Shabranigdu

A few points: - I'm not a Mormon, nor very religious in any sense, but I do have some passing familiarity with the LDS church, and I have to say that while certain aspects of the portrayal of various Mormons and their behaviors and customs reminded me very much of my own experiences, it is true that the movie is guilty of some exaggeration. While I can certainly imagine characters like the rudely homophobic missionary, I don't believe that most Mormons would tolerate or condone his behavior, especially not in his capacity as a missionary.

• The acting was spotty in parts with the notable exception of Sandvoss, as other viewers have pointed out. Not only did he perfectly look and act the part of the quintessential missionary, his performance was one of the few things that did credit to some of the good work real missionaries do, as he did a nice job of selling his character's sincere desire to do well and help others. This leads me to believe that it was the director's specific intention that Aaron, the homosexual, be the most respectable, decent, and consistent Mormon in the entire movie. The irony was certainly spot-on, intentional or not.

• Again, this movie is far from perfect, and I feel compelled to explain that my rating of 7 is highly subjective and not solidly based on the technical merits of the movie itself. If you enjoy this movie the way that I did, you will find much to appreciate about it despite its obvious flaws. I do admit a certain bias, as the fact that this movie deals with two men struggling to find and keep each other despite significant internal and external obstacles strikes a chord in me as a bisexual man. This isn't to say that one has to be gay or bisexual to enjoy this movie, but I think it helps one forgive the movie its faults if one can find a way to identify with the main themes and appreciate the movie more for what it tries so hard to do than for how it manages in the execution.

The alternate spin on the story of Magic Knight Rayearth is interesting, especially in how it differs in tone from the original. Much darker ambiance in this setting.

However, the quality of the translation is rather poor for being "professional", and I find that it detracts from enjoyment of the show. Unfortunately I first saw it on VHS and had no option to turn off the often-inaccurate subtitles. Even if you don't understand Japanese, you will probably notice that some of the lines are either clunky or don't seem to fit the scene. For example, one of Ferio's lines is translated to mean exactly the opposite of what it does, and viewers going by that translation will get a different idea of his character. That was a particularly inconvenient line to mess up, while others seem to be skewed simply because of lazy or outright incompetent translation.

Bottom line: enjoy, but take the English translations with a grain of salt. Unless they've bothered to redo them for recent editions, their quality is probably surpassed by a fansub floating around somewhere.