I must say, I agree with Kumiko-chan on this one. The Minera saga is very well done. The music, the animation, the story, the coreography, all of it.
And Diana (the main heroine) is one hell of a woman! Sassy, smart, brave, sexy, confident, resourceful, daring… not someone I’d want to match wits with, because I know I’d lose.
Anyway, if anyone wants, I could post some more detailed thoughts on it.
Mike
Mike, if you don’t mind…pleasepost your thought
The DVD is coming out on June and I’m planning to get it
Hey,
Hmm, sounds interesting. Sure tell me more but no spoilers please
Arigatou
Hmmmmmm…
Hey, Mike…Don’t just post your thoughts…Post also some picture of “Diana”…I want to be up-close and personal… …hehehehehe
Oh, well…v 
Hey Guys,
Sorry this took kinda long to get back to it. If I could sum up this series in one word… Incredible.
Oh, first, don’t mess with Diana. She’s very taken… and liable to completely beat you at any contest you throw at her. She’s sassy, smart, intellegent, crafty, sensual, sexy, seductive, sly… She’s one hell of a woman. One you wouldn’t want to match wits with because you’d lose.
Okay a review without spoilers. (mind you this is from the 2 tapes I have… I purchased it before the DVD came out with all 5 episodes on it.)
Techinal:
Top of the line stuff here. Solid animation and coreography. Good useage of colors. Subtitles well timed and sized (as well as a fairly good translation as well. No “Americanized” lines.) Absolutely fantastic music. I loved it! I can’t really describe it… if you’ve watched the intro for the PSX game “Kuldelka” the music sounds very much like that.
Story and Stuff:
WHAT A STORY! Oh, wait, no spoilers. Well… okay I will say this. Diana is a very brave and tenatious woman. She is willing to undergo some serious trauma’s to keep other safe. Not a sacrifice taken lightly. Man, this is really hard to give a review with out giving out spoilers.
Okay, here’s the long and short of it, get it. You won’t be disappointed. The story, the plot, the characterizations, the plot twists, are all very well done. It pulls you into this parallell world… and makes you part of Diana’s path and world.
I was very impressed by this series.
Mike
Kumiko, I have just gotten the first DVD of Fencer of Minerva and have to say that you were correct that in is based loosely on the Gor books by John Norman, but only the early ones not the latter ones. In the earlier book the hero was more in the way that we except heroes to be, willing to help the damsel in distress and not demand that she lay on her back and open her legs. In the latter books he while he was still the hero, his attitude toward the damsel would be to have been to rip her clothes off, throw her to the ground, and rape her and then have her collared and branded his slave. He also did this to women who had offended him, were his enemies, or who he thought were only good to be slaves(this last one being his attitude for all women). But in all his books that I read, Norman never describe the actual penetration of the slavegirls just the events leading up and after, the slave/female being taken and used by the hero. The hero also was no unwilling to use a switch or whip on any slave to keep her in discipline. But in regards to Fencer of Minerva I find that I agree with Mike Thomas on how well they did the anime.
In regard to the 16&UP I agree that it should have been 18&UP also, but then I think about it and realize that while it did show some breast and rears and some sexual scenes it did not show like other 18&UP anime any sex organs, oral/hand sex or actual penetration(Anime on DVD said in their review that scenes were remove showing internal female sex organ).
When I can I will have to get the second DVD and see the rest of this anime.
Will I have the DVDs on Fencer Minerva part one on DVDs. I got from comic-con. Will I know I seen the all of the Fencer Minerva on VHS (Dubbed) I don’t like the VHS with dubbed because they are not good voice actor. Once I got the DVDs I lie it because they use real actor.
Yes that was the one of the thing that “Anime on DVD” stated about Fencer of Minerva:
“And for the love of god, whatever you do, do not listen to the English track. The Japanese actors requested their names be removed from the credits, but it’s definitely the English actors who should have requested that. It’s like these women have never had mad nookie before and don’t know how to portray it.”
As well as:
"The menus are decent with the exception of the English voice over being used (“Do you want to be whipped?!”)."
But it was I thought a good video and will being getting the second one soon.
Kumiko, I will not deny that I may have overstated the latter books(I have not really read them in the last several years). And I do agree that they were basically about the nature of the masculinity and femininity sexual relation in the extreme. But in the later books John Norman made the hero harder, and meaner, more of a man’s man, then in the first eight books. In those books hero, Tarl Cabot, was in the same vein as John Carter or even a Conan. I also did not find Conan or Carter till after I had read the Gor books first so they may have colored the way I now see the Gor books. In the eight early books, he never took any of the female slave forcibly, and he would at the end free them. In the books after eight he was more Gorean then a native Gorean. But then also Gor is a hard world and the only the strong survive. It was this change in the later book that resulted in Mr Norman being blacklisted by publishers.
The Gor movies were some of the worst movies I have ever seen, they were so cheesy that they made it on “Mystery Science Theater 3000”. MST3K was a comedy TV show that had an actor and two puppet watching old cheesy movies and making remarks about them through out the whole show.
I personal liked the books, all 25 of them, and was disappointed when they stopped. It is said that he has written book #26 “Witness of Gor” and rumored to have the plotted out two to four more books. Also the four books that were written from the female view, Captive, Slave girl, Kajira(this meaning slave girl in Gorean), and Dancer of Gor, are consider some of the best of his works. But also as I said in my first post he never described the actual act of the master and slave having sex. There was always some dialogue on what the master/slave relationship was, some foreplay maybe, and then he would leave a break in the chapter or have the slave declare that she wanted to yield to her master, you know that they were having sex but, it was just never put down in detail.
Miss Kumiko having had nothing better to do since my last post I did a search for Witness of Gor the 26th book in the series and found a website that is actual selling the book. They have at this time only two type of this book for order: One is a leather bound hardcover for $65.00 and has a slipcase. the other is an autograph copy also with a slipcase and is on better quaity the the above for $195.00. They also have reprints of the first four books at $9.95 but I can not tell what their size is(it look like the books maybe oversize but don’t hold me to that).
The web site is if you want to take a look
http://www.worldofgor.com/
Miss Kumiko, i hate to correct a pretty girl like yourself but here is break down of Mister Norman’s work:
25 Gor books: Seven with Del Ray/Ballintine, and eighteen with DAW.
2 other fiction books with DAW: Time Slave(involes time travel) and Ghost Dance(historical fiction set in old west).
1 Non-fiction book: Imaginative Sex, basical a guide for sexual role playing.
And three hard Science Fiction books: the Telnarian Histories from Questar/Warner Books. These last three were called Gor In Space.
As for why Tarl was marked for death by the Prist-kings, this was put down to the fact that he went out of his way to save the life of a Kur general, with whom he had shared paga with(see Beasts, Savages and Blood Brothers of Gor #12,17&18).