Story by Jer Alford. Art by Aimi Tokutake.
Friday, December 21, 2012
ANI-MOVIES, Dirty Pair: Project Eden
In case you didn't know, the anime is about a team of trouble consultants for an interstellar welfare originization called the WWWA. The fiesty Kei and the vein Yuri often try to emphasize that their codename is the "Lovely Angels", but their habit of causing unwarrented destruction throughout the galaxy has them referred to as the Dirty Pair. So anyway, Kei and Yuri are assigned to look into the attack of two different nations on the planet Argena that contains one of the galaxy's richest deposits of a mineral called Vizorium which is used to power spacedrives. Their investigation leads to a thief named Carson who they find in the ruins of one of attacked mineral refineries. Then, they're all attacked by bizarre creatures which look like a cross between leeches and the aliens from the Alien movies. Kei and Yuri team up with Carson to find where the creatures originate, a strange fortress belonging to the eccentric scientist, Prof. Watsman. He has been creating a new race genetically evolved from the Vizorium, but they keep meeting in failure. Carson is after him for a special bottle of wine made a few centuries ago that was stolen from him after he stole it(for himself!). After getting a spare arsenal from their loyal cat/grizzly bear Mughi, they fight past the horde of alien creatures and Watsman's butler who apparently was a former Jedi. They capture Watsman, and supposedly take Carson into custody too, but alot of the film was built around Kei and him developing somekind of romance. Before they leave though, they accidently set off a device in Watsman's lab that evolves all the Vizorium, and leaves the entire planet overrun with brutal creatures popping out of the ground.
This was a good outlet for the Lovely Angels, but took them a little more of their normal element. Usually, there's alot more action involved. The first 10 minutes and the last 15 or so minutes are pure great sci-fi action, while the rest of it involves Kei exploring her fascination with Carson, while Yuri is just sort of there. Like most movies that are based on an anime franchise(Sailor Moon, Naruto, Pokémon)the majority of the story revolves around the characters original to the movie, and not so much the ones the series was based on. However, it does work fairly well here. This is still a well animated movie for the mid-80s, and very visually appealing. It was first released on VHS in the 90s through Streamline Pictures, and then picked up by ADV Films a few years ago with a totally different dub. You can find it seperately on DVD, or as part of the Original Dirty Pair: Movie Collection, even though the other two movies in it are actually OVAs. BTW, the Original Dirty Pair is the series from the 80s, while Dirty Pair Flash was the remake video series done in the 90s.
ANI-MOVIES, *Millennium Actress
Starting off in modern day, Genya is a director making a documentary on the demolishing of a famous Japanese movie studio, and interviews the belle of the movie set, Chiyoko Fujiwara, who is now a reclusive elderly lady. She recalls when she was a young girl and scouted by an up-and-coming movie director to be his latest star. Before her mother consents to her taking up a movie career, Chiyoko befriends a handsome artist who is on the run from the government for being an activist. He gives her a key and promises to see her again sometime. Chiyoko then sets out to be an actress mainly in the hope to find him somewhere while travelling Japan from set to set. While she conveys the details of her search during the interview, it begins to incorporate parts she played in various movies. She goes from being a samurai princess, a ninja, a geisha, and more, all the while only running into the artist once while he's still on the run, and is finally confronted by an officer who has been "Zenigataing" him this whole time. She later learns from him that the artist was captured and tortured to death. Chiyoko then goes on a long running sequence(one of film's several ones)which leads to her remembering her last role as an astronaut who continues to pursue her true love even into the stars. In reality though, she passes away of old age, but reaches a final sense of conclusion when Genya returns the key to her that had been missing for decades.
Satoshi Kon delivers a finely animated production with this, while catering to the rich history of Japanese cinema. It might get a little confusing when they're going from parts of Chiyoko's life to her in one of her movies, plus having Genya and his cameraman becoming integrated into them too. Aside from the somewhat dramatic overtones in it, there is also some exceptional comedy. Sony Pictures released this on DVD in the U.S. with only a Japanese track on it, probably due to the fact that the film caters alot more to otaku and those familiar with Japanese culture than your average American, however it's still an appealing film and worth checking out.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
ANI-MOVIES, *Afro Samurai: Resurrection
Taking place a few years after the first series(although they seem to have forgotten the scene at the end where Jinno had gotten all the other headbands to challenge Afro), Jinno returns in his full Darth Teddy getup and pulls Afro kicking and screaming to his father's grave. There, Jinno's then revealed long-lost sister, the voluptuous Sio robs Afro's father's grave, and takes his skull away, along with the #1 Headband, which Afro spent the entire original anime trying to get. She challenges him to come and get the headband back along with his father's remains. Afro then sets out to find the #2 Headband, with a rematerialized Ninja Ninja(who may or may not really exist outside Afro's head). After an encounter with the last remants of the Empty Seven Clan, Afro tracks down the current holder of the #2 Headband. A killer battle ensues between him and the other samurai during a parade, but Afro defeats him. Then he tangles with some of Sio's adopted family who have been remade into cyborgs by the maniacal Prof. Dharman, who turned Jinno into a bear-droid in the first series. Afro then arrives where Sio told him to challenge her, only to find out that she has had his father brought back as an insane clone who fights Afro, and does in fact kill him. Jinno realizes that his feelings were misplaced about Afro's betrayal, and fights the clone, only to have himself and Sio be killed in the process. The only fortunate part for them is that a spark of Jinno's circuitry shocks Afro's body and brings him back to life, so that he can KILL his father's clone. This follows with Afro handing the #2 Headband over to a child who was in the care of the previous headband's owner that he killed, prompting him to duel him just like Justice did in the original. Speaking of Justice, it looks like they had him in mind for another sequal because the movie ends with him in Hell meeting up with some demon.
Afro Samurai: Resurrection was decent follow-up to the previous anime, although this works better as a full-length movie as apposed to the 4-episode run Spike is rerunning it as. The animation by Gonzo Studio is amazing, with some of the best anime fight sequences in a long time. Gonzo is responsible for working on titles like Hellsing, Blue Sub No. 6, Full Metal Panic, Final Fantasy, GI Joe, and Transformers. The storyline is a little sub-par, and the dialogue is a little too stereotypical in the way Hollywood would expect an "ethnic" themed action movie would be. But if you like the first series, and other samurai/ninja anime like Ninja Scroll and Samurai 7, then the DVD director's cut release of this is right up your alley.
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