First Squad: The Moment of Truth

As the Second World War rages on throughout Europe and the German forces advance closer to Moscow, the days of the Soviet Union seem numbered. Their only hope is the First Squad, a special unit operating within the Soviet intelligence service that consists of teenagers possessing supernatural abilities. However, the unit's sole surviving member Nadya Ruslanova suffers from memory loss and is unlikely to take part in any combat operation.

The next Moment of Truth—an event that happens once every 700 years, when the actions of a single man can change the entire course of history—is rapidly approaching the Eastern Front. In hopes of breaking the stalemate at the frontlines, a German occult organization called Ahnenerbe plans to summon Baron von Wolff, a medieval knight from the Northern Crusades, and his undead army from the underworld. To prevent this from happening, First Squad must gather once again, and it is up to Nadya to bring back her deceased friends to stop the Nazis from taking over the world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ruslanova, Nadya Main

Valya Supporting

Baron von Wolff Supporting

Leo Supporting

Zina Supporting

Marat Supporting

Tanaka, Eiko Producer

Ashino, Yoshiharu Director, Storyboard

Takahashi, Yuuichi Key Animation

David, Alex Von ADR Director

Reviews

Mar 17, 2010

Ranivus

Recommended

I'll admit, I was sort of excited when I found this when I was randomly searching for some good Original Anime Music Videos. Russian rap and Studio 4°C (S4C) animating the video was perfect mix. But as an avid music video watcher in my hey day (when MTV actually showed music videos), one should know that you don't ever take a music video literally or you will lose the game.

Enter, First Squad: The Moment of Truth. I have seen many of S4C's animated shorts recently and have been a fan of most of their work. So to find a full length movie by ... them got me excited. And to realize its all in its 'native' language got me even more hyped up because, how often do you get to watch anime (or even movies) in native languages? It also adds to the level of detail this story tries to tell.

If you have ever watched any type of war documentary, the stories the people being interviewed tell are usually somber tales of death or explanations of why things happen. Some people, don't mind telling their war stories but for most people, their experiences are kept so secret that revealing their story for the first time may be hard to tell. Such is the case for some of the war vets (and scientists) in the 'inserts' of this movie. Most of the inserts felt like they contributed to the story well, sometimes explaining what the next scene is. If you think too hard during these segments your head will explode considering it is all fantastical. If you have experienced any S4C anime shorts you already know that most of the time the story is just plain confusing. This is completely an anime story at heart.

Which is why the viewer needs to watch this with an open mind. The story is more of an alternate universe WWII where magic is real. Many anime and movies have taken this approach and met great success (Valkyria Chronicles and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?). Taking this anime serious should be thrown out the window from the moment you realize who is a clairvoyant or during the meeting with 'Gandalf'. The story is a very typical David and Goliath type with the frail looking Nadya Ruslanova taking on insurmountable odds. Almost kind of sounds like a shounen anime right? Well it is :)

Don't let the MAL database fool you, the only main character of this movie is Nadya and you follow her from her early beginnings all the way to the end credits. The other characters are mainly support characters and are not shown enough to matter. As for Nadya, you'll either love or hate her. I grew attached to her because she just looks so frail that you just want to protect her. With all the war and bloodshed and overall grittiness, seeing a little girl barely weighing 100lbs (45kg) walk across the Russian tundra will definitely create some sort of empathy for the protagonist.

I'll say this about S4C, they are definitely not the best when it comes to animating but they are better than most. What they truly do shine in is the amount of detail they put in every scene. Backgrounds and any other inanimate objects gets the largest amount of detail. Varying ink blots from the pressures of a typewriter, all the trails routes and tracks on the battle map, Moscow's skyline and even Moscow's unique Subway/bomb shelter, is all great eye candy. Lets not forget that this is a war anime. There will be blood and lots of it. I did find it weird that there was more blood than action but that didn't hinder the experience.

This movie isn't all that bad at all. It's no different than any other anime in terms of plot holes and inconsistency. It's major selling point for me was the whole visual and audio package. If a movie/anime setting is in Russia, LET THEM SPEAK RUSSIAN ^_^ It adds so much in terms of immersing yourself in the movie. And the overall art quality of this show is just amazing. I'd place S4C just below Studio Ghibli and Makoto Shinkai. I think that's a pretty elite list.

Anyone who is a fan of WWII fiction, Studio 4C fan, or even wants to see something truly unique. should at least give this anime a shot or two. If you truly hate the mockumentary inserts nothings stopping you from fast forwarding them. The whole concept of this anime makes me want another movie of this type. Not a sequel per se but something with this idea.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Oct 8, 2009

SamFury

Mixed Feelings

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Pre-Review Notes
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I'm going to be using a more freeform style for Movie reviews, as they are much smaller and I can describe my feelings for the movie in a much clearer fashion.


Studio 4°C’s anime transcends the borders of Japan. From Linkin Park's "Breaking the Habit", to the Animatrix, and even to the Gotham Knight, their portfolio is varied and extensive. First Squad, their latest effort, is a collaboration between two Russian directors and 4°C, crossing the sea once again to create international anime. I had high hopes for First Squad, as the Studio's last movie, Tekkon Kinkreet, was excellent. However, the bullets of the ... collaboration were quick to puncture my hopes; after an hour and thirteen minutes they looked like swiss cheese.

The story of First Squad is told in a unique fashion: meshing live action documentary with more traditional animation. There is an interesting interplay, as Russian scholars and veterans ground the fantastical story into reality. First Squad could be commended on this approach if the story itself were not so weak. The plot is predictable; the Nazi's are beckoning vengeful spirits from the other realm, and the Russian's need to stop them. The characters don't do much to salvage the poor tale. The pacing is erratic and disjointed, jumping from scene to scene with little sense of cohesion. The movie's namesake, the First Squad, is a poorly developed cast, with only slivers of background ever filled in. Nadya, the main antagonist, is drawn from clichés –an amnesiac psychic who would give life and limb for country.

The voice acting didn't help prop up the narrative. The Russian voice actors sound deflated, their flat voices conveying plastic emotion. The music was passable, a boisterous overture in the opening that harkens to any military film. The rest of the score is appropriate, weaving melodies from low growling organs with the rhythmic hum of violins.

Studio 4°C does deliver the goods on the art. A muted palette washes over the snowy seas of the Eastern Front. Moscow’s majesty is quiet from the war-torn world, a stark contrast to the Gloom World, a twisted realm where fallen warriors continue to tear at one another. Russia is a feast to look at. Excellent CGI is threaded together with top-notch animation. Artists made a successful effort in modeling the characters, drawn to have a distinctive Caucasian look.

First Squad, to say the least, disappointed me. Despite the pretty little black dress it wears, what is inside does not satisfy. The story is forgettable, the characters are paper-thin, and the voice acting isn’t exactly inspiring. I praise Studio 4°C for attempting to blend two styles –documentary and anime. Hopefully this method of storytelling won’t be thrown to the wayside, and will be used to create a much more engaging and entertaining experience.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Aug 1, 2022

moozooh

Not Recommended

Ok, there are many reasons why this isn't a good movie, but it being a WW2-inspired fantasy flick isn't one of them. The problem is that it aspires to do things well, takes itself very seriously (have you seen the official site?), announces that boldly… and proceeds failing across the board. It's by all means a schlock feature masquerading as something it isn't.

I had suspected the movie wasn't going to be close to the teaser music video that preceded it—but the extent of difference was truly shocking. All of the titular First Squad members except the protagonist only appear in the movie for a few ... minutes, which came as a complete surprise. Obviously, none of them are anywhere close to being developed as characters—the protagonist is not an exception, sadly. Naturally, most of them don't even resemble people living in USSR in the 30s/40s. The portrayal of Soviet culture and style of life was given an undeservedly superficial treatment (I chuckled at the wooden toys—I still remember those) culminating in laughable designs that are both stupid and anachronistic, such as Zina's tank top under an unbuttoned winter coat. In winter. Nadya wielding, of all things, a *Japanese* sword using *Japanese* fencing techniques is not any less ridiculous. After all, Russians had a war with Japan at the beginning of the century, and were allied against them again in WW2—that's not to mention that fencing styles such as iaido are completely useless against armored enemy—which constitutes pretty much everyone Nadya fights using her katana. At that point one shouldn't be surprised by a fragile girl parrying a huge blade wielded by a muscular man in heavy armor while fighting in deep snow—it's just par for the course at that point. I mean, we've already brought up cliche occultism scenarios, complete disregard for historical accuracy in design and logic in writing, so why not abolish laws of physics while we are at it?

The movie started abruptly, hopped and skipped throughout its runtime, and ended just as abruptly, suggesting the need for a sequel that will never come—instead of using this time to tell a less ambitious but more coherent story. There's barely any significance in any scene. It's almost as if the whole thing was storyboarded and edited together overnight. It's painful to see an initially workable idea ruined by inept writing and direction. Assuming there even was any writing, of course. It sure looked like the studio crew knew how to put some anime into a movie but had no idea how to put the movie in an anime.

Yet perhaps the most dreadful offender is the live-action documentary shots that very intrusively interrupt the brief moments of action whenever they end up happening. They attempt to explain some of the surreal and nonsensical things, but do a piss-poor job at doing so. The most unintentionally ironic comment comes from a featured psychoanalyst who says that human brain is capable of producing hallucinogenic substances by itself under certain conditions, which is technically correct but completely invalidates the testimonies of the veterans who spoke just prior about unexplained events allegedly having taken place there. These contradictions are never resolved. Neither is the need to explain fantasy schlock with scientific or historic accuracy. It explains nothing, and makes the schlock appear even worse, not in the least by robbing it of screen time that could make it better.

To elaborate, the attempt to build up the atmosphere of war by sharing impressions of the veterans who fought in it is misguided in principle. It looks extremely clunky and breaks the immersion and flow of the movie while robbing it of valuable runtime that could be used to develop the story and characters to make the non-documentary parts worth watching. By this point people should know what WW2 was. Even if they don't, they would have been able to *see* it in the movie if it did a better job at actually showing it. Grave of the Fireflies is an anime that masterfully portrayed the horrors of war without combat scenes, let alone veteran testimonies. Elem Klimov's Come and See (Иди и смотри / Idi i smotri) is a live-action movie where most of the action happens off-screen, yet it instills more primordial dread than most war movies combined. This is how to do it right; interrupting cartoony action with documentaries the way First Squad does it is some next level of idiocy. It could've been funny in a very nihilistic way if the crew had found a veteran to give a testimony about sword-fighting against armored troopers in a nightgown in the winter, which surely was a regular occurrence during WW2, though I guess that was the border they didn't want to cross. But then why make this drivel at all?

I'll touch upon the subject of art and sound quality briefly because there's not much to say about it. I've seen most of Studio 4°C's output, and I know they can do much better. But it's not bad by any means, it's just… average. Action scenes (where we actually get to see them) are borderline acceptable if you don't count the amount of extremely unlikely scenarios, deus ex machina moments, and other tropes so typical of mediocre anime, but wouldn't be able to carry this movie even if there were no other faults with it.

To summarize, this is an ambitious, but horribly put together fantasy flick that builds up a lot of hype and ends up with absolutely nothing to show for it. It's not enjoyable, has no redeeming qualities, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Those who are into war movies, historic events, or action in general, and most of all fellow former USSR residents should avoid it at all costs.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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Anime with visible brutality/blood/splatter/gore etc

by zacha196

50 Entries · 180 Restacks

2000's: Animes dubbed into Latin Spanish from the 2000's (2009)

by bolakabuto666

34 Entries · 7 Restacks

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17 Entries · 9 Restacks

	Poll: First Squad: The Moment of Truth Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) georgi - Oct 4, 2009	99 replies	by Hound-of-MAL »» Sep 2, 2022 5:13 AM
	Japanese or Russian? Deago - Oct 20, 2015	1 replies	by Deago »» Oct 21, 2015 4:58 AM
	The live-action footage Fronzel - Dec 4, 2011	2 replies	by Fronzel »» May 4, 2013 9:43 PM
	Is there any review from people who have seen it ? dtitov - May 25, 2009	15 replies	by RaymanM »» Dec 26, 2009 4:19 AM
	Release Date? ShadowBlazer3000 - Oct 14, 2008	8 replies	by Reisenfag »» Sep 29, 2009 5:03 AM