Oh, god… it’s finally going to be over…
It’s the last week of Rance Month! And I bet you were expecting Rance IV, right? Well, too bad; a combination of sudden work scheduling and taking forever to scanlate the latest episode of Ruin Explorers resulted in me barely cracking the game. So instead, we’re going to take a look at a two-episode Rance OVA that was released in 1993. Which means it actually came out between Rance III and Rance IV. Huh. Funny how that worked out.
Sabaku no Guardian isn’t based on any actual Rance games, and it seems to be a perfect introduction to the Rance franchise. I should know because it’s the first Rance work I was ever exposed to, and my mind was blown the day I found out it was an actual game series.
We begin with Rance appearing as a mysterious wanderer. The viewer doesn’t know what to expect quite yet. Then we see Sill following him, carrying ALL of the inventory, and apparently the contents of their old house.
Rance hears a a girl screaming for help, so he saves her from her attackers… by dispatching them with extreme violence. The thought of his signature Rance Attack cutting bandits to pieces with relative ease is just amazing. Naturally, he decides to rape the girl as recompense, and Sill just watches.
For a three-minute scene, that scene was a near-perfect representation of the Rance franchise as a whole. There’s a great guitar riff track going on while he rapes the girl, but it’s sadly NOT the iconic music from the Rance games. In fact, there’s no game music in this anime at all, which is probably its only flaw.
None of that was relevant to the rest of the story, BTW.
We cut to a woman pleasuring herself on… something. Then she talks about resurrecting… whatever it is, so she can take revenge on everyone at the Oasis.
Rance arrives at said Oasis to take a job a woman named Ani. Apparently, a bandit group called Green Scorpion has kidnapped 20 virgins, and she needs Rance’s help to save them. This kind of work is right up his alley, of course, but in addition to the 20,000 gold, Rance wants an additional reward. Ani agrees to whatever he wants, and Rance is now locked on to the mission.
First stop: The pub!
After cheating the Hanny out of some gold, he interrogates him about the Green Scorpion and learns they attack on the crescent moon. Then he interrogates him about Ani and learns the bandits raped her in the middle of the town while the villagers pretended not to notice. Oh, and the Green Scorpion were all killed the first time they attacked the village, making this whole quest pointless.
Later that night, what appears to be the Green Scorpion attacks the Oasis. After killing a bunch of them, Rance notices they aren’t real humans but puppets controlled by sorcery. Sill gets kidnapped (naturally) and he pursues them to their hideout. Also, Rance manages to save Sill during the actual pursuit, showing off his unexpected competence. Rance and Sill stand in front of the bandit tower, ready for a climactic showdown.
Next episode!
FYI, in the Rance games, one of the major game mechanics is the use of the Camp. You can Camp anywhere on the map, and this allows you to save, load, level up (except in the first game), restore stamina, and talk to party members. Naturally, the end of the first episode was a perfect time to save.
Inside the tower seems to be an entirely different jungle-like space filled with trans enemies from Rance II and III. After killing a load of them, Rance calls the Level Goddess, Willis.
Oh, that’s right. In the games, leveling isn’t automatic. You need to summon the Level Goddess to level up your characters. In Rance I, this is done through the Level Shop, but in later Rance games, he can summon Willis through the Camp menu. Also, she has a catchy jingle whenever she appears.
Amusingly, the higher Rance levels up, the less clothing she has when she appears. Once Rance hits level 40, he has the option of raping her. But if you choose to do this, Willis refuses to grant him any more levels.
Finally, Rance makes his way to a room where girls are chained to rape devices for some unknown purpose. Ani arrives and asks Rance to rescue the girls, but then she has a headache and suddenly starts stroking Rance’s Hyperweapon and takes him to another room where they can fuck. Rance suspects nothing.
Anyway, after they have sex, Ani reveals that the tower is a living being that needs the sexual energy of virgins to move, but the energy has to be triggered by the semen of a strong man. Which Ani now has. With that, the living being is awakened. And it is…
The Atlas Hanny.
Also, Evil Ani reveals that she has split personalities caused from the shock of her rape. And somehow gained some of the power leaking out of the Atlas Hanny to create her army. Good Ani asks Rance to kill her to stop the Atlas Hanny.
Evil Ani taunts Rance, asking if he can live with the guilt of killing her when it means Good Ani will also die. Rance responds by having Sill blow up the wall Ani merged with, then stabbing Ani. The day is saved. Until Rance accidentally triggers the Hanny’s beam mechanism, destroying Oasis. Rance says “this kind of thing happens sometimes” and proceeds to have sex with Sill next to Ani’s corpse.
Holy shit.
Honestly, I don’t think there’s much else to say here. The animation may not be all that great, but it’s a pretty perfect representation of a Rance game, getting all of its humor across possibly better than anyone could ever hope for. It’s downright hilarious is what it is.