The Genre: sci-fi

The Format: 4*30 minute OAV episodes collected on 1 DVD, released by ADV

The plot: Well, there are SWAT teams and then again, there are SWAT teams. High-tech crime is running rampant in Tokyo but a special S.W.A.T unit 'Warrior' is ready to hit the streets!

When a group of terrorists take over a luxury hotel and it's up to Special Weapons And Tactics Team Warrior to get the hostages out alive. Of course, the first step in handling terrorists is to lull them into believing that they're the ones in control of the situation, and if that means granting a FEW unreasonable demands, well that's a small price to pay, right? At least that's what Warrior Team member Rio keeps telling herself as she prepares to make the world's highest nude bungee jump.

The battle for the streets of Tokyo is about to begin!

Burn Up W is a sequel (of sorts) to Burn Up.

I say of sorts, because it’s only really a sequel in the way that Star Trek: The Next Generation is a sequel to Star Trek. The same basic premise is maintained of girls and guns, but the original characters have gone and a different tack is taken with the story.

Or at least, that’s what I thought, but as I was watching the DVDs something occurred to me – there is a Maki character in both Burn Up and Burn Up W and she’s voiced by the same voice actress (well on the Japanese side, at least). In the original Burn Up Maki is one of the girls who rescue her teammate from the slave traders.

The last notable addition to the formula is a more consistent bad guy. All four episodes are linked by some shady goings on in the background of the cases Warrior investigates. However, this is also where the whole thing falls apart.

The idea, presumably, was that these goings on would eventually be joined together with an end that saw the secrets being properly revealed and the bad guys beaten. However, what actually happens is that the end sort of fizzles put and you are left with a distinct feeling of “huh?”

You get to the end of the last episode and they’ve not really beaten the bad guys properly and the end sort of feels like there would be a “next time on Burn Up W”, but this never happens. It ends and that’s apparently all there is.

This makes the whole experience a very un-satisfying one, as whilst the individual episodes are reasonable enough the common plot that runs through is very un-satisfactory. Something else that’s a let down is the animation.

Animation in the original Burn Up was quite poor too, although this was perhaps more a reflection of the standards at the time than of the anime itself. However, Burn Up W comes across as being cheaply animated. Now considering this was a multi-part OAV release in Japan, this is a little unusual.

Normally, OAVs have a much higher standard of animation, because they’re shorter and so the budget is less thinly spread. But here, this doesn’t seem to have been the case, with a lot of quite frankly poor animation.

But as I say, it’s not all bad. There are more characters, including a male character who provides some interesting humour. You’ve also got some quite nicely done supporting characters, villains and damsels in distress.

I’m therefore torn between recommending Burn Up W or not. I kinda like it, despite all of the quirks mentioned above and overall I’m something of a completist. I like to have all of the parts of something and see them in context before I’m properly happy.

Also, it’s all collected on the one DVD it represents quite good value for money. The dub is also quite passable, unlike for the original Burn Up, and the sound track is better, although still not great.

I’d therefore say if you’re a completist or you’re big on your fan-service, you might want to check this out, and it’s certainly better than Burn UP. However, it’s not that much better and you shouldn’t be that impressed.

The Summary: Poor animation and a somewhat stilted and broken plot hamper what is an otherwise promising show.

The Score: 3/5