Viewing Journal: Rescue Me - Mave-Chan

OAV Overview DVD Info Trailer Rating: Overall= C Story = C- Video = C Audio = C-

Journal

Rei goes to an anime convention and ends up in a world created by the desires of anime fans. Rei doesn't know how to get back and the world starts to collapse as the convention is coming to a close. (Source: ANN)

Back in my entry on Yukikaze I said something like "I hope I don't have to wait as long for Mave-chan as I had to wait for the final episode of Yukikaze." That was about a year and a half ago. So was it worth the wait? ... Not really.

This one-episode OAV is a simple fantasy story about a boy named Rei who goes to a convention and ends up stumbling into a world that is a manifestation of fans' love of anime. The characters in this other world represent parts of a particular anime -- in this case Yukikaze -- and as the anime's popularity wains the characters of this world start to fade away. Can Rei save the world -- and the anime it represents -- from fading into total obscurity? Watch and see!

Obviously the whole thing is pretty goofy, but if you really think about it, it's kind of funny because the theme is essentially, "Please keep Yukikaze popular!"

And that is just as well because in truth, the only people who will find any real value in this show are Yukikaze fans. Sure, non-fans may be able to understand what is going on in general, but they won't get the references (ie, what the different characters are supposed to represent), which means you loose 90% of the amusement-factor. And it's not like it has mind-blowing animation or an incredibly engaging plot that might interest non-fans. Heck, even if you have seen Yukikaze, it would be hard for someone to justify forking over another ten bucks just for this one half-hour throw away episode with no significant extras. It would have been ideal if this was included on the last Yukikaze DVD as an extra (as was originally planned). That way it would have ensured that the episode reached its target audience and would have been more worthwhile. As a stand-alone DVD I can't imagine many people giving this much consideration.

Viewing Journal: Karas (complete)

OAV Overview DVD Info Trailer Rating: Overall= C+ Story = C Video = A- Audio = B

Journal

The old Karas is dead, killed by an evil ex-Karas who now named himself Ekou. He started a series of murders against humanity by making his loyal youkai drain the body fluids from humans. Otoha ,a young man who just woke from a coma, is chosen to be the new Karas. Him and his trainer, Yurine, start the fight against the evil forces of darkness that are triyng to conquer the city of Shijuku. (Source: ANN)

The first part of this two-part OAV baffled me. Sure, the animation is incredible, and the fast action battles look spectacular. But the problem is that I had no idea WHY any of that spectacular stuff was happening because there was no context explaining why the battles were taking place. Cool visuals may add to the "ooo, aahh" factor, but action can never be really intense unless the audience cares about the battle's outcome. And they are not going to care about the outcome unless they know what is on the line and what the characters' motivations are.

And it's not just the battles that are confusing. All kinds of stuff happens in the first volume without giving any explanation as to why. Like why are demon-robots attacking people in the city? What's the connection between Karas, the doctor in the other demon world (although at that point you don't even know it's a demon world) and the guy in a coma? What's the deal with the girl with the weird goggles and is always hanging around Karas? And basically what is anyone doing and why are they doing it and what is everyone talking about?

And the music only serves to compound the confusion because it tries to dictate the tone instead of enhancing it. For example, at the beginning of the show you see this demon-robot thing rampaging around the city. Then this armored guy (who ends up being Karas) appears and there is all this dramatic music implying that the audience is supposed to be overjoyed that this guy has appeared. But at this point you don't know who that armored guy is or where he came from so why should I be overjoyed? He could be another bad guy for all I know. As a result, I was constantly thinking that I'd missed some key piece of dialogue or other plot explanation. As it turns out, the second volume explains a lot (although, if you read the back of the first volume's DVD case, it will also provide some insight). But by that point, the story has lost its opportunity to build any tension and/or sympathy for the characters. So even though it is nice to finally understand what is going on, the ending is not as climactic or satisfying as it should have been.

As I mentioned before, the animation itself is awesome. It is a seamless mix of 3-d and 2-d animation with fast and smooth action and detailed designs.

So in the end, what could have been a spectacular piece of animation, turned out to be only an okay anime though with very VERY impressive visuals. I might even go so far as to say the animation itself makes the OAV worth watching just because that level of quality is so rare in anime. If you do watch it, just make sure to have some patience with the first volume and faith that explanations will eventually come in the second.

Viewing Journal: Tekkon Kinkreet

Movie Overview DVD Info Trailer Rating: Overall= A- Story = B+ Video = A Audio = A

Journal

Black and White are two orphans who roam the streets of Treasure Town, beating down any thug or yakuza who gets in their way. When mysterious foreign entrepreneurs appear with the intention of tearing down Treasure Town and replacing it with an amusement park, Black and White face their greatest adversaries yet. It is up to the destructive Black to save the fate of the city and up to the gentle White to save Black from his own dark nature. (Source: ANN)

I'll admit that I initially had low expectations for this movie purely because it is directed by an American (even though it is based on a Japanese manga and produced by a Japanese animation studio). Call it unjustified cynicism if you want, but whenever I see anime where the US has had some hand in its production, I usually end up disappointed. But luckily that's not the case with this movie.

The thing that makes it particularly worthy of praise -- for me anyway -- is the balanced way in which it presents Black and White's unrestricted freedom.

When it starts out, you see the two kids leaping up buildings, hopping across rooftops, chasing away challengers, and you even see Black beating the snot out of a gangster at one point. It's the kind of power and adventure that every kid has dreamed about having at some point (or maybe just me -- when I was a kid). And from that perspective, it starts out with a sense of almost whimsical nostalgia. And on top of that it does a great job of building up their attachment to each other as well as the city and all the people living in it.

But as you get further into the movie, you see that things aren't quite so carefree as they first seem, as the story shows the darker side of Black and White's wild abandon. The kids have to pickpocket to get any money; they survive cold winders with nothing but an abandoned car for shelter; and then those gangsters who Black beat up come down on both of them with a brutal vengeance. Plus, just as you get a feeling for the kids' attachement to each other, the plot works its hardest to try and tear the two appart. All in all, it makes for some unexpectedly heart-wrenching drama.

To be fair, there is a lot of strangeness in this movie that will probably confuse people. For one, the gangsters' main goal is to build an amusement park. Seriously. And it's not like it's a cover for some shady dealings either. It literally is just an amusement park and this is what Black and White are fighting against. Maybe it's supposed to be symbolic of commercialism's destructive effect on kids' pure imaginations ... something like that. But I have a feeling that the oddities are due more to the movie glossing over the story from the original manga than it is due to thematic subtlety. But even so there was enough plot explanation and character development keep me enthralled throughout.

Above the engaging plot and sympathetic characters, there is the wildly original animation. The visuals are colorful, playful, and unbelievably detailed. This movie has some solid replay value if for no other reason than that you will need to watch multiple times just to be able to absorb all the details. The art style is different from anything else I've seen in anime. It almost reminds me of something a child would do just because there is so much imagination in the details. Some people might think the visuals are too stylized, but I think the use of dynamic action and camera movement keeps the abstract visuals looking solid.

The music also matches and enhances the mood of each scene perfectly.

So to sum up, this a great movie with an original animation style that delivers on a lot of levels. Definitely recommended.

Coming Soon: Batman the anime-ted series

They're not taking a half-ass stab at this either. There are some big names associated with this thing from both Japan and US.

Details:

The "2008 Movie Spectacular" special issue of Wizard magazine reports that Japan's Studio 4°C, Production I.G, and Madhouse are animating Batman: Gotham Knight, a collection of six shorts about the iconic DC Comics detective. The animated shorts will be scripted by Batman comic writers Brian Azzarello and Greg Rucka, A History of Violence screenwriter Josh Olson, Batman Begins screenwriter David S. Goyer, The Dark Knight movie producer Jordan Goldberg, and Batman: The Animated Series screenwriter Alan Burnett. Wizard Magazine reports that the shorts will be directed by American animator Bruce Timm. French fan site Catsuka reports that anime director Satoshi Kon will helm one of the six productions. The project is scheduled to debut next summer. (Source: AnimeNation)

Viewing Journal: Ping Pong

Movie Overview DVD Info Trailer Rating: Overall= B Story = B Video = B Audio = C+

Journal

Best friends Peco and Smile have been playing ping pong since they were little kids. While the unique and brazen Peco plays to win and loves the sport, the quiet and introverted Smile thinks of it as just a way to kill time with friends, and plays only because he looks up to Peco as his hero. Though Smile is the more talented player, he frequently and intentionally loses to Peco out of a misguided sense of friendship. However, after Peco is badly beaten by his old pal Demon in an important inter-high school tournament and quits the game, Smile becomes the newest celebrity of ping pong. Smile begins training for the next championship, waiting for the return of his hero, whom he is destined to meet in one last match. (Source: ANN)

This is just a strait-up feel-good movie. There's no deep meaning, or intense duels to the death. It's just a story about kids learning life lessons through the sport of table tennis.

I think what mainly makes it a feel-good movie, other than the usual character-must-overcome-personal-obstacles-in-order-to-achieve-greatness, is that there are no real "bad guys". Smile faces challengers, of course, but there really isn't anyone for the audience to hate in this movie. The obstacle that Smile has to overcome is an internal one, and most all the characters in the movie -- even his challengers -- encourage him and give him support. It's the fact that Smile himself is not allowing them to support him that gives the show its dramatic conflict.

Of course you also have the actual Ping Pong matches themselves. With few exceptions, there's really no special cinematography or goofy special effects (like say, in Shaolin Soccer). Instead the matches get their intensity from the characters' motivations to win (or lack there of), and their techniques.

Actually, if there is one criticism I have of this movie it's that it didn't detail Ping Pong techniques much at all. I like it when a sports-related Japanese movie or anime will show the characters analyzing each others' techniques and try to find ways around them. But here, other than the characters showing off a few nifty special movies, there isn't much of any analysis. On the plus side though, I suppose that allows the audience to focus on the dramatic side of the match instead of the technical side.

I'm sure others will also criticize this movie for it's unoriginal plot line. I mean, how many times have we seen stories where the main character has little interest in an activity in which he has great proficiency (at least one). But unoriginal or not, the plot line works well to make it an effective and enjoyable drama.

So in the end, I'd recommend this movie to anyone who is in the mood for a simple and enjoyable story that has a lot of heart.

Viewing Journal: Tachigui - The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters

Movie Overview TV Broadcast Info (Not yet available in US) Trailer Rating: Overall= C- Story = C- Video = B Audio = C

Journal

Retelling Japan’s history from 1945 to present through the feats of self-proclaimed dine and dash professionals. They are phantoms that rise and fall with Japan’s shifting diet-styles, dissenting heroes who carved their names on the dark side of dietary culture with their glare. (Source: AZN)

This is a documentary, but it's not. And it's animation but it's not. And it's kind of funny, but it's not. And all-in-all I'm not quite sure what to make of it other than to say that it's a unique kind of movie that could either make you laugh, or think pensively about the world depending on how you look at it.

The movie is actually a mock-documentary that recounts the post-war history of fast-food scam artists. It describes the techniques of ten or so different "grifters" throughout different eras in the fast-food industry -- from the early ramen shop through to modern hamburger joints. Why the director -- Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Jin Roh) -- chose this particular subject, I have no idea. Maybe he's trying to acknowledge people who live on the fringe of society as necessitated by a recovering post-war Japan. I don't know. But what I do know is that watching these scam artists and listening to the narrator as he describes their techniques and philosophies is alternately interesting, amusing, and mind-numbing.

It's amusing because you have such a riduculous subject that is being taken so seriously and analytically. And then seeing each grifter face-off against the shop owners, with one trying to outwit or just intimidate the other as if they are having a samurai duel is just funny. It's not so much laugh-out-loud funny, it's more like you just sit there and watch and think, "Wait, what the heck's going on here? Is this for real?" If there is a laugh-out-loud part it would be the scene with "Hamburger Tetsu" who will go into a shop and order a hundred hamburgers or more during peak hours so that the customers start getting antsy or near riotous. Seeing the chef (played by Stand Alone Complex director Kenji Kamiyama) flipping those burgers every which way like a mad man was definitely the funniest part of the movie.

The humor subsides after a while though for a couple reasons. First of all the narrator goes into such depth and detail describing each grifter's techniques and philosophies that it just gets mind-numbing. The other thing is that about three-fourths of the way thorough it takes an odd shift in tone and starts talking about one grifter regretting his life and talking to his mother ... or something like that. I'm not quite sure what that part was all about but it seemed awfully symbolic, and resulted in me feeling a bit sleepy.

Pure entertainment-value aside, the movie can be interesting for a few reasons. For one, I can't help but wonder how much of the "documentary's" information is based on fact. It mostly uses this one author (whose name I can't remember at the moment) and his book as references, and I was wondering whether they -- or the grifters themselves -- were real or not. In addition to my curiosity over the movie's factual basis, there is also the point of its thematic value. But I'm less interested in the later because parts of the movie are so esoteric that it looses its entertainment value, and as a result causes me to loose interest in its analysis. (See the bit about being "sleepy" above.) But for those who like to pull meaning out of esoterica, this may be the movie for you.

Of course, the real reason to watch this movie is the strange animation technique used by Production IG which they dubbed "superlivemation". The visuals are all photographed from real actors, but then are manipulated so the characters have huge head and small bodies. The animation is a 2D/3D effect so the characters look like paper cut-outs standing on a 3D stage. The characters don't move per se, but instead the paper cut-out figures will either change or move in what looks something like you'd see in a JibJab animation. (Check out the trailer to get an idea of what I mean.) The result is a unique effect that can be hilarious at times, but at others -- when there is not a lot of movement and the narrator is in a long rant -- can be tedious to get through.

So overall I wouldn't call this the most entertaining film, but it is at least interesting as an experiment. If nothing else, I'd recommend watching this movie for it's unique subject matter and visual style. But if you are looking for some light-hearted escapism, you best look elsewhere.

Viewing Journal: Highlander - The Search for Vengeance

Movie Overview DVD Info Trailer Rating: Overall= C- Story = D Video = B+ Audio = C

Journal

Colin MacLeod, the immortal Scottish Highlander, travels with the wise-cracking ghost Amergan in search of the immortal despot Marcus Octavius, who killed Colin's lover on the Celtic plains centuries earlier. The once great city of New York is now submerged under water, with only one dominant fortress towering over the sea, the fortress of Marcus Octavius. MacLeod is torn between saving the survivors of New York and hunting down his nemesis. (Source: ANN)

It seems like it should be a great idea. You take an established story from the US and put it in the hands of Japanese animators; the goal being to have a movie that is familiar to western audiences, but also has the best of the action-oriented animation of the east. It's been done before with varying success; but for this Highlander anime, the parts don't mesh well together and it ends up seeming like a forced patchwork of ideas instead of a cohesive story.

As I watched this movie, I could almost hear the writers in the background as they composed the script: "Okay, it's anime right? So that means it'll be graphically violent. And of course there has to be a post-apocalyptic setting. And impractically-but-suggestively dressed women. Yeah, that's pretty much the definition of anime. And since it's Highlander we have to have a ghost advising the hero; and everyone has to be blurting out 'There can be only one' like every three minutes. ... No, we don't need to explain what any of that stuff means. It's Highlander, so it'll all be self-explanatory. Right? ... Right!?"

I'm not saying that it's a bad thing to have those elements in a movie. It's just that in this case, they are there without any much explanation or build up and as a result they seem out-of-placed and/or forced. The point being that the story is more focused on including easily recognizable (and marketable) stereotypes from both anime and the Highlander franchise than on making a cohesive story.

Here's another example: Marcus and Colin have countless battles over a number of centuries. And every time, Marcus wins and comes within millimeters of cutting off Colin's head only to have some convenience save him -- mainly ending up on "holy ground" where immortals are forbidden to kill each other. I can understand this happening maybe two or three times... but every time throughout centuries!? Of course, this is really done as an excuse to show how the pair survive through the past and into the future. It's nice idea; but such a string of conveniences just kills the tension in the story because it makes the hero seem ... well... immortal -- but more due to plot contrivances than his own longevity.

The animation itself is flawless. The action is smooth and the overall art is clean. I'd expect nothing less form the legendary directory of Ninja Scroll. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the animation is too good for the story. Let me explain....

Japanese have a very different way of telling a story than the west does. Anime tends to have character-driven stories that focus on relationships. The west tends to have plot-driven stories that focus on conflict. Neither is inherently better than the other, but I think the character-driven nature of anime is part of what gives it so much energy, and is the reason why it matches well with the dynamic animation. And, to me, a western-style story -- which doesn't have as much energy -- seems like it's limiting the potential of the animation itself. So while the animation quality is great, it looses a lot of the intensity that it would have with a more Japanese-type of story.

So in summary, this movie has great animation, but everything else suffers from weak and forced storytelling. On the bright side, I heard that there is going to be another version of the movie coming out early next year in which the Japanese director had more control (before the US producers got their hands on it). That might be interesting to see, but honestly I'd really have to work up motivation to spend another couple hours with as much of a disappointment as this version was.