Omg, haha, lost all my copies of the various Female Combatant vids during a HDD migration (at least the new SSD is stupid-fast to make up for the loss ;D).
I needed to share this misery with people who'd know the emptiness that comes with not being able to see adorable asian women in leotards getting clobbered en masse!
Been there. However, if you purchased the Combatants movies from GIGA or Zen Pictures, you should be able to re-download them when you log in to the account you used to purchase them in the first place. It's what I did last year when I got a new computer.
Heather Locklear defeats three zako in sexy martial arts action! Short clip from TV show where Heather's character was an actress in some fictional movie...so wish there was more to this scene as it had a lot of potential for more!
Liking the outfits there. Plus there seems to be a plethora of Agent Aika/Najica Blitzesque gratuitous panty shots.
Excellent
FYI - Rayheng has uploaded this to the Akiba Online site. Get it quickly before it goes offline - these things go down quicker than most of the henchwomen in these films, and it is a real pain to get them to upload them again.
Also, my god, one of the actresses is clearly anorexic or at the very least hypoglycemic. 3rd from the right--the first one has a bad case of creeping bush in this scene that shows not everyone can pull off a leotard. I mean, I realize that's rude, but it also put a major damper on my interest in this video.
She lifts her arm in the second pic here, and the cuff she's wearing falls down to her elbow because her arm is like... a twig.
That aside, here're my actual thoughts on part 1 as a whole (first 30 minutes)
Movie opens with the obligatory "capture" scenes, with girls off the street being kidnapped by the henchwomen. I've always typically skipped these parts, since my primary interest are the fights... so I mean, I skipped this part.
While skimming, it seemed to have all the hallmarks of these parts of every female combatant movie. Various methods of mind control involving make-up for some reason. Girl gets lipstick put on her and she immediately grows mascara around her eyes and acts dazed before being carried off, etc.
This lasts about 10 minutes, then the first fight crops up. First wave of girls are wearing the leotards from above, then they go right to the skirted uniforms.
The action is a little stilted. Actresses clearly cushion their falls which takes away from the fighting. I mean, yeah, obviously they're going to cushion their falls, but they're OBVIOUSLY cushioning their falls. They stumble, the arms go down, they sorta fall into a sitting position, then lay out; Twiggy is the exception, as she seems to remain sitting up after getting knocked to the ground. When she does go down, it's really slowly and awkwardly.
The videos strength (I'm only 15 minutes in, sorta writing this as I go, so that may change) seems to be in the backgrounds. Girls are on the ground throughout most of the fighting, and the video does a pretty good job of flowing as more bodies pile up.
This scene sends several girls to the floor to add to a few bodies that were already there. No break in the scene to show more going down, so it adds a nice flow to the fight. Unfortunately because it's such an enclosed set at this point, it has the problem of bodies disappearing without the setting changing. Open fields and large areas allowed the action to move to a new location, this keeps it in the same 20 - 30 feet for the first fight.
Interestingly, they've taken a different approach with the downed girls. Some of them seem to linger in a half-KO'ed state. They don't go down and stay down, or twitch or writhe, they'll remain sitting up kinda dazed. The girl sitting against the wall in the back is an example of this. After about 10 seconds though, she goes down. Also please note in Pic #1, giant ass-seam on the pantyhose; damn you, costume guy! That'd have been an awesome panty-shot otherwise.
Anyway, typical fight ensues. It lasts about... 5 minutes, then they make their escape and it does the pan over the defeated girls laying about. Lots of (ruined) panty shots, and at least one semi-decent 2 girl bodypile, but the video is starting to show its lack of quality (at least relative to the other Female Combatant videos). It cycles through several different arrays of the girls gasping and moaning on the ground... but of course since it's on that stage, the effect gets kind of cheesy because each new array means the old array disappears... despite them all being in the same place.
Jumps back to the evil HQ where the captured girls get gassed. Lots of talking that I don't understand, I'm sure it's riveting though.
Then more fighting! (At the 23 minute mark now) ... well, after about 20 seconds of running down stairs.
The fight lasted about... 45 seconds. She literally just grabs each one in turn and sends them reeling with one punch. It immediately does a "defeated" pan then goes back to the HQ. Pic #3 here is a bit of a "Come ooooon" for me. Who falls like that?
HQ scene involves the unconscious girls laying on a table in nothing but their panties being fed commands via. headsets. More mind control.
END OF PART 1
Overall: This is trash, pure and simple. I'm really disappointed. A few of the girls are pretty cute, but out of the 7 of them, I'd say maybe... 2 are worth looking at. Twiggy is just an immediate fail for this film as the actress kills any trace of sexiness each time she shows up; I honestly hope someone is getting her some help of some kind, she doesn't look remotely healthy. The fights are boring, way too much focus on the capture/mind control in this part, and the reactions of the girls to being hit/KO'ed are just atrocious.
The one thing I will say is I like the outfits (minus the pantyhose). If they'd gone with a thigh-high stocking of some kind, but left the thighs bare and the panties unmarred by seams, they'd be way better. Part 2 promises something similar but with mini-skirts & croptops (bare midriffs). Now if only they'd use them in a video that wasn't dismal.
I'll download part 2 just out of curiosity; maybe it'll get better.
Also, my god, one of the actresses is clearly anorexic or at the very least hypoglycemic. 3rd from the right--the first one has a bad case of creeping bush in this scene that shows not everyone can pull off a leotard. I mean, I realize that's rude, but it also put a major damper on my interest in this video.
I agree, that one girl's body type is quite a distraction for me, and is one of the reasons I'm holding off for the moment (the outfits aren't very appealing to me as well). Based on preview pics, it seems they kept her in the background most of the time anyway, but still...
I won't lie, I pirated this one because it seemed to have such a high chance of sucking. I'm glad I did; if I'd spent the kind of money Giga is asking for, I'd be downright pissed.
i'm always upset that the only movies from these companies that have zako are ones in which they lose horribly. dudes beating up on the heroine doesn't work for me most the time because they use people who look like wrestlers and it looks so hilariously fake it's unbelievable, though i guess the japanese companies tend to use more normal looking guys. also yeah, that chick looks like a damned skeleton.
Also, my god, one of the actresses is clearly anorexic or at the very least hypoglycemic. 3rd from the right--the first one has a bad case of creeping bush in this scene that shows not everyone can pull off a leotard. I mean, I realize that's rude, but it also put a major damper on my interest in this video.
This is really worrying for me too. That looks downright dangerous, I hope she's OK.
Thanks for the write up, you never know what you're gonna get with this stuff. The kidnapping and brainwashing is something I always wondered if I was just missing the context as to why they love to put it in these videos. Was it a plot point in the masked hero shows? The company seems to be built around cashing in fetishes borne of those.
Also this pseudo Aika panty-shots make me wonder why they didn't do one of these things with full on(knockoff) delmo wear.
18 minutes in before there's any hint of action. Up until then it's more brainwashing stuff, including them getting dressed in the uniforms and applying make-up. If you're into this aspect of these videos, you're in luck I suppose. In regards to your question, Weoooo, I think it's just an aspect of the whole henchwoman thing. Mind Control seems to go hand in hand with disposable henchwomen in a lot of people's interests. It might also be a cultural thing for the Japanese.
Pink ranger takes out a pair of sentries at the 17-18 minute mark (48 minute mark or so if viewing the film as a whole), spends more time dragging a body away than she did actually fighting, before stripping her down to take her uniform as a disguise. The disguise lasts a few minutes before she transforms into the Pink Ranger again and interrupts a new batch of girls as they're getting dressed.
Standard grab & punch fight scene, a judo chop to Twiggy, nothing special or particularly interesting... until a few minutes in. Oddly, a few hits break the brainwashing and the half-naked girls are left confused and pleading... Pink Ranger seems just as confused by this, but still goes along with beating the tar out of the crying terrified women. Another female Ranger shows up in a mask & pink leotard mid-fight theeeeen, the download craps out and I lose the last 10 minutes.
As an addendum to my last post about part 1: Turns out the reason its crapping out at the end is because of the way the files were .rar'ed. It automatically looks for the next .rar file in the full sequence, and if it isn't there it cancels early. So that's why I'm losing 10 minutes or so at the end of each video.
The last 10 minutes of part 1 involves the villain spewing dissolving foam on the bare midriff'ed minions I mentioned. Pretty much what you'd expect to happen, except the effect is really poorly done compared to past videos with dissolving. Girls writhe in the foam for a bit then fade out, clothes and all. Obvious scene cut, then the clothes are back and just tossed about loosely.
She does this to several of the girls, including Twiggy, before the video ends.
Paid for this (ouch!). Must agree, very disappointing. Didn't mind Twiggy too much, but two of the other ladies were a bit fat for this sort of thing too. Agree the ladies let themselves down gently in the fights, but if you put the fights on a concrete stage what can you expect? Looking over the collection it is clear that you get a better show on sand, grass or something else offering hope of a soft landing. Don't know why producers haven't noticed this. Some kind of grey mat on the floor of the studio would be a good investment.
Irritating to see a certain carelessness creeping in the editing, espec in Part 2. God knows we don't want realism but the film needs to be consistent on its own terms. One scene appears twice, one fight starts with two "corpses" already on the ground - another has two "deaths" but three victims afterwards. Two clips seem to have wandered in from another movie and needed the colour sorting out. I'm afraid I got the overall impression that the guy who gets the credit (same one who did Bolero/Tango) wasn't trying very hard this time.
Compensations? Bit more nudity than usual. Pretty girls. The making of/out-take reels are fun.
I know that if some of us don't pay for these they won't make any more, but I think people who picked the pirated version made a good decision this time.
Honestly, I realize this isn't a complete justification for pirating, but movies aren't like most products.
When I drop $50 for a pair of headphones, I know what to expect. I'll plug them in, music will come out. I can get a decent idea of the quality based on the brand and hardware specifications.
With a movie though everything's an unknown. You're basically paying $50 for the hope that the advertising isn't outright lying to you. How many movies have you seen where they'll advertise it as something, you pay to go see it, and then it's something completely different than what they said it'd be? Imagine if you bought studio headphones in an opaque package, got home, opened it, and they were actually earbuds that are way too small for you? You'd be mad, right? Now make the possibilities for what's actually in the package when you open it a nearly infinite number of options, and you've got a fetish video.
I mean damn, how many times have I been burned by paying up front, only to find that toy gun shootout vid is primarily body manipulation, or is 3/4 sex scene.
I pirate something, and if it's good, I buy it. This movie is a perfect example of whats led me to this train of thought. I wouldn't pay $50 for a mystery product, so I don't pay $50 for a video that can turn out to be this awful. Like any business, they have to earn my money with quality, not by tricking me into buying it without any idea what I'm actually in for.
Again, lots of people disagree with me on this, but in my mind it's a fair expectation that I should be able to know exactly what I'm paying for before I fork over a bunch of nonrefundable cash.
So I went ahead and purchased "Deniel", and I know, but I feel like supporting these guys is the only way they'll keep making these movies. However, this one is one of the worst ones I've seen, while having some things I like as well. I like when the Pink Ranger makes a big body pile in the zako's dressing room, and the part where she infiltrate's the villain's base at night and takes out some zako in stealth fashion. I like the version of the new costume with the panty hose and boots. I also like that the girls were not wearing gloves, as I hate gloves and would rather see the girl's pretty hands. However, the bunny outfits were terrible, and the regular outfit with bare legs and shoes was not very appealing, especially with such average looking girls.
First off, Whoever edited this (did the director have a part in this?) did a lousy job. Random cuts, sequences out of order or plain missing, or the really awkward part in "Deniel" where the Pink Ranger fights the henchwomen on the staircase, though they're at the bottom of the steps, suddenly there's a bunch of defeated zako all over the staircase. Another issue with this director is he almost always has the girls squirming on the ground.
It's not all the director's fault... The girls chosen for this movie are not very good. I recognize a couple from older movies (I think), but the others' looks and acting (fighting) abilities leave much to be desired. Some look at the camera often, some don't knwo what to do when they are defeated, they just kind of sit there most of the time. Some are also not very hot, and then there is that one girl...
I agree with what everyone said, that one girl who is very, very skinny is distracting, and essentially ruins every scene she's in. The scenes I like pretty much do not feature her. What really annoys me, is that this movie featured a lot of defeated henchwomen in the background while the action continued around them, which is an element I LOVE, but the really skinny girl is almost always there and is just *instant turn off* for me.
The director of this one also directed Bolero and Platinum Tango, both of which are not my favorites either. Bolero was a step in the right direction when it came out, as it was the first Female Combatants movie in years, and it was fresh, new outfits, different scenarios. In retrospect, later movie were better, like Bolero 2, Bandobure 2, the Death March movies, etc... I didn't like Platinum Tango at first, coming after the great ones like Bandobure 2 and the Death March movies, though I warmed up to many scenes, most of it was worthless for me, the director had too many elements I didn't like, or things I like he didn't exploit enough of. I don't remember who directed Bandobure 3, the one with the school students, but that one was garbage.
I think the best FC movies since the re-launch are Bandobure 2, Death March Part 1. They should get the directors for those back.
The director of Bolero, Plantinum Tango and this new "Deniel" always has things that I really don't like or make me very frustrated, this includes the older movies before the 2012 re-launch. I will not support his version of Female Combatants movies any more, unless he changes up his style (which I doubt he will).
Please GIGA/Zen Picures, have other directors make the Female Combatants movies!!!
I agree with most comments here: the low quality of the latest movie and all... specially about the anorexic girl! God I was afraid she'd shatter a bone every time she was in a scene!
I reckon it may sound awkward in this kind of scenario! We enjoy watching scores of female soldiers getting mercilessly slaughtered by pretty much everyone, heroes and villains! One thing is fiction another thing is real life.
I noticed a detail nobody has mentioned here: they have tried something almost never seen before apart from one brief instance in the Tango movie. They added digital blood in 3 brief sequences:
This adds a lot to "realism" in my opinion, and I wish they'd do it more often!
Here's that one scene in Tango where the (digital) blood of a very pretty Zako is mercilessly spilled:
There is some good here and there in Deniel too: they tried to come up with new forms of death to inflict upon the hapless Zako, actually: garotting, break their spines against logs, being thrown off cliffs... and so on.
At least they don't keep cloning the same situations, like the almost universally hated rape/massacre scene by a grotesque evil moster!
A boss disciplining her troops when they fail is okay... but those mass murder scenes were plain laughable!
By the way... one thing I loved in the Tango movie was the Bee-boss scenes! After a failure the new commander orders her troops to take her out. They bravely attack but the Bee-boss responds shooting poisoned darts from her breasts. In a matter of seconds 2 dozens of combatants are stopped in their track and lie twitching on the ground. Once more the price of a the struggle for power within the evil organization is paid with the lives of the expendable Female Combatants.
The Bee-boss survives but is again attacked: she decides to blow herself up when surrounded, thus taking with her in death 8 more Zako of the rival faction!
The same fate awaits the new boss, though... after her strategy fails too, she is chased by a group of combatants, and after having effortlessly butchered a large number of them, she only succumbs to a kamikaze attack, I which she and nearly a dozen of attackers blow up in flames.
Back to topic... AmazonShark bought Deniel to support the future production of these movies. I partly disagree: I pirated this one... like all the others. Then I bought the few I deemed worth the price only! Just buying them all regardless of their quality conveys a false message to Giga and Zen: that we're ready to purchase pretty much anything... garbage included.
If we only buy the good ones, they'd hopefully take the hint and start making less... but good movies only!
I agree that buying every movie sends the wrong message, but up until Platinum Tango, GIGA/Zen Pictures track record was pretty good. The last 3 movies (Tango, Bandobure 3, and Deniel) are some of the worst and most frustrating to watch, though Tango has many redeeming qualities that make up for it, but I enjoyed the bonus outtakes/alternate angles stuff more enjoyable than the actual movie itself. And I alo had a problem with them featuring very little action with the girls in the full body suit costumes.
I'm definitely going to be more cautious with these Female Combatant movies.
Do they not know that we're all pretty much in it for the fights? Not sure what anyone else here or similar forums likes about these movies. All those other elements with monsters, rape scenes, etc I can do without.
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This scene sends several girls to the floor to add to a few bodies that were already there. No break in the scene to show more going down, so it adds a nice flow to the fight. Unfortunately because it's such an enclosed set at this point, it has the problem of bodies disappearing without the setting changing. Open fields and large areas allowed the action to move to a new location, this keeps it in the same 20 - 30 feet for the first fight.
Interestingly, they've taken a different approach with the downed girls. Some of them seem to linger in a half-KO'ed state. They don't go down and stay down, or twitch or writhe, they'll remain sitting up kinda dazed. The girl sitting against the wall in the back is an example of this. After about 10 seconds though, she goes down. Also please note in Pic #1, giant ass-seam on the pantyhose; damn you, costume guy! That'd have been an awesome panty-shot otherwise.
The fight lasted about... 45 seconds. She literally just grabs each one in turn and sends them reeling with one punch. It immediately does a "defeated" pan then goes back to the HQ. Pic #3 here is a bit of a "Come ooooon" for me. Who falls like that?
