Master of Martial Hearts

Oodles of sex and violence are served up with no particular style in this anime focusing on high school student Aya, who stumbles upon a bizarre all-female martial arts tournament and—after discovering that she has significant skills in the sport—joins the competition. The winner of each duel receives a special jewel that magically grants wishes (the “Martial Heart” in the English-dubbed version and the “Platonic Heart” in the Japanese-language/English-subtitled version), while the loser receives an unpleasant consolation prize. Based on a popular video game, Master of Martial Hearts weirdly presents its contenders in outfits related to various occupations, such as teachers, flight attendants, and nurses—although what they're wearing hardly matters, since the clothing is inevitably torn to shreds, leaving the fighters in various degrees of nudity. Overall, this often feels like a parody of anime's worst aspects (especially when the combatants are violently disrobed almost immediately in each contest), but given the total lack of humor, monotony of the fight sequences, and painfully dreary characters, what might have been a campy send-up generates yawns instead of giggles, so that even diehard anime addicts will have a hard time mustering up much enthusiasm for this short series. Compiling all five episodes from 2008 on a dual-language disc, rated TV-MA, DVD extras include video commentary with the Japanese voice cast. Not recommended. (P. Hall)