Summary: >

It can be tough to hire people for dangerous jobs, but the DSA (Danger Service Agency) not only specializes in such tasks, they actually enjoy them. Mikura: the martial arts, gun expert. Harada: the technical guru. Kurokawa: the seasoned veteran ex-cop. Together they've got a team which can tackle just about anything. Got aliens chasing you? No problem. Ghosts bent on revenge? Got it covered. Corrupt law enforcement? When it's the mayor of the city we're talking about, that can be a tough one even for the DSA.

Thoughts: >

Beginning with Kite, every anime I've seen made by Yasoumi Umetsu has been a blunder. Mezzo DSA however isn't a disaster like his other works, but it's not something I'd go out of my way to see either. There are a lot of problems but at the core I think the problem comes down to the characters are very shallow. Mikura, Harada and Kurokawa form a sort of high tech anime A-Team. There really isn't much personality to any of them, and their interactions don't seem to go anywhere. They exist and play their part in action based plots. That's all they ever really do.

Stories aren't absent in Mezzo, they're just predictable and poorly thought out. The topics are a bit over the top too. Ranging from androids, to aliens to ghosts - all taken separately that's fine, but it felt like this anime didn't know what to focus on. Having a story based around action is fine for a movie if done correctly, but for a 13 episode series it struggles to keep your attention without more glue. So if the characters and story aren't engaging, what is there?

Well there is the action. It's over the top in the style of most anime Yasuomi Umetsu makes, and like anime he's directed it's pretty damn cool in parts. Most surprising is that even though this is on a TV budget, the animation is good in select parts although it's more often choppy and not that great. If you're looking for action and don't care about other deficiencies this title may actually be a good fit for you.

Personally I couldn't get into Mezzo DSA. I'm particular about a strong story and / or characters but this title failed to deliver on either. There were a few points where the story looked like it was going to improve, and a few high quality action sequences, but they were few and far between. Way too much fluff, not enough substance.