Anime From The Vaults: Explorer Woman Ray (1989)

"Ancient temples, sinister villains, and hair-raising chase scenes.
 These may sound like the highlights of the latest Indiana Jones film, but they are also the domain of Ray Kizuki.
 Archaeologist and black belt extrodinaire, the explorer woman has come to a remote corner of the world where a vast, legendary temple has been found. With her Ray carries a mysterious, mirror-like object once owned by her father and rumoured to be the key to a lost civilisation. "

 One of the things I am grateful to Youtube for is the old, frequently obscure anime, that's been uploaded by fans who refuse to let these titles fade into the darkness.
  I have every intention of doing write-ups for some of the more interesting  - starting with this one.

   Explorer Woman Ray never got a UK release but since it was one of the earliest anime titles to be released onto the US market, I suspect it showed up on a lot of people's tape-trading lists.
  I know I saw this anime years and years ago but that was a copy of a copy of a copy, so actually watching it without all that lovely tape-fuzz was a pleasant experience.

  Anime fans were a hardy lot back in the day. We'd put up with a level of glitching and Potato Quality that would make kids today punch the monitor. We got a lot of headaches, mind you.

  I digress.

 The story is pretty much the same for each episode and can best be summed up thus: Bad guy Rieg and his vest wearing henchmen try to misuse the powers of an ancient temple. Rayna "Ray" Kizuki tries to stop them.  Stuff gets wrecked.

  It's a simple formula but it works quite well.  "Indiana Jones" is definitely the right reference point as there's plenty of chases and running around dodging falling masonry.
 On the subject of stonework, both episodes take place in the sort of vast, multilayered temple complex you only ever seem to see in Tomb Raider games or adventure movies.  Their builders - the vanished PreColumbian civilisation known as the Ords - clearly thought big and seem to have a thing for precarious walkways. And mirrors. Big mirrors.

 It's never really explained how Ord temples managed to turn sunlight into some sort of Mystical Super-Energy or what the hell Rieg wants with it.

 Then again Rieg wears one of those opera capes with big, flarey collars. That pretty much tells the entire world that he's not only a bad guy, but the sort of bad guy that thinks his destiny is to be God-Emperor of Earth. He has a tendency towards monologuing and gloating that bites him in the ass big time.

 Meanwhile heroine Rayna is initially a cold fish but warms up slightly as events progress. In Ep 2 you get a little more insight into her history and why Rieg is not her favourite person in the world.
 She's a badass, naturally. Fearless, determined and knocks bad guys about like roided up skittles. Rayna is who Lara Croft wanted to be when she grew up.
 Somebody thought it would be a great idea to lumber her with a couple of mildly-annoying teenage girls as sidekicks. Oh joy. I live in hope that Bumbling Comic Relief is a trope that will die off soon.

The whole thing is a little dated, but animated quite well by 80s OVA standards and the action scenes look pretty good. The boat chase in ep 1 is a particular highlight, as is the opening train hijack. .

  In short, if you like 1980s action anime, or just fancy a nostalgia trip, "Explorer Woman Ray" is a fun way to kill some time.

Here's the Youtube link. 

http://youtu.be/35PW49kZxng

 That's all folks.