Apart from the amazing Mahou Shoujotai, Studio 4C has produced much more material. The Animatrix, for example. And Eikyuu Kazoku. I just saw it, and it only proves the awesomeness of Studio 4C. This movie just is so incredibly nuts, it actually scares me.
Okay, the concept: take several people, mostly dumped by society, brainwash them and make them think they’re each other’s family. Broadcast their actions on TV, and make money. The members of the family range from a sadistic baby equipped with scissors (and who isn’t afraid to use them) to a daughter who gets obsessive over fire and from a silent girl who uses her puppet to speak for her to a son who likes to play with machine guns. There are also two pets, a chicken and a dog, who only become the victims of the sadistic ideas of each of the family members. They especially don’t like the baby. At the halfmark of the movie, the family actually escapes, and splits up. And even then the fun doesn’t stop.
Eikyuu Kazoku consists out of a large number of small clips, all pasted after each other to form 30 minutes. Because these clips are incredibly small, the pacing in this series is enormous. So many things succeed each other in such a fast pacing. But then again, when there is a quiet moment, you really notice it. That’s one of the few bad parts of this anime.
Another major good part of this anime is that the creators can’t seem to run out of their incredible amount of creativity. So many original elements have been put in this series. The characters remain quirky throughout the entire movie, and new situations just kept amazing me. Also, despite its length, each character also got a healthy dose of character development.
The character art looks different from most anime. I can understand what people mean by the special style of Studio 4C. It reminded me of Mahou Shoujotai, which is always a good thing. The characters indeed look really interesting. The way they’re drawn really makes them unique. The animation also is very interesting, not to mention the choreography of the different action scenes.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed this movie. It really confirmed that Studio 4C is my favourite anime studio. It had me laughing at so many times. Especially the characters were something else. If you manage to locate this movie, I certainly recommend you to watch it. It will be a very interesting watch.
Good to know that a new Studio 4C convert has joined the small (but very loyal) fandom towards such a unique anime studio. I’ve been a Studio 4C fangirl for quite some time now and they never let me down with their creations (there are some exceptions however…*coughSprigganCough*).
Just wondering, have you seen Mind Game? If you haven’t you really should put it on top of your to-watch list. Keep an eye on their future projects Genius Party (short clips anthology) and the theatrical release of Tekkon (based on the manga by Taiyo Matsumoto, known as Black & White in the US). You could also mention that Eikyuu Kazoku is also known as Eternal Family, I think that most people that may have heard about this title recognize it by its English name.
I’ve yet to see Mind Game, though I’m definitely planning do that one day. I’ve also set my eyes on Comedy, though that one is a tad hard to find. When you try to search for it, it doesn’t really work…
I’ve indeed also noticed the announcements of Genius Party and Tekkon Kinstreet, they sound really interesting. 🙂
Waaah! This looks really excellent but I can’t seem to find any torrents! It doesn’t appear to have been licensed yet either, so…I hope it’s not rude of me to ask you to seed it on mininova, or point me (us) to where you found it. Thanks!
It’s indeed a bitch to get. I found my version on E-Mule, it’s a rather slow program, though it’s got some surprisingly rare stuff.