Kite Liberator

That is the same anime compared the two previous OVA's? This has a fully reduced violence charge.Question plot left to be desired,super bone and calcification're very badly told, any bone is vulnerable for stiffer than it can be pierced by a certain type of bullet, another issue is the end, do make the end, you decides.

Worth watching? Yup! I recommend.

Compared to the original Kite OVA, this is two steps forward and one step back. It manages to address most of the problems I had with the prequel, the two largest being the bizarre tone shifts and lack of character development. We have a new protagonist called Monaka who has taken on the identity of Sawa from the original, and has continued her legacy of assassination (‘The Angel of Death’). Monaka is a more interesting protagonist compared to Sawa and gets a good amount of backstory. She’s likeable while also still being mysterious, we aren’t told everything about her past but we’re given a few ... hints. The supporting characters despite only showing up here and there are more fleshed out and actually have personalities. In the original OVA, every character was basically a blank slate or one dimensional. The tone and characters are a lot lighter overall but there’s still a decent amount of stylized violence here that’s cool while not being gratuitous, and the (arguably) unnecessary sex scenes are all gone too.

There’s an interesting mix of CGI and traditional animation here, and it all looks good. I particularly liked the spaceship scenes at the beginning, looked very high-budget. The art still resembles the original but given a new look; which is a great thing. That was something I really liked in the prequel.

Its not all good news though. The science fiction story starts off well but quickly turns into, well nonsense. Some action scenes aside, the original Kite OVA was fairly believable and this big bad monster story is a bit ridiculous in the context of the series. Its at least used to further the plot and show Monaka that she ‘can’t lead a double-life’ but it doesn’t fit very well. I think it would have been better to focus on Monaka and her assassin life in the first episode, then bring in the monster story in later episodes.

The absolute biggest problem with Kite Liberator that it isn’t finished. This is sadly a common problem with OVA’s based on an original story: It ends on a cliff-hanger and any plans for a sequel are dead in the water. So, it ends up feeling too much like a prologue. Most plot lines are only started here and not resolved. For example, Manatsu is obviously Sawa but here she is only introduced and her life story in the last few years isn’t covered.

If you weren’t completely happy with the prequel like I was I’d still recommend watching this one. It’s an improvement overall, but I think the complete lack of resolution does sour the experience quite a lot.

“Kite Liberator” is what happens when you butcher everything that was competent about the original to make a tamer, blander and boring sequel.

The main problem this OVA has is being attached to “Kite” while having barely anything in common. Don’t get me wrong, if it was its own thing it would still be bad. “Kite” was a very focused, straight to the point, brutal, almost gritty neo-noir thriller. It used violence and sex in a very instrumental way and it wasn’t shy about it. There was nothing funny (at least intentionally) about its story or plot. Can’t say the same about “Liberator”.

Before we start I ... would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use these terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
PLOT is the surface-level events. What, when, where, how and why (externally) things are happening.
STORY is why (internally) things are happening and what internally happens to the character during the plot.

I’m gonna be honest, the opening 12 minutes of this OVA didn’t gave me much hope. “Kite” was focused and for most of its runtime had one main plot. “Kite Liberator” has two and both suffer for it. The first one, the one that starts the OVA of, is about a scientist on a space station. Yes, you’ve read that right. From a grounded neo-noir thriller in “Kite” we go to a SF action in “Kite Liberator”. A rather “interesting” choice. 80% of this plot is pointless, brings nothing to the table apart from useless names and one badly designed and written character. The second plot is about Monaka — this OVA’s (not) Sawa — a teen assassin that tries to hide her job from people she knows. Monaka is boring, shallow and utterly wasted character idea. We are to believe that her clumsy goofball persona is an act. That is not a bad idea. Sawa had something similar. The problem is that we mainly see Monaka in that persona. The scenes when she is a calm assassin are few and far between. Why are they so far between you ask? That is an excellent question, glad you’re showing initiative. Well, for most of the time we see her as a clumsy student or waitress, getting flustered for no reason and interacting with her friend who is out of place in this world. She's clearly a comic relief. I wouldn't mind that normally. Contrast is good in any show. You can't have a good drama without a little comedy. But she is the over the top type of comic relief that even get's her own drawing style while making silly faces and reactions. Not a good idea.
Not only this OVA has only 55 minutes (without end credits) of runtime, about half which was wasted on a space station plot that later becomes a monster one, more than half of the remaining time we only see Monaka as a boring character with a cringe personality.

In my review of “Kite” I wrote that it wastes time on sex scenes instead of developing the relationships between characters. “Kite Liberator” ditches sex all together, which isn’t a bad choice, but it still doesn’t develop any sort of relationships between characters. They do the same mistake but instead of intercourse they serve a space plot.

The world is also much different from the previous part. This time the world is much more "sterile" for a lack of a better word. Yes, we still deal with degenerates but they pale in comparison to those in "Kite". We don't see their depravity. We do get a scene when a pedophile wants to have his way with a young girl in a bathroom, but instead of letting him, setting up a need to see him die in a dramatic, gory way, the script runs away from that and interrupts him in a very boring, safe way. I don’t need to see him raping a kid, we got that in “Kite” and that scene was rather boring and useless, but I want to see the aftermath. Show me the kid traumatized with clothes ripped and maybe with some bruises. That would set him up as scum that needs to die. His death would have been earned and cathartic. What we got is… honestly? On a level of most isekai’s. His dead is quick, clean and romanticized. That is something I will not forgive “Kite Liberator”. “Kite” didn’t revel in its violence. It didn’t romanticize it. It was instrumental. Nothing more, nothing less. Here Monaka leaves a bunch of white feathers on her victims. She’s even called the angel of death. What. The. Fuck? Why would you do something so cringe? You are telling me that the sequel to an OVA that showed being an assassin as a shitty deal, that only leads to premature death, pain and trauma, is an OVA that shows killing as almost work from god? Fuck off. It’s a disservice to the original script. Not only that, Monaka has a grappling “hook” that wouldn't be out of place in a Batman cartoon. She doesn’t get close to her targets by seducing them, disciple or anything like that. She just works in the dark, attacks from the shadows or distance and that’s that. Are we sure she’s not a Wayne?

On top of that Monaka doesn’t have a stated reason for being an assassin. It’s not like with Sawa where she was groomed, used and abused to become a weapon and a sex slave. Monaka seems to do it because… I have no fucking idea, by the quality of this script I would guess that being an assassin is a fad in that world. We get one scene where we see that she has a scar on her back. How did she got it? Don’t know. Don’t think about it and pretend that this is environmental story telling. The OVA also wants me to think that Monaka has a deep connection to her father but… we don’t get much on that front. She’s happy when she receives a gift from him but from what we got, they haven’t seen each other for years so I’m not buying it. She’s just so… bland. By the way she is written, if someone told me that she is from an anime from the last 5 years I would totally believe it.

I really wanted to like this. Unfortunately the script made it impossible for me. Especially the ending. “Kite” had a nice ending showing that life as an assassin only brings death. It was simple, brutal and I liked it. This time the ending is a cliffhanger. Not gonna lie, a pretty solid one, but still a cliffhanger.

For every step forward “Kite Liberator” takes in comparison to “Kite” it takes three steps back. It’s more like a spin off than a sequel, and not the good kind. It’s like the writer had ideas for scenes to at least 4 different projects but was forced to put them together, creating this unholy amalgamation of blandness.

It would have been bad as a stand alone project but because it’s attached to “Kite” it’s not even worth a mention. I have no idea why the space station plot is even here. Cutting it would free up some much needed screen time for scenes that would actually have value. Maybe show Monaka getting closer to the character that is hinted to being Sawa? She could have trained and given some much needed advice on how to deal with being an assassin, not to mention she could have become an excellent companion to Monaka. It would give her someone to talk to when the mental strain… who the fuck am I kidding? This script is so pathetic that such a thing would never happen.

Just forget this exists. I intend to