Mind Game has been on my to-watch list for quite some time now, as it was both produced by Studio 4C and I heard good recommendations about it. Well, now that I’ve seen it, what do I get? Well… good question!
I’m not sure how to describe Mind Game. The closest I can think of is Robinson Crusoë who’s been smoking dangerous stuff. This really is one of the more absurd movies I’ve seen. Even Eikyuu Kazoku seems like an ordinary walk in terms of strangeness. We’ve got a guy, who’s much like a loser. He’s got a girl he likes, he confessed to her, though he keeps getting too scared to take initiative. Until she gets a new boyfriend. So far it’s normal, though this is where every possible connection with the word “normal” ends. The main character, the girl and her new boyfriend sit the restaurant of the girl’s family. A very dangerous guy comes in and starts causing trouble. He then sees our main character, who can’t move out of fear, and he kills him.
Our main character then has a talk with god, after which he starts to freak out because of his own foolish mistakes. He runs away from god and turns back to life. In there, he kills the guy who killed him and runs away with the girl and her sister. In the end, they end up in the belly of a huge whale, along with a strange old man. That’s where most of the story takes place, believe it or not.
I’ve got a hate/love relationship with this absurdness. On one side, there are times at which it really works. We get to see a very creative car chase, and the characters work good with all of the chaos which bursts out of nowhere. At other times, however, the show gets a bit annoying. We often get to see useless fanservice, and some chaotic scenes drag on for a bit too long. I believe that this movie could’ve been more successful if it had been trimmed down to the length of one hour, instead of the 1 hour and 40 minutes it has now.
The graphics are again drawn in the typical style of Studio 4C. Still, for some reason, it didn’t really appeal to me in the way Mahou Shoujotai, Eikyuu Kazoku, Beyond and Comedy did. The animation, then again, shows that this is a big budgeted movie. Overall, it looks pretty creative and fluid. Something you can expect of a normal movie. The background art, however, is where this movie does excel. Things look as creative as ever, though Studio 4C has always been excellent in this department.
Overall, it was a nice watch, but it was definitely not Studio 4C’s best work. I’m suggesting you to check out Mahou Shoujotai, Eikyuu Kazoku and Comedy if you are trying to see some of their stuff. Still, I have to admit. The beginning of the movie, aka before they got into the whale’s belly was worth the watch.
In this case relatively unnecessary fanservice didn’t bother me at all, whole movie is so absurd that using normal ways to review don’t work here. You never know what’s going to happen next, that’s probably the reason why Mind Game doesn’t have much rewatch value. But movies in general rarely have it so not really anything that make the experience less enjoyable. I liked particularly the scene where they try to get out from inside the whale.
That scene was nice indeed, but I somehow feel that it kindof dragged on for a bit too long. Still, when that scene ended, I did feel glad for the characters.
I can’t say I enjoyed the movie, BUT I can say that it’s worth watching for the final escape sequence alone.
I like the meaning of the movie. A loser that stands up against his fear, and win it. The escape from the whale’s belly scene first makes me like…wtf?? (with lots of stuff like a plane, a tank, so on… makes me think that the whale swallowed all those things too). But then I realize that it just wanna tell you to give ayour best shot when you want something.
(My grammar might be horrible, sorry about that,I’m Vietnamese)
Obviously too smart of a movie for you
I’m really disappointed in your review of this movie. I almost always agree with your scores but this one is waaaay to low. Mind Game is bar none the best anime movie to ever grace the screen. From an artistic stand point as well as just pure entertainment. I think you need to re-watch and re-evaluate this masterpiece.