Virus Buster Serge

Summary: >

The year is 2027. The place: Neo Hong Kong. Technology has advanced over the years, but mankind has encountered a new menace known as Virus. Virus can take control of machines, which must be destroyed after corruption due to the dangers they pose. STAND is an organization formed to combat Virus, and the battles have been at a stalemate as of late. Now as Virus begins to take over humans as well as machines, even STAND may be out of their league.

The key to destroying Virus is a man known as Serge. He doesn't remember his past, and doesn't know what Virus is. His past will reveal the truth behind Virus, but will anyone be able to stop it?

Thoughts: >

When cleaning up old reviews, I came across a partial review of Virus Buster Serge. At the time it was only available as a fansub, and I had only gotten through the first episode. My basic reaction was "uhhh, ok" and I never thought about it again. Coming across it again, I figured I'd give it a go. Sadly it looks like I wasn't missing anything. This show is a serious dud.

It's hard to make out what in the hell is going on in Virus Buster Serge. Not because it's complex, but because it's overly brooding and mysterious for the sake of being brooding and mysterious. Mysteries are only good if you care enough to be curious about what's behind them. This anime has completely missed that. Without a hook that gets a person into a show, it instead feels like a disjointed mess. Maybe there was that hook in the show, but I wasn't feeling it.

The big disconnect begins with the characters. They're typical for a 90s action anime. I'm forgiving in that area, but can't say I even like any single feature of the cast. None of the character back stories are compelling enough to flesh them out either. Somewhere in this mix between uninspired characters, and puzzling story, are the power suits that imbue people with super powers. It's like Virus Buster Serge took a bunch of dated anime concepts and tried to make something new but failed to pull it off. Then realizing the plot is crap, tries to hide the fact by only showing you parts of the story, so hopefully your imagination fills in the blanks with something better - which might have worked if I cared.

Virus Buster Serge is budgeted even by 1990s standards. The dub is a big failure, but considering the vintage that's expected. Poor character designs, so-so animation, unremarkable music... yeah, there isn't much to Virus Buster Serge. Why I decided to rate this at the bottom came to a very basic question: What did I like about Virus Buster Serge? I couldn't name a single thing. My lowest rating is harsh considering it's not deliberately so bad I hated it, but I think justified when I can't think of why I'd recommend it to anyone.

Screen Caps: >