Set in the land of Granmall, Amon is a young warrior on a quest to avenge his mother's murder by soldiers of the evil Valhiss Empire. Amon has been trained in the use of the blade by the enigmatic master swordsman Ekuna so he reckons he's up to the task and when opportunity arises, he joins the Imperial Valhiss army on top of its enormous, mobile fortified city, in order to get closer to the Emperor and take his revenge.
Valhiss is ruled by an evil and deceitful Emperor bent on obtaining the fabled treasure of the Valley of Gold in the Vindorana Mountains. Aided by the powerful sorcerer Mabo and Denon, the evil Captain of his army, he intends to extend his reign over all of Granmall. To further those aims, he has kidnapped the Princess Lichia, daughter of King Darai Sem, and is holding her to ransom. Darai Sem knows the location of the Valley of Gold and Valhiss wants a map to it in exchange for returning the princess unharmed.
Once in the Emperor's castle, Amon saves Lichia from the jaws of a monstrous Snake-Fish while she's swimming in the Emperor's lake but his attempts at revenge fail as the Emperor is much more powerful than he seems and Amon is imprisoned. When he escapes, he becomes involved in a rescue attempt by one of Darai Sem's men and, along with the princess and his companions, he ends up fleeing towards the Valley of Gold with the Emperor's army following hard behind…
Review
Amon Saga is a fairly standard, 1980s piece of animation. The main storyline is somewhat clichéd - think of Conan the Barbarian - evil ruler kills hero's mother then much later takes princess captive, blah, blah, blah!
The picture is presented in 1.33:1 (4:3) fullscreen, which was common for a mid-eighties animated production. The movie's older style of animation shows its age and looks rather dull and faded in places along with a little jumpiness. None of this helps the video transfer, which also suffers in quality throughout with some grain and minor artefacts but nothing serious. Dark scenes, and there are a lot of them, seemed a little lacking in detail, especially in shadows and blacks. The animation style is a bit dated these days but some of the character designs are pretty good, being done by Yoshitaka Amano, who worked on the Vampire Hunter D novels and animated films.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 English soundtrack is much better, with dialogue coming clearly from the front and a fair amount of directional effects coming from the surround and base channels. You can almost feel the bass thumps of the Valhiss city as it slowly lumbers forward and Shigeaki Saeguse's score is well presented across the soundstage and works well with the action in the movie. There are also stereo Japanese and English tracks available should you desire them.
The story also has some undeveloped portions that could have been expanded on a little. For example, who is Ho, the Dragon-Tailed and why does he pop up a few times and save the day just at the last moment? Why was Amon spared in the attack that left his mother dead and why did they attack in the first place? What's the history behind the Valley of Gold?, etc.
Still, it's watchable but probably only once unless you're a serious fan of the genré.
Extras
Character Profiles - Some details on the nine main characters (Amon, Darai Sem, Princess Lichia, Ekuna, Emperor Valhiss, Ho, Alcan, Mabo and Denon). Some useful background information about the story can be learned here.
Manga Trailers - Some of the usual filler trailers, this time for Akira, Perfect Blue, Ghost in the Shell, Blood: The Last Vampire and Street Fighter Alpha the Movie.
Overall
Amon Saga is a pretty run-of-the-mill piece of Anime with a fairly well worn plot. With the poorish video transfer, the animation showing it's age a bit and the lack of any interesting extra material, this is mainly one for Anime fans. It's certainly worth renting and it's almost definitely in the bargain bins by now as well but it isn't worth a full price purchase.
