Malice@Doll

Its art design occupies the same space as other late-90s CG animations like Reboot but more to the point it seems to be part of the same artistic trend as Japanese games like Baroque and Garage: Bad Dream Adventure. These works used the unreality of stilted 3D animation to their advantage by complementing it with detailed pre-rendered textures creating an effect that lends itself extremely well to sci-fi stories about robots and machines. The world of Malice@Doll was presumably created and run by humans but they are long gone and have left their creations to carry out their purposeless purpose. Malice is a sex doll ... who was once used to fulfill any amount of depraved desires and now needs to be repaired. Her encounter with a mysterious pseudo-organic creature appears to transform her body and spurs her rebirth as a "living" being. However this new condition is infectious and soon she turns every other machine into a shivering mass of flesh struck and tormented by the shock of life.

Over its three-episode run the show develops a rich setting mostly by merit of its visuals. The dark and dingy world is full of warped textures and stands against a foreboding darkness. Intricate patterns are used for buildings and infrastructure which is frequently covered in pipes, wires, and/or mesh. The character designs are also very striking, from the fetish-oriented Dolls to the curiously angelic Admin to the mecha-monstrous Leukocyte. There's really so much ingenuity and vision for what was clearly a limited-budget production, and the few dynamic/action scenes are ingeniously done. For a show where a lot of backgrounds and assets are reused, I was never bored. It keeps a very strong pace.

The story doesn't answer many questions but it can be seen as another sci-fi meditation on "what is the nature of reality," as an existentialist story (finding purpose in a world without "God"), or as a feminist treatise. Or all of them at once. However the world of Malice@Doll is hard to forget and establishes an indelible atmosphere over a remarkably short runtime.

This has some high levels of uncanny valley to it. The art style really makes the characters feel out of place in the world. It's quite uncomfortable but I think that's what makes it so fitting. The art overall has got a creepy but pretty feel to it; as it paints the uncanny atmosphere perfectly.

The world is visually interesting. While you never get to learn too much about it story wise, visually, it's very stimulating.

This is a really creepy horror. Mixing flesh and machine is simply repulsive but creative.

Characters are nothing to write home about but they are robots so they are fairly ... generic. This adds to the uncanny feeling the show has, as not much feels human. Even later in the show when the characters transform, they still don't act like humans other than having some human desires.

The ending is kind of cliché but pretty good. I don't want to include any spoilers so I'm going to leave it at that. The show takes its jabs at humanity but sometimes the truth hurts.

I would recommend this if you want to watch something creepy that will make you feel uncomfortable. It does not have a gripping story but it's very atmospheric.

Story: 5/10

Having lost their human masters since long ago, the entire cast of Malice@Doll is comprised of androids that no longer have any reason for being but still choose to carry out their original duties with loyalty. Amongst these characters we find Malice, a specific kind of robotic creature made solely to provide sexual satisfaction to human customers who used to exist. When an abnormality grants her the gift (or curse) of humanity, everything changes as she allows not only herself but also the other "dolls" to be reborn as sentient, emotional beings who quickly start to explore the pros and cons of being human.

This ... OVA suffers from the defects of poor backdrop and several excessive scenes. With the premise in mind, a rather explicit sexual tone is to be expected but it happens with unreasonable frequency and sometimes even with questionable relevance. The viewer is also expected to develop an emotional attachment to the struggles of the protagonist which simply won't happen as we never really get to know who she is before the roller-coaster begins. Are there any virtues to the story? It's debatable, but I'd say the answer is yes. Amongst the scenes of violence and BDSM-themes sexuality, lots of interesting questions are raised. The most prominent one would probably be "what does it mean to be human?” something quite common in anime. If there was anything I absolutely loved with Malice@Doll however it was probably how humanity and not technology is viewed as a corruptive force and the fact that it never assumes sentience is better than artificiality.

Animation: 4/10

Character designs look appropriately non-human and our robotic protagonists walk around deserted landscapes in deliberately poor movement. Upon its release more than 10 years ago the animation must have been somewhat impressive, but as is the case with most CG it has aged terribly. It's still more or less watchable and there are even certain scenes that managed to maintain some strange sort of beauty, but overall the visual quality is passable at most. Nobody can deny, however, that some of the metamorphoses depicted are incredibly unnerving.

Sound: 7/10

Voice acting is relatively fine assuming you choose the Japanese audio track and the soundtrack is mainly comprised of eerie noises and simplistic but appropriate scores. It accompanies the overall morbid atmosphere quite well without ever getting distracting or obnoxious.

Characters: 5/10

Being human is not necessarily a condition preferable to being a machine. This was, as far as my own subjective interpretation goes, one of the main themes and it's almost fascinating based on its rarity alone; I don't think I've ever encountered such a statement in any work of fiction that comes to mind. It would have worked even better, however, if we actually cared more about the characters which we, thanks to poor writing, never really do. Their struggles generate minor amounts of sympathy but in the end they don't really do much with their recently acquired humanity other than explore the realms of pleasure and pain. Furthermore, their personalities are incredibly simplistic which is to be expected when they were made for one single purpose. I just expected more of a change when they acquired emotions, even if the main theme I mentioned above is interesting enough for me to provide a mediocre score.

Overall: 5/10

Don't let the low ratings fool you; Malice@Doll is not a terrible anime and nor is it filled to the brim with gore and perversion even though several bits are very explicit. It gives birth to a fascinating discussion topic you probably haven't considered before and features enough morbid material to be memorable. The last thing might not be a proper assessment of its quality but all in all I found this hidden OVA both interesting but also poorly scripted. I expected more from a man like Konaka Chiaki but I got a lot more than the ratings of other users indicated I would.