Moldiver

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Moldiver
モルダイバー
(Morudaibā)
Genre Adventure, Comedy, Magical Girl, Mecha
OVA
Director Hirohide Fujiwara
Studio AIC
Pioneer LDC
Licensor Flag of Japan Pioneer LDC
Flag of the United States Flag of Canada Pioneer
Episodes 6
Released 1993

Moldiver (モルダイバー Morudaibā?) is a 6-episode 1993 OVA anime series. It is a parody of magical girl and superhero anime series.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The plot focuses on a young girl by the name of Mirai Ozora, living in Tokyo in the year 2045. Being obsessed with her hobbies of shopping and modeling, one would never expect her big brother Hiroshi to be a brilliant inventor for ZIC, a major technological corporation.

It all begins with Hiroshi's invention of the "Mol-Unit", a device capable of allowing an object to operate outside of the normal laws of physics. Flight, super-speed and strength, invulnerability, all capable through the Mol-Unit's power. The only catch, however, is that it can only stay active for a limited time, only 666 seconds (just over 11 minutes).

Such a device would have changed the world on a whole, but Hiroshi's motives for its invention are not so much for the world as it is for his own ego. Using the Mol-Unit and its power, Hiroshi develops a new superheroic personality for himself, Captain Tokyo.

After his initial debut, "Captain Tokyo" becomes a media sensation, and Hiroshi eats it up. However, things backfire when, out of curiosity, Mirai finds the Mol-Unit and tampers with the costume it generates, giving it a more feminine appearance. In doing so, the Mol-Unit malfunctions, causing the costume to randomly alter between Hiroshi's design and Mirai's. Upon realizing this, Hiroshi is forced to lend the Mol-Unit to Mirai, whose own personal use for the device seems to be more lighthearted than her brother's.

However, things are not right in Tokyo. A mysterious man by the name of "Dr. Machinegal" (actually an old friend and teacher of Hiroshi's, Professor Amagi) and his personal robot army, among them the destructive android group known as the "Machinegal Dolls" is bent on causing havoc upon the world. To make matters worse, Nozumu, the youngest of the Ozora siblings, has developed his own Mol-Unit and created a supervillain persona to oppose his brother and sister out of spite. Completely unaware of such events at first, but obligated to do something, Mirai finds herself thrown into the world of superheroism, which she takes in stride.

[edit] Episode list

  1. Metamorforce!
  2. Overzone
  3. Longing
  4. Destruction
  5. Intruder
  6. Verity

If you take the first letter of the titles in episodes 1-5 and the first three letters of the title for the final episode, they will spell the word, "Moldiver" (Metamorforce!, Overzone, Longing, Destruction, Intruder, Verity).

[edit] Video releases

Moldiver was originally released in individual episodes, on either VHS cassette, or on LaserDisc, in either dubbed or subtitled versions.

All six episodes were eventually released on one dual-layered DVD in 2001.

[edit] Sequel

The ending hints at a possible sequel, but it has yet to materialize (if at all). However, the OAV was followed by a Moldiver manga by Itou Shinpei (Hyper Dolls), which ran in Shōnen Captain.

[edit] Soundtrack

In a rather rare translation effort, in its time, most, if not all, of the names, as well as the intro and outro music, were kept virtually intact, to the point where someone who knows the English words can sing them over the Japanese ones verbatim. Notably, this follows through in some of the grammar, since Kaoru's first name is used very little in the English dub.

[edit] Voice cast

[edit] Music

  • Opening : Go! Go! Moldiver (Japanese version performed by Yukana Nogami, English version performed by Molly Pasutti)
  • Ending : Time Limit (Japanese version performed by Yukana Nogami, English version performed by Molly Pasutti)
  • Insert song (episode 2) : Falling in Love in the 20th Century (Japanese version performed by Nariko Fujieda, English version performed by Molly Pasutti)

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

[edit] External links