n the city of Judoh, androids are forbidden—with one exception. The City Safety Management Agency's elite Special Unit has its own android, a gruff, hulking, steam-venting sentient machine called J. Actually, J practically is the Special Unit: The only other members are his partner, cocky 21-year-old hotshot Daisuke Aurora, and long-suffering, deskbound administrator Kyoko Milchan. The unit's mandate is to "investigate signs of possible future crimes" and head them off at the pass. For Daisuke, that mostly means refusing to fill out paperwork, wandering around the city getting hit on by women and abused by resentful police inspector Ken Edmundo, following up on any reports that actually strike him as interesting, and ultimately ending up in hot water, with J fortunately around to save the day.
Daisuke has a lot of power and freedom for such a young guy, as Edmundo rarely misses a chance to mention. This may have something to do with the fact that Daisuke's brother Shun (a near dead ringer for Hellsing's Sir Integra Hellsing) is the City Safety Management Agency's chief and the Special Unit's founder. It may also have something to do with the fact that Daisuke's random hunches always pay off.
Heat Guy J's first four-episode DVD opens with a literal bang, as deceased crime-family head Lorenzo Leonelli is put into the ground, and his rabidly insane 19-year-old son Clair almost joins him by setting off a hand grenade at the funeral. Clair's obviously well beyond unstable, but the city's mob bosses dutifully honor him as Leonelli's successor—at least until it becomes clear that he won't be easy to control. Then a mob war starts up, and Daisuke and J are forced to intervene directly.
In later episodes, Judoh also has to contend with a mad bomber and an escaped "werewolf," one of many convicted felons whose head was altered to make him look like an animal, so he would always regret his crimes. In each case, Daisuke and J are initially involved professionally, as police adjuncts, but the cases always seem to turn personal in the end.
Awkward meets awesome
Heat Guy J's worst problem is its preternaturally awkward exposition. From the characters who greet each other mockingly by name and title to make their identities clear, to the informative recap a group of killers deliver about the man they just murdered together ("The idiot begged us not to kill him." "He held onto that gold until he died."), to Daisuke's impromptu mini-treatises on such subjects as androids and petroleum, the series is full of frequent devolutions into unjustifiable dialogue aimed directly at the audience.
But as annoying as that gets, it seems like a relatively small price to pay for admission to a series this flashy and splashy. Heat Guy J's internal logic doesn't always add up, but the story stretches inevitably serve as setups to thrilling visuals. For instance, it's hard to believe that a city would expend public resources on converting prison lifers into horrifically intimidating, cool-looking mythical monsters, but the "werewolves" give these episodes some of their most memorable sequences. Then again, the whole series is animated in a complicated, deep-hued, gorgeously colored style. Heat Guy J is billed as coming "from the director and staff of Escaflowne: The Movie," and its pedigree shows through clearly in the impressive art, the big-eyed, soft-edged designs, and the breathtaking fight choreography. (Not to mention Clair, who seems to be a lost twin to Escaflowne's resident sadist crackpot, Dilandau.)
As to the characters themselves, Daisuke could probably use a good slap in the face, but fans of Cowboy Bebop's Spike Spiegel may appreciate him; he has the same overbearing, laid-back cool, and the same cocky belief that he's still winning, even when he's losing. J balances him nicely, with his graying-bear looks, impassive face and ascetic's philosophy. They don't exactly have chemistry, but they make appropriate foils, and they're each compelling in their own right. If they could just get over the need to converse about things they both already know, this would be a stellar series instead of just a standout.
The first volume of Heat Guy J is also available as part of a limited-edition box set; it comes with a "supplementals disc," which just contains the kind of stuff many other anime series include for free. The obligatory art gallery, trailers and textless opening and closing are nice, and there are some very short, cute live-action featurelets involving the voice cast goofing around, but nothing really unusual, or necessarily worth the extra $10.
— Tasha
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