Star Crossed Anime

Break Blade has what I like to call the “bad main character syndrome”. His story, back-story and development: they’re all completely uninteresting and generic, and he takes away a lot of screen-time from the more interesting parts of this movie. He has nothing to do with the politics, so that too gets pushed completely aside whenever he is on the screen, in favour of bland romance, a bland rival story and bland morals about killing. Four movies in and this still hasn’t gotten any better.

The fourth movie pretty much was the same as the previous ones: whenever the lead character was on the screen it was boring, whenever it focused on the other characters, it was quite interesting. The rivalry was completely absent from this movie, but instead we got a lot of boring romance build-up. On the other hand, the side characters are getting better, and this had the best battles of the movies so far. I’d say that the ratio of Rygart vs. the rest in this movie was about 35:65.

I’ve whined enough about Rygart for now, but let me at least comment a bit on the battles here. The battles here were again in a larger scale than before, up to the point that two small armies actually faced each other. The resulting battle was a great combination between large-scale tactics to small scale ones, from regular mechas to overpowered ones: it was a surprisingly well balanced one. That was exactly what this series needed: it already had the down to earth battles, and this movie took that formula, added some extra spice to it and made it even better.

Storytelling:	8/10 – Good action scenes. The warfare works here.
Characters:	7/10 – Bad main character syndrome. the side characters are interesting, though.
Production-Values:	8/10 – A step up from the previous movie.
Setting:	8/10 – This instalment was low on politics, but makes up for it with its military analysis.

Suggestions:
– Sengoku Basara
– Seirei no Moribito
– Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu

Here is something that dawned to me while watching A Wind Named Amnesia, about modern anime movies: they aren’t rushed. Sure some of them are bad and all, but I don’t think I can name any movie that premiered during the past years whose story did not sort-of fit in the time that was allocated to it. Some may be fast-paced, but no movie really lacked entire arcs that should have been animated as well. It’s an interesting observation, considering how this is a problem that many TV-series and OVAs suffer from.

Some of the old movies also suffer from this, to take A Wind Named Amnesia just as an example. I haven’t read the manga (coming from the same original author as Vampire Hunter D), but at times, especially near the end, it feels like the creators skipped entire volumes out of time constraints, just to get to a very strange and confusing ending that doesn’t fit in the story in the slightest as a result. If you plan to watch this series, be aware of a very incomplete story.

The story that’s there impressed me, though. It is centred around a basic, but very interesting question, and the vast majority of this movie is dedicated to studying human behavior. It asks questions behind human culture and civilization, and what would happen if all of that would disappear: what would drive them and how do they survive when suddenly their entire lives are turned upside down? The movie is only 80 minutes long, which is way too little to really get in depth on the theme, but the stories that did make it into the movie are wonderfully told, and very interesting to boot.

It’s a very lonely movie. There’s this melancholy throughout the entire airtime that only gets strengthened thanks to some well chosen and performed background music. The protagonist here is excellent in the way that he is easy to relate to in the chaotic world that this movie portrays, while learning a lot throughout the movie and his backstory.

The animation isn’t the most consistent for a movie: some parts are really well animated, others a bit less, but it still is a visually impressive movie with strong character designs. But yeah, the ending jumps around way too much without any build-up. Ideally, this should have been a TV-series, not a movie.

Storytelling:	7/10 – Excellent atmosphere, but way too short for its story, which especially bites back at the end.
Characters:	8/10 – Both the lead and side characters are wonderfully portrayed in the short time that this movie has for them.
Production-Values:	8/10 – Excellent soundtrack, nice, though not the most consistent animation.
Setting:	9/10 – Based on a number of excellent ideas, and takes excellent advantage of this.

Suggestions:
– Please Save my Earth (done by the same director, and again ridiculously rushed despite having an awesome premise)
– Strange Dawn
– Saishuu Heiki Kanojo

Ah, a story about a wolf and a goat becoming friends. Going into this movie, I expected a lot of cheese with this recipe to get it even remotely off the ground, but The whole set-up of the premise was surprisigly well told here. Sure, the goat is a bit of a masochist, but the writing of the parts where they meet each other and become friends is top notch.

Instead of the usual cheesy lines here, the characters can actually speak to each other in a normal way, and they’re aware of the issues that come with their friendship. It’s both interesting for kids and adults to watch. It takes a deeper look at the usual “wolves and goats don’t go together”, and especially the nonchalant way of the lead characters, instead of the usual angst you see with these kinds of stories, stands out as interesting. Beyond that there are also enough comical moments for the kids to enjoy.

As the movie goes on however, it turns more and more into a “been there done that” star crossed friends type of story. It starts to more and more follow the generic formula for these kids of stories, but the characters make it nice to watch. The creators lose it near the ending, though. The movie ends with a bunch of really weird deus ex machina that have no purpose whatsoever, especially considering the messages that it wanted to convey. It’s the type of ending that actually makes the rest of the movie also less good, because of all of the build-up it just nullifies thanks to the completely stupid twists it pulls.

So yeah, for the Wolf versus Sheep/Goad storyk, I’d recommend Chirin no Suzu over Arashi no Yoru ni, but at least it has a lot of eye candy here. This movie looks unlike any other movie I’ve seen. The camera work is also pretty interesting here. It’s a nice watch in any case, though don’t expect anything special.

Storytelling:	7/10 – Nice atmosphere and pleasant pacing, though it also has a number of very blatant Deus ex Machina, and these are pretty bad ones.
Characters:	8/10 – Good and down to earth chemistry between the lead characters for this type of story.
Production-Values:	8/10 – Very interesting looking graphics and animation, though some parts (most notably the muddy river) stick out as a sore thumb.
Setting:	7/10 – Some nondescript landscape. I feel like the creators could have done better to flesh it out.

Suggestions:
– Chirin no Suzu
– Yobi – The Five-Tailed Fox

Here’s another one completely done in CG. Mr Stain has thirteen episodes of seven minutes long, plus one that clocks in at half an hour. It pretty much tells fourteen standalone stories about Mr Stain, and some of the things that he finds around his Junk Alley (why yes, this one has a very descriptive title).

The character models are much more cartoonish than usual with CG anime, which solves the Botox faces problem quite nicely. In fact, the entire series has no words in it whatsoever, and it entirely reliant on the nonverbal communication between the different characters, and that is something that this series is really good at. The facial expressions, the way that the characters move, their gestures. It’s all simplifies, but very sincere and genuine. Also be sure not to miss the EDs for this series, which are based around a wonderful idea.

The stories themselves are a bit of a mixed bag. There are about five or six episodes, like the one with the fish or the one with the fridge that are rather uninspired, and don’t do much interesting. On the other side of the coin though, some of the episodes are shocking, some are touching, some are hilarious and others are just completely bizarre. Some of the things that Mr Stain finds but especially the things that the creators do with them are very imaginative. I especially loved the episode with the Flower and the one with the Baby, due to the bafflingly unexpected twists that the stories in these episodes take.

Beyond that, there isn’t much to this series: episodes don’t build up for each other and the characters just reset themselves after episode after the final one, so there’s not much depth to this thing. It’s a great quick watch though, if you’re in for something strange, yet uncomplicated. What really sets this one apart is some of the bizarre and sometimes even macabre ideas it goes with. It’s completely unpredictable, and yet it’s not just random for the sake of being random.

Storytelling:	8/10 – Fourteen standalone stories, told without any dialogue and makes good use of the fact that there isn’t any dialogue.
Characters:	8/10 – Lovable and well acted, but completely one-dimensional.
Production-Values:	8/10 – Simple character designs, but well animated. doesn’t have the graphical problems that most CG anime have, and yet it was made eight years ago.
Setting:	8/10 – It’s just a strange alley, but the things that pop up there are very creative.

Suggestions:
– Hoshi no Umi no Amuri
– Genius Party – Deathtic 4
– Fireball