Sadly, being interesting apparently wasn't anywhere on the list of priorities for Liberator. Of course that might imply she has multiple personalities, which could have made Monaka's characterization a little more interesting. It's almost as if one hand doesn't know what the other is doing. She never struggles with the weight of taking human lives. There isn't even a sense of duality to her character Monaka has no real trouble balancing her life as a high school student and part-time waitress with her violent escapades. Kite's Sawa was a tragic character through and through, while Liberator's Monaka lacks any clear defining element of tragedy.
During her normal life as Monaka she works at the sleaziest maid café you can imagine, which is maybe a front for her work as the Angel of Death? I'm phrasing that as a question because it's just not clear how anything is connected in Monaka's life. The purpose of her vigilante justice is never explained.
There's no real frame of reference for the plot on earth involving the "Angel of Death." We know who she is and the double life she leads what we don't know is why. Incorporating science fiction instead of sexual content is all right by me, but the story-lines that take place on earth and in space for this sequel don't make any sense. Genre-blending can yield interesting results, as the discussions that continue to be had about the original hentai/action 1998 OVA can attest to. The OVA's story is basically ripped in half, with each half hobbling along its awkward path before finally being mashed back together in a half-hearted way. It's immediately established that Liberator is a different beast from Kite, but over the course of the sub-hour runtime that beast turns out to be a hideous Frankenstein's monster. The feature opens with a shot of earth from space as the camera pans around a space station. Liberator feels like a reboot (which, in and of itself, would be fine) that forgoes the inclusion of explicit content (also fine) and tries to weave a science fiction storyline together with the tale of a young female assassin. Kite: Liberator is purported to take place several years after the original Kite but, outside of a few vague bits of dialog and a minor character's resemblance to Sawa, any ties to its predecessor are not readily apparent. Oh man, what happened? Of all the directions Yasuomi Umetsu's follow-up to his controversial adult OVA could have taken, this is what he came up with? Avoid it like the radioactive, bone-growing space plague. The original Kite can be a tricky title to review for several reasons but Liberator is an easy call: it's illogical, dumb and entirely devoid of any redeeming values. As a result, nothing in the feature gels I'd hesitate to even call it mush. Liberator takes on too much plot for its 50-minute runtime to sustain. The English dub isn't synched well with the animation, but is otherwise passable. It doesn't deliver visually at all, really while the character designs are appealing, as you'd expect, the animation is sporadically choppy and awkward. There isn't even any decent action after an opening chase sequence. The two plots have almost nothing to do with each other, neither makes sense anyway, and the characters are uninteresting. Oh man, what happened? Of all the directions Yasuomi Umetsu's follow-up to his controversial adult OVA could have taken, an effective reboot awkwardly mashing stupid sci-fi horror with random sleazy action was not what I was expecting.
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