatic than expected, and ... the “villain” does some questionable things. Venus Senki is an anime that holds up well and is a really enjoyable watch.

「Venus Senki」 proudly describes itself as a war movie with a strongly pronounced anti-war sentiment.
Unfortunately, it doesn't quite understand what that phrase means.

The story is set in the near future on a partially terraformed Venus, a fact that matters for the opening text blurb and never again: the planetary environment, which might as well be vaguely post-apocalyptic Tokyo metropolitan ruins for all the difference it makes, never plays into the story in any meaningful way, and looks just like every other drab exoplanetary landscape of its contemporary sci-fi anime.

The sci-fi elements of this movie are of the hard and grounded variety, to the point ... of being outright primitive; most of what you see is intimately familiar from the mundane reality, with the exception of some vehicles designs, which are for the most part comically impractical and antiquated even by the 1989 standards.

The 1989 standards for production quality of anime movies are outside my area of expertise, but going in without expectations, I was satisfied with the detailed artwork, vivid special effects and animation that is capable of fluidity and a certain old-school grace when it wants to; unfortunately, even though this movie is capable of delivering both impressive vistas and intense action sequences, most of its screen time looks good in an unremarkable way.
The same can be said about the sound, which is used competently and does a good job accompanying the visuals, but is unremarkable otherwise. The soundtrack also contains a couple cheesy 80s pop songs which are used to bolster some of the character-focused scenes and, as I've been told, can be enjoyed on their own merit if you're into those kind of things.
What I didn't particularly enjoy about the sound of this movie is the voice acting: it is satisfactory in a dry, professional way yet largely lacks nuance and therefore prevents the characters from expanding beyond their respective personality cliche, with a couple of notable exceptions.

Unfortunately, neither of the standout characters belong to the main cast, and for the vast majority of this movie you are going to be stuck with a band of 80s action movie tropes and side characters who are largely irrelevant to the plot(compared to the amount of time they occupy) and are written in a realistic enough manner to be outright dull, which would have been fine if those characters were used for something like a coherent commentary on the effect war has on a regular civilian's psyche, but the script stops one step short of even that, which makes for a rather frustrating experience.

But not nearly as frustrating as the script of this movie, which sets up a complex geopolitical plot in the opening minutes only to tear it down immediately with an extremely dumb scene that lacks any authenticity regarding military strategy and the realities of urban warfare; which bluntly narrates how tragically meaningless armed conflicts are, then proceeds to exult in a protracted colorful combat scene straight from some action comedy, which sacrifices basic physics, damaging properties of large-caliber artillery weapons and common sense at large for the sake of spectacle; and which by the end of the movie pretends it was an anti-war human drama all along, and demands an emotional response which is completely unearned.

「Venus Senki」 is an exasperating muddled mess, which I can only recommend watching in good faith if you crave seeing a tank getting taken out by a excavator crane.

Honestly. Nothing special.

Beautiful animation, a lot of gifs from this movie cycle all over anime aesthetic and vintage anime type forums.

But the story is as cliche as it gets. Your basic boring "war is hell" drama cept it can't even get the HELL part right. Hardly anyone dies, zero gore. The protagonist "Hiro" is just a jerk who disagrees with everyone around him all the time no mater what unless the plot absolutely needs him to honour his word or get involved in something stupid.

The plot also doesn't kick in until way too late, and for the dumbest reasons. The protagonist just decides ... to commit terrorism and kill the crew of some random tank because its parked at the race track he used to drive at??????

Multiple key characters never get named. Even once, and yet the movie expects me to care for them? Why. It never gives anyone time to breathe or much motive, Hiro could be cool but we never get into his reasons to be. He's just a rebel jerk who doesn't take no guff from no one not even military officers who could have him killed at a moments notice.

Almost nothing happens action wise is good I guess.
The scenes are very well animated and scored but the action is also highly predictable and full of plot armour that leaves everything feeling floppy with no meaningful sense of danger. Like I said earlier hardly anyone dies, I think a total of three named characters die and one of them only got a single speaking line before he was game ended.

Unless your a really big fan of old school animation, skip this one.