Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere: Complete Collection

Serving up a sensory assault featuring loads of characters and layers of mythology, this anime TV series combines high-tech “mecha” with retro-feudalism. After attaining near-godhood in science, selfish and warlike humankind backslid badly, ruining Earth's environment. A subsequent attempt at a giant do-over of all human history fell victim to subterfuge and power-grabs. Now, airborne armies—with contending powers including “England,” “The Spanish Armada,” and “The Catholic Church”—are poised for war against the “Far East,” aka Japan, which holds the last habitable part of the planet (and, in an echo of post-WWII, are denied their own weapons of mass destruction). Warrior-students in the sky-going school of Musashi embark on a quest to gather the Armor of Deadly Sins—super-weapons that will be the only defense against a prophesied doom. The pantheon of heroes and villains (of various species) include Tori Aoi, a cocky boy whose M.O. is to get naked at inappropriate moments and grab the breasts and buttocks of the many voluptuous females, some of whom are synthetic “dolls.” One such doll is Horizon, a recreation of the Far East's lost sovereign, who is liquidated in order to use her powers in the Armor of Deadly Sins. Um, there's also weaponized baseball. Although the action is less frenetic in later episodes, the series is overall top-heavy with fighting, rescues, and alliances, along with noise, cleavage, and incoherency. Extras include shorts in a mock classroom that try to explain what's going on (good luck with that). Compiling all 26 episodes from the 2011-12 first and second seasons in separate dual-language DVD and Blu-ray editions, rated TV-MA, this is not a necessary purchase. (C. Cassady)