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I do have to say that I can’t blame him for having distaste for it though, and after sitting through the second volume of Cyberteam in Akihabara, I found myself more than just a little annoyed and my intelligence quite insulted. I did watch some of the first volume, so I’m fairly familiar with the overall plot, and this volume continues on with a few of the themes, one of the main ones being Hibari and her fantasy quest of finding the man of her dreams, or her prince. This is brought into the series far too much in my opinion, and she is constantly trying to find this elusive bit of boyfriend royalty. This leads to some episodes that are just ridiculous. A perfect example is in the first episode on the disc where she’s decided to make curry for the prince, but the girls’ nemeses arrive to steal their food and will only give it back in exchange for their precious Pata-pi. As you can guess, they fall for the plot and in the meantime I’m simply thinking they should just cook some more. There are a few points I can give the series though, and that is that while Hibari, Tsugumi, and Suzume, or as they are collectively know, Cyberteam in Akihabara, have special powers thanks to their Pata-pi, they have no clue how to use them. So, that means we need to bring in a new character, Kamome Sengakuji, who happens to know what they can do and eventually joins their little clique, even taking time to try and teach them how to transform. One new character simply isn’t good enough though, and yet another is added into the mix, Uzura Kitaurawa, and she has a slight crush on Hibari. As if the constant references to body functions and breast sizes weren’t enough, having a bit of girl-girl action is placed in just to top it off, but it’s not what you’re thinking. It’s all harmless and it’s not going to turn the series into some sort of hentai series, though that might be a step in the right direction. The extras that are included with this volume of Cyberteam feel as though they were included more of the fans of dubbed animation. There are outtakes from the English ADR Sessions, and I suppose for some there may be humor here, but I have to admit that I was relatively unimpressed, and I’m not really sure how many different ways to talk about bowel movements we really need included here, though I didn’t here “had a case of the green apple splatters” included. There is also voice actor commentary, and as you probably guessed, that is from the English cast. You will also find the required clean opening and closing animations included as well. I know that there are definitely people out there that, for whatever reason, find this series appealing, and that’s quite obvious from the review quotes included on the back packaging, but I can’t say that I’m one that falls into this category. Instead, I found Cyberteam in Akihabara one of those series that ended up being a cure for insomnia. After just two episodes I was actually compelled to sleep for a while before trying to tackle the final three episodes on the disc. This is one of the down sides of the magic girl genre and I don’t expect to see many improvements from the cookie cutter storylines that are part of the series. Episode 6 – The White Prince Hibari has decided that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, so she’s going to make curry for her “Prince” and Suzume and Tsugumi have agreed to help, even though they aren’t getting along. Little do the girls realize that Falcon, Crow, and Pigeon have hatched a plan to steal the finished food and demand their Pata-pi for its safe return. Episode 7 – Billiken A new student, Kamome Sengakuji, transfers to school, and she knows quite a bit about Hibari and her friends, a little too much in fact. Not only does she have all of their vital statistics memorized, she even knows about their group and what they can do. Even though they deny it, Kamome is insistent, and her moment to show what she can do comes soon enough when Blood Falcon arrives on the scene. Episode 8 – The Fifth One A mysterious message shows up for Hibari and she’s convinced that it’s a message from her beloved prince. As usual though, she’s wrong . . . dead wrong. Her “prince” winds up being Uzura Kitaurawa, and she seems to be a little smitten with Hibari. In order to try and give her a gentle brush off the girls come up with a plan and a disguised Tsugumi poses as her boyfriend, but things begin to go horribly wrong. Episode 9 – Hot Springs Even the bad guys . . . err . . . girls, need a little time off from being evil. So Jun, Miyama, and Hatoko all take a trip to a hot springs, and their intentions were to go alone, but when the three bump into each other on the bullet train, they discover each is going to the same location. Then they discover that there is only one room and they are forced to share, once again leading to some ill feelings, fighting, and arguments. Episode 10 – Showdown in Akihabara Since the other girls aren’t quite sure how they get their Pata-pi’s to transform, Kamome has decided that she’s going to teach them how to do it. The training isn’t nearly as easy as she’s hoped for and things get even worse when they run into Falcon, Crow, and Pigeon once again and with Kamome fighting alone, it looks like it might be the end of the Cyberteam.
-mike-
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