009-1 Weird Look, but I Like It

As far as current style goes, 009-1 has a unique look to the character designs which acts as both blessing and curse. It’s a new show that looks old, so to many fans that makes 009-1 a fugly show. Fugly hurts when the sex appeal of the lead, Mylene Hoffman who comes from the curvaceous school of character design, is supposed to sell the show. On the other hand, the retro look adds a lot to the mood of 009-1, if 60’s spy movies and tv shows have ever been part of your viewing pleasure. After a few minutes I got to liking the art direction and character design quite a bit, but even though I know and get that Mylene is sexy, she doesn’t turn me on. That’s actually OK though.

The short of it is, in the futuristic world of 009-1 a cold war is fought between the East block and West block. Spies are the soldiers in this battle and 009-1 is the sexy cyborg Mylene Hoffman, the best of the West.

I’m a fan of girls with guns, but I’m aware that many shows in the genre aren’t very good, so I really don’t hold these types of shows to rigorous standards of intellectual discourse. Basically, if the action is slick, the stories flow, and I get a butt shot here and there I’m happy. 009-1 gives that and more. The first volume serves up four self-contained stories, doesn’t get bogged down in pretending to be sophisticated, and serves up some mood in passing that lets me know a little bit about Mylene without beating me over the head with a clumsy character development stick. I suspect that much of her character will be left for the viewer to form.

What I enjoyed the most was the animation direction, the way it cuts from one key image to the next, and the interesting and fluid ways it transitions from one scene to another. From a storytelling perspective it’s some of the best animation direction I’ve seen in a TV anime.

In addition to the sequence direction, I thought the animation of the character movements were a definite cut above most TV animation in terms of the physical motions of the characters themselves. Many shows rely on using tricks to cover for some pretty static character animation during physical scenes and we get some of that here too, but 009-1 has active character animation that really sells the action. The series director, animation director, and storyboard artist Naoyuki Konno shows his brilliance with visually presenting this material and does it on a TV budget.

English Dub Notes

Based on the design direction of 009-1, I expected the dub to go a little campy and it does well with it for the most part. While a little different, the English dub feels like it follows the intentions set by the Japanese dub, but doesn’t get tripped up trying to emulate it either.

Alice Fulks rocks as Mylene. She makes Mylene sound like she’s in control of herself, but with a tinge of melancholy that I find appealing in the portrayal. The guy who plays Zero Zero, her weird looking boss, amuses me too. One good surprise for me is I can usually pick out Vic Mignona right away, but it took me a bit to realize he was The Egg, so that brought a smile to my face.

Parting Shot

The first volume of 009-1 turned out to be a lot more fun and a better show than I thought it would be. People allergic to episodic shows and the retro looks might not find much appeal here though. So far 009-1 looks like it’s worth dumping in a Netflix queue if spy stuff or girls with guns is something you like to watch.