Jin-Rou

In an alternate history, following World War II, civil unrest and terrorism run rampant in a devastated Japan under foreign occupation. During a botched interception of underground munitions being transferred by a terrorist organization, Constable Kazuki Fuse, a soldier in an elite counter-terrorism unit, witnesses the true terror of human nature. He fails to prevent a teenage girl from carrying out a desperate suicide bombing that subsequently causes immense destruction to Tokyo. With mental scars and his competence under question, Fuse is sent back to the military academy for re-evaluation. Unbeknownst to him, he will soon be caught up in a web of government conspiracies that have the power to determine the future of all of Japan.

As Fuse treads the fine line between human and beast, he ultimately discovers to which side he truly belongs.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Fuse, Kazuki Main

Fujiki, Yoshikatsu Japanese

Amemiya, Kei Main

Mutou, Sumi Japanese

Henmi, Atsuhi Main

Kinoshita, Hiroyuki Japanese

Tohbe, Hachiroh Supporting

Sakaguchi, Yoshisada Japanese

Agawa, Nanami Supporting

Sendai, Eri Japanese

Aniya, Isao Supporting

Handa, Hajime Supporting

Muroto, Bunmei Supporting

Hirota, Kousei Japanese

Tatsumi, Shiro Supporting

Horibe, Ryuuichi Japanese

Sugita, Tsutomu Producer

Terakawa, Hidekazu Producer

Okiura, Hiroyuki Director, Storyboard, Character Design, Layout, Key Animation

Wakabayashi, Kazuhiro Sound Director

Reviews

Oct 23, 2008

Merril

Recommended

This movie is artistic animation. It does not have caricatures of people, use stereotypes to aid character development nor is there enough dialogue for easy digestion of characters feelings. The picture is thick of emotionally charged imagery and reflection, more clear and direct than can be done in live action. For example the fire bombs at the beginning and the reaction of the officers, the tears on Kei's face and breath of Fuze after running all cause connections with the audience instead of the usual detraction anime has.

Things like what Fuze is brooding about constantly are shown as glances into the character, ... you really have to be following the story to understand anything about the characters. Motivations and subterfuge are the grips of the story after viewing.

The animation is dry, on a color scale you would say that there are no 'warm' colors. Much like done in The Matrix or Gladiator, the lack of color is definitely intentional but still loses marks for art rating (made up for in char/enj).

Then there's the story, its very simple yet extremely complicated to piece together as-you-watch-it. I had particular trouble with understanding the back story, its not necessary and only briefly covered by prose. As the watcher this creates alot of interest to me, I am not given the required information to understand the entire situation going on in the government but still take blind leaps of faith into the characters, trusting them as genuine. I do not know if the good guy won in the end or if the country is worse off. But this isn't to say I felt a lack of resolution, I am very content in the story.

The character development is extremely interesting in this story, the use of imagery to portray characters as heroic, frightened, or animalistic in nature is wonderful. To play into the red riding hood theme you can clearly see at times the animation giving birth to wolf like qualities, or with the girl showing true meakness, frailty and confusion. The short dream sequence is quite graphic and horrible to fathom in reality, but shows the truth behind the story setting and how things felt to Fuze.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Nov 4, 2009

cobrascope

Mixed Feelings

Well animated and there is a good story (albeit a complex one) at the heart of it but it's so slow and the characters seem so unemotional it's hard to care about what's happening on the screen by the time it reaches its fascinating if rather depressing climax. There is a good film in here somewhere but it's just presented in such a dull and uninvolving way that it seems like a wasted opportunity.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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May 14, 2016

Paraturtle

Not Recommended

Story:
An incredible wealth of potential wasted on hand-holding the audience into a waste of time. There's a constant motif of this narrative being symbiotic to Little Red Riding Hood, and while this is a cool thing at first, it's played to death over and over as the narrative continues. Virtually nothing new comes forth from this motif, and because it's crowding the run-time with over expository allusions, there's no room for characterization, world development, or memorable sequences. What crawls out from this hot mess is something that's more brawns than brains.

There's no real goal any of the characters are trying to achieve. It's not that ... I needed any aspirations clearly stated for me, but since this narrative forsakes visual allusion for blatant dialogue expository hand-holding, it was strange for the writer to conveniently forget to explain what it is the cast of characters each individually want. I'm not asking for a wealth of subplots, but by doing so, the writer could have created a world I could connect with.

For instance, the first 10 or so minutes of this film are fantastic. There's clear evidence as to what everyone is doing and why. Then, upon Fuze killing the girl, the film starts to go downhill. It becomes impossible to really understand what anyone wants, why, and how they're going to go about doing it. From then on out, it's a matter of guess-timating and accepting what takes place merely because the film says so, not because the characters or anything around them would naturally do so.

And, upon the film's final moments, nothing really comes to fruition. There's no message, theme, or value to be retrieved from the narrative. Because it fails to properly create anything other than visual pleasure, the project fails to do anything than that.


Art:
The animation here is incredibly solid. Many times it felt like watching a live-action. Not because the images were so realistic, but the motions themselves looked great. Characters do more than sit still. They look around, brush their hair to the side, turn their head to the side, tap their foot. It all feels very real and based on an immersive intention.

The backgrounds feel lively, but as the film progresses, things are re-used and less interesting. It's as though the film halfway decides to put anything new aside and return to the old stuff we'd seen before. It's not a super big deal, but considering how gorgeously dystopian everything looked I will admit that I was disappointed to not see anything new halfway in.

Characters look marginally different and realistic. Some anime like to hyperbolize features, but this film is definitely grounded in realism with its designs.


Sound:
An excellent, wonderful soundtrack. I only had issues with one song, and that's because it didn't sound as good as the others, but was still pretty great.

Sound effects were all very good and felt fitting. Unfortunately, they used a stock bullet effect that sounds unbelievably unrealistic. It's used in so much stuff and I still have no idea why. It sounds terrible.

Audio levels for the dialogue are all pretty great. Things sounded solid and I thought the VA work was quite exellent.


Character:
I don't care about anyone. Nobody has any character at all, and nobody has anything to care about anyway. The only reason this isn't a 1/10 is because the use of motifs for the 2 lead characters is still cool despite it being executed horribly.


Enjoyment:
I couldn't wait for it to end during the last 10 minutes. The whole project was downhill after the end of the complicating incident's scene. If I ever watch this again, it's just that beginning part. After that, I'll turn it off.

I will, however, definitely be listening to that soundtrack again. It's excellent, and I'll be damned if anyone ever thinks it's no good. It sounded absolutely beautiful, somber, and sobering. If anything, the music has the potential to recover such a boring work. However, this was still plagued with far too many errors in regards to its execution. Such a shame.


((If you liked this review, friend me for new reviews on other works, both manga and anime!))

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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