Category: Anime Reviews

My favourite kind of cat-people is definitely those from Kenji Miyazawa’s stories. For as far as I can recall, they’re the only ones who don’t try to act cute and moe. I was looking forward to his adaptation of Spring and Chaos, because aside from the cat-people, the stories that I’ve seen from him all had something unique. And indeed, Spring and Chaos isn’t what you’d call your average anime-movie.

The movie basically follows a writer with the name of Kenji Miyazawa (autobiographical?), who is rather eccentric and has rather trouble to fit into society with is idealized views and ideas. This movie sees him trying out various things in order to relieve him from his frustration. The entire thing is quite thought-provoking at times, but I don’t know… it seems to be missing the spark that I saw in Night on the Galactic Railroad and Gauche the Cellist.

After I finished watching the movie I still didn’t quite know what this movie wanted to be, or what its point was, and it just didn’t hit me like some of Kenji Miyazawa’s other works. The creators hop from one thing to the other without much coherence or logic, and I think that that rather spoiled this movie. I think that this was another case of too much ambition on the creators’ side: they wanted to do Miyazawa justice, so they tried to stuff too much in just one hour. It’s a shame.

One thing that did turn out interesting for this movie is its graphics. They’re quite pretty to look at, both the “usual” scenes and the CG-scenes that basically all happen in the main character’s mind. Still, I think that Kenji Miyazawa’s stories are better off with a quiet, down-to-earth approach like with Night on the Galactic Railroad or Gauche the Cellist. They don’t need to be so spectacular and ambitious to work.

When I originally looked at the promo-art, I thought that Area 88 was another one of the works of Matsumoto Leiji. Turns out it wasn’t, though I can imagine how the creators did get their inspiration from him. Area 88 is a realistic war-story about war-mercenaries in a poor African country. Make no mistake; even though there are only three OVAs, the total amount of airtime for this anime is over three hours. Due to this relatively long size, this turned into one of the least rushed OVAs I’ve seen in a long while.

There are a lot of battles in the sky for this OVA, but the real purpose of the movie is to show the fighter-pilots themselves. What goes on in their mind when they fly? Why do they fight and kill? How does the war change them? All questions get sufficiently answered, and are nicely packaged around the story of one of these pilots, who basically gets blackmailed into joining the mercenaries. There are a few coincidences here and there, but overall Area 88 has turned into quite a memorable OVA for me. I can understand why fifteen years after the original production, a television-series-remake was made (seriously, more movies and OVAs should get that treatment. Battle Angel Alita, Akira, Please Save my Earth, etc)

While I haven’t seen anything of the original Gundam Universal Century-storyline, I can imagine how anyone who liked it will like Area 88. Both the main and side-characters have been sufficiently developed, considering the length of the OVA, and there are no overpowered teenagers who stand in the centre. I must say that after seeing more and more of the genre of realistic war-stories, I’m beginning to like it more and more. It’s OVAs like these that show that you can be manly, even if you don’t pilot a mecha that throws galaxies.

This is rare: Hyper Future Vision Gunmm, or Battle Angel Alita (two titles of which I have no idea why they were given to this anime) is a two-episode OVA, based on a much larger work of nine volumes of manga. Most movies and OVAs in the same situation don’t seem to care about explanations and leave huge holes in the characters and storyline. But Battle Angel Alita is different: I only spotted one or two moments were more explanation was needed. Apart from that, this movie felt surprisingly complete, despite its relatively short length.

And that’s not all, because it’s not like the plot and setting are simple. There’s quite a large, varied cast of characters that all are developed a bit and especially the main characters are developed a lot, considering that this OVA only has two episodes to work with. The storyline also keeps getting pushed forward, and the combination between plot- and character-development is excellent. I must praise the scriptwriters for this OVA: they had to face a lot of difficulties, were extremely limited, and yet they pulled it off to put such a storyline in just two episodes.

The characters are also more sympathetic than you think, and especially the second episode is quite emotionally charged, but therein lays the problem. If the creators could already do so much with just two episodes, then just imagine what they’d be able to do if they were given an extra episode to work with. The few holes in the storyline that were left would have been easily filled, and there was more than enough potential for the characters to be more even more sympathetic than they already were. Simply enough: I want more, but there’s no way there’ll be more. Still, despite this, Hyper Future Vision is an excellent recommendation for if you’re looking for something short, yet good.

In 2003, four episodes of Black Jack were produced to celebrate the 30th birthday of Osamu Tezuka’s creation. After watching The Two Doctors of Darkness, I was looking forward to seeing more of this franchise, though unfortunately some bad decisions on the creators’ side turned this Black Jack Special disappointing. I definitely don’t hope that the rest of the series and OVAs are as annoying as this one. I’ll probably end up watching the TV-series in the very distant future, but for now I don’t feel like watching more of this concept.

Lest me start with the thing that by far annoys me the most: Pinoco, Black Jack’s daughter/assistant/wife. I can understand why Makoto Tezuka decided to cut her off in the Two Doctors of Darkness, because the more she appears on the screen, the more annoying her whining becomes. I really like the concept behind Black Jack, but Pinoco serves no purpose at all apart from lightening the mood a bit, though there are much better ways to do this.

Then there comes the storyline itself, and it just doesn’t live up to the Two Doctors of Darkness. Instead of a continuous storyline, there are just four random stories, probably taken from the manga. The first and fourth story work, and give some interesting background to Black Jack himself, though the second and third episode are pointless, far-fetched and way too disappointing for me to recommend this.

It’s a shame. I read somewhere that the Black Jack Special captured the essence of the original manga, though this only strengthens my point that Osamu Tezuka’s material may not be much in his own hands, but can be turned into gold when handled by the right hands. If you want to see examples of this then you should go for Hi no Tori or Metropolis. I can indeed see how much Osamu Tezuka has meant for the anime today: his works may have their flaws, but as a source of inspiration, they were more influential than even Ghost in the Shell. In a few years, I’ll probably watch the tv-series, but for now I’ve seen more than enough of Pinoco’s whining.

One thing that I’ve been noticing with Osamu Tezuka’s works is that whenever it’s adapted by someone else, the result turns out great, but when he directs a movie of his own work himself, the result turns out much less spectacular. Metropolis was awesome and Hi no Tori turned out brilliant, while Unico had a lot of potential, but its major villain made no sense at all. The Marine Express also had some great storytelling, but the plot-twist in the middle was just entirely ridiculous. The second Black Jack movie shows the same. While it’s level of quality is nowhere near that of Metropolis or Hi no Tori, it remains a very enjoyable movie.

Anyway, The Two Doctors of Darkness is basically the first thing I’ve seen from the Black Jack-franchise, which consists out of two movies, two tv-series (totalling a staggering amount of 78 episodes), an OVA and a tv-special. After watching it, I can understand why the premise caught on so much: it’s been a while since I saw an anime that toys so much with morals as this one. It’s really one of Osamu Tezuka’s many trademarks.

This movie looks at death at a totally different perspective compared to the usual. Black Jack is basically an incredibly talented surgeon, who can cure almost anything that’s curable with ease. And yet he doesn’t spend his days into a hospital like most other doctors and charges ridiculous fees for his clients. I like how, even though this isn’t the first Black Jack-movie, it does a fine job of introducing the viewer to the concept and main-characters, although I guess I need to watch the television-series for the development of the side-characters, which were just too bland and pointless, making me wonder why they were included in the movie in the first place.

It seems that the one who was given the task to direct this movie was Osamu Tezuka’s son, Makoto Tezuka. For the job, he did a very fine job, like expected of his father. The movie feels complete, it doesn’t drag on and it makes fair use of its ninety minutes. If there weren’t numerous surgical-scenes, I’d recommend this for the younger audiences to watch as well. The fact remains that Makoto does have a lot to learn. The major problem for this movie that it gets a bit too far-fetched at times, and there are a few convenient coincidences at times that spoil the mood that the movie has been building up for. Yet, while knowing nothing about the source-material, I can imagine how the guy could have done far worse than he’s shown now.

Okay, I’m just going to refuse to give this movie a rating. I went into this movie, expecting something similar to the original Ghost in the Shell, but instead I got something very different, though I can’t really describe this. All I know is that this movie went into my mind, did stuff and left again, looking very pretty while doing so.

This really is one movie that wants to play with your mind, and for me it accomplished its mission. The best way I can describe this would be if you unleashed the strangeness of Angel’s egg upon the original Ghost in the Shell-movie. The first half of the movie cleverly starts out as your regular cop-show, but as the second half kicks in, Oshii Mamoru unleashes a wave of complicated script-writing and mind-games, chockfull of biblical and philosophical references. At one point, I just stopped caring whether some plot-events were explained or not and just let myself get carried along with the things that went on on the screen.

I know that there are a few things that were unexplained in this movie, and I know that a lot of things didn’t make any sense when I watched it, but I really don’t know how much of it was indeed left out, or just turned out to be something I just missed. This really is a movie that you need to watch over and over if you want to understand it.

There’s one thing that I’m certain of with this movie, though: even for a movie, the graphics look awesome, and I honestly can’t think of any other anime that has better-looking visuals than Innocence. Kenji Kawai (Seirei no Moribito, Ghost in the Shell 1) also returns for the soundtrack, and it sounds better than ever. I’ve seen my share of confusing movies (Tamala 2001, Cat Soup, Mind Game), but this one seriously tops them all in this department.

While Ghost in the Shell is probably the most famous anime-movie of the nineties, Akira is the most well-known one of the eighties. It was this movie that opened up the anime-industry to mainstream America, though at the same time it’s also received some harsh criticism. When I started watching this movie, I couldn’t understand why. It doesn’t happen often that a male main character of fifteen years old is likable, right from the start, and the movie quickly starts with some character-development. But, unfortunately as the movie went on, it became clear that Akira indeed has its problems.

The biggest one being that it’s based on a large manga, which just doesn’t fit into a two-hour movie. Because of this, the movie ends with huge gaping hole into both the storyline and character-backgrounds. Thankfully, some development did make it into the movie, but when a fifteen year-old kid suddenly turns out to be proficient with various kinds of guns without any reason whatsoever, you have to start wondering whether you missed something.

It’s a shame: the potential is definitely there. Especially the characters have been very nicely developed during the first half of the movie, but they unfortunately lose their spark when the storyline gets more and more out of control with superpowers that just become more and more over-the-top. Akira would have been just as fine without the huge amounts of one-sided superpowers. The much-needed background for the two main characters also arrives much too late.

In terms of production-values this series shines, though. Especially for a movie that’s twenty years old, the animation looks gorgeous and there are absolutely no still frames. I also loved how the cast of side-characters is rich and varied, and even the most unimportant roles are more than just paper bags. The soundtrack also consists out a number of excellent tracks. If this were a tv-series, it would have rocked, but unfortunately it had to be compressed into such a tiny movie.

After Twilight Q and Patlabor, I was looking forward to Mamoru Oshii’s most famous work: Ghost in the Shell. It’s probably the most well-known anime-movie of the nineties. With very detailed graphics, especially for those days, and a terrific soundtrack, I can understand why this became a classic for many people. Still, I wouldn’t really classify this among neither Mamoru Oshii’s nor Masamune Shirou’s best work.

First of all, while the movie might try to make you believe otherwise, the depth of this movie is much less than even the first Patlabor-movie (in my opinion, Mamoru’s most down-to-earth work). There’s one specific scene that feels too much like the creators just pasted in a piece of convenient philosophical dialogue, instead of cleverly inserting this in the storyline. At heart, this just remains a standard movie about catching a bad-guy. The concept has a lot of potential, but I just feel that the movie only scratched the surface of it. But yeah, this can be excused with the two movies and two television-series that followed.

What can’t be excused was the fact that a lot of things just aren’t explained. There are a few hints here and there at the characters’ backgrounds, but that’s all that we get. I would have liked to see Mamoru Oshii’s typical dialogue to explain more about both the characters and the plot, like he did so well in Twilight Q. Right now, there are a lot of holes in the stories that could have been explained just as well.

Still, Ghost in the Shell is by no means a bad movie; it just doesn’t deserve the huge hype. The characters are more likable than you would expect on first sight and despite their lack of development. The story is interesting enough to make you keep watching and the action is also quite well done: there’s not too much, it doesn’t get in the way of the story and there’s much less than I expected. One movie just isn’t enough for this concept, and I think I wasn’t the only one who got this idea.

Spriggan is basically the big action movie of Studio 4C. Unfortunately, it’s also one of their worst works. You have to give it credit for taking place in Turkey, though. The overall feel of the Turkish cities in the beginning of the movie is portrayed quite well. If only the rest of the movie wasn’t such a horrible mess.

The biggest problem lies with the main character: he’s another one of those 17-year-old brats with superhuman abilities with shallow explanation. He ends up performing one reckless act after the other without even breaking a sweat. The movie quickly ceases to be engaging, simply because you won’t feel any reason to connect to the main character because his superpowers will save him out of the situation anyway.

The plot isn’t much better off. Hardly anything is explained, so a lot of parts end up not making any sense at all. This isn’t in the way that Yukikaze was incomprehensible; for Spriggan, the writers just have been damn lazy. Characters also posses knowledge of which you’d wonder how the heck they found that out. Basically, all Spriggan cares about are action and pretty graphics.

Thankfully, the climax itself is satisfying. Well, satisfying enough when compared to the rest of the movie. It actually saves some time to give the main character some much-needed development and it was much less over-the-top as I feared. Still, it by no means made up for the mess that was the rest of the movie. The only reason why you should watch this is if you’re tired and want something that doesn’t require you to think. Spriggan is perfect for this and it’ll at least keep you entertained with its action-scenes. Thankfully, it isn’t as stupid as Giniro no Kami no Agito, there are a few good points, but don’t expect any substance from this one.

My major problem (and I guess that goes for many people as well) with mecha-shows is that these giant robots are very hard to make believable. I mean, their centre of gravity is high, they’re expensive and complicated and why would armies go through the huge trouble to create giant human-shaped robots when tanks and planes are a much easier and efficient choice? Only a select amount of stories can really justify the use of mechas, in my opinion (Bokura no is a good example and a series like FLAG also made the use of human-shaped robots believable enough). Therefore, it’s nice to see that Yukikaze for once just keeps to fighter-planes.

Right from the start it becomes clear that this is a very ambitious OVA. A lot of budget has been put into the graphics, and they look absolutely gorgeous. The storytelling is also slow-paced, to give enough time to flesh out the characters and to give the viewer the chance to connect to the cast. The setting is dark and gritty, and the military organization that it focused on has received a lot of attention to look as real as possible, with multiple ranks, a lot of staff is involved in a mission (and not just one guy who can take care of all the maintenance of an entire fleet). The potential was definitely there, but unfortunately it’s got one major flaw.

Basically, the storyline is excellent, the characters are deep, but the storytelling is very confusing, and at times it’s even too confusing. Often I found myself thinking “what the hell happened?” Entire scenes of explanation seem to have been lost on the cutting-room floor, and there’s also the matter that this series likes to delve into lots of techno-babble at times. Yukikaze consists out of five episodes, and I feel that it would have so much benefited from one more episode that explains everything, completes the background of the different characters and gives depth to the enemy (something they majorly lacked as well).

Even though this series is about fighter-planes, there’s also enough focus on the two main characters: one of the pilots of a rather special plane and his superior (and for once: no teenagers!). The different characters are surprisingly close to each other, and this series makes sure to show this. Basically, every character that gets developed feels complete and genuine, and for that I’m willing to forgive the rather botched-up storytelling.