On the Spooner Continent, humans are oppressed by evil wizards who rule over them; their only hope lies in the Sorcerer Hunters, five supernatural heroes who fight injustice according to the orders of the goddess-like "B... more »ig Momma." The improbable quintet at the center of this 1995 broadcast series is a lot less dignified than their title suggests: blond muscleman Gateau Mocha, elegant Marron Glace (pronounced "GLAYSS," rather than "glah-SAY"), his klutzy brother Carrot (the self-proclaimed "love machine"), and the Misu sisters, Tira and Chocolate. During the first season, the characters wander around, dispatching bad guys while Carrot chases every female in sight. The tone darkens in the second season (originally released in the U.S. as Spell Wars: Sorcerer Hunters' Revenge), when they're pitted against Zaha Torte ("Sacher Torte" in some translations), who wants to destroy the world so it can be reborn in a purer form. To accomplish his desire, he must unleash the God of Destruction who dwells within Carrot. Their drawn-out confrontation takes a number of odd twists before love triumphs over evil. Sorcerer Hunters is surprisingly entertaining, with a slapstick tone reminiscent of Slayers or Generator Gawl. The filmmakers give Carrot some unexpected kind moments that separate him from run-of-the-mill anime lunkheads, but the fate of the cosmos resting in the maladroit hands of Carrot and his friends seems as improbable as the cast of Seinfeld turning out to be the gods of Olympus. (Rated 15 and older: risqué humor, brief nudity, violence) --Charles Solomon« less
Genres:Anime & Manga, Animation Sub-Genres:Anime & Manga, Animation Studio:Adv Films Format:DVD - Color - Animated DVD Release Date: 09/16/2003 Release Year: 2003 Run Time: 10hr 50min Screens: Color Number of Discs: 4 SwapaDVD Credits: 4 Total Copies: 0 Members Wishing: 2 Edition: Box set MPAA Rating: Unrated Languages:English
trashcanman | Hanford, CA United States | 07/10/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is a great series for fantasy anime fans. It's fast-moving, hilarious but occasionally touching and dramatic, has killer art and animation, and is just very enjoyable overall. The bread and butter of any great anime series is the characters and Sorcerer Hunters delivers big-time in this area. The English cast is top-notch and delivers brilliant performances as the team of super-powered heroes sent out by Big Momma (yeah, I know it's a cheesy name, but what can you do?) to hunt down the world's evil magic users and exterminate them. The main hero introduces himself to ladies as "Carrot Glace, love machine" and that pretty much says it all. His only power is that when he's hit by magic, he becomes a giant, kickass monster. Cool character. He's probably the funniest anime pervert I've ever seen and he seriously hams it up every chance he gets. Then there's my favorite characters the Misu sisters, Tira and Chocolate. Tira is the shy one with coke bottle glasses, and Chocolate is the sweet but bold one. That is, until they change into psychotic dominatrixes in what have to be the coolest transformation sequences ever. They pursue Carrot endlessly and never fail to "punish" him for showing attention to every female but them. Carrot himself has no interest in the sisters (Chocolate:"Are you saying I'm more woman than you can bare?" Carrot:"I'm saying I'd rather make love TO a bear!" Ouch.). Anyhow, most of the comedy revolves around this cute little love triangle. There's also Carrot's brother, Maron, who uses magic seals to attack and is just a bit too effiminate to be straight. Gateau is the token big, strong guy who likes to pose and show off his muscles. There are also hints that he (ahem) plays for the other team, as they say.
Sorcerer Hunters is the rare anime series that can get away with every cliche' in the book and still come out smelling like a rose. The reuse of the sisters' transformation animation in EVERY episode, the male pervert (Carrot, of course), the cute fairy girl (Dotta, Big Momma's daughter and companion), the villain (Tira:"Somehow, I just knew he'd be wearing all black") who seeks to destroy the world and rebuild it as a utopia, the music video ending, and the good old moral struggle between the rights of the one against the needs of the many all serve as anime themes we've seen over and over. But when it's done right and the characters are this good, you just can't hold it against them. The series starts quite slow, but hits it's stride early and glides all the way to the last few episodes without any complaints from me. Unfortunatly, the ending is not to my taste. I can't get into the details without major spoilage, but let's just say it's pointless, solves nothing, makes little sense, and takes too long to build up and not long enough to wind down. Other than that, I loved every aspect of this series and would highly recommend it to my fellow Slayers fans or just people who love (or are looking to get into) fantasy/comedy anime."
Finally, a box set!
albertacat | Alberta | 10/01/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"It's wonderful to finally own a boxed set of Sorceror Hunters. This is a loveably goofy show with no real point to it, but who cares? It's too fun watching the interaction between the five main characters.My one complaint with the box set is, the sub/dub choice seems pretty messed up. At first when I popped the disk in, it wouldn't allow me to select Japanese w/English subtitles. So I went directly into the settings and chose Japanese audio, English subtitles. Well, I could get the audio but not the subtitles. Finally, I stopped the disk completely, opened it, put it back in, and this time I could select Japanese w/English subtitles, but after hitting "play all" I discovered that it automatically switches back to english audio (although it keeps the subtitles) after every flipping episode. *sigh* Oh well, it was nice and cheap, for the entire series, but it is annoying.The extras aren't much - some ads for other stuff by the same company, original trailer for SH, and profiles (which are strangely incomplete - they profile Tira and Chocolate but the boys don't get included, and then they go on to profile a couple of villains and, well, that's it).In the end - yes, I'd buy it again. But keep in mind I had a $10 off coupon and got the free shipping."
Great series, but with very odd names.
Lord of Nightmares | In the darkness beyond blackest pitch | 06/25/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"-I must say, this series was truely great. Besides the odd names such as Vaha Torte, Choclate, Carrot, etc. the series does a amazeing job of adding a mixture of action comedy and romance. With the constant sexual appotite of Carrot Glace, the many evil sorcerers, and the little love triangle between chaclote, Tira(my favorite character) and Carrot. -The outfits are another thing, mainly Tira and Chacolate(Tira looks amazeing in her black outfit at the end in my personel opinion and as for Chacolate, well we won't go into detail) They really go all out and it gives this odd flare to the series that I can't describe. -The romance part of the series was by far the best in my part. Being that every time Carrot goes off and flirts with a girl Tira and Chacolate beat him down. And the final scene with everyone in the end almost brings a tear to your eye and lets not leave out Carrot becuase he is just amazeing. -All and all the series is very good. I at first thought it could never match up to the calibar I'm thinking of,(being slayers) but the series turned out to impress me a lot and I was very pleased with it. If any anime lover out there has seen Slayers, or any good anime about magic and sorcery, I highly suggest picking this one up, you'll enjoy, I garuntee it."
Character design is beyond ridiculous...
Sam Allen | Newburyport Mass. | 05/07/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"...but aside from that, this collection and series is practically perfect! Still, I can't imagine a fantasy series where a great many of the characters are named after pastries and desserts (Tira and Chocolate Misu, Carrot and Marron Glace, Gateau Mocha, Zaha Torte, Lord Tartlet, etc.). Though this is questionable, the series is truly unique. Each of the five sorcerers not only has a special power, but a sexual background of their own. Also, not all of the episodes involve a battle with a nasty sorcerer at the climax, though most do. As for the choice of language...for the most part, I'd stick to the SUB. Some of the dialogue in the DUB is plainly awful (e.g. "I don't think so! The Sorcerer Hunters are here!"), although some scenes are better in English (particularly Carrot's whipping in episode 3). However, in spite of that, the SUB is overall better. Stick with it and enjoy the show!"
Awesome yet a dissapointment.
Angela Nylund | Yakima, WA | 07/21/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I will say it straight forward, this series is good, but sadly it has one major flaw to it. When I first got into Sorcerer hunters, I was first reading the Manga, then I watched the animated series. Both are awesome, but the one thing that got me down was that it didnt follow the manga one bit. It only has a couple of random parts from both the manga but not every one.
The manga is awesome, compared to the animated series, which seems to just fall into a giant loop of insanity every now and then along with emotional heart filled parts. So If you have read the manga first, then your in for a dissapointment, because the chapters from the manga, that had you ready to die laughing, you will never see."