Battle Girls Time Paradox: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Battle Girls Time Paradox: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Are you ready to jiggle?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 9, 2013

Let’s face it: history can be an awfully dry subject, which is why so many people tend to be so supportive of efforts like those of the History Channel which tend to feature dramatic reenactments or which otherwise “gussy up” what would normally be a pretty rote, boring recitation of dates and facts. This is also the same reason why people flock to films like Lincoln in droves much more plentiful than the ones that actually read any film’s given source novel, in this instance Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals. Anime is no stranger to historically themed outings, either, even if many of these are decidedly fanciful and not especially well tied to actual events. Battle Girls: Time Paradox reinvents feudal Japanese history in a gynocentric universe where warlords are women and suits of armor at least occasionally give way to bustiers and leather. The series is awfully derivative at times, not just with regard to its central conceit of a modern day teenager somehow magically transported to an alternate universe, but even within the context of that alternative universe itself. Though Battle Girls: Time Paradox doesn’t have the grace of Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit or even the more patent fan service of Queen's Blade, these are only two of many series that longtime anime fans may at least occasionally think of as they wend their way through the manic adventures of Yoshino Hide, a pretty dimwitted young girl whose avoidance of studying leads her to a shrine where she plans to pray for absolution (or at least a passing grade on the next day’s test), but who instead finds herself swept into a weird cyclone of blue light that transports her back to an Amazon (as in militant females, not mail order superstores) version of feudal Japan.

Even those who prefer their history artificially sweetened a la History Channel may have a hard time swallowing the reinventions that fill up the bulk of Battle Girls: Time Paradox’s supposed “reenactments”. Japanese history buffs will probably recognize Hideyoshi, the nickname that Yoshino’s current day classmates have assembled out of her given names. Hideyoshi was in fact one of the most legendary feudal warlords in the history of Japan, and those “in the know” will at least have a sense of what is to come via this brief sleight of hand delivered in the series’ set up. And once Hideyoshi travels back in time (or wherever the heck it is she travels), she meets female versions of several other iconic figures in Japan’s remote past, including Nobunaga Oda, Mitsuhide Akechi, and Matsamune Date. And yet Battle Girls: Time Paradox largely wastes these connections in an overly frivolous manner that to my mind was at least somewhat reminiscent of a similarly cavalier approach in Strike Witches. It’s even more peculiar with regard to Battle Girls: Time Paradox, for why would a creative team take the time to develop a series based on time travel to an alternate version of actual historical events, and then largely throw those very same historical events by the wayside?

The other odd thing about Battle Girls: Time Paradox is how its main storyline is largely being played for laughs quite a bit of the time. One would hardly think that the Warring States period of feudal Japanese history would be a territory ripe for comedic pickings, and that in fact turns out to be the case here. A lot of the supposed comedy has to do with Hideyoshi’s troubles in adjusting to her new world sans electricity, indoor plumbing and (most importantly) her cell phone. But thrust up against this attempt at humor is a decidedly more serious streak, especially in the series’ closing plot arc, when a quest Hideyoshi has been sent on early in the series ends up having some unforeseen consequences (not necessarily for the worse). The series is therefore really tonally at odds with itself quite a bit of the time, lurching uneasily from frankly not all that funny shtick filled bits to frankly not all that involving drama, mostly having to do with Nobunaga’s desire to conquer the world.

Perhaps surprisingly for a series featuring an almost all female cast (it’s notable that the one putatively male character is in fact a talking dog), and especially one that exploits the curvaceous forms of several key characters, there’s a dearth of explicit yuri (lesbian) content here, although there are hints of it scattered throughout the series. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the ostensible lead character is the young girl Hideyoshi, and offering anything overtly sexual might have seemed kind of smarmy, all things considered. And the series, as mentioned above, is actually incredibly restrained when it comes to outright fan service. Yes, there are again hints of it, including occasional panty shots and looming boobs that come spectacularly close to spilling out of their skimpy bra-like coverings, but Battle Girls: Time Paradox never really goes that route, either.

To call Battle Girls: Time Paradox a waste is probably overkill, for there is some passing entertainment value in Hideyoshi’s adventures in the alternate history timeline. But this is a series that is both not funny enough when it’s pushing its comedy angle and not dramatic or energized enough when its pushing its character development or battle angles. Instead, we’re lost in a sort of morass, a middle ground where real history has been jettisoned and the fake history stuffed into its place is decidedly lackluster.

Battle Girls Time Paradox: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Battle Girls: Time Paradox is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer. This is often a really pretty series, filled with some luscious backgrounds and quasi-3D effects that are similar to Disney's multi-plane techniques. Line detail is reasonably strong and color are nicely robust throughout this series, and yet the entire production has a rather unexpectedly soft ambience, something which I'm assuming must have been intentional given the fairly recent vintage (2011) of this series. Some of this is due to the "light effects" that are used ubiquitously throughout the episodes, with effulgent white almost overpowering the actual figures and backgrounds. But even without these added elements, a lot of Battle Girls: Time Paradox doesn't really pop with the crystalline precision that many recent anime tend to.

Battle Girls Time Paradox: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Battle Girls: Time Paradox's two lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 audio options, one in the original Japanese and the other in English, are virtually identical save for the voice work. The series might have benefited at least a little from a surround mix, but for a show set in the Warring States period, this is a pretty talky affair, which means that the 2.0 audio works quite well. Dialogue is very cleanly presented and the mix is well prioritized even when the sound design gets to be a bit on the noisy side (which happens even in non-action sequences). Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is reasonably wide.

Battle Girls Time Paradox: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Clean Opening Animation (1080p; 1:31)


• Clean Closing Animations (1080p; 1:32)

Battle Girls Time Paradox: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Battle Girls: Time Paradox basically boils down to a blown opportunity. The basic premise is quite winning, and even the "all female" changes to history could have been quite enticing, if only this series had been more intelligent about its reframing. Trying to cram silly, almost slaptick laden, comedy into a series set in the Warring States period just seems ridiculous on its face, and it's further hampered here by the fact that the comedy is not all that funny to begin with. The series is still quite nice to look at from a purely visual standpoint, so for those of you who are attracted to shiny objects without much caring what exactly they are, this show may still offer some passing pleasures.