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While 1997's televised adaptation of Berserk left a lot to be desired, especially in terms of continuing the Berserk story, it's still far superior to the 2012 movie reboot, which will unfortunately only serve to disappoint fans of the series and chase away those who have been aloof.

Story: 6/10

As an introduction to the setting, the first arc does a decent job - the story takes place in a semi-alternate medieval European universe, where, for better or worse, kingdoms and principalities must rely on mercenary groups to maintain and expand their kingdoms. Our heroes are members of the Band of the Hawk, a prodigious mercenary group ... who far outperform their pay. In this first movie, the only real conflict is that the former commander of the Midland army has been deposed in favor of the Band of the Hawk, and he wants revenge on them. There are other minor conflicts which are portrayed well, but the story lacks any real commitment by the characters, other than them being warriors and fighting for their own livelihoods. And speaking of characters:

Character: 3/10

The characters are the heart and soul of the Berserk franchise, and really, of any show. Being not even 80 minutes long, this movie doesn't come close to painting the complex picture of its main characters. Before I discuss the three main protagonists, I should mention that there are only -eight- important named characters in this movie - including the generic bad, big bad, demon, and love interest (the King of Midland is the eighth, if you were wondering). So, what can be accomplished in a movie where every bad guy gets soundly defeated in a matter of minutes? Well, our hero, Guts, chops the generic bad Bazuso's head off early on, and despite being an unbeatable badass, is forced to play second fiddle to Griffith, the leader of the Band of the Hawk. Griffith, meanwhile, maintains an effemenite, yet undomitable persona, and manages to wax philosophical during a monologue to his love interest during the only interesting scene in the movie, but does little in the way of the plot aside from dominating Guts. And the female member of the band, Casca, just comes off as a bitch due to her incessant emasculation of Guts, who attempts to appeal to her sense of community and commitment, but fails simply because she refuses to believe him. Having the three main characters of the story reduced to stereotypes makes it difficult to have them connect with audiences that don't already know the characters.

Art: 6/10

Finally, we get to the elephant in the room: what's with the awkward 3D cel-shading? The producers and animators decided to employ it in the majority of the fight scenes, as well as some of the less action-oriented scenes, and it certainly is jarring. While it does lend itself to the depiction of depth in the battle scenes, overall, the 3D animation is done in such a way that it makes the characters seem inhuman, programmed, and generic. If it were combined with motion-capture, it may have made sense, but the erratic, guesstimate 3D movements of people's heads merely serve as a distraction. This is contrasted by the beautiful 2D renderings of characters in other scenes, which sometimes intermesh to create what are just strange sequences. When characters are drawn in 2D, the result is beautiful, but the unfortunate choice to include 3D renderings in certain scenes makes the movie hard to watch at some spots.

I will end by saying that the sound design of the movie is passable - I didn't much noticed the music or sound effects, save for Casca's voice actress, who delivers an exceptionally wooden performance. Overall, the movie conforms to the manga, and it is watchable, but it fails to portray any of the awesomeness that we expect out of Berserk, and tends to be so bland and boring that I can't imagine that anyone who wasn't a already a fan was turned into one. We will see how the second movie fares, but the series has to make up a lot of ground if it's going to recover from this one.

I saw the Director's Cut of Steamboy recently, which had me reevaluate the movie more positively than I had in the past. Not that much more positively, mind you.

Steamboy is, if the title didn't already imply, a Victorian England Steampunk movie. I have no hate against Steampunk, but no love for it either, and Steamboy, I feel, falls flat on the premise of having awesome steam-powered machines fueling the action. They're there, but only on a small scale.

The premise of Steamboy is that two famous father-son inventors have discovered a marvelous steam-powered machine part which will change the future of mankind. The grandson gets involved ... in the plot, thinking that his father is dead, and his grandfather has entrusted to him the most prized of their proprietary inventions: the Steamball.

Steamboy does a few things right, but far many more things wrong. The O'Hara foundation, who is funding the Steam family's research, is interested in harnessing the power for weapons of war. Their English opposition, on the other hand... is... also, interested in harvesting the power for weapons of war? Taking place in 1866 England, the American Civil War has already passed, so not only does and English vs. American war seem out of place, but the idea of warmongering for either country seems mismatched.

This isn't really a fault of the movie, though, since the ideas are much more generalized: should science be used to advance the military prowess of powerful countries, or not? Does humanity suffer from the advancement of military technologies, or does it merely allow the most powerful countries to assert their culture as the proper and right culture and enforce their beliefs onto the less powerful, or does the creation of man-annihilating machines simply allow the powerful to decimate their opposition?

Unfortunately, Steamboy only dwells on this issue for about 15 minutes of the two hour runtime. The majority of the film revolves around the grandfather-father-son dillema of who is right - the crazed father or the righteous grandfather? This conflict could have been more dynamic, as we see in earlier scenes that the father has been writing home consistently even though it's been censored by his company, but later on it's revealed that he's insane anyway, so the point becomes moot. The movie does try to stick it to the industrial-military complex at points, but this seems mostly childish, as evidences by the main proprietor / opposer of those ideas, namingly, the spoiled O'Hara child.

Steamboy could have succeeded on a philosophical and emotional level, but it wraps itself too much around the conflict of the ridiculous situation at stake: a giant steam-powered floating island which is about to crash into London. Considering that I haven't heard about the "great crashing of the steam castle into London" in history books, I can't say I was too intrigued by what the outcome was going to be. There is definite potential in Steamboy if you're a fan of the Steampunk genre, but don't expect more than is on the surface.

Mai Mai Shinko and the Thousand Year Magic explores the wonder of childhood through the imaginative minds of Shinko and Kiiko as they create friendships and marvel at the world around them. Set in 1950s-era rural Japan, a small group of elementary school students must rely on their imaginations and the local farmscape to pass the time.

There isn't any one central conflict to string the story along, but the characters learn to make friends, express themselves, and admire their prolific ancestors who once made the land a mighty cultural center. An imagined story of an ancient princess runs parallel to the lives of the characters ... as they must struggle with issues like death and abusive fathers. The story isn't a tragedy, however, as the kids must simply learn to deal with reality and see the best in things and in each other.

Mai Mai Shinko draws obvious comparison to My Neighbor Totoro, with two young female main characters, the rural Japanese setting and predictably a little sister getting lost along the way, but unlike a typical Ghibli film, Madhouse has strayed away from the fantastic, restricting it to the minds of the children. It still draws recommendations from Ghibli fans, and anyone who wants to reminisce about their energetic childhoods.

Rain Town, a serene, atmospheric short, is the polar opposite of Ishida Hiroyasu's first animation, Fumiko's Confession, which is, by contrast, a manic, zany, and cartoonish ride. Both works show off Ishida's animation talent, but it seems that Rain Town is merely a portfolio-building exercise for the young man. The beginning scenery evokes memories of La Maison en Petits Cubes, but Rain Town offers hardly any story. Still, the animation looks great, and the music is fitting.

The originality and success of 20th Century Boys owes itself to creator Urasawa Naoki's creativity and drawing talent. This is the kind of manga that you can get excited about and engross yourself in its story. Small boys in a little town dream big about saving the world and becoming defenders of justice, but the one thing they couldn't imagine is how their ideas will end up affecting the future.

Art

The art is great. The characters and environments have a consistent and interesting style, and the drawings are a pleasure to look at. Urasawa-sensei does a great job at keeping the physical look of the characters ... consistent and recognizable at different ages. If there are any complaints to be had, it's that a couple of the characters look rather cartoonish compared to the scenery they're placed against, and that some of the women are hard to tell apart.

Characters

While 20th Century Boys has a large menagerie of characters, they lack any real personality and are mostly defined by their physical characteristics (i.e. Yoshitsune is timid and has small eyes, Maruo is fat, Keroyon looks like a frog, etc). I fear that the creator was too focused on involving the characters with the plot that the audience is never given time to share in the experience of the characters and connect to them on an emotional level. Even the heroine of the story is never placed in a recognizable human situation (i.e. having a crush, being pressured by school or work, dealing with a friend in trouble). She's just a fearless, determined go-getter, and we can only guess at where her unbridled confidence comes from, since we're never shown. Koizumi is perhaps the only character who acts rationally, and she simply serves as comic relief. I must say that having "normal human behavior" be comical is telling of the story.

Plot

The story follows a cyclic pattern of A Revelation / We Save The Day (at least, for now). Since this is a mystery at its core, the Revelations concern clues as to the identity of friend or his next evil plot. The "Who's the culprit? Find out next week!" scenario can be interesting, but it's extended throughout the entire manga and soon becomes tedious. Since there aren't many characters to care about, their actions and speeches more or less pad out the long trip to the closing action of a conflict.

What Conspiracy?

I have a problem with accepting conspiracy theories. It's difficult to believe that so many people in different levels of the plot are "in on" the conspiracy. Even more difficult to explain is the motivations of the conspirators, and moreover, their reasons for not rebelling against the plot or spilling the beans. 20th Century Boys waves a hand over the issue of millions of people blindly following the evil "Friend". There are quite a few plot threads that are left hanging by the end, but ultimately all the audience wants to know the identity and motivations of Friend, and I must say that this is handled brilliantly.

Love, Peace, & Rock'n'Roll

20th Century Boys makes numerous reference to classic American rock bands and world events, such as the lunar landing and Woodstock. Rock reverberates through the story and gives it a unique style. The rock and hippie vibe exuded by 20th Century Boys is perhaps its most endearing trait.

Social Commentary?

It's hard to say whether the bands mentioned are reflective of Urasawa-sensei's own taste, but he does thrust three manga artists into the story who act as his mouthpiece for the hardships faced by manga artists. They exist to showcase "Friend"'s suppression and censoring of the arts, but for me the mangaka were a constant reminder that I was, in fact, reading a manga. I'm still not sure whether creating such blatantly autobiographical characters is appropriate or distracting, but I will note that the ratio of manga artist characters to main characters is about 1:5.

In Closing

I don't recommend 20th Century Boys to the passing manga fan. The concept is very interesting and the events of the story are a fun ride, but ultimately it's stretched out to a tedious length. However, if you want to buckle down and enjoy a manga for a while, 20th Century Boys is worth it.

Oblivion Island isn't so much a movie as it is a 90-minute revealing of some impressive cgi technology - or perhaps just a really long toy commercial.

The movie begins with our young protagonist, Haruka, being read a children's fantasy by her bedridden mother. The book tells a story of a man whose treasured comb was returned to him by a fox after offering an egg at a shrine. The townspeople begin offering eggs to the shrine in hopes of having their items returned as well, but little do they know that the foxes are actually responsible for stealing the items that are considered 'forgotten' by ... the people. Haruka assures her mother that the hand mirror she received as a present won't share the same fate, since she'll treasure it forever.

Flash ten years into the future, where Haruka is now a teenager. Her mother is no longer around, and she seems unsatisfied with her workaholic father and her disinterested friend. For a change of pace, she visits the shrine to pray for her hand mirror to be returned, since, as expected, she forgot about it and subsequently it had been lost.

Haruka falls asleep at the shrine and wakes up to a scrounging fox-like anthromorph. The fox grabs some stray items, including Haruka's keychain, and scurries off. Haruka follows the creature into a parallel dimension, where the fox panics and tries to disguise her, or else he could get into trouble for leading a human to their world. After escaping danger, the fox tells Haruka to return to the human world, but she insists on staying to look for her mirror.

Haruka promises to give the fox, who introduces himself as Teo, her keychain if they find her mirror. He agrees and they set off to search for it. On the way, Teo is bullied by three street-gang members, and Haruka helps him get away. The bullies guess - correctly - that Haruka is a human, so they head off to expose her.

There's a pointless scene where the bullies chase Teo and Haruka which leads to the only funny moment in the movie, where their cylindrical vehicle flies off a roof, lands sideways on a tower, and slides down it, like a ring-toss game at a carnival. Teo and Haruka escape to a theater that is performing a play with one of Haruka's forgotten toys - don't ask why - and the bullies bust in, despite not knowing that their targets were in the theater. Haruka reunites with her toy, named Cotton, and the bullies chase her while causing a lot of property damage, even though she had already revealed herself to be a human, which calls into question the bullies' motive for chasing them in the first place.

The duo escapes and retires to Teo's house, where Teo reveals that the mirror is in a underground thieves lair - why he doesn't reveal this earlier when they're searching for the mirror is anyone's guess. Teo then steps outside where he's kidnapped by the evil Baron, who tells the fox to use Haruka to get back the mirror so that he can steal it. Of course, Teo will be rewarded handsomely.

The next day, the pair travels into the lair and the movie is tragically cut short when their cart derails and a giant stuffed monster forces Haruka into a pit of lava, killing her instantly - that is, until the lava is revealed to be syrup. The teenager climbs out and rips the stuffing out of the monster to discover that her mirror is inside of it. She retrieves the mirror and attempts to escape with Teo, but they are headed off by the Baron, who kidnaps Haruka to be a slave and steals the mirror.

The Baron reveals his plan to use mirrors to control a robot army (mirrors are like a power source), and then proceeds to administer an amnesia gobstopper to Haruka by means of a Rube Goldberg machine. This gives Teo ample time to sway the townspeople into committing treason against the Baron, and they use Teo's reward money to build a plane that will propel him to the Baron's dirigible.

Meanwhile, Haruka's toy, Cotton, rallies an army and inexplicably boards the Baron's airship without having any means to do so. The baron dismembers the sentient toy, and Haruka escapes into Teo's airplane. Then, amidst cannonball fireworks and balloons, Teo's airplane crashes into and disables the Baron's airship. The film then goes into a metaphysical sequence which explains the moral of treasuring memories, after which the Baron is defeated and Haruka retrieves her mirror and returns to the human world.

So that's Oblivion Island. Haruka and Teo are the only characters who have more than a few lines, the plot is full of holes, and the story, for the most part, is unoriginal. For a children's movie, Oblivion Island is not charming, interesting, or funny. There are no attempts at puns or jokes at all, and since there is hardly any gripping drama, the movie ends up being a sort of fantasy adventure - the kind you might see if you had a high fever. However, the visuals are absolutely stunning, essentially making the art and animation the only attractions of the film.

Mahou Shoujo Tai Arusu (Magical Girl Squad Arusu, or "Tweeny Witches" in the dub) is a fairly enjoyable fantasy witch show.

The show takes place in the Magic Realm, opposite the Human Realm from which the main character obviously arrives. Being the oddball idealist that she is, Arusu, the human newcomer, manages to get away with destroying the tradition of the magic realm and disrupting what the witches would deem normal by using her enthusiasm and optimism to assure everybody that magic exists to make people happy. Magic is not a tool of war, and war will eventually lead to destruction, despite the ideals that the ... higher-up witches hold in high regard.

It can't be said that the plot is unpredictable, but each episode is short (at ten minutes) and keeps the viewer on their toes as to what will happen next. The story isn't hard to follow, and seems to rush into some elements without much explanation (i.e. the magical realm is going to be destroyed), but it is charming and enjoyable in a way that keeps it watchable despite the numerous clichés and tropes it employs.

The reason I watched this show is that Studio 4C was involved, and they are renowned for making exceptional anime. This certainly isn't one of their best, and the animation style is nothing to gawk at, but it is a capable show. You won't find many shocks or surprises in this one, but Arusu is a roller coaster of emotion, friendship, idealism, and magic.

Junkers, Come Here encompasses everything that is great about animation.

The movie sticks close to the reality we know and avoids topical and epochal content while still using animation effectively to depict scenes that would otherwise be difficult, expensive, or uncanny in other media. While the story it tells is typical, the writing, soundwork, and pacing of the scenes demonstrate mastery of craft. While neither being a dramatic film nor a comedy, Junkers manages to constantly deliver scenes which are wholeheartedly funny, moving, and entertaining. The characters and story deliberately avoid feeling artificial, and even with the inclusion of a talking dog, the movie's universe feels ... completely like our own.

Movie gems like this are the reason I keep watching anime. Rare is it to find a movie which can sincerely entertain me for every second of its runtime and leave me feeling good after reflecting on the experience.

The cell is the smallest unit of life. Its mechanisms are complex, and only after many years of observation and exploration have we begun to understand their functions. Certainly, the examination of multicellular organisms warrants a much more exhausting amount of research. Even more sophisticated is the existence of life so varied and so involved that it involves taxonomical classification schemes and entire bodies of research. Plants have different organs which serve specific purposes, are able to reproduce sexually, and perhaps most interestingly, transform sunlight into energy for life. Animals consume other creatures and have a conscience, exhibiting specific social and survival patterns and are ... able to learn from their experiences and transform their sensory input into wisdom. Humans go as far as to have sentience and grammar. Where does the extent of our ability to understand life lie, and what is the attainable extent of life? These questions may not be answered in our lifetimes, or ever. There may be no answers.

Genius Party is a brilliant anthology of mind-stimulating shorts which attempt to shatter modern animation paradigms. Driving the stories is the idea that the human mind is filled with unknowns, and that our universe is clearly incomprehensible. With such obvious observations, it follows that anime as an art need not have its content presented in a segmented and understandable way, for that would fail to emulate the very world we live in. Rather, life is too complex to be understood, and it is through its confusion and novelty that we must wade in order to find the answers. As human nature would have it, we can find meaning in anything as long as we believe in its significance, although whether or not anything truly has significance may be indiscernible.

Commenting on Genius Party as a whole is difficult. It is, after all, a collection of disparate stories from a diverse cast of directors. They all succeed in providing a snapshot of current anime trends and capabilities, but their goals are as varied as their plots. It is without question that all the shorts have the asset of awesome animation, motivating soundtracks and captivating stories. Even if they fail to resonate with the audience, boredom seems distant due to the sheer novelty and excitement of the works.

Genius Party comes highly recommended not only for the anime enthusiast, but for anyone who has even the slightest interest in cinema and entertainment. The audience is certain to pick favorites among the stories - which stories you find interesting may depend on your life experience and perspective. It may serve as an interesting exercise to contemplate why those stories click with you; you just might learn something about yourself.

A wonderful shounen anti-war film which slipped through the cracks.

The amazing art will surely catch your eye. The vintage styling, reminiscent of "Now and Then, Here and There", will make you think you're watching a film that's much older than a 2000 movie. The Boy Who Saw the Wind's classic look paints the film as a tribal fantasy epic, despite its technologically-advanced universe. The result is a multi-temporal environment which is nostalgic, modern, and futuristic, all at the same time.

Within this universe, the common boy-saves-girl anti-war drama takes place, of which Now and Then, Laputa, Conan, and Agito are variants. The Boy Who Saw the ... Wind makes its mark among these through its tragic plot and awesome visuals.

The only pitfall of this film is the hurried direction which takes place in the second half, most likely due to time or budget constraints. The lack of build-up and anticipation at this point makes the film seem like it's jumping around, but nothing important is left out.

The Boy Who Saw the Wind is worth watching, especially if you enjoyed any of the above-mentioned works.