Posted: 12/07/2011

Birdy The Mighty: Decode, The Complete Collection

by Ruben R. Rosario

Now available on DVD from Funimation.

Birdy the Mighty: Decode is an awesome example of an anime series that is smart, well executed and a hell of an action packed ride. The story follows Birdy Altera, an intergalactic agent for the Space Federation that stops evil aliens from all over the galaxy. She follows a criminal to earth, that has hidden himself amongst humans and tries to stop him. In the midst of battle, Tsutomu Senkawa, a young high school student passes by and gets drawn into the battle. After defeating the alien, she sees that Tsutomu is badly injured and the only way to save him is to transport his mind into her and rebuild his body later. With a cool female protagonist, great action and sweet animation, Birdy the Mighty: Decode is a sci-fi anime that people shouldn’t miss.

The history of the production of Birdy the Mighty is a really weird one and it’s quite a surprise that Decode is here today. The original manga was created by Masami Yuki, part of the Headgear group and manga-ka of Patlabor, in 1985. Yuki abandoned Birdy after one volume of manga and continued with Patlabor, only to return to the Birdy series in 2003. A 4 episode OVA was made in 1996 by studio Madhouse and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, that was well animated and action packed. Now with Decode, there’s a lot more going on in the series than what Kawajiri’s offering delivered and that is in thanks to Decode’s director Kazuki Akane.

Akane is responsible for other great anime like Noein, Heat Guy J and Escaflowne: The Movie. Akane’s works are always well structured in their writing, intense action and interesting characters. Decode gains all of this, which is why it’s elevated in comparison to its original OVA, due to the inclusion of development that is gained by fleshing out its characters and story, though the span of 26 episodes. We get to see the immense difficulty of what it means to share two minds in one body through Tsutomu and Birdy’s relationship much more than the OVA. Not only this, but even Birdy, her world and other of the sci-fi elements are explored and elaborated on, that present an a very interesting world. A-1 Pictures does a fine job at creating a nice pastel palette for Birdy and all of the alien elements to distinguish them from humans, as well as giving the audience some beautiful animation during fight sequences.

Funimation has finally collected the series in a complete set and it’s definitely worth picking up. While there’s nothing revolutionary in Birdy the Mighty: Decode, it presents the audience with the core elements of what makes anime unique as an animation form. Intelligent ideas, that are executed with a kinetic energy and finesse that can’t be found anywhere else. Birdy the Mighty: Decode is a fun anime series with an absolute bad ass female lead that can make an anime fan out of anyone. Highly recommended.

Ruben R. Rosario is a graduate from Columbia College Chicago with a degree in Audio for Visual Media. He works as a freelance location sound mixer, boom operator, sound designer, and writer in his native Chicago. He’s an avid collector of films, comics, and anime.

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