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Jul 12, 2022
This adaptation of Bastard isn't what you think it is. You might be looking at the title HEAVY METAL, DARK FANTASY and reading other reviews and expecting it to be the animated version of a Frank Frazetta painting with Rhapsody blasting in the background but no, that's not what you're in for.
What Bastard actually is, as funny as it may sound, is a dull, slow anime with extremely standard violence compared to other "violent" shows and constant fanservice that isn't even that explicit. This isn't that CONTROVERSIAL ANIME with SEX AND VIOLENCE that you heard about. In fact there's almost no sex at all, just
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groping.
But enough about that, let's talk about the technical aspects, shall we? For starters, the pacing is horrendous. You'll have many episodes where barely anything happens at all, with the characters standing still and occasionally casting a band reference spell. Sometimes we'll also have the old "characters have a very slow fight while someone watching comments on it" trope too. How exciting. How METAL.
The writing isn't anything special, but it doesn't try to be. Not being "deep" or "well written" isn't exactly the problem here, however. The problem is the writing fails miserably to make the flow of the show exciting. As I've said before when talking about pacing, this show drags a lot, and the writing doesn't help at all. The characters are dull and don't do much except for commenting in the current event. Most of them are just bland allies or enemies who eventually turn into allies or die after the most mid fighting scene you'll ever see.
The animation is... decent. It suffers from the dull plastic look a lot of modern anime does tho, but it doesn't actively bothers me. The choreography of the fights is what drags the animation down, as a lot of it is just boring and doesn't have much happening. You'll have decently well made effects of fire and magic and lightning and whatever the fuck while nothing exciting happens or the characters exchange a boring dialogue.
The music is, as par for the course, isn't jaw dropping either. Sounds like non-copyrighted 80s/90s power metal as you'd expect. It is pretty disappointing still, as something with a huge metal motif should at least try to stand out for its music and not just name dropping metal bands for attacks and locations.
In all, Bastard is bad, but not even the type of bad that would turn around into fun, it's just boring and not fun at all after the few first episodes where you realize it's going nowhere else. It sells itself as some hardcore badass metal show, but doesn't even have the balls to show nipples or real gore. Like I said, this isn't Rhapsody or Blind Guardian. Hell, it's not even Manowar.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jun 16, 2022
Cucuruz Doan's island is a fun (yet kind of unnecessary) experience.
The infamous island episode of the original Mobile Suit Gundam is notorious for various reasons. The disjointed staff causing the animation to be extremely inconsistent (if hilarious) and the episode itself being considered "filler" being some of them. Tomino himself has disowned this episode in future releases and broadcasts.
The infamy of Doan's island says a lot about Yasuhiko's balls in trying to stretch it from a single self contained 25 minutes episode into a full movie with almost 2 hours of runtime. I dare to say it's a fruitful experiment as it delivers a decent
...
film, but the reason it was made in the first place is what interests me the most.
The movie itself is good. You have very expressive and well made character animation accompanied by decent cgi for the Mobile Suits, a nice score, good directing and stellar voice acting as expected. The plot makes a mistake by trying to share the focus between the high stakes of the One Year War and the personal touching story of a Zeon deserter trying to raise orphans and atone for his sins. None of them are fleshed out well enough, despite the middle portion of the movie being fairly bloated. Doan's character is well written enough however, and the soul and intent of the original episode remains.
But WHY was this made? Simple, they wanted to test waters for a full 0079 remake. Yasuhiko is behind the remake/reinterpretation of the original Mobile Suit Gundam in manga form called The Origin, and by the success the OVAs and this movie seem to have had, I'd say I'll be fine if he did it.
Despite the movie itself being fun, I just can't see it as anything more than a test.
Also, the Doan Zaku, pure SOUL
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 19, 2022
Random car mechanic gets his hands on a mobile war machine, chaos ensues.
Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01, is a mecha OVA brought to life by a team of notorious animators and designers, who managed to deliver a competent action experience.
The story is pretty simple. The protagonist, a car mechanic called Koji Sugimoto, stumbles upon a top secret JSDF anti tank humanoid power armor called rhe MADOX-01, enters it and is unable to get out. Now he must escape from the military and go to a building to meet his girlfriend, confronting an officer called Kilgore on the way, and the original pilot of the MADOX, Eriko
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Kusumoto.
But let's be honest, MADOX isn't really about the story. At all.
What MADOX actually has to offer comes in the form of its visuals, particularly the mechanical animation. Shinji Aramaki (who also directed and idealized the project) provides the designs of the machines here, and while the MADOX itself is pretty iconic and cool, (also being a clear homage to Naoyuki Katou's Marauder Suit) it's the way it moves that really shines. The intricate movement of each of the components inside the cockpit, the power of its weaponry, its weight, all brilliantly conveyed through very detailed and carefully crafted animation. You can tell it was made with love for this awesome machine.
The character animation is serviceable, but nothing really mind blowing. Again, they were not meant to be.
Ken Yajima's music is appropriately energetic and stylish, bringing life to every tense chase sequence.
You can tell the crew was very enthusiastic about making this OVA overall, as its most important aspects were crafted with care.
It's like watching project made my a group of friends composed of sf nerds. Only this group of friends is also extremely talented at their respective areas, and made of talented animators and directors like Anno, Takahiro Oomori and Koji Ito.
Overall, MADOX-01 is an enjoyable experience, just don't expect anything spectacular.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 10, 2022
"If people don't get to see actual deaths and misery on the news, peace can't be maintained"
Sky Crawlers is another cold, contemplative Mamoru Oshii movie, and like the ones before, it's pretty great.
The anime is set in an universe where our world is at relative peace, while rival corporations employ fighter pilots to engage in combat, supplanting the societal need for large scale military conflicts. Our protagonist, Yuuichi Kanami, is one of such pilots.
Arriving at Rostock Corporation's Area 262 after 3 of its fighters were downed by a rival ace named "Teacher", Kanami is greeted by his new comrades, the base's mechanic and the
...
Chief of Operations, Mizuki Kisanagi. The plot progresses as we learn more about her and discover the existence of the mysterious Kildren, seemingly immortal artificial soldiers. Kannami also learns more about the man he replaced, and what it means to have been brought to pilot his old fighter.
Contemplating the nature of war and order isn't something new to Oshii's body of work, (I.E. his Patlabor duology, the Kerberos series) however Sky Crawlers takes this common motif to a much more subdued environment, replacing the dense near-future urban landscapes with hangars and regular establishments closer to the 20th century than anything. The mechanical design is appropriately close to WW2- era machinery and vehicles as well.
These machines are brought to life by Polygon Pictures' CGI, which is unsurprisingly competent but not nearly as interlaced with the 2d animation as in their earlier collaboration with Oshii and Production IG, Ghost in the Shell Innocence.
The 2d animation itself is another thing. I was not a fan of it, as I'm not a fan of the character designs (to put it mildly) and how they would move outside of zoom-ins. Again, previous Oshii/IG films did it much better.
The backgrounds are very well done, and arguably the most important part of Sky Crawler's aesthetic. The sky looks beautiful, and the interiors are extremely detailed and tight.
Kenji Kawai's score is good. The movie asks for a subtle piece, and he delivers. The main theme plays more than once during the movie, solidifying the point about cycles the narrative makes.
As for the narrative itself, Sky Crawlers is cryptic and slowly paced. The mysteries are up to the viewer to piece together, as characters hint at possibilities and mew information through their mostly apathetic dialogue.
The characters themselves aren't very... vivid. As they shouldn't be. The themes they bring up and represent sustain the narrative perfectly well, as everything eventually drives the main point home: "War" is both a neverending reality and a profitable and necessary spectacle for the masses. The only escape for those involved is death. But that doesn't mean hope can't shine through this bleak realization.
In conclusion, Sky Crawlers is both technically competent and thematically rich, and shows a mature Oshii masterfully tying everything together. It's a shame this movie is obscured by the absolute monoliths that compose the rest of Mamoru Oshii's filmography, but it certainly deserves your attention.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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