Firestorm

There are no reviews for Firestorm, so I'm here to save everybody who comes across this obscure entry the trouble: Do not, under any circumstances, watch Firestorm. This is absolutely the worst anime I've seen, and it isn't even a funny bad like Mars of Destruction or Ex-Arm. It far passed "so bad it's good" and went deeper to simply "It's abysmal". First the plot. Firestorm involves a UN peacekeeping military unit called Storm Force 9 that protects the world from a terrorist organization named Black Orchid who's goal is the take over the world. Each episode revolves around some nonsensical plot that Black Orchid has for worlddomination like releasing alien fish into the ocean or creating giant rats that eat people. In response Storm Force 9 has to stop them. And by stop them, I mean usually just using mechs and fighting them for a couple of minutes. The plot is bland, repetitive, goes nowhere, and is nonsensical at times. It's nothing that hasn't been seen before. The animation and art is even more abysmal. Stiff and limited animation, ugly art, and some of the worst CGI I've seen even for 2003. They frequently try to blend the CGI with the 2D animation which goes just as well as you'd expect. The fact that Last Exile aired at the same time as this show and yet looks infinitely better in terms of CGI and blending it just goes to show how much worse Firestorm is in comparison. Sound is whatever, the soundtrack is completely forgettable and I'll never recognize any of the songs. The opening song haunts my dreams on the other hand, the threat that I'll have to watch the opening for a 27th time looming. So is Firestorm enjoyable? Absolutely not. It's nowhere near "so bad it's good" and instead is just agonizingly bad. The fact that Enoki Films licensed it and never released it was a blessing. There's absolutely no reason to watch this unless you're a massive fan of Gerry Anderson and absolutely have to watch everything he's worked on. Stay as far away as possible from this show.