Summary: The Venus Wars is a 1989 animated science fiction movie that takes place in a future where Venus has been terraformed and is home to two nations, Aphrodia and Ishtar. Ishtar invades Aphrodia and quickly occupies its capital city of Io. The story centers around two protagonists: Hiro Seno, an Aphrodian native and the leader of a bike racing team; and Susan Sommers, a reporter who recently arrived from Earth to cover escalating tensions between the two countries. The two join a paramilitary resistance organization to liberate the city while others around them deal with the question of whether to fight, flee, or keep their heads down.

The Good: Exciting action scenes. Good soundtrack. Cool machine designs - the resistance uses one-wheeled motorcycles converted into improvised anti-tank weapons. Expansive and well-done backgrounds bring the setting to life. Hiro beats the shit out of a cop.

The Bad: Ambiently sexist in a way a lot of media from this time period was. Rather homophobic portrayal of its only gay character, who's a creep who sexually harasses Hiro. The anti-war message can get rather preachy and heavy-handed in places. Some of the VAs for the English dub clearly didn't give a shit. A couple of mixed media scenes (animated characters on live-action background) that just look kind of bad.

Overall: 7/10. Not a must-see by any means, but you could certainly do worse. It's an enjoyable watch if you're into sci-fi and if the bad gender/sexual politics aren't a deal killer.

I've lived in a big city for years now. Never seen anybody get mugged, or shot, or carjacked, despite doing activist work that often has me visiting poor minority neighborhoods.

The only time I ever really felt uneasy was when I had to walk alone at night through a neighborhood where all the businesses had bars on the windows. Worst thing that happened was a couple of people asking me for money, and they didn't give me any shit when I said I didn't carry cash.

But any time I visit the small town where I grew up there's always someone or another acting like I came back from a fucking warzone lmao

Before the Corruption, the Phoenix was the embodiment of wisdom and justice in the land. But just like the four other Guardians, she has been driven to a mindless rage, and she now isolates herself in her Sun Temple, raining terrible fire on any who dare approach her. The hero will have to weave between her fireball patterns to get close enough to strike her with his sword, but every few hits, she flies across the room and tries to keep him at bay with another barrage of flames.

Once the hero defeats the Phoenix and purges the corruption from her, she gratefully bestows upon him her divine flame. This grants the hero a powerful projectile attack that can be used to safely clear out enemies from a distance as well as burn away thick bushes that block off parts of the world.