Imagine the 1984 Steve Martin–Lily Tomlin comedy All of Me reconfigured as a violent anime science-fiction series and you get Birdy the Mighty: Decode. Birdy is a gorgeous but emotionally volatile female special agent working for the Federation, an interplanetary crime fighting agency. While on a Tokyo-based pursuit of a wanted criminal, she winds up severing innocent high school student Tsutomu in half, and in order to preserve him—until a method can be determined to save his life—merges their bodies together. Needless to say, this odd couple have significantly different lifestyles, and much of the series' humor is based on the extreme measures both go through to keep their respective halves unaware of their shared-body crisis. Unfortunately, Birdy the Mighty exudes a dreadful sense of been-there/done-that, with Tsutomu serving as the typical dull anime teen who winds up in terrifying yet outlandish escapades, and Birdy coming across as the usual over-the-top crime-fighting vixen with a Russ Meyer–worthy anatomy and a personality that seems stuck in overdrive. Presenting all 13 episodes from 2008 in a dual-language, two-disc set, rated TV-14, this is not a necessary purchase. [Note: Birdy the Mighty: Decode, Part Two is also newly available.] (P. Hall)
Birdy the Mighty: Decode, Part One
(2008) 2 discs. 325 min. DVD: $67.99. Funimation (avail. from most distributors). ISBN: 1-4210-2030-0. Volume 26, Issue 3
Birdy the Mighty: Decode, Part One
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