Last weekend was a lot of fun though, and kicked me out of my little funk for a while. Ironically I watched more anime during the course of Sunday afternoon that I had during the past month…with the exception of finishing my childhood fave The Mysterious Cities of Gold. LIFF always has a lot of interesting things on offer but the anime line-up this year was impressive: I didn’t get time to see Gintama and One Piece isn’t my thing but I was able to make it to Mardock Scramble: The First Compression, Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 and Redline.

Mardock Scramble: the First Compression

I’d been warned about how this ends abruptly and sure enough, it does. I’d like to think it’s an hour-long opening episode of a series, which makes the cliff-hanger in the final scene easier for me to swallow. A next-ep preview or even a “to be continued…” title card would’ve made things a bit clearer however, especially since the screening was so soon after the Japanese premiere that info on what the deal is with sequel(s) is so thin on the ground. Part of the confusion is I think down to the fact that the project was originally an OAV that was subsequently cancelled, then it surfaced suddenly as a theatrical remake.

I do know that the original novel is currently being prepared for English language release by Viz early in the new year, so if nothing else we’ll have the full story in print if not on the silver screen. Setting aside the issue of the ending and the standard of other fare on offer, I must confess that Mardock Scramble was my favourite of the day: the cyberpunk premise, mixing futuristic cityscapes reminiscent of William Gibson and Masumune Shirow, with the accompanying gothic-meets-industrial aesthetic clicked with me; the backstory of the protagonist meant it went further down the Nasu-esque line of the subjective nature of morality that I really appreciated too.

The violence and unsettling sexual abuse subplot isn’t for the squeamish though, and some of the villains of the movie were so comically grotesque they might have been more at home in an episode of Speed Grapher. It felt like a tribute to cyberpunk’s OAV-fuelled glory days of the 80s actually, only with up-to-date animation and artwork. It’s derivative in some ways but everything’s pulled off with such unflinching flair and with such tantalising undercurrents it endeared itself to me. I don’t think this will be the last time I’ll rave about it.

Evangelion 2.0: You Can (not) Advance

I’ve set out my thoughts on this movie already, and to be honest another viewing hasn’t changed my mind for the worse or for the better. It was just nice to see the thing on the big screen (even if the sound system seemed to be suffering a bit under the strain), and sharing views with friends was of course a lot of fun.

Not much to say about this then, apart from the fact that my respective criticisms and praises still stand. It does look spectacular in the format it was intended for (a cinema full of caffeined-up geeks) and I was in a state of fanboying bliss at another Maaya Sakamoto VA role. Re: the post-credits sequence and next-ep preview: Anno, you bastard. ^_^

Redline

I might take a bit of flak for this in saying I didn’t enjoy this *quite* as much as I expected. At this point the auditorium was getting pretty warm and the caffeine was starting to wear off, but I also think my flagging enthusiasm was because Redline is a victim of its own success. That is to say, the truth behind the rumours about it being a Gurren Lagann-esque visual and audio assault are right on the money, which is precisely the problem: the experience is so full-on that the breakneck pace and dazzling colour gave this viewer sensory overload.

Dat hair!

The artwork is exquisitely detailed so the sheer amount of time and effort invested in this film shines through with every frame. It doesn’t make any pretence, either: it’s a movie purely about larger-than-life characters driving implausible racing cars at implausible speeds; the kind of film that nay-sayers claim can’t be made any more, but every now and then someone has the balls to make one and we’re all grateful for it.

Surprisingly the characters aren’t buried under this adrenaline rush – they’re settled enough into the archetypes to make the plot progression smooth, yet enough is inferred about their personalities and motives to stand out amongst the visual noise. I heartily recommend this movie purely because it’s so good at what it does, but I suspect you’ve already decided to watch it anyway. So watch it.

RahXephon for example suffered greatly from the condensed plotline issue and Eureka Seven lost a lot of the spirit of the TV show, so both were disappointing to me. The Evangelion rebuild in particular is an undertaking I personally wouldn’t enjoy being responsible for since it’ll piss off a significant proportion of the fanbase regardless of what the production team do. Over the past decade and a half it’s bred so many conflicting opinions that whatever approach is taken, it’ll hit somebody’s sore spot square-on.

To be honest, I have more important things to do with my time than speculate on the motives behind the Rebuild; I’d rather spend it on deciding whether I enjoy it as *just* a series of movies. As in, how well it tells the story compared with the great-yet-flawed TV series rather than questioning its status as a cash-in. Aside from the usual problems with the Feature Film Remake, You Can (not) Advance also has to contend with being part of a greater whole, which makes it a slightly different experience from, say, those remakes of Rah and E7. To put it another way, this is a two hour-long episode of a mini-series; fulfilling a role not unlike that of the first Higashi no Eden movie sequel.

I really didn’t know how to judge The King of Eden because I’d be jumping to conclusions before I’ve seen the film that follows. Even so it felt incomplete somehow, but that could easily be attributed to the fact that its main role is that of a link between the prequel TV run and the final movie. YC(n)A is in a similar situation: I could for instance complain about how Mari doesn’t get the screentime I expected from a prominently-advertised New Character, but how do I know she won’t play a pivotal role in the third film? The simple answer is that I don’t, so I’m reserving a solid opinion on her for the time being.

I recall the promo art and the gossip when her appearance became common knowledge, but the reality isn’t nearly as dramatic as I expected. It’s a bit anti-climatic really; not that the writing’s necessarily at fault there. Rather, the fans’ doom-mongering was unfounded (she’s hardly the most extreme fanservice figure to emerge from Gainax and its relatives, you know?) and she merely fills some minor positions in the narrative that were left vacant from the rewrites. Unless Mari is given something bold and unexpected to do, I don’t think her introduction is that big of a deal. Yet.

Although I have sentimental attachment to the franchise, the nerdrage and marketing campaigns have left me disinterested in everything about it apart from the production itself. I’d also like to think that I can appreciate it without being blind to its flaws; for instance, juxtaposing an innocent-sounding pop ballad-type tune with a scene that’s violent or otherwise hard-hitting works brilliantly once but loses a lot of its impact when employed twice in the same feature.

Watching the whole film a second time though yielded some satisfying observations, such as enjoying the cheeky bits of humour without them being distracting, and little details such as the marine wildlife reserve laid out like the Tree of Life. The decontamination sequence reminded me a bit of The Andromeda Strain too, but that says more about how my mind sometimes makes weird connections more than anything.

One of my favourite scenes was that of the depiction of an early-morning Tokyo-3 in its updated, CGI glory: familiar scenes such as the capital’s skyline and crowds of commuters are given the NGE twist with its iconic retracting buildings and so on. Another fave moment was the awkward Shinji and Asuka bedtime scene, except this time they’re lying back-to-back and it’s expanded to a more insightful section of dialogue between them.

Perhaps the problem with YC(n)A is that there aren’t enough of these moments. The background art and conceptual planning that went with it is one of the franchise’s most overlooked aspects for me, and in terms of taking a moment to stop dashing around and examine what everyone’s up to and why, it’s sorely lacking: the narrative is more concerned with moving things along in time for the next set-piece. For a two hour feature it covers the ground so quickly that certain plot points that were particularly significant before are given a much more cursory treatment.

It’s also a striking example of how the Gainax alumni have changed stylistically (for an even more extreme example, watch the two Gunbuster OAVs back-to-back) because the aesthetics that are merely revamped old-school make the new ones look out-of-place. Yes, I know this isn’t strictly speaking a Gainax production but it feels like it has one foot in the 90s heyday and one in the 00s: the redesigned plug suits and especially the rendering of Unit 02′s The Beast mode look like they don’t belong.

In a more straightforward sense it’s also a transition piece thanks to its middle-portion status. This is after all the part of the story that fooled the viewers into thinking “it’s just a mecha versus monsters show, innit?”, before going batshit insane and pulling the rug from under them in the final act. I shouldn’t be surprised then if this film is a relative no-brainer next to whatever must follow; You Are (not) Alone rarely strayed from the series while this one makes some more marked deviations so if the third is to continue the trend I think it’s going to throw up some twists that are very unexpected indeed.

Which is why I’m happy to let the events of this movie whizz past me and why I’ve not tried to sift through the info deluge to pick out the real clues from the red herrings (some people have taken the trouble, and quite impressively too). I liked some of the updates, such as the re-written entrance of the Ginger Whinger and the designs of the Angels, but other lingering feelings of mine were ambivalent and mixed: Mari neither ruins nor revolutionises the story, and it somehow feels too short despite being two hours in length.

Most worryingly I’ve written an entire post without feeling compelled to go into more depth into those familiar characters I love, hate and/or love to hate. What about a certain redhead whose obnoxious neuroses helped to popularise the tsundere archetype? Or how Kaji is too cool for his own good? Or how Misato is still awesome and my favourite of the bunch? It’s not a bad movie as a cinematic experience so it’s earned a place on my Blu-Ray wishlist, but I was after something more. I wanted glimpses into their troubled psyches in true Anno style, rather than seeing them playing out their roles with the entertaining-yet-overused tropes that the series debunked so infamously…unless saving that U-turn for the final film is indeed the ace that Rebuild has up its sleeve.

Oh yeah, the new arrangement of the Hikaru Utada end theme is lovely.

Good job!

I find the Anno-isms to be a bit wearing in live-action format for some reason but given the old Gainax manifesto in terms of comedy, it’s a fitting choice of director in a roundabout kind of way. The packaging lists the director as he always is (i.e. as a ‘legend’ and the maker of Evangelion) but ominously Eriko Sato is introduced proudly as ‘Japan’s top swimsuit model’ and it raises no defence whatsoever against any accusations of being superficial, mindless fluff. It’s reputed to be one of MVM’s biggest sellers over here, too. No kidding.

What amazed me more than anything is that, after the hard-hitting and gritty subject matter of Love & Pop and Shiki Jitsu, it’s such outrageous fun to watch. I honestly thought that Anno had forgotten how to kick back and have a bit of fun despite his cult status effectively giving him free rein to use whatever subject or stylistic techniques he wants. Quite how he landed in the director’s chair for what is basically a trashy magical girl story I’ve no idea, but if that’s what it takes for my hero to rediscover his sense of humour then so be it.

The problem I have with Anno as a live-action director is that despite having an arsenal of clever flourishes and a sharp eye for cinematography he can’t fully let go of his animation-director roots: I still don’t think he’s woken up to his own potential in the live-action medium. Here it’s an advantage rather than a weakness though because keeping the tropes, garish colours and and other hallmarks of traditional anime actually adds to the comedic appeal.

Gold Claw is a smooth criminal

In a way Anno is poking fun at his own back catalogue with his hand-held camera angles, snippets of cel animation or live-action imitations therof, subplots involving parental issues (including, yes, dialogue that includes a declaration of “I won’t run away!”) and the use of classical music in a pivotal showdown scene. It’s a homage to the source material I guess, but also a display of “If you can’t laugh at yourself…” To be honest, I wouldn’t mind him animating this if the quality of the opening theme sequence is anything to go by.

If you have an aversion to cheeky trash TV nostalgia, hammed-up acting in the name of laughs, or plots that always have to make sense you might not enjoy this at all. It is however a prime candidate for viewing with friends and a few drinks (if only because watching Honey in various states of undress might feel like an even guiltier pleasure when watched alone) to dilute the retina-scorching colours and knowing silliness. Somehow it’s not as expoitative as you’d expect because Honey is clothed at least in her underwear apart from in the CGI transformations, and the CGI in general is intentionally bad, which automatically makes it cool anyway.

The thing is, because it’s so knowingly ridiculous Cutie Honey somehow feels a little less gratuitous than the premise or promo material suggest. A crucial factor, which is also the reason why Anno is a genius in my eyes, is the controlled absurdity that can still make a serious point or two. Anyone can make a bad movie but only a good film maker knows when to push the stupid button and when to let the meaningful messages make themselves heard; Anno has made a film that’s a clever kind of stupid.

More than just a pretty face…?

The biggest mistake the director, or any of the cast, could have made is taking any aspect of the movie seriously, so they didn’t. Besides, it’s yet to be proven that anime-style action works convincingly outside of anime (Casshern, take note) so the fact that the combat scenes bear no relation to Real World laws of physics or causality works in its favour. I guess the cast and crew realised they wouldn’t walk away from this with their dignity intact so they just let their hair down and threw caution to the wind.

Even so, Sato plays up the ditzy archetype well in conveying her dual persona with genuine comic timing. Aside from merely looking the part she manages to be both the kick-ass heroine and the goofy, thick-as-two-short-planks office girl; not bad for someone who was clearly not cast purely for her ability to deliver her lines. There’s even a teeny bit of character development amidst the mayhem with some profound moments that hit you even harder because profound is, understandably really, the last thing you’d expect from it.

This is after all a story involving nano-machines, undercover journalists driving orange TVRs, cameos from both the director and the original manga-ka, a laughably cheesy rendering of Tokyo Tower getting demolished by a giant corkscrew and villains who are accompanied into battle by their own backing band. Peeling away the homages, the gleeful excesses and the riotous mashing together of live-action film and comic book action is a movie with arthouse sensibilities and an honest sense of good-natured fun. At the very least, even those of us who smugly think that they’ve seen it all will sit back and ask “what the fuck was that?”