Fire Tripper

Fire tripper is a interesting little OVA and while watching it i couldn't help but think it was the first draft of Inu Yasha or it borrowed heavily from it for inspiration. Of course it is made by Rumiko Takashi the maker of Inu Yasha so it is not a far stretch to believe she borrowed elements as she has done in the past and currently does. The story is all within this one episode and it feels very fast paced. In the amount of time used it actually creates a fairly interesting plot with a good ending with a rather enjoyable surprise. I think theydid good with the story over all and maybe had the ova been 30 minutes longer or two episodes they may have been able to resolve any pacing issues.It feels like a short story in that you understand everything cause its laid out openly but its short,sweet and to the point. The characters are hard to identify with or grow attached to in such a short amount of time but that does not mean they are bad characters. Revolving around only the two main characters you do get a decent understanding of there feelings even if you don't have enough time and content to attach yourself to them personally. The characters do whats intend effectively and you can appreciate the simplicity of it all. The Art and Audio are very early 80s and make me personally feel nostalgic of a lot of Rumic Works. I have no complaints about either department as they both look and sound perfectly fine for the time it was made and the budget and length of the project itself. I actually like the male leads character design and his color pallet. The main leads both resemble characters from Inu Yasha a great deal. Overall i really enjoyed this Ova in particular over the other Rumic Ovas, it was just enjoyable. I felt interested the whole time and i wanted to see the conclusion as it built. Being a big fan of older anime i recommend this to anyone who likes classic. Modern anime viewers may not enjoy it as much cause of its age.

Sometimes I have one of those days 'feeling like watching something romantic'. Well, this is what I ask at those moments: *Science fiction. *Historical or folkloric stuff. *A simple love story. * Believable characters: tough boy finds a girl that suits his tastes and thinks she'll be perfect to fulfill his necessities (in this case, a girl that reminds him of his first love), misplaced girl finds a blunt and honest, fit and simple young man (but she knows the actual and complicated truth about him, but never talks about it). This is perfect for those who believe in a 'love that transcends time', and for thosewho feel they aren't fit for this century because they are ancient souls who miss their past lives. P.S.: No, you don't need to be a Rumiko Takahashi groupie to enjoy this. If you hate her because of her bad habit at develop 'stagnation' in her stories, this is good news for you! It's only 50 minutes, and has a 'wholeness' feel to it (instead of the 'openness' feel that her usual works give). Enjoy!

TL;DR: Fire Tripper is an interesting way to spend fifty minutes. I'm definitely biased in my liking of this anime, but hey, you can give it a shot too. (this is a rewritten review of a previous one) There may be spoilers ahead--(but does it really matter? It's literally only fifty minutes long) L;DR: Where do I begin? In my quest to consume as much Rumiko Takahashi media as possible, I stumbled onto Fire Tripper. The synopsis peaked my interest, and after finding a low resolution, muddled audio version of it on YouTube I thought, heck, why not. With an interest in vintage OVAs anyway (you know,Cipher the video, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, and so on) I thought that what was pitched to me as an "80s Inuyasha" would be right up my metaphorical alley. And to that extent... it was. As of writing this I've rewatched this OVA a whopping four times. But is it because it's a good OVA? No... not really... First of all, it's time-travel-historical-japan-isekai. I eat up that kind of stuff the same way I do dinosaur chicken nuggets. It's a genre that's a definite guilty pleasure of mine. Plotwise, we follow a high school girl who's name I've genuinely forgotten get involved in a gas explosion that teleports her into the past. There, she meets a guy, and typical Takahashi antics ensue. You can definitely see some of the foundations of Inuyasha, but there were more than enough differences for me to separate the two in my mind. The story is rather interesting itself, as it combines a sense of mystery with a tiny bit of action, a large dose of romance, and just a smidge of ~incest.~ Wait, incest? No, don't worry, we can pull out the "no chromo" card here since there is no technical incest in this OVA! Hooray! Still, that did make for a very awkward couple of minutes in the middle of the runtime. Well, whatever, I'll take what I can get. (If you watch this OVA you will see what I mean). Setting aside that factor, the romance is weirdly kind of cute in that 80s-Takahashi-way, and I was genuinely intrigued. And since there wasn't too much going on plotwise in the first place, most things get wrapped up by the end of the OVA in a satisfying way, leaving me content at the end of my viewing. So what's the rundown? Do I recommend Fire Tripper? Eh, sure, why not.

I felt very inclined to write a proper review on this since there are very few and I did not find the reviews written by thise who rate most anime low or a lengthy synopsis, every possible spoiler and staff info. So here is a spoiler-free review: I stumbeled upon this while looking at the list of other older storiers of Rumiko Takahashi that were animated. When I saw a guy dressed in warrior attire and a girl in a school uniform my only reaction was "don't tell me this is the same as Inuyasha". Well it kinda is... and kinda not at the same time. I checkedthe manga first and then looked at the reviews on here which lowered my expectations by a lot. But in reality it is not even close to being as bad as some make it out to be, it was actually way better than I expected. The premise is basically the same as Inuyasha: school girl is transported to the sengoku period by mistake, meets bratty strong guy and falls in love. However, the actual plot is very different and pretty interesting. It's another take on the whole time-traveling aspect. The story is easy to follow and actually keeps you engaged the whole 48 minutes. It becomes really interesting towards the end and it actually does a pretty great job of making you wonder what is actually going on until everything comes to a conclusion. Of course it does not have a ton of depth and many aspects are left unanswered, but that is to be expected from a 50min show and a 50page manga. The story moves very fast and it's all condensed but it seems to be pretty well pased for something that takes place over only a few days. The characters are ok. The girl is by far boring compared to Takahashi's usual female leads while the guy is pretty typical for her work, reminds me a bit of Koga from Inuyasha. The art and sound are not great given that it is such an old show but its watchable, no issues there. Overall, I think this is a decent short story. You should not expect this to be like an anime movie or a series, its very underdeveloped because of the lenght but the story has potential. That is probably why Inuyasha exists. I can't help to think that this might have been the original draft for the story that has later become Inuyasha and that it was the result of her experimenting with an isekai. If you liked Inuyasha or her work, this is worth a watch. Even if you don't but enjoy short stories it might be fun for you. But if you are looking for a well developed story with great and relatable characters, this might not be for you.