yo, Anice and Chuck are the last of the Borgmen line, the only three cyborgs on Earth. Most of the scientists that created them are dead, and the three Borgmen themselves keep low profiles and live ordinary lives. They're so ordinary that their worst problem seems to be Ryo and Anice's relationship, and the question of whose career should come first.
When Anice quits her unfulfilling job as a NASA cook and stomps off to Japan for a professional position with the Tokyo Redevelopment Project, Ryo is quick to follow. This puts all three cyborgs conveniently near a series of nasty accidents involving mysterious people who knock down buildings and crawl out of the wreckage unhurt. The newcomers are apparently cyborgs too, which should be impossible. Of course, "almost all the Borgman Project team members are dead" means at least one of them is still alive ...
As it happens, a Borgman project protege is not only still breathing, but has set up his own lab in the government's critical "Heaven's Gate" compound, complete with superhuman henchmen, a stable of killer cyborg "mistakes," and a gigantic ultra-cyborg slaughter machine. He's even got the three things a mad scientist most needs: a mouthful of vague rhetoric about human weakness, a diabolical plan for world domination, and an evil laugh. None of this is new, but it certainly does look like a big messy mecha fight just waiting to happen.
I think I'm missing something here...
Final Battle is actually an original video animation follow-up to the Sonic Soldier Borgman television show, which A.D. Vision doesn't plan to release and doesn't mention on Final's packaging. This is an odd departure for ADV, which usually excels in its completeness. (In fact, the best thing that can be said about Final Battle is that its translation is meticulously complete--even the background music is subtitled, even when there's dialogue over it.)
But the lack of background (at least, for anyone not capable of getting their hands on the rare fansubs of the original series) makes Final Battle nearly intolerable to watch as a stand-alone. There's a lot of slow buildup and random action, but without any antecedents, the hurried events lack any sense of detail or personality to give them meaning. The flashback footage is confusing, the constant references to characters gone by is frustrating, and the existing characters seem underdeveloped to the point of two-dimensionality.
Admittedly, a basic background in Borgmen won't help much. Even knowing the backstory in detail doesn't prevent Final Battle from being a rather rushed production that lingers oddly on tiny details, like Special Investigator Miki Katsura's knowledge of Chinese food, while completely skipping major points, such as the fate of the rogue cyborg whose clumsy attempts to escape originally draw the Borgmen's attention. There's a great deal missing here, and what's left just doesn't begin to add up.
