Sweet Valerian 2

August 11, 2004

Title: Cell Phone Stress
Fansubbed by: DeathSquad

A giant cell phone wreaks havoc in Ajara City.

In response, our heroes rush to the scene . . .

. . . and save the day.

The End

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RATING: C

Although it's probably not obvious, Sweet Valerian is a mini-series from the legendary CLAMP Studios, creators of the superb titles 'Chobits' and 'X'. While this production house has a storied history of producing utterly wicked titles, it's unfortunate to note that their newest title is merely a mediocre rehash of the mahou shoujo genre.

As it stands, Sweet Valerian follows a rather formulaic plot reminiscent of "Charlie's Angels" and "Powerpuff Girls" -- three heroines transform from ordinary hipsters to crime-fighting superheroes to save the planet from certain doom. The heroines in Sweet Valerian are aided by a unique panda-esque companion and nifty card-swiping/magic-transformation gadgets, but these positive attributes don't outweigh the dreadfully banal dialogue.

To tell the truth, I was really looking forward to this title -- the 5-minute episode format has been used extraordinarily well in prior titles (Azumanga Daioh and Digi Charat spring to mind), and one would expect similar results at the hands of the illustrious CLAMP team. Still, except for short glimpses of humor, Sweet Valerian comes off a shallow and poorly-executed work of art. One can hope that this title will redeem itself in upcoming episodes, but in all feasibility, this is quite unlikely (>_<)

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Speaking of Azumanga Daioh, Kabitzin from blood-brother anime blog Sea Slugs created an exceptionally good piece of Azu fanart. If you haven't seen this before, it's definitely worth a peek :)

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