I honestly don’t know what’s come over me in the past few weeks. I haven’t had time or inspiration to post anything (I still upload a pic or short missive on Tumblr fairly regularly…‘regularly’ being a relative term) but what I’m most annoyed at myself for is not having the motivation to reply to comments. Rest assured that I’ve read each and every one of them and I appreciate the fact that at least my readers have the time and effort to write something, even when I haven’t.
Last weekend was a lot of fun though, and kicked me out of my little funk for a while. Ironically I watched more anime during the course of Sunday afternoon that I had during the past month…with the exception of finishing my childhood fave The Mysterious Cities of Gold. LIFF always has a lot of interesting things on offer but the anime line-up this year was impressive: I didn’t get time to see Gintama and One Piece isn’t my thing but I was able to make it to Mardock Scramble: The First Compression, Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 and Redline.
Mardock Scramble: the First Compression
I’d been warned about how this ends abruptly and sure enough, it does. I’d like to think it’s an hour-long opening episode of a series, which makes the cliff-hanger in the final scene easier for me to swallow. A next-ep preview or even a “to be continued…” title card would’ve made things a bit clearer however, especially since the screening was so soon after the Japanese premiere that info on what the deal is with sequel(s) is so thin on the ground. Part of the confusion is I think down to the fact that the project was originally an OAV that was subsequently cancelled, then it surfaced suddenly as a theatrical remake.
I do know that the original novel is currently being prepared for English language release by Viz early in the new year, so if nothing else we’ll have the full story in print if not on the silver screen. Setting aside the issue of the ending and the standard of other fare on offer, I must confess that Mardock Scramble was my favourite of the day: the cyberpunk premise, mixing futuristic cityscapes reminiscent of William Gibson and Masumune Shirow, with the accompanying gothic-meets-industrial aesthetic clicked with me; the backstory of the protagonist meant it went further down the Nasu-esque line of the subjective nature of morality that I really appreciated too.
The violence and unsettling sexual abuse subplot isn’t for the squeamish though, and some of the villains of the movie were so comically grotesque they might have been more at home in an episode of Speed Grapher. It felt like a tribute to cyberpunk’s OAV-fuelled glory days of the 80s actually, only with up-to-date animation and artwork. It’s derivative in some ways but everything’s pulled off with such unflinching flair and with such tantalising undercurrents it endeared itself to me. I don’t think this will be the last time I’ll rave about it.
Evangelion 2.0: You Can (not) Advance
I’ve set out my thoughts on this movie already, and to be honest another viewing hasn’t changed my mind for the worse or for the better. It was just nice to see the thing on the big screen (even if the sound system seemed to be suffering a bit under the strain), and sharing views with friends was of course a lot of fun.
Not much to say about this then, apart from the fact that my respective criticisms and praises still stand. It does look spectacular in the format it was intended for (a cinema full of caffeined-up geeks) and I was in a state of fanboying bliss at another Maaya Sakamoto VA role. Re: the post-credits sequence and next-ep preview: Anno, you bastard. ^_^
Redline
I might take a bit of flak for this in saying I didn’t enjoy this *quite* as much as I expected. At this point the auditorium was getting pretty warm and the caffeine was starting to wear off, but I also think my flagging enthusiasm was because Redline is a victim of its own success. That is to say, the truth behind the rumours about it being a Gurren Lagann-esque visual and audio assault are right on the money, which is precisely the problem: the experience is so full-on that the breakneck pace and dazzling colour gave this viewer sensory overload.
Dat hair!
The artwork is exquisitely detailed so the sheer amount of time and effort invested in this film shines through with every frame. It doesn’t make any pretence, either: it’s a movie purely about larger-than-life characters driving implausible racing cars at implausible speeds; the kind of film that nay-sayers claim can’t be made any more, but every now and then someone has the balls to make one and we’re all grateful for it.
Surprisingly the characters aren’t buried under this adrenaline rush – they’re settled enough into the archetypes to make the plot progression smooth, yet enough is inferred about their personalities and motives to stand out amongst the visual noise. I heartily recommend this movie purely because it’s so good at what it does, but I suspect you’ve already decided to watch it anyway. So watch it.