Armor Hunter Mellowlink (1988–1989) User Reviews

The best anime nobody knows about

[keith81 · 8/10 · 28 April 2024]

Only 86 ratings by IMDB users as of May 2024... are you kidding me? This has got to be the best anime OVA series that nobody has ever heard of. I only discovered it myself because its theme song made into some top 50 list on YouTube.

Armor Hunter Mellowlink is a spinoff of the Armor Troopers VOTOMS series, but the stories are completely independent of each other. You can thoroughly enjoy Mellowlink without having watched a single minute of VOTOMS - I know I did.

Plot: Not much plot here to be honest. Mellowlink Arity is an infantry soldier whose unit is sacrificed by corrupt army top brass. He miraculously survives, gets framed, and goes on the lam to exact revenge on his corrupt commanding officers one by one. No spoilers there, this story is basically told during the theme song.

What you get is twelve short episodes packed with violent revenge action drawn in great late 1980s cell animation.

Since the main character is an infrantry man with a massive gun hunting down bad guys who (usually) drive mechas, I found it MUCH easier to relate to than the usual fare of mecha vs mecha.

Light on plot for sure, but great fun to watch. Highly recommended.

One of the Best Revenge Anime TV Shows

[phaedeout · 10/10 · 26 May 2024]

Sadly, this is an anime TV spin-off series that very few folks know about. In my opinion, this spin-off of V. O. T. O. M. S. was far better than the original series. The artwork and animation improved as did character development, plots for each of the 12 episodes. Yes, there are occasional choppy scenes that are less important to the main story of the relative episode and are a bit more tropey than not. There are a few twists and turns in an over-arching story of revenge of Corporal Arity Mellowlink. Unlike modern stories, Mellowlink learns, makes mistakes, and grows as a character seeking vengeance on the officers who betrayed his squad. The other characters are well-written, some with typical tropes, but have personalities and a few backstories, too. Smart and capable male and female characters, well-written episodes where each episode has an ending. For those who enjoy Rambo style stories, this anime TV show is definitely going to be up your alley.

Episode 5 brings up the original betrayal, by the by. This placement seemed to have been a conceit of story telling for a few anime TV shows from the late 1980's through early 2000's.

The only downside of this anime TV show was that it had very little distribution in the United States, mostly through fan dubbing groups at conventions. I think this was a Sunrise Production, but I could be incorrect. When it was released it was on VHS and Laserdisc in very few numbers. Hopefully, in the future this show will get some better distribution and mayhap a reprint of the associated manga that came out after the TV show.