Anime Review No. 90 (Mardock Scramble The Third Exhaust)

Mardock Scramble III

Ok, so now time to finish off this film series. It continues from where Part II left off, with Rune Balot and Dr Easter are still at the casino. They are still losing, but its all part of the plan-they have a long game in mind for sure. Meanwhile, Shell is able to track down them at the casino and Boiled still is trying to get back Oefculque. It is clear right from the get-go that this feels like the last third of a larger movie, where everything is coming to a head.

They end up in a card game against Ashley Harvest (some official at the casino who was in one scene near the end of Part II) but the game turns to a draw every time. Of course he tries to get under her skin but she is strong-willed and determined and also gets some advice from Bell Wing, the casino worker Balot met in Part II. Then Shell brings in some heavies to settle the score, however Balot and the doctor get away from the casino. But uh-oh a car chase ensues with Boiled but they get away from that as well. Car chase is quite good, granted that there is some obvious CG in places.

Rune Balot and Dr. Easter then sort out the memories acquired from the casino chips, because Shell’s obsessed with implanting memories into those…..because, there’s a lack of explanation, but whatever. So, Balot dives into Shell’s memories and its quite interesting. Shell’s brutality towards his ‘girlfriends’ is quite harrowing and shocking, and mostly puts his actions up to this point in context. His reasoning…..is both predictable yet still unsettling. I won’t spoil but suffice to say yeah I kind of figured that but it's still shocking.

The trial date is set (yeah remember that from Part I? Yeah it slipped my mind, and the production crew it seems) and Shell gets the conviction. But Rune Balot ends up having to protect Shell for some reason, in part due to the October Corporation (which Shell was part of) has now to decide to detach Shell from them and thus go after him as they are practically mobsters. Balot and Dr. Easter go to his place, only to find Shell’s fiancee murdered in the bath.  

Last bit of it is quite bloody as Shell struggles to get away from Rune Balot who wants to kill him for what he did, but Oeufcoque is her conscience in trying to get her to stop. There is the very tense final fight between Balot and Boiled but had a very satisfying end after all.

Now, the third installation, which I got back last spring, contains both the Theatrical and Director’s Cut versions. I watched the Director’s cut mainly on a whim. Pretty much the same things I noted in my reviews for Parts I and II can be applied here. Mardock Scramble is impressive looking, with a vibrant and diverse color palette and tense atmosphere throughout this installment. If nothing else, it is visually striking and quite wondrous. Granted the story is a bit rote and hues to cyberpunk tropes and formula but its good enough in everything else that I can give it some slack.  

Now, the English Dub, directed by Janice Williams and written by Josh Grelle, is a very solid effort by Sentai Filmworks. Hilary Haag, David Matranga and Andy McAvin put in some of the best work here in this film series and should be commended for that. The rest of the cast (includes Andrew Love, Leraldo Anzaldua, Susan Koozin and David Wald) is very good as well.

In the end, Mardock Scramble is really good, but not quite great. It is however a remarkable tale of redemption and revenge and the delicate line between the two.The trilogy is worth at least a look if you like cyberpunk and sci-fi action. Of course, I would recommend anyone who wants to check this out, watch all 3 parts in one sitting-its something you can dole out on easy-going afternoon.

So, next review is my last one for the year on the blog, and its a very special movie for me….

Til next time, dear readers…...

Anime Review No. 88 (Silent Mobius)

Silent Mobius

1998 TV Series

Studio: Radix/Sotsu Eizo/TV Tokyo

Director: Hideki Tonokatsu

Script: Hiroyuki Kawasaki, Katsuhiko Takayama, Kenichi Kanemichi, Mayori Sekijima, Michitaka Kikuchi, Miyuki Yanari and Yoshima Narita

This review made possible by a Christmas gift last year from fellow AR writer and internet content creator Juude (Juude's twitter, His YT Channel)! Thank you dude!

So, yeah ever watched a show or movie from when you were young, only to revisit it years later? Oh I’m sure most of the Internet had done that from one time or another. I have done it before here on this blog as well. Well this time, I am looking at another anime show I watched back on the Anime Unleashed block on the now long defunct TechTV. This block I have mentioned in my reviews of ROD TV and Crest of the Stars before. The show in question this time is about Silent Mobius.

Silent Mobius is based on a manga by Kia Asamiya, well known for Nadesico and Steam Detectives. In 1998, it was picked up for an anime series that ran for 26 episodes, later getting onto American TV some time around 2005-06. Now I am aware there are some movies that were made prior to this but I have yet to see them and as such this review will cover the TV series only. So what’s the series about?

What a blood moon

Well, it is essentially the story of Katsumi Liqeur, a seemingly ordinary young woman living in Tokyo in the far future…..of 2024. It’s a future where some past catastrophe was nearly averted but someone else might be up to reenacting it with the aid of some otherworldly creatures named Lucifer Hawks. Katsumi is dragged into the battle as she is drafted to join the AMP, a special police division consisting of only females trained to deal with the monster menace and prevent the apocalypse. The AMP, led by one Rally Cheyenne, consists of computer expert Lebia, Dark skinned Amazon tomboy Kiddy. kind psychic Yuki and meek miko Nami.

What works in Silent Mobius’s favor in its story and characters. Granted, much of the show is similar to another show from the same era, Bubblegum Crisis 2040: Group of hot babes kicking ass in a futuristic cyberpunk setting against monsters set to destroy humanity. In addition, Silent Mobius examines the human condition and how despite all adversity we shall endure. Katsumi in particular goes through a most interesting arc as she is prompted into the AMP due to inquiry into her heritage and where that leads to is very fascinating. In the course, she does develop a relationship with Roy, a cop who goes from being her trainer to eventually her romantic partner. I have to say that the relationship dynamics in this show between characters are rather mature, ie the sort I would expect between adults for the most part.

Oh don't be so hard on yourself Nami, your focus episode was pretty weird and surreal

But as this is an ensemble piece, the other members of the AMP squad get their own focus episodes and minor storylines in the show. Some of it (like with Nami and Yuki) are rather surreal in nature, whereas the material around Kiddy and Lebia delves into the same thematic territory that Ghost in the Shell and Evangelion explained prior, but within a different context.The antagonists are mainly the Lucifer Hawks, which are basically these otherworldly beings of great power and strength. Of course, halfway through the show some big WHAM revelations pop up that very much shift the dynamic between the AMP and Lucifer Hawks.

These two screencaps were taken within a few seconds for each other-Spot the quality difference?

Such a pity that the visual presentation of the show is an uneven mess. Oh don’t get me wrong, the animation is consistent on a prime basis level. However, Silent Mobius suffers from something that many of its contemporaries suffered from: the digital/hand-drawn hybridization in the animation. What I mean by this is in the late 90s and early 00s anime studios would experiment with digital paint on cel animation and other digital techniques, CG included. Professor Otaku in his latest video on Queen Emeraldas (Prof Otaku's latest review) touches on this a bit more, but for Silent Mobius its a special issue. See, on a scene by scene basis, Silent Mobius will flip between hand-drawn cel animation on film and cel animation done digitally. Granted, at first it’s not too obvious but as the episodes progress it becomes rather apparent and ultimately very distracting. And you can tell because of how crisp and clearer the digital work is in comparison to the traditional animation. At times, the show seems like one that was made 5 years in the past and 5 years in the future. Also most of the CGI work especially in the later episodes is on the jarring side when placed in conjunction with the cel work.

Scene from one of last episodes

Silent Mobius OP

In terms of sound, the music for the show was done by Jimmie Haskell, Kenichi Sudo, Suzie Katayama and Takashi Furukawa. Its really good, a nice combination of techno cyberpunk music and somber orchestral pieces. The OP is really great. All of it except for one piece-this really cheesy piece of 90s engrish pop ballad which they use as the Second ED and I can’t help laugh when that track plays, its so corny.

The English dub was done by the good folks of Vancouver, back when they did quite a lot of work in anime dubbing. The dub cast list reads like a who’s who of Canadian anime voice actors (Marcy Goldberg, Kelly Sheridan, Lisa Ann Beley, Paul Dobson, Trevor Devall, etc.) Nicole Oliver does double duty of voicing Katsumi and Lum Cheng, a character that shows up in the second half, though she does a really good job at distinguishing between the two, not an easy task in a dub certainly. Of course, nowadays, she is more well known for voicing Princess Celestia in MLP FiM which is quite funny in retrospective. If I could, I would like to splice her MLP audio onto Silent Mobius clips. The dub is overall decent, with the main cast putting in some good performances but the rest is rather stilted or wooden.

The only scene with mizugi but dw its a team of some Grade A babes

Silent Mobius falls under that category ‘not as great as I remember, but now I can see something else great about that I like about it’. I mean when I watched as a teen I was enthralled by the action and the fact that at the time it was unlike anything I had seen before. Looking at it now as an adult and a more aware/mature viewer and fan, I can see that the show has not aged well, but it has a very compelling cast and story that’s rather mature than I initially gave the show credit prior. It’s a show worth checking out at least, if only as a historical piece of Japanese animation production.

Next time, its the Halloween Special review and an occasion to 'Plunge into the heart of horror'.......

Til' next time, dear readers.

Anime Review No. 86 (Mardock Scramble II)

Mardock Scramble The Second Combustion

2011 Movie

Studio: GoHands, Director: Susumu Kudo, Writer: Tow Ubukata

Well last spring I took a look at the first part of the Mardock Scramble. It was a mildly entertaining and a rather good prologue to a dark and bleak cyberpunk action story, a neat homage to the OVAs of the similar genre  from the late 80s and 90s. Anyway, onto the feature!

Part II picks up right where we left off with the first movie, based on my watching the director’s cut version which is available on the disc along with the theatrical cut. Apparently Rune Balot gets in a gunfight with Boiled which is quite thrilling-quick, fast paced and filled with tension and suspense. Luckily she gets rescued by Doctor Easter just in the nick of time and beat a hasty retreat.

Balot end up in a safe hideout briefly, called ‘Paradise’. She meet others like her as well as some other doctors. For instance there is Tweedledee and Tweedledum, a cyborg and dolphin who are homosexual partners. It is a time to recoup and rest, Oeufcoque is rebuilding himself back again after the gunfight with Boiled. This is also where the movie series moves away from the grim and dark atmosphere of the first part into a more tranquil and contemplative mood. Balot has a talk with GOD, though he’s a doctor with just a head.  

Meanwhile, Shell and his lackey Boiled are engaging in damage control. Medium survived with some new enhancements and still quite insane. Boiled is on their trail and gaining fast and then with the help of their allies at ‘Paradise’ Balot and Easter made another hasty retreat.

Once they get Ouefcoque back they plan out their next strategy: Infiltrate a casino owned by Shell in order to receive the records linked to their case. Also so they can win big at the casino as well. In the course of making slam dunk winnings Balot meets a particular casino dealer Bell Wing who gives her some advice and chit-chat, some really good stuff. The second installment ends with an interesting flashback to when Boiled first met Oeufcoque as well as some nice setup for the third and final installment. Nice harp music plays over the credits with another rendition of Amazing Grace plays and there we go.

Like the first installment, it still has some quite stunning production values, though the color palette has shifted away from grimdark and bleak to a more white and shiny brights. Granted it is a bloody affair in the first half, replaced with a nice polished and sophisticated direction and editing. The second half in the casino is just an impressive sight to behold visually. Anything else good about Part II can be copy/paste from my review of Part I. At least it would with the exception of the dub.

The English Dub, produced in late 2012 I imagine since it got its release on New Years 2013. It is just as good as the first installment. Granted the director and writer shifted between installments from Steven Foster to Janice Williams. As I mentioned in my Girls und Panzer review, Janice Williams is regularly Sentai Filmworks’s Media Coordinator for their releases. Though on occasion she’ll step into the directing chair for Sentai dubs, notably taking over the Clannad dub halfway through and doing a few others (Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, tsuritama, some yaoi OVAs, etc.). In terms of the directors Sentai employs, Janice Williams falls a bit in the middle in terms of consistency in comparison to the other main directors Sentai has had like Foster, C. Ayres and KC Jones. Or to put it in simpler terms, she’s an OK director, not bad/inconsistent (like Foster) but not good/consistent (like Ayres or Jones). She does alright here with Part II’s dub, mostly by getting Hilary Haag, David Matranga and Andy McAvin back and doing as good a job as they did for Part I. In addition, there’s some good performances by David Wald as Boiled along with a good turn here and there by seldom used voice talent like Carl Masterson and Susan Koozin.

I will reserve judgement on Mardock Scramble when I look at Part III in November. Part II is a nice middle act feature with an interesting shift in mood and tone, going from a grimdark bloody cyberpunk story into a somewhat typical revenge story. Hopefully Part III will do something big and fantastic for a climax, only time will tell.

Next time, I take a look into the debut feature for one of my favorite anime directors…..

Dead Leaves trailer

Til next time dear readers

Anime Review No. 77-Mardock Scramble The First Compression

Mardock Scramble The First Compression 2010 Movie

Studio-GoHands, Director-Susumu Kudo, Writer: Tow Ubukata

Well, yeah it is very violent as I said weeks ago. This time, well its Mardock Scramble. Based on the novel by Tow Ubukata, who also wrote the screenplay, Mardock Scramble: The First Compression is the first in a trilogy of 3 short films, as this installment clocks in about 60 minutes.

Now, here’s the summary, so spoilers behold below. In the far off future, a young prostitute named Rune Balot is introduced and then ends dying after a run-in with a particularly nasty customer, in a rather nasty way to go, I must say. But she is rescued by a scientist Dr. Easter and reborn as a cyborg, preserve through the Mardock Scramble 09 system (heh title drop).She is asked to assist in the investigations behind Shell Septinos, who is involved in illegal activities and the guy responsible for her untimely death. She is teamed up with Oeufcoque, a biomechanical entity.They try to go to court so they can get Shell in jail, but unfortunately they hit a snag when her tragic past is brought up and the justice system isn’t too kind towards lowly Rune Balot, even if she was killed unneeded. Of course, the battle is far from won as it will be fought against some hired hands that Shell Septinos, all whom are in some way rather nasty and disturbing psychotics.

After some training with Dr. Easter, Rune is ready for a fight. Last 10 minutes or so involves Rune Balot with Oeufcoque fighting off the mooks piecemeal. Highlight of the movie itself-nice, slick and to the point. Though, She nearly loses it towards the end. Final showdown is against Shell Septinos' main henchman but ends on a cliffhanger and cuts to credits while....Amazing Grace is playing?! What?! Yeah, somehow I imagine a trilogy was expected as Movie 1 is more like a prologue.

Rune Balot is an interesting enigma. She is very detached from the world, yet builds a nice rapport with Oeufcoque. In addition, she led a truly sad, twisted and tragic life. Yet, when she is with Oeufcoque she is a witty and smart-alecky, and the banter between the two are a treat in this movie. Apart from those two, the other characters in this movie are stock at best,with barely any characterization past the surface. Then again, this serves as the introductory piece to this story.

To be frank, this is a bloody and dark, mature affair. In many ways, it seems to be a throwback to the bloody, grimdark late 80s/90s OVA era from which anime more or less sprung from in the states (CyberCity Oedo 808, Ghost in the Shell, Armitage III etc) in a sense. It is a bit vague on the sci-fi details but adequate enough for the proceedings. I’m sure that more details will come in the other 2 movies and the novel. This feels like something from 20 years prior but with better production values.

Now, while the movie might be short on plot or characters, it sure looks and sounds pretty. It is a lavish production and has high quality values. GoHands is an offshoot of former employees from Satelight and known for anime such as Princess Lover, K and most recently last fall’s Coppelion. There are nice use of colors and shadows to enforce a grimdark atmosphere. Music is an eclectic mix of rapid fire punchy music and slow, plodding music.

The dub: oh boy, here we go: Steven Foster, who directed and wrote the dub script for this movie. This is the first time I am talking about a Steven Foster dub and certainly not the last (though THAT series is for a review down the road to be sure). Not saying he's a bad ADR Director/Scriptwriter but he is rather inconsistent with his dub work, especially in comparison to the other directors/writers in the Sentai stable, what few they are. For every good/entertaining dub (Ghost Stories, Cromartie High, Pani Poni Dash, Horizon series, etc) he goes a hack job (HOTD, Medaka Box, Kill Me Baby, etc). Granted, this was dubbed back in 2011 when Steve Foster was very much the go-to guy for Sentai Filmworks dub work as opposed to now when it’s not clear whether or not he doing that stuff anymore.

Thankfully, this is definitely in the good category at the very least. Aside from a higher level of profanity that wasn't in the original Japanese, the writing is rather tact and the performances are very good as well. In particular, Hilary Haag as Rune Balot and Andy McAvin as Oeufcoque give noteworthy performances. The rest of the cast seems appropriate for the roles and do a serviceable job. If you have seen enough ADV dubs, there are some recognizable voices but that’s about it. In fact, it’s hard to really call this a ‘Sentai Filmworks’ dub (more nebulous if you press me) as most of the cast is made up of ADV veterans, but since it came out in 2011 that’s most likely a trend of early Sentai Filmworks dub work.

So, in all fairness I can’t really recommend this by itself. Granted its good as a prologue with decent action and atmosphere but thats about it. It is also very dark and violent so if you are squirmy against that, you're best off staying away then. I suppose if you are curious, either get the other two movies (final one is out in the States next week) or perhaps check out the novel, which I plan on doing so. I do own the second movie as well and plan on doing a review for that, slated for later in the year and a possible review for the third movie once I get it and sit down to watch it.

So, next? Well, I figure its time for a primer….a harem primer. But don’t worry, I am not covering some trashy/crap show in that genre. Nah, quite frankly a recent entry in the genre that is quite overlooked, at least by me.

Dude gets all the ladies xDD

‘Til next time, dear readers….

Anime Review No. 59-CyberCity Oedo 808

CyberCity Oedo 808

1990-91 OVA, 3 episodes

Studio-Madhouse, Director-Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Writer: Akinori Endo

Well, Central Park Media Month concludes with CyberCity. This title is more infamously known as one of those shows from the late 80s/early 90s in the same company of Angel Cop and Garzey's Wing: cheaply made, poor dubbing and full of violence and gore. Fortunately, there are some good points to this OVA: decent storytelling, fleshed out characters and some good futuristic concepts. For this review, I shall look at each episode as this is only 3 episodes long, but each spanning about 40-45 minutes. In a way, CyberCity is more like a short anthology series, as one could watch each episode separately without missing much.

Episode 1: Time Bomb

The story of this series takes place in 2808 AD aka the far future. 3 convicts are released from prison to assist the police with high risk cases that the police don't want to deal with. They are left in the charge of Hasegawa, a shadowy authority figure in CyberCity who will pop off their heads with electronic neck braces the three wear. Those 3 convicts are Sengoku, Goggul and Benten. Then the Opening song starts, which is quite nice and rocking late 80s song. Focus of the episode is on Sengoku, who is an arrogant loud bastard (putting it nicely) but eagerly violent. He doesn't play well with Hasegawa or anyone for that matter, treating Varsus (tech support droid) and a young female police officer who admires him like shit. Yeah, what a likeable antihero.

Case in question: A computer controlling a skyscraper has gone mad planning to kill some scientist. Several people have been taken hostages and the situation could easily go awry. Sengoku is go with Googles and Benten to resolve the crisis. Oh yeah, Googles is the tech guy/hacker and Benten who is good with speed and metal wire.

Let me pause for a bit to comment on the English dub which is.....gloriously bad. This comes down to two factors: much of the cast consists mainly of British VAs trying to sound American and failing. Combined that with the fact that much of the dialogue is written with lots of profanity and a rather fast and loose adaptive script only compounds the terribad dub more so. And yet, this fits though with the dark gritty cyberpunk setting. That, and the dub has a lot of memorable one-liners.

Sengoku meets Dave Kurokawa, the scientist slated for execution by the mad computer, who is acting very suspect. As it turns out, Amachi (Dave Kurokawa's mentor) has returned to exact revenge upon him, despite being killed by Kurokawa some years prior.

Sengoku goes to find Amachi in the building. Of course, the story now becomes a ticking clock as the building is set to be destroyed soon. He runs into several obstacles along the way, but manages to get through them all by sheer virtue of being an arrogant bastard. Sengoku then finds out that Amachi is some corpse wired into the computer system, controlling it through power of revenge or something-it is barely explained. Duel between Amachi and Sengoku is a quite bloody and extended affair. But still very awesome and satisfying once it ends.The day is saved...I suppose; Sengoku is still an irredeemable jerk though.

Episode 2: The Decoy Program

Focus this time is on Googles, the tech guy/hacker. He's studious, a bit even tempered well more then Sengoku and a lot more honorable. Story this time around is about an investigation of the Special Forces secret base. However, a former squeeze of Googles, Sara is on the run from the military. She stole some precious information on a top secret project. Her English VA actually slips out of accent after the first scene she's in, which is amusing.

There is also some underlying commentary on a corrupt military in the far future given how no war has made them turn to solving issues of public order and really mettling in affairs they have little to no business being involved in. The military has devised a new killer machine to deal with crime in the city More or less, they made psychic cyborgs. Yes, really. So, Sengoku and Benten act as support cast as they figure out what's happening but the story doesn't focus on them that much. But, Sara double-crosses him and sacrifies herself to finish this-a very poignant moment to be sure.

Out of the three, this is my personal favorite because well Googles goes through so much crap so his final duel against the killer cyborg is more emotionally impactful.

Episode 3: The Vampire

The third and final episode focuses on Benten, the bishounen speedster with the deadly wire. It starts off with a search for some mysterious woman he meets on the street one night, Remi Musada as it is later revealed. However there are mysterious killings with neck wounds involved that require the Benten's attention. The Conclusion: Vampire (naturally), even if it makes no sense initially.

One thing that works in this story is the atmosphere-it is very dark and grim, almost like a horror mystery story. It reminds me of Vampire Hunter, which makes sense as the character design for Benten is very similar. Benten is vastly different from the other two-a smooth operator: cool, calm and collected, nearly to the point of being sinister and detached.

A connection is found to be the chairman of a medical foundation, a writhing old man.

Benten goes alone to find out the dirty research: cybernetic panthers, I shat you not. It is revealed that the chairman has been making an immortality vaccine which, as a side effect, causes pyschic vampires. Once again, yes really. Yeah, cus that's how science works....by being fecking magical.

Remi decides to take matters into her own hands, for no real reason other than the story must go on. In a surprising turn, the chairman is a crazy immortal nutjob, much like Mr Gentlemen from ROD and the big baddie from Master of Mosqution. He doesn't really care for the side effects at all.

Benten vs. The Chairman is a very long drawn out battle, with little bits of immortality philosophizing which manages not to be pretentious. Plus it ends with a pretty gruesome death scene. Remi Musada gets her proper death-a journey to beyond the stars, Roll credits....

CyberCity Oedo 808 is an interesting mess. On the one hand, it has decent story, fleshed out characters (even if most are a-holes), and some rather interesting sci-fi concepts (even if it is sometimes laughingly implausible). On the other hand, it has an english dub that outright refuses at times to take itself seriously and animation that while looked good back in the days, it looks cheap to the modern viewer, though even this is good to look at times. Yet, this does get a recommendation from me. The good parts (setting, characters and plot) work well, and even the bad aspects (the dub and animation) of it are at the very least entertaining.

Next month is taking a look at two shows that mean a lot to me from when I started off with anime

Crest of the Stars 7/13-14

Read or Die the TV Series 7/27-28

'Til next time

The Eclectic Dude