Things I loved in this anime: - amazing and fantastic character designs, that remind me of the director’s previous work like GaoGaiGar and Brigadoon (the main girl looks a lot like the main one from Brigadoon lol. Also the mascot is so cute and funny I love him!) - really impressive and creative use of CGI for 2008, and while I’m sure it makes some people say it looks weird now, this would’ve looked amazing back then! Look at how expressive the characters are and how they close their eyes when they bend down and jump etc. amazing for the time!!) - entire main cast are all reallylikable, they basically spend the entire OVA just trying to find a place where all 4 of em can live safely together.)

Things I’m neutral on:
- this show has a handful of moments that seem targetted towards otaku (panty shots during some scenes etc), and while I’m personally not angry about that, it does make it harder to recommend this show to others which is a bummer cause it’s probably adding to its obscurity
- there’s a possession / evil mind control story involving one of the main characters. Some viewers may find this to be a cop out since it basically means one of the major antagonists just gets redeemed instantly since they weren’t in control of themselves. But I don’t mind this too much because it connected back to a plot point with the mascot in a really cool way (basically I got a lot of cute scenes with the mascot Ukatan out of this plot point, which was a positive for me). ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

Things that I’m negative on:
- this series definitely needed more episodes in order to explore this story, it does feel a little bit rushed, but at the end of the day I’m just happy it exists at all even if it feels like it went through some plot points too fast
- the whole tangent with Region Free (the guys who ride in the mecha) all getting an introduction and a theme song, really felt like it was a waste of time in an already cramped OVA, and while I know it’s probably here because the director is the same guy who got to direct GaoGaiGar, and he clearly is doing a little tribute / homage to this popular mecha series (which I can always appreciate cause GaoGaiGar rocks), I think that this was really just a waste of time in this OVA, I’m not saying that the series should’ve cut the characters out, I just think they shouldn’t have been given quite as much spotlight when Amuri in Star Ocean is so cramped already.
Also, the singing during their theme song was extremely bizzare and kind of off key, I think maybe it might have been sung by this director himself, but even then, it’s weird that this song for the Region Free team sounded so off key, because he has sung in anime before and sounded fantastic (he has sung the amazing rock ending theme song for his other show Betterman, and there’s a version of GaoGaiGar’s opening where he sings on it too. So yeah, if this song in Amuri in Star Ocean was sung by Yonetani as well, it’s weird that it sounds so off key, and also the entire soundtrack of Amuri in Star Ocean is utterly fantastic in every other regard, except this one thing.

Ok this review is turning into a rambling mess, I just wanna say I love that mascot so much, Ukatan you are so funny and cool <3