Originally posted at myanimelist.net.
This is a strangely cold movie with barely any empathetic or relatable characters shuffling around gorgeously rendered backdrops with an unusually lacklustre Kenji Kawai soundtrack effort.
Originally posted at myanimelist.net.
This movie is everything the TV series wasn’t. It’s everything the TV show should have been. You don’t have to watch the TV show before watching this, though you might want to if you’re interested in seeing how a story can be dragged from the depths of writers hell into the light of storytelling purgatory.
Originally posted at myanimelist.net.
Escaflowne has a pretty simple, and almost childish, story structure of groups of people being chased from one action scene to another, complimented by a love triangle, which all builds up into a perfect storm of plot contrivances, holes, twists and gaps of logic, all meaningless, un-earned and insulting.
Originally posted at myanimelist.net.
Golden Wings is a slight misstep in the Legends of the Galactic Heroes franchise, not enough to stumble on its face but not enough to style it out by whistling innocently and pretending it didn’t almost trip over.
Originally posted at myanimelist.net.
Gunsmith Cats. The original Cowboy Bebop. Almost. There’s a jazzy OP with simple 70’s style split-screen graphics madness, bounty hunters, western sensibilities. The prototype for Shinichiro Watanabe’s version which maxed out everything this franchise has. Unfortunately it doesn’t have Watanabe.
Originally posted at myanimelist.net.
Someone saw more potential in the franchise and decided to take Blade Runner and blend it with Miami Vice. Inspired? Foolhardy? Definitely worth a shot. The cyberpunk genre can be blended with anything, and Bubblegum Crisis brilliant as it was, could have been taken in another direction entirely, and AD Police Files directs it into moody fatalistically romantic territory.
Originally posted at myanimelist.net.
The anime came out at what might be seen as cyberpunk’s peak of influence and exposure in the mainstream, and as such is worth a watch for its historical significance, in terms of impacting the genre of cyberpunk in anime and also being a window to the time. It’s so classy it even has time to throw a shout out to The Third Man!
Originally posted at myanimelist.net.
Sol Bianca’s vibe is thanks to an amalgamation of music, art and of course story. The Sol Bianca is a mysterious ship that is more an abode with weaponry attached. A sanctuary with its fountains and fauna. A Garden of Eden if you will. Oh, that’s why the Genesis quote was chucked in our faces!
Originally posted at myanimelist.net.
Ok, Sol Bianca has the same template as Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop and dozens of other sci-fi anime, and is crammed with every anime cliché you can think of, but at least it stars a fun group of characters squabbling and exchanging wisecracks you’ve heard a million times before but still grin at anyway.
Originally posted at myanimelist.net.
The anime is produced, directed (by the luminary Yoshiaki Kawajiri), edited and animated very well for the time it was released. The music is lovely in a Joe Hisaishi kind of way and the character art is attractive. A fascinating production and worth checking out for the novelty alone.
coolcalmdemented 