Project Arms - The Claws That Catch (Vol. 1) [DVD]

Amazon.com High school student Ryo discovers that his right hand, which was injured in an accident years earlier, was implanted with "nano-machines," microscopic robots that turn it into an "ARMS," a powerful metamorphic weapon. Hayato and Tomoe, two transfer students at his school, possess similarly lethal mechanical appendages. All three students are attacked by assassins sent by the mysterious organization "Egrigori," which also involves sinister twin boys who recall the child experiment victims in Akira. This 2001 TV series obviously had a very low budget, and the blue-tinted visuals do little to bolster the threadbare plot (Ryo's friend Katsumi is taken hostage twice in one episode). The inevitable slow-motion fight scenes quickly give way to camera moves over still art, and the characters change appearance from scene to scene so radically, it's often difficult to tell who's supposed to be doing what. (Rated 13 and older: considerable violence, profanity) --Charles Solomon