From Masami Yuuki (the creator of PATLABOR), with Designs by Yutaka Izubuchi (LODOSS WARS), and Design Assist by Takehiko Ito (creator of OUTLAW STAR), comes an unabashed parody of everything Japanese including super-hero anime, idol singers, sentai shows, and even those silly commercials for super powered sport drinks! Absolutely nothing is safe!

Let’s say that a group of hooded, power-suit-wearing ninjas lead by a crazy old man in a cloak is tearing up your city. Every time you try to fight them, your team is totally humiliated, entire city blocks end up demolished, and the city’s citizens just keep getting angrier. What can you possibly do? If you’re anything like Chief Hattori, you hold a pop idol contest! ...No, seriously!

Chief Hattori and his "special" task force are searching for that special someone who can really kick butt, and yet be so adorable that the public will instantly love her. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be having too much luck - until high schooler Maron Namikaze takes the stage. She’s cute, she’s sweet, and she just happens to be able to crush steel with her bare hands! Now Maron’s going to get her chance to be the idol she’s always wanted to be – all she has to do is stop a gang of ruthless thieves, and look good doing it!

DVD Features: Live Action Parody Commercial, Special Liner Note Booklet, Interactive Menus, Scene Access

Ever wondered what would happen if Britney Spears was sent to fight crime and terrorism? Neither did we until we saw Right Stuf’s Assemble Insert, an anime that we had no idea was going to be so short... but amusing at the same time.

Upon first receiving this, we weren’t sure what to expect, the front cover alone had “old school” anime written all over it. It turns out it wasn’t as old as we expected it to be, a quick search revealed it was released during 1998. The story starts off in Tokyo, were the police are having problems taking out mech wearing gangsters causing trouble like most criminals. However every time they move out to take them on, millions of dollars in damage is done, the bad guys get away and the cops have nothing but an embarrassment attached to their reputation. The solution to the problem? Find a pop idol that’s strong enough to bend steel with her bare hands and look cute at the same time. Sounds crazy? Well it’s not crazy, once you see her take on these guys.

Who am I kidding? This DVD has proven to be a real hilarious 60 minutes, in just about any way you can think of, from dialogue to action. Unfortunately that’s about all I can really talk about this, since it only consists of about two 30 minutes episodes. So things, by the time you get to the second half of the disk, kind of get repetitive. Jokes and witty comments at the start, then our idol Maron single handedly crushing a bunch of mechs. It’s a no wonder it was only two episodes. Oh yes, and we can’t forget about the Sports Drink commercials!

Being originally released in 1998, the video here shows its age, badly. With several distortions and just plain eye sore visuals through out the experience. Like I said before, this is an old anime, so that would come with the deal, sadly.

Well the audio surprisingly wasn’t all that bad, in its Dolby 2.0. Every thing plays somewhat clear, mostly from the center speaker. We took the time to watch this with both the English and Japanese tracks. The sound plays clearer on the Japanese side however. The voice acting was pretty great on both sides. I was particularly impressed with the English voice acting. Mind you the lip-sync was a bit off, and some of the voices does not quite match the characters. But a great performance none the less, it gave me several laughs.

One thing that was a bit of a disappointment when watching the Dub --Was the lack of a song title track for the songs done during the episodes. It would have been nice to have the lyrics displayed during those times, instead of having to switch them on, just to read them… and then to switch them off when it’s done.

Another disappointment on this disk was both the menus and extras. The menus were plain and lifeless with the exception of the music in the background.  Sure they give you everything you’d expect DVD menus to do… but they just lack that extra visually appealing factor. The Extras on the other hand, have no effort all over them. What we have is the Sports Drink commercial (Which you see during the feature anyways) DVD and English Credits… that’s it. Well there’s the Liner notes located in the insert. But outside of that, nothing else.

Once everything was said and done, Assemble Insert left us with an empty feeling. While the feature it’s self is funny, that’s about the only thing it’s got going for it. Unless you have a sudden need to watch something old, or were exposed to this back in the day, and want it on DVD now. You shouldn’t be tossing this into your the top priority list.