Anime of Yesteryear Presents: “That Little ol’ OVA: Cosmo Police Justy”
So, back again at this I see. I should really see some sort of therapist or go to an AA meeting because these lonely drunken Friday nights are starting to take their toll on me I think. So, there I was, on a booze binge of picking something random from my VHS collection and chucking it into the VCR player, when the minute that Play button gets hit, my mind starts to go out on me once again. When I came too, I see myself in the middle of some sort of psychic battle between two space guys shooting lights out of there hands, with one man in a black space suit sporting a pencil drawn moustache shooting blue beams from his fist at the other man in blue spiky hair and a white space suit teleporting around to avoid the ongoing attack, as both parties duke it out on a random chuck of rock in space. The man in white gets the upper hand by getting behind the man in black and putting a psychic sleeper hold on the man or something. As I look in awe at the battle, which looked like something out of a rock concert light show, the man in white comes over to where I am and orders me in his space cruiser to take me over to the Galaxy Patrol HQ. On the trip there, he begins to tell his story of hunting down the worst of the espers in the known galaxy, to protect and serve as a Cosmo Police officer. His name, is Justy Kaizard… and I realize another journey has begun for me… again.
This time I am going to tackle the 1985 OVA of Cosmo Police Justy. To sum up, this is just another “popcorn” anime to spend 45 minutes of your time on, it’s not grand in any scale, but in some ways enjoyable to watch. So, let’s gear up and learn to teleport, as we psychically dive into this OVA world.
Cosmo Police Justy starts off with a space battle between two parties with our main man in blue Justy, blocking the attacks by a guy who has a black space suit on with some hoses hooked up and the deadliest of pencil moustaches at his arsenal. Justy is able to get the upper hand by getting behind the man and grabbing his shoulders, which somehow… knocks him out, or kills him… not sure? But, that’s not important, because we get a basic verbal back story of Justy Kaizard, a “hunter” for the Galaxy Patrol System Cosmo Police, who goes after the worst of “esper” criminals in the galaxy. Espers in this show are beings who are able to fly in space with no helmet on, teleport and shoot light from their hands, as well as deflect lights too. We then get to some city in space, somewhere, where we see a group of people who want to take on Justy to end his string of arrest. Back at the Galaxy Patrol HQ planet (I guess), we get to meet the “adopted” sister of Justy, a completely dumb and ditzy redhead by the name of Astalis. To point out the facial expressions of this character in pretty much most of this show, she has the same two, dumb and “whaa?” We then get a random flashback of Justy fighting a man by the name of Magnum Vega, a wanted esper criminal, that Justy is able to take down with a powerful enough psychic blast to obliterate him in one shot. We then hear the cries of a child who is a younger version of Astalis, who is crying for her father Magnum. As Justy’s partner Bolba is holding her back, the flashback ends there, and Justy and Astalis decide to head back home. Back at home, Justy and his “other sister” Jelna, talk about Astalis condition in dealing with her being adopted by Justy after the events of the battle between him and Magnum. Then, we get another flashback of the mournful Astalis crying over her fathers lower half of his body, as she vows for revenge for her fathers death at Justy by saying “when I get older and bigger”… which, happens. Yea, who would have thought as a kid you can say to yourself “ I wanna be big and kill you” and within seconds actually happens. With the change taking in effect, she grows into the body of a teen girl, as pieces of rock around them start to crumble. We then see her in a rage mode and about to attack Justy when… the flashback ends again with current day Astalis running to Justy because she is in the mood to “go for a walk” like she is a dog of some kind.
While this is going on, we get scene from the bad guy esper in the beginning and his crew hijack a space shuttle. There reason for their actions, which is to get the daughter of Magnum Vega being their only request. While this is going on, we see Astalis having a difficult time trying to walk on a 4 foot wide platform that anyone with two working feet can do with no problem. While we see this display of special ed, Justy gets a call to report to HQ and tells Astalis to go on home. Once at HQ, Jusy is given his next assignment regarding the terrorist demands to hand over Astalis. This triggers yet ANOTHER FLASHBACK to Astalis literally stabbing Justy with a sword made of light in his chest, which then goes back to the current scene with Justy taking the mission, while bringing along Astalis with him. Once they reach the shuttle, Justy decides to send off Astalis to the shuttle with the security of him parking his butt in the cockpit and stating “holler if you need me” in a sense. But while in space, the villian esper is able to telepathically communicate with Astalis by using matter in space to play back Justy killing her father, which then triggers her to go all Hulk mode and shreds her helmet and space suit off her body. So then we get to the point of this show that, there must be freaking air in space, because guess what, she is completely fine. Justy sees this, and… goes out in space without a helmet on also. With the fate of the shuttle and Justy love to protect his adopted sister, how will Justy get out of this mess? That is something you will have to find out for your own.
So yea, that is our halfway point of describing Cosmo Police Justy for you guys. There are some things I do like about this as in the visuals and of course the ultra 80’s ending theme. The esper battles kinda reminds me a bit from Zone of the Enders how you can use Zero Shift to move your Runner around and get behind enemies like how Justy does with the espers he has to take down. Also, there is a reason why Astalis is so… handicap in the head which was caused by her having a mature body but the mind of a child, which they do show and you can tell off the bat why she acts that way. It’s got some dumb stuff, and the beginning is a bit slow, but it does pick up at the end for the final battle. There is very little story other than Justy fighting other espers and having a mentally challenged Astalis. I gotta tell you, her dumbness will get the better of you.
So yea, if you wanna check this out, be my guest, its over at Anime Classic Reviews as a Laserdisc rip. If you enjoyed this review, you can check out my blog over at Anime of Yesteryear. Till next time folks!!!
Final Thoughts: