Star Crossed Anime

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

They may look similar, but make no mistake: Appleseed 2004 and Appleseed Ex Machina (2007) are two completely different movies. They’re both action movies, but the former’s big focus was on its setting; the latter’s is on its characters.

Seriously, Appleseed has a great and interesting concept. Ex Machina doesn’t really use anything of it, and pretty much reduces everything to “humans, androids and hacking”. It doesn’t ask any of the interesting questions that the 2004 series did, and just takes its setting for granted, coming with a generic brainwashing thriller.

On the other side of the coin, the characters are far from as clumsily portrayed as the 2004 series. Oh, it’s still cheesy, but it’s nevertheless a major improvement. The characters actually developed a bit in between the two movies (though don’t expect any development in the movies themselves), and the drama between them is simple, a bit cheesy, but effective enough for the action to not become boring.

The 2004 movie also had its botox faces problem. You know, the faces that may look good in screenshots, yet look plastic as soon as they try to move. Ex Machina also has this problem a bit, but it’s much less severe. The cutting and camera work is much more skillfully done and this make the jerky and unnatural movements a bit more bearable to watch.

Basically things come down to this: the 2004 series had a lot of flaws and one thing that it was very good at (the setting), while Ex Machina doesn’t have any flaws that are as big as the 2004 movie, yet also doesn’t really have anything to stand out, and is simply a decent action movie to pass an hour and a half. Take your pick.

Oh, just one thing: this movie does have its share of Deus ex Machina. I mean, what moron really calls his movie “Ex Machina” anyway? You’re just going to draw extra attention to them anyway.

Storytelling:	8/10 – Well cut and unambitious, though nicely built up. If you ignore the Deus ex Machinas in the plot.
Characters:	7/10 – Not as one-dimensional as the 2004 movie, but these people have cheese.
Production-Values:	8/10 – Nothing special, but decent action and a solid soundtrack.
Setting:	7/10 – Loses a point by not using its setting in the slightest and making it really simple.

Suggestions:
– Wonderful Days
– Black Magic M66
– Catblue Dynamite