Anime Review: L/R Licensed by Royalty

Review L/R Licensed by RoyaltyWritten by WarpshadowRating good

Thinking about it there isn't that many shows about secret agents, those that don't double as high school students at least. So that leaves a nice little niche for L/R to fill.

The Pseudo British country of Ishtar is ruled by a Royal Family and like all Royal Families they run into problems. When this happens they turn to Cloud 7 which has two agents code named LR. These two agents are Roe Rickenbacker, a master of disguise and the smooth talking Jack Hoffman. No matter the mission they will take it allow there is one question that dogs them, which one is the L and which one is the R? I guess you will have to watch to find out.

Licensed by Royalty is a slick spy thriller in the tradition of James Bond translated into anime. It is a fairly good action show but it never really blows the viewer away because it never really tries to go over the top. While it can be fairly clever at times it never goes for the psychological angle either. Perhaps the strongest aspect of this show is it's ability create atmosphere including the English opening song so if you hear English songs in the Japanese track don't be suprised. Even that doesn't lift Licensed by Royalty much above the level of mediocrity. It might be worth watching if you like the genre it represents, especially if you can rent Licensed by Royalty or find it cheap at a convention like I did.