Anime Review :: Paprika [2006]

Director - Satoshi Kon
Written By - Seishi Minakami, Satoshi Kon
Language – English Dub
Genre – Sci-Fi Thriller, Satoshi Kon Dream-theater.

Animation is an easy forum for surrealism, since the only limitation is the director and staff’s imagination. And, while it’s always interesting to see someone’s artistic exploration on screen, generally, it never goes too far beyond just that. "interesting." Since the essence of film is the storytelling, regardless of how many walls with eyeballs, talking dolls, or Michael Bays-plosion surround it, more often than not, heavily surrealist films read more as a sort of creative masturbation rather than anything that took much skill. Unchecked creativity that leaves the viewer wishing they had a handful of whatever drugs necessary to make what their watching as mind-expanding as it may have been intended.

Then again, perhaps that’s just me. My qualms that stem from my obsessive devotion to Joseph Campbell and the idea of stories being what makes any film worth the time it takes away from your life.

Either way, for that reason any time I line up a Satoshi Kon film, it usually comes with some healthy skepticism. Despite not once being a let down (Paranoia Agent and Perfect Blue being personal favorites of mine,) Kon always walks a thin tightrope of letting his love of blurring the lines between reality and dreams get the best of him.

Paprika, of course, is no exception. Yet even when we start to wonder if we’ll be drifting off into complete nonsense, the real world comes back long enough to provide us just enough bits of tangible story to keep this sci-fi thriller on perfect pace.

With so many things to say about the film, from it’s beautiful use of color and seamless drifting from dreams to the real world, to the gripping story, to even the whimsical and imaginative dream sequences themselves, the most noteworthy thing about Paprika (and the thing that really took me by surprise) is just how disciplined it is. A story this structured in this sort of whacky environment takes a near super-human effort to keep on course, which gets accomplished wonderfully, even packing a nice consolation sub-story about a detective having reoccurring dreams about a case he’s working. It gives the film’s proper ending more freedom to be slightly ambiguous while providing enough loose-ends clean-up to not leave you feeling cheated for paying attention to all the details.

An altogether sensational film that provides just enough structure and formula to give it’s creative pulp and philosophical exploration room to really thrive.

Anime Review :: Death Note [series]

Director - Tetsurō Araki
Written By - Toshiki Inoue
Language – English Dub
Run – 37 Episodes [2006-2007]
Genre – Thrillers Involving Godly Powers, Brilliant Detectives, and Obnoxious Girlfriends.

Imagine yourself in a perfect world. Not one where any evil-doer is immediately punished by death or that there are no wars or serious conflicts because of the ever-present hand of god… just imagine one where everyone is as cool as the characters in Tetsurō Araki’s Death Note.

The story follows Light Yagami, a brilliant student who stumbles upon a "Death Note" dropped to the human world by a bored Shinigami (god of death) named Ryuk from another realm. The notebook is capable of killing anyone who’s name is written in it as long as it fits into a whacky set of rules provided by the super-natural rightful owners. By just writing a name in it and picturing the victims face, the person in question will die of a heart attack, but, the user is able to get creative if they feel so inclined. Light decides to be the god of justice of his new world and is dubbed "Kira" by the media, killing criminals he deems unworthy of that world with a flick of his wrist. Eventually a connection between the deaths and this mysterious mass-murder is made and the police as well as L (a generally off-beat fella who happens to be the world’s top three detectives) get involved. From there, several years of shit go down in a murderous chess game between Light, L, and L’s successor Near.

Suffering a few year lapse from my anime intake, I accidentally caught one of the middle episodes of Death Note on Adult Swim and was immediately hooked by the sinister protagonist Light and the enigmatic L. My heart filled with the burning intrigue I haven’t felt since seeing Serial Experiments: Lain. What was this all about? What was the Death Note? What were it’s rules? Was I really watching a series where the lead character was the bad guy? Who wins? Why isn’t everyone’s hair spikier?

But, like many cases of love at first sight, eventually you’re waking up with a sore back from having to share your full-size bed and annoyed that their overnight bags take up so much room on your floor.

Now, before I got blasting holes in Death Note, which, for the record, I did enjoy a great deal, let me tell you about how cool it’s hair is and how nice it smells… maybe something about how cute it’s laugh is.

First off the interplay between Light and L is just wonderful. With Anime it tends to be difficult to actually create on-screen chemistry between non-existent characters, but here it’s really a sight to be seen. Truly a better set of onscreen rivals haven’t been seen in anime since Anyone You Can Do… I Can Do Better (a cinematic achievement if there ever was one, but that’s another post.) All kidding aside, though, it really is what drives the series until…

Sigh. well out of courtesy: **Spoilers**

L dies mid-late-series. From there, things take a turn for the mundane, but, I’m still talking about how cute the girl at the bar is.

The English voice acting is also notably well done. It’s funny to see how much English dubs have developed over my lifetime, from awkwardly phrased over-the-top dialog that wouldn’t be out of place in unlicensed Sleepaway Camp sequels to an actual art.

The plot itself is very comfortable to get into, and even when you can see the twists coming episodes away, you don’t mind, because you’re enjoying the ride and the interplay of the flawed, brilliant, and socially retarded characters. Death Note’s constant battle of wits with good and evil pushed into the background makes for some great viewing.

But…

Now here’s the part where I’m a jerk. For the record, I’m a lot better at being a prick than building things up, but, I think the most obvious question to ask after a complete viewing of Death Note is:

Why in god’s name did this need 37 episodes? Up until and including episode 25 ("Silence") the series is on task to be one of the best in years, but, since when does any anime story need an additional 12 episodes to wrap up everything in a neat little package? Personally, I’d have been content with a one episode wrap up and have Light go on to have his misguided desires of becoming a god come to fruition or be killed by Ryuk after vanquishing his rival L, but, unfortunately, I was treated to an additional five hours of hastily assembled characters and half-baked plot twists.

The book was fake! Well we knew it was a fake! Well we faked the fake!! Oh Noooes!

At very least, a second full season would have been necessary to further elaborate on the relationship between L’s successors, Near and the criminally underutilized Mello, but, instead we wind up in a 12 episode no-mans land with a new hero we couldn’t possibly care less about and who’s very existence seems to devalue all the mystery and brilliance of our once-breathing hope of stopping “Kira.”

Also, in the transition between L and Near, Light seems to go from an evil genius to sort of a dope, employing a cast of strangers to help in his plan to kill his new foe.

Truly, the last twelve episodes enter into Jaws II territory.

Where the early sins of the series were more than made up for, (the murky, relatively clichéd color scheme (I swear if one more thing on earth casts the color red versus the color blue… I’m looking at you Chelsea and Manchester U) and the neo-goth pandering with a race of gods dressed in Halloween costumes) the final 12 leave you sitting in front of your TV checking your watch while you’re stuck waiting for the predictable conclusion.

Even the tie-in to the two aspects of L’s personality split between Near and Mello seemed hackney. L liked elaborate, colorful sweets, so Near plays with toys and Mello is constantly munching on plain chocolate bars in aluminum wrappers. Get it?! Truly appropriate because these two crappy derivatives together probably could have made for one interesting character, while our delightfully evil Light suffers a mental lapse at the hands of the writing staff.

In the end everything gets phoned in and there’s a nice, predictable, blue bow on top. Ryuk puts the screws to our anti-hero everybody hugs as our secondary semi-retarded villainess jumps off a tower in the "smoke and sparks" region of Japan. A pointless clusterfuck if ever there was one.

Still, since 25 wonderful episodes easily outweigh 12 bad ones, Death Note is still a chunk of your life that’s well worth the effort.

[3/4]

Anime Review :: Howl’s Moving Castle [2004]

Director - Hayao Miyazaki
Written By - Diana Wynne Jones
Screenplay – Hayao Miyazaki
Language – English Dub
Starring – Christian Bale, Jean Simmons, Billy Crystal

Miyazaki has entirely too many films considered masterpieces for his own good, and while it’s usually not fair to rate a film against someone’s existing body of work, I’m gonna go ahead and do it anyway.

The Hayao checklist is all accounted for off the jump. Lead character with a curse? A war? Royalty being involved? Nature? Magic? Some form of frightening mindless Ooze-Men? (Seriously, this guy has it out for mindless ooze-men.) To lesser visionaries, this would be borderline self-parody, but luckily for Miyazaki, he’s always got enough visual punch to cover his ass.

The story follows Sophie, a modest young woman working at a hat shop who starts her adventure after an inadvertent run-in with a dashingly handsome and predictably mysterious wizard named Howl. Yes. The fella who has a moving castle.

Howl proving himself as the traditional romantic interest who’s more trouble than their worth, after her encounter, Sophie gets chased by blob-men and cursed by the equally blob-like Witch of the Waste. She’s now an old woman who, as we quickly learn is the detail of most curses in this world, isn’t able to talk about what happened to anyone beyond the witch herself.

Whimsy, art-direction, and yet another imaginative world run rampant over the first hour, as well as a delightful peppering of Wizard of Oz nods. One of the bigger problems with Howl’s, however, is that it blows too much of it’s magical wonderland upfront and leaves us playing catch-up as the film takes a turn for the average.

Eventually all the cast are making assumptions based on information the viewer hasn’t been let on and, like is all too common, you’re left to shrug and explain away the plot-holes with the handy caulk that is “the power of love.” Miyazaki is so accustomed to creating his unique little worlds that this time he’s really failed to make clear the rules over the course of the story.

Soon enough you're met with “your hair looks like starlight” and everybody hugs, which, you enjoy, because it’s a lighthearted story about the power of love, but while you’re jumping up and down for joy with the characters your mind does wonder to exactly why it is you’re hugging anyway.

Was this a wonderful story or did it just coast on a walking castle or the flamboyant charm and overwhelming cool of the male lead?

The answer is both.

Still, the end result is a wonderful film that’d be an out-of-the-park piece by any other director. Miyazaki unfortunately is forced to work within the handicap of… being Miyazaki.

[3.5/4]

Greetings. (Are You There God? It’s Me, Gigantor)

Welcome to Oh Tetsuo. A pragmatic look into the beautiful and often-times frustrating world of Anime. A branch of film that’s brought us the feverish intensity of Akira, the wonder of Serial Experiments: Lain, and the stabbing abdominal pain that is Big Wars. A waning trend in America that’s had dozens of ebbs and flows over the past thirty years, and rightfully so.

Like any genre of film, as a general rule, you’re looking at a twelve-parts-crap to one-part-genius margin ratio. For every Dark Knight, there’s more than a few Daredevils.

Oh Tetsuo is here for the fans and social-users alike, presented to be an editorial outlook in plain, understandable English without constant use of insider slang or attempts at educational nonsense. This is for a few reasons; first of all as a part-time music critic, I only know how to be a jerk, and, second, there have been lots of excellent online resources for learning all you need to know about the rich world of Japanese animation. Like all avenues of nerd-dome, fan resources are plentiful, I’m just here to spout off my thoughts on a genre I love to readers with a base understanding of the art-form, or at least for insomniacs that like to read.

To establish the map, so to speak, I figure I’ll give a quick overview on my thoughts. Consider it an FAQ for my particular brand of douche-baggery.

1a.) I really love anime.
1b.) Most anime is genuinely awful.

Important thing to understand. Anime often suffers two true stereotypes. It often has non-liner storylines and addresses issues of a more philosophical nature through metaphor and ambiguity, and, just as often, resembles a Michael Bays wet dream with depth replaced by large-breasted 16 year-old bounty hunters that blow things up and drive cool cars.

…also there are robots. Whoooole lotta fuckin’ of robots.

2) Not all popcorn anime is inherently bad, just as not all art-school anime is inherently good.

3) No matter how objective I attempt to be, I’ve always got a soft-spot for a lot of the sitcom stuff I got onto when I was younger (Ranma ½, Tenchi Muyo, The Slayers, etc)

4.) Combination of 3D CG and traditional 2D was maybe the most dreadful directorial choice in the history of the form.

5.) Not everything Hayao Miyazaki has done is flawless (though, a lot of it is pretty close)

The rest of the bridges we’ll cross when we come to.
Cheers,
- Aj