ANIME REVIEW . Beet the Vandel Buster: The Sacrifice

by Greg   ⋅   January 26, 2007   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

I have always been a hardcore-casual fan of anime, meaning that while I am not a wellspring of knowledge on the subject, I have seen a good amount (mostly dubbed and brought to American TV) and have a few that I absolutely love (Ranma ½, Rurouni Kenshin, Bleach). When I was made aware of Beet The Vandel Buster, one of the first things I noticed was that the villains looked a lot like monsters from Dragonball (the original being one of my favorite animes as well) and in fact, the animators for Beet were involved in Dragonball Z, GT, and One Piece among others. Beet shares a similar adventurous and humorous spirit with those anime and is also an anime based on a young, dark haired main character who is on a quest to be the best. Beet is aimed at a younger audience (maybe like 3rd - 8th Grade), but in its simplicity retains a surprising sophistication.

Beet is set in a world where there are three types of characters: The Vandels (a group of powerful demons set on making life miserable and short for the humans), The Vandel Busters (powerful humans whose job it is to kill the Vandels and make life safe for the humans), and those caught in between (humans, lesser monsters). Beet is a young boy who dreams of being a Vandel Buster, more specifically a member of the Zenon Warriors who are the premiere group of Vandel Busters. The series is set mostly three years after the Zenon Warriors have disappeared, and Beet and his childhood friend Poala are attempting to fill the shoes of the Zenon Warriors. Poala is busy trying to protect the village while Beet is off in the wilderness, training in order to become the best Vandel Buster in history by defeating every last Vandel on Earth and ending the Age of Darkness for the humans. Their first major challenge is what has to be one of the coolest and most amusing anime villains I’ve seen in recent memory, Mugine, The Schemer of the Bog. Mugine is a mud creature who walks around with a cocky air and sips wine constantly. Mugine is terrorizing their village, so as you can imagine, there is a showdown.

Watching Beet is a lot like watching an RPG. Both the Busters and Vandels gain levels through their accomplishments. The Busters get a tattoo while the Vandels get strange orbs that appear on their skin. When Beet and Poala reach Mugine’s fortress, the three types of henchman monsters appear in twos outside the gate. These little touches help Beet have a familiar and fully realized world which separates it from other anime.

This anime takes about two episodes to deal with Beet’s origin, which is entertaining, but can be skipped (although it does provide some good vignettes with the Zenon Warriors) as it mostly functions to set up the rest of the series. I think a better indicator of where the show is going would be the third and fourth episodes that round out the disc that deal with Beet and Poala’s infiltration of Mugine’s fortress. The first disc ends by setting up a huge battle, which definitely makes you want to see the next one. If this was on TV, I’d definitely tune in.

If you are used to the more sophisticated and cerebral anime, the ones with incredible art, or the really wacky ones, you might not be able to get into Beet. Beet is for people who love a good fight scene, good humor, and a simple but effective show that doesn’t insult its audience.

The DVD
Beet The Vandel Buster is the first release from Illumitoon Entertainment, and for a first effort, the 4:3 transfer surprisingly crisp. Colors are bright, lines are sharp, with no bleed whatsoever. The show is presented in either original Japanese language or English audio tracks, with optional English subtitles. Both audio tracks are nice and clear.

The extras offered are pretty slim. There are Kanji versions of the opening and closing credits
(more for diehard otaku as they feature the opening and end credits as they aired in Japan)
and a trailer gallery featuring previews for upcoming IllumiToon releases B’t-X, Bobobo-bo-bo-bobo, and AMDriver. But the dvd shouldn’t be penalized for a lack of extras because they are just that. Extra.

This is a nice first effort from Illumitoon. I’m definitely interested to see what they do in the future.

About the Author:

Gregory Masaki Jenkins is a self proclaimed “hardcore-casual” Anime fan. When not checking out funky cool animation he rocks the house old-school in his balkan band, and lays the smack-down, office style.

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