ANI-MOVIES, *Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko

Based on Kanako Nishi's novel, Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko was directed by Witch Hat Atelier's Ayumu Watanabe with animation crafted by Studio 4C whose resume goes all the way back to Katsuhiro Otomo's classic Memories. This was a comedic slice-of-life story between a girl and her mostly clueless mother and how her bad life decisions led to the dire straits they're currently in. It's not so much of a full-length story but comedic segments strung out with a several flashbacks to fit a singular plot, similar to like that in My Neighbors The Yamadas.

Kikuko lives in a houseboat in a harbor town with her overweight mother Nikuko who has a long history of continuously getting hornswoggled out of her money by bloodsucking bachelors. Nikuko now works as a waitress at a bar and grill, but Kikuko is more the more responsible one even though she's still in elementary school. She makes friends with a boy student who makes funny faces when he thinks nobody is looking, who is one of the few sensible people she knows with her classmates arguing about who plays on whose team in basketball. Nikuko has recently been gaining more weight, and her carefree behavior causes Kikuko to feel embarrassed even though most of the locals find her eccentricities charming. We learn that Nikuko is not Kikuko biological mother but her former best friend's who couldn't accept the responsibility of being a parent, even though she later marries a rich man and has two children with him. Despite hearing this painful truth, Kikuko still considers Nikuko her real mother and lovers her with all her faults.

The film spends an inordinate amount of time focusing on Nikuko's weird perspective, like constantly making bad puns from Japanese kanji, which is one of the reasons that this movie wasn't given an English dub. This lackadaisy storytelling also makes it difficult to keep up with the wobbly narrative. Studio 4C on the other hand does pump the film with gorgeous visuals to keep the viewer's mind engaged for a brief 97-minute anime production.

ANI-MOVIES: *The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

The first unofficial movie released by Studio Chizu was 2006's The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Based on the 1967 novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui who also wrote the book Paprika that Satoshi Kon turned into his own anime film, this story has been adapted multiple times in different formats including live-action motion pictures and a TV series. The anime movie was produced by Belle writer Mamoru Hosoda with a screenplay by Satoko Okudera who also wrote the script for Summer Wars. The film is a stand-alone story which acts as a pseudo-sequel to the original 1967 book with the niece of the book's main character. In the book, a girl named Kazuko discovers she can leap back in time to a few days thanks to coming into contact with a man from the future, although in the book she ends up having her memory erased of the whole event, but in the anime movie Kazuko seems to somehow maintain her memories. The dubbing was provided by the Viz Entertainment regulars from Ocean Studios and was first released in English by Bandai, and later on by Funimation. Even though this was eventually redistributed under Studio Chizu, it was initially produced by the geniuses at Madhouse to many accolades.

Makoto is a typical Japanese high school student, not excelling with high grades and somewhat klutzy, but she has two platonic boy schoolmates, Chiaki and Kosuke. Her aunt Kazuko usually referred to as a witch works at restoring paintings at a museum, and Makoto comes to her when she has a strange encounter where she literally leaps through time after nearly hitting a train with her malfunctioning bike. Turns out Kazuko had a similar experience when she was younger which only briefly gets referenced to in the movie, but this makes her think that time leaping is a common thing for some people in her family. Makoto uses her newfound ability to go back to the past reliving similar experiences but exiting whenever she wants, plus she doesn't seem to have to deal with any pesky paradoxes like running into an alternate version of herself as each leap sets up a totally separate timeline for her just slip into. This has a serious caveat to it as it effects the lives of the people around her, this bringing the strange message she first saw when she gained her power which states the "time waits for no one". Makoto learns that a girl has deep feelings for Kosuke, so she tries to set the two of them up, while at the same time Chiaki tries to ask Makoto out. There is a major twist that lays out the entirety of the final act which plays outside of Makoto's control as her supply of time leaps begins to run out, and the giveaway is very convoluted with lots of dangling plot threads and unanswered questions. Ultimately though, the focus of the story is more character-based and how people's relationships can be shaken by even the most minimal changes.

The finale does spread a large emotional doubt on how to interpret the original intentions of this adaptation of a 40-year-old book which just resolved everything by giving all the characters involved with amnesia. However, this remake doesn't make people forget and instead Makoto has to deal with the consequences of her actions in both the present and altered present, even as she comes to terms about how she feels about her friends and what kind of future she wants to walk into. Mamoru Hosadu made this a visually stunning film with many scenes just taking in the beauty of the mundane world in the background which is something he'd utilize in future productions like Wolf Children and Mirai, although Mirai seemed to have a better grasp on the concept of time travel than this film did. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is more of a character study than a fully realized story and borderlines being episodic as it's broken down into to the 3-act structure, especially at its conclusion. The anime movie is at best a loose adaptation of the source material, and the film is charming most of the time, while simultaneously leaving a hard impact with some of the revelations we learn about upon the way. This delivers as a solid quality animated production, but the time tripping can leave the viewer wanting to know more about the true history of some of these characters which this film doesn't deliver on.

R.I.P. Peter Cullen

 

R.I.P. Tim Curry

 

ANI-MOVIES, *Grave Of The Fireflies

The horrors of World War II have been the focus of several anime films including Barefoot Gen and Rail Of The Star, but Grave Of The Fireflies is considered the definitive movie, especially since it was the second outing for Studio Ghibli. Oddly enough, since this came out the same year as Ghibli's My Neighbor Totoro, it was sold as a double feature with the film in various international releases at the time which makes for a severe contrast in tone going from war atrocities to a cheerful modern day fairy tale. Isao Takahata directed this and went on to direct an even more opposite anime movie in Kiki's Delivery Service which was also an uplifting family picture but didn't hold back on the inhumanity that war takes on both sides of the story, which is striking considering this was the first film Takahata directed for Ghibli. Most have seen this film as being Takahata's magnum opus, even though it's one of the most somber movies ever made and it drains enough from just one viewing that you never feel the need to watching a second time. It's visually revered and thought of as being one of Ghibli's most detailed movies of the 80s, but the sobering effect that the story has on you will quickly take you out of being mesmerized by anything you see. This was based on a short story by Akiyuki Nosaka who wrote it in 1967 to make amends for losing his adopted younger sister as Japan was recovering from the fall of war which he basically saw himself as a coward but still lived to tell his story. This is the only other Ghibli movie that neither Disney nor GKids owned the rights to outside of The Red Turtle.

Starting in late 1945, we see a homeless boy named Seita die of starvation in a train station with his spirit joining that of his departed sister Setsuko in a field full of fireflies. The story then skips back a few months later where their home is bombed by Americans during the Pacific War. Seita and his sister move in with their aunt as their father is still in the navy, but it's later on told that he was probably killed after Japan surrendered. Seita doesn't have a school or place to work at as they were all destroyed during the air raids, so his aunt gets cross with them complaining that she tires of having to take care of anyone outside her immediate family. Seita and Setsuka move out on their own and live in a nearby air shelter, although Seita resorts to stealing from other people in order to keep the two of them alive. Setsuka eventually dies of malnutrition, with Seita burning her body to ashes and keeping them inside a tin can that he used to keep candy in for her.

The message of Grave Of The Fireflies wasn't intended to be an anti-war movie, but more how the lives of those who survive a war are inevitably destroyed by it. There is no real authority working against the pair of siblings, although their bipolar aunt pulls a major switch at some point when she gets fed up with being responsible for estranged family, which in fact shows how the war turned people inwards and only caring for themselves and their loved ones leaving all the other victims out in the cold. Ghibli's craftmanship shines brightly in this despite the haunting musical score and the heart wrenching plight of these orphans who have been abandoned by a self-gratifying society. This film is a must-see for any aficionado of animation as the emotional hand-drawn style is something that is lost on movies of today, however the weight of guilt that the story tries to burden you with makes it difficult to watch more than once in a lifetime.

ANI-MOVIES, *Aztec Batman: Clash Of Empires

For a DC Animated Movie to come out after the conclusion of the Tomorrowverse proves that there's some gas left in their direct-to-video productions, but this doesn't live up to the reputation of former DCAU films. Aztec Batman: Clash Of Empires is an original story set in a parallel universe much like the other DC Elseworlds titles. Warner Bros. teamed up with Mexican animation studio Anima to create a tale that would bring more awareness to colonialism and how it affected the Aztecs, although this really took the wrong approach to it. The quality has severely dropped compared to other Elseworlds animated movies like The Doom That Came To Gotham or Gotham By Gaslight and it's like they took any creative idea for an alternate history and filled the cast with random characters from the Batman roster. The animation is stiff and way below theatrical standards, plus the way the story folds out it seems more like one of compilation films of an online DC animated mini-series being broken up into several chapters, even with their own separate fade out scene changes. The real rusty nail sticking out of the whole affair is that it was done intentionally as the first part of a franchise as if there was any potential for it to get a sequel.

Set in another reality, Coatl is the son of a village chief whose entire population is killed off by Spanish conquistadores from Cuba led by the greedy Cortes who becomes this world's version of Two-Face, who is accompanied by the Azrael placeholder. Coatl trains with his family's retainer to become a masked warrior modeled after an Aztec bat god, plus gains an ally in the disguised thief of Jaguar Woman. A forest spirit who here is a good version of Poison Ivy helps Coatl realize his true destiny as a tool for the gods, all while a corrupt priest accepts the idea of madness and murders his family to appease his own delusionary deity by becoming the Joker of this story. Ultimately, the Aztecs repel the Spaniards for the time being with threat of a token Penguin filler villain that shows up in a post-credit scene.

Even though this took a lot of historical liberties, the movie takes people who really existed and rewrote them into being comics characters. The story fills most of the squares in their Batman bingo card when it comes to a new interpretation of the Caped Crusader, but it takes its time getting to each plot point as the characters fill in their roles as Gotham City regulars. This is an R rated movie, so there's a decent amount of bloody maiming, but there is no replay value in this at all and would've been better off as a comic book story instead of an original animated movie.

ANI-MOVIES: *Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League

Seven years after the bombastic Batman Ninja anime movie came out, the sequel has the Dark Knight coming across a dark version of the Justice League. Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League takes place right after the previous and we got Kazuki Nakashima from Kamen Rider returning to write the screenplay. This was largely all animated in 3D cel-shading with occasional 2D scenes including a loving ode to 70s Super Robot shows, although it's gotten a little bit of an upgrade for the sequel, although Warner Bros. Animation is still falling behind in CGI quality compared to Sony or Disney. The style is the bigger attractor here than the actual story and taking into account how bonkers the first movie was is really saying something. The strange change here is that none of the original English casts came back for this, so voice-over regulars like Grey Griffin, Tara Strong, and Roger Craig Smith were absent. There is dynamic action with exaggerated fights between masked mortals and superpowered gangsters.

After Batman and the others finally return from the alternate feudal Japan, they all awake to find out the world isn't the same as it used to be. Gotham keeps getting attacked by yakuza with jetpacks from floating Japanese city mirroring Gotham in the sky, and the regular Justice League is missing. Batman and Robin go to investigate to run across yakuza-themed alternates to the JLA who are all evil and working for Ra's Al Ghul who manipulated the Quake Engine from the previous movie to fold together a new reality where these superheroes-turned-gangsters are his allies. Fortunately, the alternate Wonder Woman is on Batman's side against Ra's, and she teams up with the regular Harley Quinn to try and save Robin who was kidnapped by the yakuza Superman, plus Joker makes an appearance to help Batman from crashing to his death since killing Batman is his job. The remaining Bat-Family consisting of Nightwing, Red Hood, and Red Robin team up with Wonder Woman and her Amazon ninjas to take down the members of the League including Aquaman, Flash, and Green Lantern Jessica Cruz. The toughest one was conspicuously left out of most promotions for the film was the yakuza Superman that Batman stops with red solar energy. The last part has the Bat-Family and the reformed Yakuza League preventing Ra's from crashing the floating city into Gotham which could cause worldwide devastation.

This was more of a style over substance project as it requires for Bat-fans and your average otaku would be concerned, although the plot remains true to its outlandish premise. There are some inconsistencies between this sequel and the original like what happened to Catwoman and all other villains from the previous film, and Ra's explanation on how he created a whole new reality after tampering with time tripping is very hand wavy. There are plenty of homages to Japanese figures like a montage with the Bat-Family in their own tokusatsu anime, plus Wonder Woman motivating her Amazon sisters by belting out an enka-themed karaoke number, and Harley Quinn sporting her Sukeban Deka punk schoolgirl uniform is peak otaku fresh. Oddly enough, another aspect of the film is that it personifies the yakuza live-action movies of which anime is in the minority of. The entire film was animated by Warner Bros. so there was no other anime studio involved in its production. The high-octane superhero action is a breath of fresh air compared to the fatigue who most have experienced from the MCU, so this is the Elseworlds story you never knew you wanted.