Maze: Bakunetsu Jikuu

The story of a girl and a boy - sharing one body?! Immediately the plot to MAZE: Bakunetsu Jikuu (or The Mega-Burst Space) opens with pretty much no explanation, which often times is what drives people away from this amusing, quirky anime series; even rarer for them to want to pick up the original manga by Akahori Satoru. But if you can hold off your judgments and allow the story to unfold, you'll see everything falls into its proper place. In the end, Maze is a decently emotional and funny journey through some outrageous adventures, with some unique characters along for the ride!

In the beginning, Maze (voiced by Mitsuishi Kotono) is an ordinary school-going girl, who wakes up in her disheveled flat in an not-so-ordinary place - looking outside reveals that she is no longer in Tokyo, but smack dab in the middle of a jungle-like forest. With some pretty weird creatures floating about, to boot. Not only that, but she suddenly cannot remember anything about who she is, where she came from, or how on earth she ended up here. Can she even be sure that Maze is her real name...?

Her fearful panic-attack is interrupted by a persistant knocking on her door. Armed with a broken lamp, she admits her caller - to be immediately pounced to the ground by an overly estatic young girl, scantly clad in medieval-type garments. The girl rambles happily her thanks for being saved - and much to Maze's dire amazement, she learns her room fell from the sky and crushed a lot of demi-humans (creatures more ape than human) who had been hunting the girl - whose name is Mil Varna (voiced by Tange Sakura).

Disbelief turns to absolute horror when Mil drags her outside to show her the proof (yes, for those of you thinking along the lines of The Wizard of OZ - smushed feet, sans the horizontal-striped socks) Unfortunately Maze's disgusted screams alert more troll-like monsters to Mil's whereabouts, and the girls are forced to flee together.

Pursued by not only monsters, Maze is more flabberghasted to see huge, robot-like machines after them - like hunters on horseback, Mil tells her they are Demi-Armour, mecha that syncronize with their human counterpart inside. They are hunting for Mil - who happens to be the princess and only living survivor from a coup d'etat massacre on the capital city of the kingdom Bartonia; both her parents were killed when her uncle allowed the Jaina Holy Group into Bartonia's capital, Mahavarna. Jaina is a mysterious and powerful group out to purge the land of rebels not wishing to fall under the dictatorship of The Creator and their religion.

When Maze tries to get help from some normal humans - they turn out to be mercenaries, who try to kill Maze while taking Mil. Mil bravely goes with them in exchange for leaving her "big sister" be. This selfless act makes Maze emotional and angry, and suddenly she lashes out to protect Mil - with a brilliant burst of light, fire and MAGIC! Much to Mil and Maze's surprise, it appears Maze is a Form Master, someone who can use the magic of this strange world.

When the mercenaries syncronize with Demi-Armour and attack, Mil is inspired to bestow upon her newly found Form Master a family heritage, the legendary Rom-Armour, Dulgar. With a mythical chant, the entity syncronizes with both Mil and Maze, and Maze is stunned to come to inside the fleshy innards of the powerful, living mobile suit. And Mil is anxious for a fight!

However, Maze is absolutely NOT. In fact, she's terrified at not only the thought of conflicts, but the idea of her having to hurt someone else. Confused, Dulgar takes a bad beating with Maze and Mil inside, feeling the same painful onslaught. It looks like the end would come -

Until night falls.

And Onna-Maze (Female Maze) turns into Otoko-Maze (Male Maze), changing from that soft-spoken, kind-hearted, gentle girl, to a brazen, loud and randy man - who not only is looking for trouble, he's looking for "some adult fun". Otoko-Maze (voiced by Seki Tomokazu) can seriously kick butt, and unlike his female counterpart, he apparently understands how to manipulate Form against their attackers, even to cast the greatest spell, Maha Faia (Magic Fire). And ultimately he is the one to save the day.

Touched and baffled, Mil deems this extraordinary Form Master "oneniisama" - big sister-brother - since they are one in the same, two Maze's in one body, and falls obsessively in love with both. Despite her confusion of this world and her distaste for Otoko-Maze's lustful ways, Onna-Maze knows she must help Mil-chan reclaim her throne and overthrow the threat of Jaina and the Creator's iron grip on this world. If only to learn the truth about herself...

And so their journey begins, by day a caring girl, by night a brash, obnoxious boy. Even though you'll find there is much introduced that could be explained, I can't really say much else because it would inevitably spoil the plot. The 26-episode series may seem like a helter-skelter fantasy-adventure anime with no twists or turns, but you'd be mistaken with that surmise. From outlandish sub-plots (for instance, a time-travel jump that explains the whole idea of "The Mega-Burst Space" and the true form of the Demi-Armours) to the entire explanation of why there are TWO Mazes (which includes Onna-Maze getting her memory back and traveling BACK to her world) - there's a lot to follow along with! And the characters make it a blast!

From the creators of The Slayers, the animation style is bright and lively (and the boys are delicatably bishounen) and the characters are all zany and loveable (even the ones that show up, maintain a subplot, then disappear). Another plus: a GREAT seiyuu cast!!

Be forewarned that despite bright and bubbly appearances, it's not meant for little kids or those squeamish when it comes to sexual preferences and alternative "life-styles" - both the anime and the manga are full of light nudity and sexually explicit moments (though most of it is comical). While a touch more yuri (Onna-Maze has many a'lady admirer groping her, and the character Solude is out-and-out lesbian) there is a lot of yaoi hints floating about. And one must not forget the absolutely genki and adorable character Ranchiki - who has thrown many a fan for a loop in guessing his gender. Let me put your doubts to rest: he is a little BOY who is adoring of both the male characters Gold/Farmont (voiced by Miki Shinichirou) and Otoko-Maze. And of course, there is the villanious brothers Chic (voiced by Morikawa Toshiyuki) and Gorgeous (voiced by Okiayu Ryotarou) who serve The Creator and Jaina - these brothers have an obvious strong connection and deep-rooted love for each other that borders on slashy-yaoi.

The more mild mecha fans will probably appreciate the Armour in the show; though not as sophisticated as the mecha designs of Gundam and not as scientific as the Angels of Evangelion the Armour of Maze have interesting elements and designs (although I would say Maze is as much a mecha anime as CLAMP's Magic Knight Rayearth).

The music is also approperiate and enjoyable - the opening theme grows on you (and I particularly liked how they used it throughout the show to give dramatic "umph" to certain battle scenes) and the first ending theme "Junk Boy" makes you laugh (dancing chibi Chic and Gorgeous - kawaii!!).

There is also an OVA released, but it's absolutely pointless and tasteless - I'd recommend the series and manga, and stop there! So far I've only found that the drama CDs are worth buying for the character image songs. A short movie was also made, but that has never been released even in Japan; and if you can read Japanese, a series of novels were released to further explain the world Maze wakes up in, and the tragic and bold pasts of most of the main characters (which includes a yaoi-rape scene involving one of the baddie brothers).

Granted, Maze is not one of the best series you'll see. But if you're looking for something simply fun to watch and a mass of new characters to love, this is definitely a good title to try!