undreds of years ago, (in Genocyber1-3), a mad scientist tinkered
with the broken body of his daughter Diana and the broken mind of her
sister Elaine. When the two girls merged, they became the terrifyingly
powerful psychic/cybernetic monster Genocyber, potentially the only barrier
to a world moving hesitantly toward universal disarmament.
The barrier was apparently pretty significant. As Part 4 begins, most of
Earth has gone up in flames, and most of its major cities have been destroyed.
It's not clear whether the destruction was deliberate or if it sprang from
Genocyber's attempts to defend itself from humanity's constant attacks. It
certainly doesn't matter much to the world's few survivors.
To Diana and Elaine, it's all proof that their powers are too much for
Earth to live with. So they drop into a dormant sleep, hiding themselves
deep under what eventually becomes a new city: Ark De Grande, a savagely
policed oasis of civilization ruthlessly run by a violent and corrupt mayor
and his murderous lackeys. Ark De Grande's leaders slaughter anyone even
suspected of crime, but a rebellion springs up under the city, run by a
religious group that worships Genocyber as God and prophesies his
return.
None of this makes Ark De Grande a pleasant holiday spot. When naive
young lovers Ryu and Mel wander into town, they realize instantly that
they're out of their depth. But the big city is the only place to find
doctors capable of curing Mel's blindness, or earning enough money to pay for the
operation.
A slight family resemblance
Much of the above story is revealed only tangentially in this video, or explained far better
on the videotape sleeve than in the episodes themselves. Like
Genocyber 1-3, these installments are straightforward enough in the
material they do cover, but notably perplexing in what they leave out. None
of the hanging questions are answered; the elliptical, recondite
storytelling style just raises more questions. The 300-year gap between
story arcs certainly doesn't help; the setting, characters and mood are so
radically altered that Parts 4 and 5 seem only vaguely related to their
predecessors.
The animation has gone through significant changes as well. Although it
remains vivid, detailed and compelling, it's not nearly as protean. The
popping eyeballs and exploding brains that beset the earlier episodes are
almost gone, as are the unexpected and exciting leaps into computer
animation, raw pencil work, and other artistic vagaries. Though the
principal creators remain the same for all five installments, they evidently are
trying an entirely different experiment here than they were last time
out.
And the experiment does work, in part. It's frustrating to see how much
of the story is missing, or only vaguely implied, much as it's frustrating
to listen to the strident, stiff voiceovers on this new dubbed edition. But
the artfully abstract, grimly dystopian plot has an unusual cosmic feel, an
air of sweet, melancholy significance. It may be hard to pin down specific
meanings, but the emotional content comes through loud and clear.
