Theres no denying that without Osamu Tezuka we wouldnt have the modern anime and manga industry as we know it. He popularized many genres tropes and styles that are now considered commonplace today. However not everything the God of Manga made was good and unfortunately Prime Rose: A Time Slip of 10000 Years is among his lesser works. Originally a 4volume manga his company Tezuka Pro decided to make it into a featurelength TV special as part of an NTV program. I havent read the manga and Im not sure it even has an English translation official or fan made. Do correct me if Im wrong though. But after watching the movie version...I have no desire to read the manga anyway because the anime Prime Rose is just...not good. At all. One day a gigantic satellite that eerily resembles the head of C3PO from Star Wars splits into two and destroys two cities: Kujukuri City in Chiba Prefecture Japan and Dallas Texas in the United States. Centuries later Gai Tanbara a member of the Time Patrol is informed that the two cities and their citizens werent actually destroyed but actually sent forward in time by 10000 years. He and his younger brother Bunretsu are sent forward in time to figure out whats going on. But circumstances make it so that Gai is enslaved in a labor camp where slaves spend their days building strange statues and a young woman he tries to help Emiya Tachi wants to get revenge on the people who killed her lover. Gai Bunretsu and Emiya must work together if theyre to both free the slaves and put a stop to the machinations of the satellite responsible for everything the dreaded Deathmask. If that plot summary sounds convoluted as all hell thats because it is. Theres no way a TV special thats an hour and a half long is gonna be able to cover that much material without compromising it in some way and sure enough thats exactly what happens. Prime Rose just moves from one plot point to another without really taking the time to flesh them out and give them the breathing room they need to utilize their potential. Not to mention that the story itself makes zero sense if you try to apply any logic to it. So two cities get sent forward in time suddenly split into two whole nations that are at war with each other and somehow they speak the same language? Thats just the first of many questions that the story raises and gives absolutely no answers to. We never see just how this whole situation came about other than being told that they were sent forward in time not to mention a lot of the fantasy creatures that appear just seem like theyre there as an excuse for the characters to get from point A to point B because the plot demands it. Seriously where do Emiya and Gai even get their horses from? And how did they manage to wrangle a whole group of gigantic cockroaches? Where did they even get those cockroaches? Furthermore Emiyas ability to turn to stone seems to have no concrete Ha get it? rules. Most of the time she can change back whenever she wants but in the finale she stays frozen in stone for over a month with literally no explanation other than we have to milk a potential tragedy to wring the tears out of the audience. This also results in pisspoor writing for the characters overall. Every single one of them has as much depth as a puddle Emiya suddenly goes from swooning girl to competent warrior within two or three scenes making any development she gets feel completely rushed and unearned and one villain just...decides he doesnt want to be a villain anymore because Gai made him sign a document demanding that he stop being a dictator or some shit. Also FUCK BUNRETSU. This kid is annoying as all hell and easily the worst thing about the entire movie. Bunretsu causes Gai and Emiya no small amount of grief gets way too much screen time has several pointless scenes where hes perving on Emiya Whether it be seeing her naked or getting too close to her butt when theyre trying to escape getting hanged and is generally a dumb useless brat. You could cut him out of the movie entirely and itd be so much better off for it. By the way what the heck is Spock from Star Trek doing in this movie? No Im not kidding Gais boss who only appears in the beginning of the movie literally looks so much like Spock that Im surprised Tezuka didnt get sued for copyright violations. Not to mention Emiya after watching her first boyfriend die in a laughably silly manner gets over him at the end of the movie and falls in love with Gai. See what I mean when I say the writing for the characters is shit? Honestly the animation and soundtrack arent much to write home about either. The character designs are your typical Tezuka fare with important characters looking a good mixture of human and cartoony whereas all the minor characters are supremely cartoonish and sillylooking. I hate Emiyas warrior outfit though. Its literally just a pair of panties and an Xshaped bra with shoulder pads glued onto it and all it does is make her look super sexualized when she could be wearing anything else. Again like I mentioned theres a scene where Bunretsu almost runs face first into her butt when theyre trying to escape getting hanged and theres literally no purpose to it other than titillation. I guess not even Tezuka is immune to pointless horny sexual humor. Now something interesting I learned is that Prime Rose actually got an English dub which is shocking because some new company commissioned it and Im surprised Tezuka Pro even bothered to preserve the ME track for it which doesnt often happen for older properties like this. I gotta say having actually watched this English dub which was the very first one that SkySet Entertainment made its surprisingly a solid effort. Not perfect as this is their first dub and there were several points where dialogue didnt match the lip flaps very well but its a way better first attempt at a dub than I expected. Oh and the dub outtakes are absolutely hilarious. Not that it does anything to save this trainwreck of a TV special. So yeah Osamu Tezuka has made a lot of great series during his lifetime but Prime Rose: A Time Slip of 10000 Years is not one of them. It has so many conflicting ideas it wants to explore but cant make sense of any of them and as a result it feels really bloated directionless and unsatisfying trying to find some purpose and coming out empty handed. Seriously dont waste your time on Prime Rose. Its terrible.