Maze TV

— by Michael Wieczorek

Holy gender transformation Batman, it's Maze! MAZE starts out formulaic enough. A young college girl from our world gets transported, along with her dorm room, to this strange fantasy world. There she meets a young princess named Mill, who is being pursued by a group of evildoers. As it turns out, Mill's kingdom was taken over in a coup d'état and her parents were killed. She managed to escape her kingdom and is now on her way to her aunt's kingdom for help. The people following Mill are the same people who took over her kingdom.
So Maze, being the kind and good-natured person that she is, decides to escort Mill to her aunt's kingdom—but that means that they will have to escape the people who are after Mill. During the battle with the pursuers, it turns out Maze is an illuminator (which just means she can shoot fire balls out of her hands) and that Mill can summon a demi armor (think giant robot) called Dullger, which Maze uses to finish off the rest of the bad guys. It is also around this time that we learn that something peculiar happens to Maze when the sun goes down: she turns into a man. And not just any man, he's a violent man with a raging libido.
Later on, Mill and Maze are joined by two demi armor hunters named Aster and Solude. Aster is your standard big guy with an equally big sword while Solude is your standard scantly clad tough chick. To make things interesting, both have the hots for Maze. And so begin the "wacky and zany" adventures of Maze and Co.
The biggest problem with the MAZE TV version is not that it's unoriginal, but that none of the characters are that interesting. You could probably name about a dozen anime/manga series that are very similar in concept, but what separates the winners from the losers in this genre are interesting characters. About the only interesting thing about the show is the male Maze character who offers a nice contrast to the gentle female Maze. But even the male Maze has some problems.
The dubbing also does not help make this show more interesting. Good dubbing can make an unoriginal show fairly enjoyable. SORCERER HUNTERS/BAKURETSU HUNTERS wasn't that original (basically it was SLAYERS with a lot more sexual antics) but it had a good English dubbing. The dubbing for MAZE for the most part was flat and uninspiring. The voice for the male Maze tried to breathe some life into the character, but his voice just didn't sound right.
The final thing wrong with MAZE TV is that, even after only four episodes, it gets repetitive. It seems that in every episode the female Maze gets into a fight with the bad guys, but since she is so good-natured she doesn't really want to hurt anybody until, coincidentally enough, the sun sets and the male Maze comes out and kicks butt. This kind of thing can get boring after a while.
The animation was about what you would expect for a TV show. Not bad, but not great either. One thing, though, is that the coloring seemed a bit odd to me. It looked as if all of the day scenes took place right around sunset or sunrise, so everything looked like it had a reddish hue to it.
In the end, not even giant robots could save this show. There were some funny moments, but most of the time the comedic antics were pretty lame. Though MAZE is not terrible, it's not good either. It's just your average "girl from our world gets transported to another world and must save it and return home" story with a RANMA 1/2-like twist.

Released in North America by Software Sculptors
VHS, 100 minutes,
English Dubbed, SSVD-6090
$19.99
Available now in the USA
Where to buy