Summary: The Venus Wars is a 1989 animated science fiction movie that takes place in a future where Venus has been terraformed and is home to two nations, Aphrodia and Ishtar. Ishtar invades Aphrodia and quickly occupies its capital city of Io. The story centers around two protagonists: Hiro Seno, an Aphrodian native and the leader of a bike racing team; and Susan Sommers, a reporter who recently arrived from Earth to cover escalating tensions between the two countries. The two join a paramilitary resistance organization to liberate the city while others around them deal with the question of whether to fight, flee, or keep their heads down.

The Good: Exciting action scenes. Good soundtrack. Cool machine designs - the resistance uses one-wheeled motorcycles converted into improvised anti-tank weapons. Expansive and well-done backgrounds bring the setting to life. Hiro beats the shit out of a cop.

The Bad: Ambiently sexist in a way a lot of media from this time period was. Rather homophobic portrayal of its only gay character, who's a creep who sexually harasses Hiro. The anti-war message can get rather preachy and heavy-handed in places. Some of the VAs for the English dub clearly didn't give a shit. A couple of mixed media scenes (animated characters on live-action background) that just look kind of bad.

Overall: 7/10. Not a must-see by any means, but you could certainly do worse. It's an enjoyable watch if you're into sci-fi and if the bad gender/sexual politics aren't a deal killer.