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Jan 22, 2015
"WARNING: THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BOTH BAYONETTA 1 & 2! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!"
Video games movies are a hard bunch. How do you take a video game and translate it into live action? Will you take the risk of having a gigantic budget to achieve this goal by not only trying to make the movie look like the game but staying true to it's source or will you just half-ass the entire game by turning the movie that based of that certain property into a bunch of nothing? These are the questions that always linger to gamers and audiences whenever studios, either
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from Hollywood or international countries, decides on making movies based on games. The problem? They have no idea how to translate something that was great in a game into a film and even those who admit that it is a common problem to movie based games, they still f*ck it up when making a movie that tries too hard on being like the game. While they are several movies like Wreck-It Ralph! Prince of Persia and DOA: Dead or Alive (yes, that film based on a fighting game filled with bouncing boob physics) proving that games can be translated well into film, the majority like DOOM, Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat, Postal, Far Cry, House of the Dead, Bloodrayne and all those unnecessary Resident Evil movies gives the genre an awful reputation. However, when you make an animated adaptation based off a game, it could get mixed results but work a lot better than live-action. Again, that's because animation is full of possibilities for any kind of project that can be limitless if you execute it correctly and this is something that almost works for animated movies based on video games like Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie or Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike, which allows filmmaker and animators to make a unique adaptation while still staying true to the spirit of the games that were based off.
This is where Bayonetta: Bloody Fate comes in and to find out whenever this film lives up to the spirit of the games or not.
For those who had never heard of Bayonetta or watched the TV spots for it's Wii U sequel Bayonetta 2 while still not having a clue on who she is, let me tell you the backstory. Bayonetta is a third-person hack and slash action game that was published by SEGA for the PS3 & XBOX 360 while being developed by Platinum Games (originally known as Clover Studios before CAPCOM shut down the studio due to Okami's poor sales for the PS2 and the studio was founded by Hideki Kamiya, Keiji Inafune and Atsushi Inaba) and the game acts as a spiritual successor to Devil May Cry since Hideki Kamiya not only directed Bayonetta but also he was responsible for Devil May Cry. It follows the story of Bayonetta, a sexy, seductive and charming witch who fights angels while trying to discover her secret origin behind the downfall of the Umbran Witches and the Lumen Sages and meeting up with some friends that might know more about Bayonetta than her own self. Let me get this out of the way and say that I love Bayonetta. No, scratch that, I just ADORE Bayonetta. Not only is the game fun but it contains one of the best female characters in gaming history. She is sexualized but doesn't bother her because she enjoys being sexy and takes sh*t from no one, she has a dark but wicked personality and a good sense of humor. Plus, she can release a can a whoop-ass with her hair as a magic weapon that allows her to release demons from Inferno and use the demons against the army of angels that swarm in her path. The game is also challenging but fun to play, the combat makes Devil May Cry dropped it's jaw with it's incredibly fast paced combos, the voice acting is wonderfully solid (that Joe Pesci impression that Chick Venerra makes is spot on as Enzo), the music is bloody amazing and the story, while crazy as hell, is still a really good story filled with very interesting lore of the Umbran Witches and Lumen Sages. The game was so damn impressive that it got a sequel to the Wii U due to poor sales in the US release for Bayonetta, SEGA dropping the rights to the franchise without giving any form of support and Nintendo greatly helping funding the sequel to Platinum Games.
Imagine my surprise when a Bayonetta anime film was announced back in 2013 and boy, did fans went crazy for this. Who wouldn't be hyped considering Fuminori Kizaki (the director behind AFRO SAMURAI) is helming the film while Gonzo is behind the task of bringing Bayonetta to full colored form. As for me, I wasn't hyped but I was truly excited to see Bayonetta back in a new way and in an anime no less. I sat down, watched it and after it was over... It just kinda ended. By all means, it wasn't a horrible film but the amount of potential of Bayonetta combined with animation was sorta lost in this adaptation and it marks my biggest problem with the movie but I'm getting ahead of myself, let's start at the beginning shall we?
The story in Bloody Fate is just like in the games but with little differences. It still centers around Bayonetta on searching for her answers of the past while dealing with other characters like Luka, a young journalist who has connections with Bayonetta due to him thinking that she killed her father when she was found at the bottom of the lake, Jeanne, an Umbran Witch that may have connections to her past and Balder, a powerful man who's conjuring up some mischievous plan to resurrect a great goddess in order to change the universe. The good thing about the story is that for those who never played Bayonetta can easily watch this film and understand the whole plot of the film without being required to play the game. That said though, the big problem is that the film's story is handled like a freaking mess with the film literally spoiling the big twists at the beginning of the damn movie. I get that fans of the game won't be bothered by this but for the common viewer that has never heard of or played Bayonetta, it is a big glaring problem when a story doesn't take it's time in developing the story and it's twists properly by instantly throwing it to our faces. For example, the scene in The Gates of Hell showed Enzo telling Bayonetta and the audiences that Balder might be up to something really bad that stupidly gives away the surprise connection between Bayonetta and Balder. Also, some of the changes in the characters are really bothering to me like again with Balder. While the other characters including Bayonetta are perfectly translated into film, the way the film handles Balder is one of the biggest screw ups in the film. To explain why I find this bothersome, I have to go into big spoiler territory into Bayonetta 1 & 2 to explain why:
For me, I find Balder to be an engaging sympathetic villain that may have started out as an evil bad guy in the first game but with Bayonetta 2, it reveals a lot more of Balder that we thought was impossible to execute but it did and worked. Balder is a man that not only was claimed as a great Lumen Sage among his clan but he was a man who wanted to have a family with the love of his life at her side, who's revealed to be Rosa, Bayonetta's mother and one day, they did by giving birth to a child by giving her the name Cereza, Bayonetta's original name from the first game. However, fate begins to turn ugly when the Umbran Elder, discovering the truth behind the relationship between Rosa, Balder and their child while also being furious about the truth, forbids them from having the child due to the laws of the Umbran and the Lumens that they are forbidden to express love or have any kind of relationship in order to keep the balance of the light and darkness at bay. For this, both Rosa and Balder are charged with treason and imprisoned while their child is forbidden to learn the arts of combat of the Umbran clan while being separated from her mother. Balder expressed great hatred against both the clans for destroying their connections and this triggers the events of "The Witch Hunts" when the spirit Loptr, who is later revealed to be a split spirit from "The Eyes of the World" jewels and was the split personality of Loki (good) and Balder (evil), he let Loptr possess his body and thus, the massacre of the clans began with Rosa getting killed in the process while Balder suffers as his malevolent spirit using his body destroys everything he hold dears while he does nothing but watch and grief. In the end of Bayonetta 2 where both Bayonetta and a young Balder defeat Loptr, Balder sacrifices his own body by getting the spirit of Loptr back in his body to prevent him on destroying the past yet again while apologizing to Bayonetta for not being there for her when needed and asked her to call him "Daddy" one last time before his pure soul becomes corrupted once more. This whole summary is why I like Balder cause he is a villain but I can understand his torment and suffering of not seeing her own daughter because that chance of happiness was taken from him and in the end, he gets the chance to fight alongside her daughter one last time before fading away with Loptr being inside his soul. This backstory could have provided so much for this more but instead, the movie decides to make him the generic "the world is terrible and must be destroyed to be reborn a better place while being blinded from his own loved one" stereotypical villian and did I mention that his final battle is beyond weak? He gets killed off very quickly for 3 minutes and that's it! That's the biggest waste of potential I've seen for a villain since M.Bison from the Street Fighter The Movie.
Speaking of action and animation, Bloody Fate is a mixed bag. When the animation and action gets good, it gets really good with animation being extremely fluid with tiny visual details during the flashy battles that stays true to the spirit of the game's maniacal action and the animation manages to translate the look of the game perfectly with little changes done to the character designs since director Fuminori Kizaki and character designer Ai Yokoyama are fans of the games and did an aoutstanding job at executing the feel and look of Bayonetta wonderfully. However, when the action stops and we get back to the main plot, the animation gets a huge downgrade with backgrounds, while looking very nice, barely having substance to bring the world to life. There's barely people in the whole film minus the scenes on the train, the news footage and the highway sequence but that's really about it and while the character designs look nice, the models themselves don't really seem very life-like since most of the models just stand around while objects move around the background and the CG looks very off at times cause it doesn't really go well with the hand-drawn animation during various sequences of action. Reason? It's because GONZO is infamous for having budget issues and adding CG to every show or movie they worked on and while not all of GONZO's projects are a mess (Romeo X Juliet, Gankutsuo: The Count of Monte Cristo, Welcome to the NHK and AFRO SAMURAI are my favorites work from GONZO), they tend to get screwed over their own budget constraints that results into badly unfinished animated sequences (like for example; Samurai 7, where one episode showcases creepy looking unfinished character models dancing creepily like ghosts and it looked like a nightmare). While Bayonetta: Bloody Fate looks better than GONZO'S other projects and a better control over it's budget, it still contains some animation misfires that prevent this film from achieving animation perfection status. Also, the movie misses the mark on making more animated sequences with Bayonetta fighting the big 4 angels and I kid you not, there is no epic battles with Fortitudo, Temperatina, Iustitia and Sapientia but instead, reduced to pointless cameos that are never mentioned again. Really film?! You're gonna pass the chance at making unique action sequences for these 4 boss angels that provided one of the best boss battles in gaming history and only provide them cameos for Fortitudo and Temperatina?! What were they thinking!
Now for the grand finale of Bloody Fate: The dub by Funimation. I'm happy to report that the dub for Bloody Fate is pretty good with Funimation getting the entire cast to dub the film including Helena Taylor as Bayonetta, Grey DeLisle as Jeanne, John Kassir as Enzo, Dave Fennoy as Rodin, Yuri Lowenthal as Luka, Joy Jillian as Cereza and J. Grant Albrecth as Balder with the entire cast obviously having a blast with minor faults that goes to Joy Jillian and J. Grant Albrecth sounding very off in their roles since in the games, both of these actors gave wonderful performances that sounded distinct and unique. Also, Patrick Seitz and Dave Fennoy's perfomances as Fortitudo and Temperatina are OK but I wished they speaked in that menacing angelic language instead of hearing it in English. Also, Richard Epcar's voice narration in the beginning was pretty cool, so kudos.
Overall, Bayonetta: Bloody Fate is a disappointment for fans of the game expecting a new ambitious take on the game but it is an enjoyable adaptation that manages to capture the charm and relentless action that made Bayonetta awesome to play. GONZO and Fuminori Kizaki deserves lots of credits for trying their damnest to make a solid adaption of the game and If you're a fan of the games or just curious, Bloody Fate deserves just one watch but at least it gives us a glimpse look on more possibilities for a Bayonetta anime film or series if any animation studio in Japan wants to take at another stab on this seductive witch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 16, 2014
Written and directed by Hajime Takoti (mecha designer on the Gundam series) and based off a manga by Katsuhiro Otomo, it's the tale of four men hunting down robots in an apocalyptic Tokyo. Farewell To Weapons is another heart-stopping addition to Short Peace. The moment when they spot a robot, the men quickly assume their positions and start off an epic battle of life or death with every shot building up to an impactful moment that hits you right in the face and boy, did I ever love the living crap out of this. I also enjoyed the comedy banter between the 4 men that
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had a real feel of comradery and all of them were likable people. It also ends on a more comedic tone but it didn't bother me that much cause I had so much fun with this short that I couldn't care less if it ended sad or comedic.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Nov 16, 2014
Written and directed by Hiroaki Ando from an original story by Katsuhito Ishii (Redline), Gambo tells the story of Gambo, a white polar bear who defends a young child from a royal family against a bloodthirsty demon that wants to harvest young women to re-produce more demons by getting them pregnant. Gambo is brutal. No, I'm not kidding. By reading the synopsis, you're probably thinking it's a really dumb story but trust me, it is damn good and ends with the most bloodiest fights in anime films by far. Plus, the art in Gambo looks beautiful and the designs are top notch (the demon, in
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particular, looks pretty f*cking boss) and the music is heart-pounding. What can you say but GO GAMBO!!!
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Nov 16, 2014
Written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo himself, Combustible tells the tragic love story of a firefighter and a geisha as we see their love being impossible due to laws that forbids them to be together and a wildfire that causes more harm to one another. Combustible starts off very calmly while introducing the love story of the firefighter and the geisha but certain laws or traditions forbid them to be together but during the final act of the film. a fire goes out of control and if you thought it ends on a happy, the short pulls a 180 and goes to a much darker
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path than you would have expect on an animated film. The art in Combustible is executed perfectly with an art style that depicts the traditional paintings of ancient myths that we see from Japan and it looks wonderful (the fire effects look phenomenal). With it's dark third act and beautiful visuals, Combustible is another phenomenal work from Otomo.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Nov 16, 2014
Written and directed by Shurei Morita (Tokyo Ghoul), this short tells the tale of a traveler who's confronted by spirits on a strange shrine during a crazy storm. This short is really beautiful with some pretty inventive scenarios and a great message on kindness and the need to help the unfortunate, even spirits (from what I got in my first viewing). Top it off with some great CG animation by Sunrise (who also animated all the shorts for Short Peace) that looks far superior than recent Sunrise properties (*cough* Valrave *cough*) and imaginative spirit designs with each spirit giving a unique look and charm. Possessions
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starts the compilation strong and steady and easily, a wonderful short that truly deserved the nomination for Best Short FIlm.... Too bad it didn't win squat.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Mar 1, 2014
Ladies and gentlemen... This is it. For over 35 years, Hayao Miyazaki crafted stories and worlds that felt more than just watching animated movies made in Japan but became an experience for audiences to be part of those worlds. Seriously, I love Hayao Myazaki's movies and say what you want about them being repetitive but goddamn, does his movies always bring me a smile on my face. I'll never forget the beauty of the trees and open fields from My Neighbor Totoro with it's giant furry Totoro flying on it's magical yoyo at night while the girls tag along for the ride, the atmospheric and
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spiritual world that Spirited Away was, the epic battle of man and nature from Princess Mononoke, the cartoony adventure of Lupin in The Castle Of Cagliostro and I will never forget the engaging world that Miyazaki crafted in Howl's Moving Castle ( That's right, I love Howl's Moving Castle, so bite me). When the news hit that The WInd Rises will be Miyazaki's last film, I did cry but understood his reasonings over this film being his last work since the man is getting old and he can't direct animated films forever. Hell, the man deserves a damn long rest cause he earned it and looking back on all the work he had to go through, it's no mystery why and I wouldn't mind if Goro Miyazaki took over directing and writing duties for his father on possible upcoming Studio Ghibli films. Released back in July 20 2013 in Japan, the film received huge critical acclaim while causing some controversy that I will later talk on the review. After getting out of the showing with a couple of my friends, we were breathless and we had no idea how we could describe the film on words but as for me, there was only one word that describes The Wind Rises.
The Wind Rises is just... just... lovely. To be sincere, words are weak when describing the pure ambitious scope and scale that Miyazaki went with this. He takes old animation tricks that he mastered in the past and just expands on the limitless possibilities that hand-drawn animation can be capable off while giving his damn best into crating a wonderful story of dreams and ambitions and in the end, he pulls it off perfectly in the end. Mesmerizing, breathtaking and ambitious, The Wind Rises is Miyazaki's greatest achievement in his career and a fitting end to his legacy that he created all those years ago.
The Wind Rises tells a fictionalized story of Jiro Horikoshi, an aircraft designer that created both the Mitsubishi A5M and the Mitsubishi A6M Zero aircrafts that were used by the Empire Of Japan during WW2 including on the assault on Pearl Harbor. In the film, it tells the story of Jiro's journey into becoming an aircraft designer because he loved planes and he was inspired by the dreams he had about Caproni (his full name his Giovanni Battista Caproni and he is a real life person that worked as an aircraft designer. aeronautical, civil and electrical engineer) and his fascination into creating planes because he wanted man to fly the skies but instead, men uses planes for war or their own selfish needs. Later on, we see Jiro working on crafting the best airfighters that he can come up with and while he had it's ups and downs, he still kept on going and in the end, he succeeded into making the best planes in his career, even it his creations were used for war in the end.
Now, this is where a lot of people took a lot of criticism over the story in The Wind Rises like the inaccurate portrayal of Jiro, the romance between Jiro and Naoko that never happened in real life or the fact that our main character is a man who designed planes to be built as killing machines during WW2. To be honest, I would like to say that I barely cared if Miyazaki took historical liberties while making the movie because it is historical fiction and by that, I mean that it isn't supposed to be accurate to the real life Jiro Horikoshi cause this is his own unique take on the life of the famous aircraft designer while still respecting the hardships that the man went through. Look at films like Anonymous, Amadeus, Prince Of Egypt and Titanic. All those films I mentioned are historically inaccurate but they were still good movies because they understood the importance of that certain famous person and filmmakers do their best into making a film that deals with important people in our human history while taking liberties from the biography of certain real-life people. It's just a movie and people today should stop complaining on how filmmakers handle real life people because in the end, we all know that it isn't real and we will always have books that tell the actual true story of that certain real life person. I also didn't mind the romance subplot between Jiro and Naoko cause for me, those moments with Jiro and Naoko are my favorite moments throughout the entire film. I love their relationship on how they met or just how cute they play off each other. I won;t ruin it for you but man, Jiro and Naoko are cute couples together. Also, the main journey of Jiro himself was engaging and while it is inaccurate, you can see the hardships, effort and confidence that Jiro went through into making his planes powerful and strong despite his creations being used for war cause in WW2 in Japan, they used planes as weapons or to be designed as bombers.
The animation in The Wind Rises is absolutely breathtaking. As if Studio Ghibli movies cannot look any better than this, Miyazaki went balls out on the animation and visual style on the film as the backgrounds look phenomenal, the sheer detail put into the design and colors of the planes (THOSE PLANES LOOK AMAZING IN ANIMATION FORM) or the wonderful atmosphere that the film portrays, The Wind Rises excels in the animation department and offering one of Ghibli's best artistic efforts ever put on an animated film. The animation shines even higher during the fantastical dream sequences that evokes an atmosphere that triggers emotions of happiness, calmness and dreadfulness that few animated films don't rely on. The music by Joe Hisaishi is, once again, pure musical bliss with powerful piano pieces and fantastic use of orchestral music that adds an extra layer of depth to an already wonderful journey of dreams and hardships. Since this is the last Miyazaki film, the English dub team had to make sure that they would be up for the task on making the best English dub version for The Wind Rises and surprise, the English dub is perfect in every way. Thanks to the wonderful effort of ADR director Gary Rydstrom, who directed the dubs for other Ghibli films like From Up On Poppy Hill and The Secret World Of Arrietty, and it's well chosen cast, the dub is now one of my favorite dubs I've ever had the privilege to listen to. Joseph Gordon Levitt is perfectly casted as Jiro as he delivers a strong performance that not only he proves that he is a great actor but that he can expand into different territories of performances aside from doing live-action projects. His lines and emotional deliveries are wonderfully executed and I can't wait to see Gordon tackle on more animated projects in the future. As for the other roles, Emily Blunt was beautifully casted as Naoko and adding a sense of tenderness and warmth into the role while Stanley Tucci was fantastic as Caproni and his Italian accent is spot on, Martin Short was hilarious as Kurokawa and all the other actors including William H. Macy, Elijah Wood, John Krasinski, Werner Herzog, Mae Whitman and Zach Callison were all wonderful in their roles. Hands down, the best English dub that Disney ever put on a Studio Ghibli film.
The Wind Rises is a another masterpiece from the great Hayao Miyazaki himself and a farewell to one of Japan's greatest film animator and director of all time. There's not much else to say about the film but that you should go see it now cause it is one animated film like no other and it looks like we won't get another one quite like this.
"The wind is rising. We must try to live" - Paul Valéry
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Feb 21, 2014
This is the film that I've been dying to see cause Wolf Children is the kind of movie I wish modern family films can take notes on how to make a family film done right without being unnecessarily hip or pandering like the animated films that we we got last year like Planes, Free Birds and Frozen, which is the most overrated animated film I've seen in existence that sucks beyond measures and this is coming from a guy that loves Disney. Don't get me wrong, there are exceptions of other modern family animated films that are pretty excellent like The Croods, How To Train
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Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Rango, Coraline, The Incredibles, Up, Rise Of The Guardians, The Illusionist and so forth but sadly, no matter how good or well-written these movies are, audiences of today will watch corporate animated kiddie flicks that will always shove hip stuff with pop-culture modern references and will always be pandering to young toddlers that executives will repeat this trend because they win more money the more they repeat it. From the moment I watched Wolf Children, I instantly got engrossed into the simple yet deep story about a young girl letting her kids grow up and choose what they want to do with their life ahead of them. Wolf Chidlren is a deep, beautifully moving and wonderful animated film that teaches us the importance of letting our children choose what they want to do in life and for the parent to raise and show his/her children the wonders of life that it offers.
Wolf Children is the story of Hana, a young girl studying in an university in Tokyo with a bright future ahead of her. Until she met a man who's not part of the university and Hana decides to spent time with him because the man wants to live life with someone that would care for who he is rather than leaving alone and not only that but the man reveals to Hana that he is, in fact, a wolf-man but strangely enough, Hana doesn't care if he is a wolf-man and wants to live with him forever. Through a montage, Hana and the wolf-man spend their days living together and moving forward with their life. Later, Hana gives birth to Yuki and Ame in the apartment but Hana discovers that the wolf-man is dead and with no choice but to raise the kids on her own in the apartment. Fearing that the secret of the wolf in the kids being exposed to the city, Hana decides to move from the city into the country because it will allow her children to learn not only about their new home but about themselves too and what they want to be when they grow up as adults.
Everything about the story just screams "brilliant" to me, Sure, it's a really simple story but Mamoru Hosoda went to great lengths into telling a story about the challenges of being a single parent raising 2 kids and how rewarding it is because it gives us the chance to prepare them for their future This may sound very "meh" to some but really, it is a wonderful message about parenting and how to help our children face the challenges from the world on their own. I love the characters in Wolf Children including Hana and she is, without a doubt, the best strong female character I ever seen in an animated film. Hana is a strong, confident and bright young woman that faces every mundane and challenging task in raising two children that are half-human, half-wolves. When she is feeling down, she doesn't whine about it, she cries for a while and the moment she smiles, she's back at her feet and doing her best to give her kids a happy childhood. The best thing about Hana is that no matter how hard the situation is, she laughs and smiles about it as she moves forward to face more obstacles in her way. Honestly, It makes me wish that more "teen moms" can be like Hana as hard-working, kind loving and cheerful young parents that have a positive outlook on raising children. Sadly, I doubt it will happen cause the "Teen Moms" of today are just ignorant and bitchy as they rely on being whinny, obnoxious and have their douchebag boyfriends to take care of the kids. Oh, how much I despise these sh*tty reality series of young dumb pregant bimbos of today. I love the kids Ame and Yuki as they feel, act, speak and react like actual kids. They play, explore their home together, help their mother, discover things together and even fight each other over dumb things. Yuki is the girl that loves to be wild while Ame is the shy boy that hates his wolf heritage but as they grow up, they change and both the kids realize that they must choose their own paths on what will they want to do in their future and when that moment comes, the kids will be on their own, in which results in one of the most tear jerking moments of happiness you will ever witness in an animated movie period. As for the side characters like the old grumpy man and the neighbors, I really enjoyed them too as all these people felt like a big huge community of earnest and hard-working people living a great life.
The animation by Studio Chizu with help from MADHOUSE is stunning with backgrounds being extremely colorful and life-like with great care put into the details and the moving motion of the characters is impressive. The character designs of the wolf children is really cool and I like the designs that the animators came up with the wolves as the wolves look very majestic and with a lot of spirituality in their looks alone. The music by Takagi Masakatsu is just wonderful and easily, the best OST I've listened alongside Hans Zimmer's score in Man Of Steel. It's calm, majestic, atmospheric and very peaceful in it's musical tone. The Japanese audio track is well acted and once again, Funimation delivers a strong acted dub that exceeds my expectations extremely high. Collen Clickenbeard (AKA: the voice actress who voices Riza Hawkeye in FMA) was a perfect choice a Hana and since Collen was well-known for playing strong female anime characters, she has no problem giving depth to her Hana character. David Matranga voices the wolfman with a lot of heart and soul put into the role while Lara Woodhull and Alison Viktorin were wonderfully casted as Ame and Yuki as they nail the energy and excitement of being kids. Micah Solusod and Jad Saxton were pretty good as the older version of Ame and Yuki with some fine execution on the emotional moments that the film offers in the end.
Well, we are here in 2014 and this is the season for film companies and audiences to throw in the obvious contenders for The Academy Awards. I know that the "Best Animated Feature" segment will be bullsh*t like always with Wolf Children and The Wind Rises not getting nominations because "they don't get anime" and instead, the nominees will be the same and the obvious will be FROZEN winning the category (it will happen, believe me. The Oscars, Academy Awards and the Golden Globes are pointless popularity movie contests after all) and once again, I need to flip my table in pure rage as I am waiting for the day that The Oscars get cancelled and I unleash pure wrath on their asses for their excuse of their so-called "nominations". Wolf Children is a MUST-SEE animated film for all adults and kids to see because I want families to take their kids to see animated movies that are made with care, patience and love put into the animated project for all families to see and witness for themselves. We need animated movies that not only we can have fun with but allow us to experience the wonders of storytelling in animated films like the good old days when Disney or Don Bluth use to make fun and deep animated films for all audiences. Wolf Children is just pure goodness and once again, Mamoru Hosoda gives us another winner with this moving film that will stay with you forever. It's a film that I'll happily revisit for a long time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Feb 21, 2014
Throughout the years, anime has proven itself in crafting engrossing stories filled with imaginative worlds and complex themes that you barely see in mainstream film or TV, which for me is a good thing that anime is not mainstream because if anime did became mainstream, the executives in the Western region will probably use anime as corporate cash-cows to waste the resources of an animation company (AKA the MARVEL/MADHOUSE Collaboration) or see a reality TV show about anime with some cute looking girls/guys making offensive jokes about our favorite shows like seeing the cast of Jersey Shore make fun of FMA and calling it an
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"overrated nerdy geek show" or worst, having the media blaming anime for shootouts, massacre or even rape. Why am I talking about this? Simply because I've been hearing a lot of talk from the anime community about what if anime will become mainstream in the future and that it would help the anime industry to be more popular. My answer for all this is hell no. Why? Because if we let anime become mainstream, we will lose the weirdness, coolness and charm of anime like the obvious panty shots, the insane shonen power ups or the massive epic scale of mecha battles that we see in anime and is for the best for anime to be non-mainstream, allowing more anime creators to come up with more original ideas without unnecessary restrictions and censorships. I'll admit, I do get tired of this tropes but then again, the anime films and shows that I watched had these kinds of tropes and honestly, it's a really dumb thing to complain but as long as we have this tropes up and running, you can bet that anime will be saved from the clutches of mainstream garbage. To put it out very simple, if we, as a community of anime lovers, allow the genre to become mainstream, we will lose the one thing that made anime so much fun to watch: Imagination and creativity. Hell nowadays, the anime community is filled with a bunch of people that pretend to be anime fans because they watch anime in the original Japanese language, hating on all English dubs because that's how anime fans are like and mostly, see Evangelion in order to become a "true" fan of anime and if not, they will label you as a disgrace to the community, even though that series is overrated as f*ck in the first place despite being an influence to the industry, and think that anime being mainstream will allow the industry to have more money and fame. Even though, we all know what happens when something becomes mainstream, you will get money and fame but you have to sacrifice your soul and humanity in order to gain fame and fortune. Again, do you guys REALLY anime want mainstream? I don't think so.
Now that we got that out of the way, let's review the film called Tokyo Godfathers, the third anime film that is directed by Satoshi Kon, the man responsible for movies such as Millennium Actress, Perfect Blue, Paprika and his first TV series that he ever created called Paranoia Agent, which is one of my favorite anime series hands down. For me, Satoshi Kon is such an amazing director because this man can craft some fantastic complex stories about the human mind like with Paprika, which is a film about the themes of dreams in the human mind and Paranoia Agent, an anime series about dealing with the issue of paranoia and how to overcome it. I only seen Paprika, Paranoia Agent and Tokyo Godfathers because the others are still hard to find but still, Kon can craft some fine storytelling in his films. As for Tokyo Godfathers, this was Kon's third film and far different than his psychological films that he's used to make because instead of being another film about psychological problems, this film revolves around 3 homeless people finding an abandoned baby in the thrash and set off to reunite the baby with her real parents. Despite having a very straight forward plot, I personally found Tokyo Godfathers to be a funny and touching drama about redeeming yourself on the mistakes you made in life to start over a new life and how life can be full of miracles.
Tokyo Godfathers revolves around 3 homeless people like Hana, a drag-queen that believes in miracles and good will, Gin, a man who used to be famous until a tragic event befall on him causing him to lose everything he owns and Miyuki, a young teenage girl who run away from home. One day while trying to find food in the trash, they encounter an abandoned female baby girl in the trash and Hana, feeling sorry for the child, decides to go on a long journey to reunite the baby with her real parents. Throughout the journey, they encounter countless challenges like trying to uncover their pasts, finding clues about the reasoning for abandoning the baby and discovering the meaning of forgiveness.
What I like about the story are the 3 main characters. Hana, Gin and Miyuki have got to be the best written characters I've ever encountered in an animated film. I like how they interact with each other, I love how they react to every situation during their journey and I love learning more about their reasonings on why they are homeless. For example, Hana is a drag-queen because she used to be very famous at his job until a customer insulted her because of her singing and therefore, Hana beats the living sh*t of out him. Gin is a trouble drunk because of his past as a cyclist that used to be a winner in all the races until another racer used a "get rich quick" scheme that affected Gin's career and causes his life to turn into shambles. As for Miyuki, she used to live with her family until she had enough of her father not listening to her when she talks to him, stabs him in the stomach and decides to run away from home as she felt guilty for doing such an unforgivable act to her father. You may argue that they deserve to be poor and rot on the streets but I found them to be people that made some stupid mistakes and therefore, a miracle happens that allows these homeless people for a chance to possibly be forgiven from the choices they made in their lives and who can blame them? It happens to a lot of people that make mistake and are desperately looking for a way to fix what was wrong and in the end, their act of bravery and sacrifice saves the day. Simply, it is a tale of forgiveness and the wonders of pure miracles that can happen to a bunch of unlikely people that may look and act like jerks but follow this sign as a path to redemption and possibly, new beginnings. It is such a heartwarming tale that you have no choice but to cry and smile all the way through this film.
The animation by MADHOUSE is absolutely gorgeous and it's no surprise cause MADHOUSE can make some pretty looking anime films in their book (Summer Wars, Paprika, Redline, Paranoia Agent, Trigun, Shigurui and so forth). I love the night style Christmas feel that the animators give to the sprawling city of Tokyo with it luxurious backgrounds and colorful visuals while going with the excellent lighting textures. The character models and expressions are freaking excellent with some of the most funniest expressions that these animators can come up with that goes perfectly with the Japanese audio track. As for the dub, there isn't any dub and for a good reason because the film was impossible to dub, since the characters talk in a very fast pace and characters having exaggerated expressions, the dubbing was canceled and the film was released with the original Japanese audio only. No problem for me cause the original audio is incredibly funny and dramatic that the lack of the dub is forgiven.
Tokyo Godfathers is a fantastic film that's worthy of watching it on Christmas with your friends and family. It has a deep, funny and moving story with 3 wonderfully written characters, fantastic animation, powerful emotions, excellent voice performances and an awesome soundtrack. If you have a thirst for some Christmas cheer and happiness then Tokyo Godfathers is the Christmas movie for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jul 25, 2013
I've been waiting to write this review for a long time. This is the anime that transcended generations of anime fans throughout the years to come and at the time, it was a massive juggernaut of an anime. This is the anime that everyone went nuts for because this is the one anime that had everything that we wanted out of an epic anime: A big engaging story with complex or lovable characters, awesome action scenes, dramatic emotional scenes, interesting social commentaries, a fantastic world for us to learn and discover, and simply the greatest anime soundtrack in anime series or film. This is the
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anime known as Fullmetal Alchemist, a series that was adapted from the mangas by Hiromu Arakawa and the anime became such a big phenomenon into the anime community that it spawned another FMA series that's closer to the manga, 2 FMA movies, different FMA OVAS, merchandise and even awesome cosplays that will make your jaw drop so hard that the balance of the Earth will shake to it's core. How do I know all of this? Simply because I am a big fan of FMA and I owned every single FMA anime DVD out there... Well, except Brotherhood and the Premium OVAS of the 2003 version of FMA but I'm still trying my damn best to buy them. My first encounter with FMA is when I watched an episode of FMA on Adult Swim called "Night Of The Chimera's Cry" and let's just say that I could never sleep well for the rest of my life after watching that episode but I was so engaged in the story and characters that I just wanted more. Fuck it, I'm just gonna spit it out: I love FMA and I think it's one of the best anime series that I've seen throughout my life watching anime.
It's pointless writing a synopsis because everybody just knows the story of FMA but for those who never heard of FMA, I'll be nice to summarize the story. FMA is the story of The Elric Brothers who live with their mother in the quiet land of Resembool with Edward Elric, who's the older brother, and Alphonse Elric, who's the younger brother. One day, their mother, Trisha Elric, died of a terminal illness and the boys are now alone without a mother or a father because their father left them for unknown reasons. Lonely and desperate, the brothers decide to perform "Human Transmutation", a taboo in alchemy that's forbidden to use by any means necessary, and suddenly, everything goes downhill with Edward losing his left leg and Alphonse losing his entire body, leaving Edward to sacrifice his right hand to grab Alphonse's soul and put his soul into a full-set armor. Days go by and as they grow older, The Elric Brothers set out on a journey to find "The Philosopher's Stone, which is rumored to grant them immense power to the user, and set out to recover their lost bodies in return. Only to discover that the brothers are pulled into a conspiracy that pulls them into something much more grand than just finding the stone.
The story is just huge and what's nice about the story is that everything ties up well in the grand plot that the series offers, There are stories about the disturbing history of The Ishbalan War, the story behind the truth of The Philosopher Stone, the origin of the Homunculi, which are beings that are created from the stone and can survive any harm or the story behind the Tucker family. I will not spoil the story because the overwhelming mystery and wonder in the story of FMA is what makes the anime so enjoyable to watch because the world is not only interesting but feels so real that it could be some place that we never knew it exists. I also love the deep themes about the nature of humanity and how we can overcome our weaknesses through peace, reasoning, determination, courage, faith and understanding rather than bloodshed or war and the themes fits because this is the story about the human spirit and how we all must stand together as one for us to keep on living. The characters are all wonderful because again, they feel like real people with real personalities and every character is likable. I love Roy Mustang's stubborn attitude but also this sense of kindness to him because he does care for his friends and you do feel his pain because of the disgusting choices that he was forced to make by the military, I love Colonel Hughes because he is a loving father and a strong soldier that's always there to help, I love Armstrong because.... He's Armstrong and he is just awesome. I even adore The Elric Brothers because not only are they brothers but you feel a powerful bond between the two. You see them learn to adapt on the world that they never knew outside of Resembool, they learn new and interesting things during their travels and most importantly, they develop their relationship with other people they meet through friendship and connection. We also see their struggles on what is right or wrong or learning of the appreciation of life during the last episode of the series. Simply put, all the characters and even villains of FMA are just wonderful and it is impossible to hate a single character in FMA because these are such great characters.
The animation in FMA is beautiful. Even though it's dated because this adaptation was an early Studio Bones effort, the animation still holds up pretty well with fantastic visuals, gorgeous lighting effects, imaginative background designs and beautifully fluid animation on character movements. It may be rough at times but the animation is still good looking to boot. The music in FMA is just breathtakingly magnificent with fantastic use of orchestrated tunes and well put together piano track pieces that matches the atmosphere of grand wonder to the show and that's thanks to composer Michiru Oshima and simply put, the guy was a genius for making such a perfect musical score. Both the Japanese and English dubs are excellent but the English dub by Funimation is just superior and it's not really hard to see why it is so good. Funimation has put money, time and effort into creating a dub that actually manages to be as good as the sub with Vic Mignogna nailing the role of Edward Elric, Aaron Dismuke perfect as the naive but strong Alphonse, Travis Willingham gives a deep and very passionate performance as Roy Mustang and J. Michael Tatum was just a great fit for Scar. Do i need to tell you why this dub is amazing? It simply is a fantastic dub and every voice actor was chosen perfectly into each role.
Fullmetal Alchemist is just an amazing series and a phenomenon that I am glad to be part on. Few animes can reach a goal of perfection while other animes can't quite achieve perfection but FMA is that rare breed. It took a bunch of mangas, re-wrote some of the unnecessary fillers that were in the mangas and the anime series just avoids them perfectly without stopping the pace. As for Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, I'm not gonna review the series because it's basically the same as FMA 2003 but closer to the manga and don't you dare start the whole "OH! You're a FMA 2003 fanboy because you're a FMAB hater!" bullsh*t because I love both FMA and FMAB period. Both shows are amazing in their own rights and for those who haven't seen FMA, I suggest you do cause this is one anime series that it is worth sinking your teeth into. FMA is one of my favorites anime series of all time and it deserves all of the praise it got 11 years ago.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 4, 2013
When Akira was released in 1988, Katsuhiro Otomo became a household name in the anime industry with the film and if it wasn't for Akira, anime would have never gain the huge exposure both on the East and West. Later in 1995, Otomo came back to produce an ambitious animation project called Memories, a compilation of anime films that consists on 3 stories that were all written by Otomo himself and the purpose of this compilation is to showcases different styles of animations that can be successful for the animation industry. The result is a unique experience for those who want to see animation in
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a whole new way and boy, does Memories impresses on the animation by a mile. Since this is a movie of 3 stories, I will review each anime story separately on this review rather than just review them all at once. Let's get started then!
Episode 1: Magnetic Rose
Directed by Koji Morimoto and animated by Studio 4C, it's about a group of engineers who received a distress signal from a salvaged ship called Corona and 2 engineers, Heintz and Miguel, decided to answer the distress signal from the ship and find out if there are survivors on the salvage. What they found is something more sinister and crueler than reality itself. This is regarded as one of the best parts of the compilations and it's easy to see why. It combines elements of fantasy, science-fiction and horror perfectly while portraying a heartbreaking story that deals with love, eternal loss, betrayal, murder and being blinded by our own reality in life. Top it off with breathtaking animation that conveys an atmosphere of fear and loneliness that will make Dead Space jealous and a fantastic score by renowned composer Yoko Kanno, Magnetic Rose is such a masterpiece in both the story and animation department that it deserves it's own full length animated feature film. Truly, this short film is a spellbinding experience from beginning to end.
Episode 2: Stink Bomb
Directed by Tensai Okamura and animated by Madhouse, this comical short film is about Nobuo Tanaka, a lab technician who's battling with a terrible cold and one of his partners decided to tell Nobuo to take a pill from a blue case because they though it was fever medicine that would help Nobuo get rid of the flu instantly. However, what he doesn't know is that once he swallowed the pill, Nobuo becomes a living biological weapon that is set to destroy everything in his path, including Tokyo. This short, while not as strong and perfect as Magnetic Rose, is still a fun story on what would happen if a clueless lab technician became a massive weapon and destroyed everything in his path including people and animals around him. The best part of this short is the epic chase scene that has the entire Japanese military army hellbent on stopping Nobuo from reaching Tokyo with all matter of missiles, tanks and jets, which ends up being both hilarious and intense. The animation is very impressive with some gorgeous detail in the character models and excellent use of contrast throughout the whole short. While not as strong as Episode 1, Stink Bomb is still an interesting but fun as hell short with some top-notch moments of tension and humor.
Episode 3: Cannon Fodder
Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo himself and animated by Studio 4C, This is probably one of Otomo's most interesting takes on animation because this entire short film is animated with no editing or scene transitions. The short is basically set in a city with cannons and why? Well apparently, they are fighting against an unknown enemy of some sorts and they decide to shoot with their cannons every day without any use of strategy or patience. What's fascinating about the short is that while nothing really happens a lot in the story, it does talk about an interesting social commentary about the addiction of humanity with weapons and if their addictions of using weapons of destruction will ever stop. The animation is also deserves huge kudos for having a different and interesting take on animation that Otomo used in this short and the entire sequence uses no cheap editing tricks, everything is a long animated shot sequence that goes fluid and steady all the way to the end. Overall, it doesn't end with a bang but the animation alone is worth the look.
On the whole, Memories is a very ambitious compilation of anime films that showcases the amazing use of hand-drawn animation by experimenting with different techniques that will surely be used for future animated projects to come. If you're a big fan of animation, Memories is worth the time of admission. Now, if we could only get Otomo to make a full-length movie of Magnetic Rose then my life might be complete right now.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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