Grey Digital Target (1986) User Reviews

Pulp SF with a message.

[GazHack · 6/10 · 5 January 2002]

The blurb on the box claims that this is a story for the generation of former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. It goes on to say that this is one of the greatest anime films. In both cases this is something of an overstatement.

However "Grey" is a literate SF story which owes a lot to "The Twilight Zone" and "Logan's Run" and is far more worthwhile than many of the animes which have been released in the West. The messages such as the pointless of war and the untrustworthiness of authority are pretty obvious but always worth saying. It's a shame therefore that despite the script's ambitions, the plot is ultimately resolved with a massive gunfight, plenty of deaths and purest melodrama. Animation is fair, in that familiar early eighties "Battle of the Planets" style. Its a diverting 78 minutes but unlikely to rock your world. One tip, make sure you watch it right to the end of the credits for the final image.

I really wish they'd give this a DVD release

[petekrug17 · 9/10 · 9 June 2008]

GREY: DIGITAL TARGET is set in a future a few centuries from now, when the world is a wasteland ruled by a super computer. Humans live poverty-stricken lives in towns. The only chance for a better life is to become a trooper and then earn points by killing troopers from other towns and completing enough missions to eventually become a citizen and then be taken to the city where all citizens live lives of luxury. The only thing is, of all the people who become troopers, only %3 live to achieve their ultimate goal. Grey is a trooper who has gained legendary status by killing an especially large number of enemies and climbed through the ranks at an especially fast rate, and has earned the nickname "Grey Death". When Grey learns that his old friend and mentor Red, the man who taught Grey how to survive, was attacked and captured while out in the field, Grey violates orders and steals a plane from his own town and, along with female trooper Nova, the only other one to survive Grey's last mission, he goes out on a personal mission to bring back Red.

Based on a manga, I like the anime better for one reason, that one character who dies halfway through the manga lives in the anime. It made the story more interesting to me. I would really love to see this get a DVD release some day.