Mezzo forte (1998) (V)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Yasuomi Umetsu

Release Date:

1998 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Crime | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Double the Girls, Double the Guns!! For Mikura, danger is routine and killing is just like breathing...

Plot Keywords:

Gun | Bodyguard | Vicious | Danger | Underworld

Cast

Tomoko Kotani	...	Mikura Suzuki
Takumi Yamazaki	...	Tomohisa Harada
Taichirô Hirokawa	...	Kenichi Kurokawa
Shôzô Îzuka	...	Momokichi Momoi
Akemi Okamura	...	Momomi Momoi
Norio Wakamoto	...	Hirooka
Shinichirô Miki
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bob Bobson	...	Guy In The Toilet Stall, Bodyguards (voice: English version)
Ivan Buckley	...	Kurokawa (voice: English version) (as Felix Cooper)
Marie Court	...	Mikura (during love scene) (voice: English version)
Melissa Fahn	...	Mikura (voice: English version) (as Tina Dixon)
Lynn Fischer	...	Momomi (voice: English version)
Melvin Katt	...	Detective (voice: English version)
William Knight	...	Emoto (voice: English version) (as William Frederick Knight)
Lex Lang	...	Bodyguard (voice: English version)
Sean Mitchell	...	Harada (voice: English version)
Bob Papenbrook	...	Momokichi Momoi (voice: English version) (as John Smallberries)
Tony Pope	...	Bob / Announcer / Bodyguard (voice: English version) (as Anthony Mozdy)
Jamieson Price	...	Hirooka, Bodyguard B (voice: English version) (as James Lyon)
Michelle Ruff	...	Sex Robot, Little Girl, Waitress (voice: English version)
Herman Schurman	...	Bodyguards (voice: English version)
Peter Spellos	...	Rob, Bodyguards (voice: English version) (as G. Gordon Baer)
Doug Stone	...	Tagami, Bodyguards, Urinal Guy (voice: English version) (as David Orosco)

Directed by
Yasuomi Umetsu

Original Music by
Tooru Shura

Art Department
Kôichirô Nagano	....	color key

Animation Department
Tatsuya Abe	....	animator
Masaji Andoo	....	animator
Takayuki Gorai	....	animator
Takehiro Hamatsu	....	animator
Nobuo Horii	....	animator
Kunihiko Inoue	....	animator
Shinji Ishihama	....	animator
Shuichi Kaneko	....	animator
Yoshitaka Katô	....	animator
Kazuya Komai	....	animator
Masahiro Kôyama	....	animator
Hiroshi Kyouai	....	animator
Hideo Maru	....	animator
Aguri Matsumoto	....	animator
Tsutomu Miyazawa	....	animator
Takaharu Moriyama	....	animator
Minoru Murao	....	animator
Mitsunori Murata	....	animator
Kazuto Nakazawa	....	animator
Takahiro Nishioka	....	animator
Hiroshi Ogawa	....	animator
Masakazu Okada	....	animator
Toyohiro Okada	....	animator
Akira Ôtsuka	....	animator
Fumihide Sai	....	animator
Jersey Sawa	....	animator
Masahiro Sekiguchi	....	animator
Rin Shin	....	animator
Yuji Takahashi	....	animator
Masae Tanabe	....	animator
Takahiro Tanaka	....	animator
Yasuomi Umetsu	....	animator
Yasuomi Umetsu	....	character design/animation director
Mayumi Watanabe	....	animator
Motoyoshi Yagi	....	animator

Editorial Department
Kimiko Kitazawa	....	color coordinator
Ryôta Tanaka	....	color coordinator

Production Companies

• Green Bunny

Distributors

• Central Park Media Corporation (I) (II) (????) (USA) (DVD)
• Kitty Media (2001) (USA) (VHS)
• Media Blasters (2001) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

60 min (2 parts)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Certification:

New Zealand:R16 | Chile:18 | Spain:18 | UK:18 | Argentina:16 | Peru:18 | USA:Not Rated | Australia:MA

Company:

Green Bunny

Movie Connections:

Followed by "Mezzo DSA" (2003)

Girls, Guns, Sex and Violence....everything a growing boy needs.

I've been hearing lots and lots of talk about this OAV for a while now and I've been trying like hell to find it. I eventually managed to download it completely uncut (in Japanese) which is the way to see it. It does not disappoint.

In the tradition of live-action films such as Baise Moi, Mezzo infuses graphic sexual content (i.e. penetration) in its run, which is why this film has garnered lots of buzz in the anime circles. Now, it could have done without the sex scenes but it doesn't make it any worse. The action is plentiful and crazy with cute chic Mikura blasting bad guys with the ferocity and gracefulness of Chow Yun-Fat. Momoni adds an interesting balance between her psychotic, sadistic, rage-induced violent tendencies and Mikura's reactive, poetic destructiveness. In the end this is a bloody, sex-filled romp through familiar territory but with enough humor and explosions to make it interesting.