Back to Daubeny117's Profile Daubeny117's Profile

If it wasn't for Gankutsuou, Mononoke would be my all-time favourite show. Despite being critically acclaimed, it's still relativelly unknown nowadays (at least in the West, I don't know about Japan) and I don't think ever saw mainstream success purely because of how strange it is, so having a movie made for it a whole 17 years after it first aired is in itself kind of a miracle that I was going to appreciate whether or not it was actually delivered on what it promised.

And boy did it deliver.

I've seen some people say that it doesn't quite feel like Mononoke, that it is ... too modern and lacks the soul of the original, but it may only be their nostalgia speaking, as a someone who first saw the show two years ago and the original Ayakashi episodes last year, I found that the movie very much stayed true to the spirit of Mononoke. Yes, there is a more modern, polished touch, but I think it is very well-balanced with the traditional elements of the show to create something that is fresh and doesn't just recycle the source material but maintains a same soul, a same overall feel. I find that the Mononoke show puts you in a very specific headspace, it's doesn't fit into any category of horror and doesn't quite make you feel like horror does, but it would feel wrong to say that it is not horror, it's something entirely of it's own and the movie captures this perfectly to me.

The animation quality and level of detail, which I found was the only thing sometimes lacking in the original (although it was more than made up for by the visual style), is absolutely astonishing here. It feels like the visual aspect of the show, by far it's most striking and probably most masterful part, was amplified in every way. Despite the constant explosion of colours and details, the movie knows when to drawn you in them with overwhelming close shots and fast cuts and when to take it's time and have perfectly composed frames, which makes most of it surprsingly easy to read (if you give the movie your full attention that is, it's still not something you can just watch in the background).
The Potion Seller's redesign is very good I think, making him more colourful and detailed is a good choice for a theatrically released movie as since he will be visible on a much bigger screen, his original makeup and overall style would have semmed less intricate and would have lost a bit of the effect that they had in the show.
I just regret that his second form isn't golden anymore though.

Story wise, it's up to the standards of the other Mononoke arcs. The movie is about the same length as 3 episodes put together, which makes it the same length as an arc of the show, and as a result it is not particularly better nor worse. At least from what I remember of the show. There are two follow-up movies set in the same location announced though, which (in addition to filling me with unfathomable joy) will most likely develop the story introduced here a lot more than what could ever be done in the show.

Overall a very good movie, a good addition the the series that also justifies it's individual existence (although it will probably be hard to understand for people that haven't seen the show) by doing all kinds of new things. It delivered perfectly on everything it was supposed to, and even a little bit more.

If I had to describe Ninja Scroll with only one sentence, I'd call it softcore porn with comically high production value.
The plot is beyond silly and the characters terribly written, especially the ninja girl who is supposedly really strong and competent but who's only function is to be sexually assaulted by all the vilains, making for an overall bad story with a very questionable treatment of women. In that sense, it's very similar to the director's previous movie, Wicked City.
Unlike Wicked City however, Ninja Scroll is actually very enjoyable. The main character is quite charismatic and most of the vilains have really fun ... and unique powers and fighting styles, which are exellently showcased by a famously extremely stylish artstyle and a masterful animation. The story is only a pretext to get from one fight scene to the next, but because the fight scenes are so good, it ends up working quite well.

All in all, if you want to watch a thought-provoking masterpiece or an epic and powerful story, Ninja Scroll really isn't for you. But if you like great-looking silly action anime from the 90's, this is as good as it gets.

I feel like it's not fair to judge this on the same basis as other anime, as it is clearly way too unique in it's format. Tori No Uta is really closer to an image book with the text being read out loud instead of written on the pages, given that the visual aspect of it consists of a succession of Yoshitaka Amano's paintings, with voice-overs for the narration and dialogue.

It's a very surreal, quite literally dreamlike experience as most of the story revolves around exploring the two main characters' dreams. There's a lot of room for personal interpretation, a lot of elements are ... clearly metaphorical and each dream gives you a lot of insight into the psyche of the characters, while also being strange and full of creativity. The broad strokes of the story are easy to follow though, and the art, despite the lack of animation, is extremely beautiful, intricate and expressive, which makes it easy to get invested.

I don't think it's an anime for everyone, you have to be open to unconventional and experimental stuff, but if you are I think you might find it to be a very enchanting and intriguing experience, I know I did, and I think it has the potential to resonate with you quite deeply if you find a little bit of yourself in the characters and their dreams. And besides that, if you're into Yoshitaka Amano's art, it's just a pure visual treat.

This is one of my favorite movies of all time, but it's definitely not for everyone.

Tenshi No Tamago is almost a purely visual movie. It has very few dialogue, and the few that it has is abstract and philosophical rather than being there to move the story forward. Speaking of the story, there's barely any : the two main (and only) characters meet at the very begining, they wander for a while until one of them eventually does the only thing that has a significant impact on the story, and the movie ends.

What's at the heart of the movie are it's ... visuals. It looks unique, being one of the very few movies that really captures Yoshitaka Amano's style. While the design of the two characters are great, the backgrounds and the overall world are really at the forefront. Rather than creating a story, the movie develops an atmosphere through the different locations the characters go through. Everything is deserted, like the remains of a civilisation that disappeared, leaving it's gothic cities, churches and other creations without their meaning. With very few dialogue and a lot of what is shown left unexplained, the movie suggests a world that is bigger than what is shown and that we can't fully grasp, it lets your imagination interpret and expand it.

It also all feels very dream-like. It has a lot of abstracts things that happen and don't really make sense in the litteral way, but rather in a symbolic way. I feel like it's best to let the movie flow and watch things happen without necessarily trying to understand, because everything in it is covered in so many layer of stylization and abstraction that you can really find any meaning you want in it.
The animation, while minimalistic (there is a lot of stillness and it's all very slow) can sometimes be very intricate (the girl's hair for example, or the use of shadows), distorting perspective and light.
Even the music is weird and abstract, sometimes kind of atonal, it sounds like early 20th century european classical music with it's experimentality and complexity and it's instrumentation. It doesn't have a lot of themes, it's sometimes unclear what emotion it even expresses, creating mystery more than meaning.

Overall, I'd say the movie is a visual masterpiece. It's atmosphere is masterfully created and maintained throughout the movie. If you like dream-like experiences, abstract artsy movies and haunting empty gothic architecture, this is a movie for you. If you're looking for entertainement, this is not for you: it's very slow-paced and conetmplative, to the point of being potentially very boring. It's more of a movie that makes you feel a particular way, and you have to be receptive to it, but if you are it has the potential to really connect with you.

A Tree of Palme definitely a strange anime, and one that is clearly not perfect, but also a fascinating piece of art. At first glance it may seem like a movie for children, and some elements of it almost feel like one, but it definitely isn't. It's very bleak, at times melancholic and at others very violent, both phisically and psychologically, it's dense and can be hard to follow, and has very mature themes.

It's an anime that everybody will experience differently, because while some of it has the potentiel to resonate with you very deeply, some other elements are just not very good.

One ... one hand, the plot can be confusing at times, there are too much elements in the movie and not enough time to develop all of them as much as they need to. A few characters (Mu and Pu) are unnecessary and would have greatly improved the movie by not being in it, leaving room for other more important things and making the tone a bit more consistent. Overall, the writing feels a bit inexperienced and rushed in places, like something that they should have taken time to refine more.

On the other hand, the anime is gorgeous in every way possible. The backgrounds, the animation, the artstyle, the world depicted, and the music too... there really isn't anything quite like it. The world of A Tree of Palme is incredibly unique, rich, creative, and constantly feels much bigger than what is shown. Every location, almost every scene is filled with things that feel both truly alien and breathtakingly beautiful. The music supports extremely well that otherworldly quality, with it's mix of strange synthetic sounds and orchestal music. The animation is on point, extremely smooth, precise and expressive.
I think watching the characters wander through that world is what I enjoyed the most about this movie. If this visual style speaks to you, then that in itself is a good reason to watch it.

The story, while it might be flawed, has some great elements. While it does try to be about too many things at once, and in my opinion fails to develop every aspect of it's themes, a lot of it is still very good. The characters all tie into the different themes in interesting ways, and their psychologies and relationships are very developped in a mature and complex way, which to me has the potential to resonate very deeply with you if you identify with one or several of the characters.

I general, I would say that A Tree of Palme is a movie that is more than just it's flaws and qualities. It's a complex work that feels very genuine and passionate, it's clear that Nakamura wanted to express a lot of things with it and he did so in a way that is, while at times clumsy and inexperienced, very beautiful.
I think it's a movie that more people should see, because of how unique and special it is, and because of how touching it can be.