Tokyo Godfathers

Note: This review contains spoilers for Tokyo Godfathers

Satoshi Kon, arguably one of Japan’s greatest anime film directors, was an absolute master of his craft, taking full advantage of hand-drawn animation by seamlessly blending fantasy and reality in ways that only that medium can. However, even though he had primarily directed dramas and psychological thrillers, in the case of Paranoia Agent even tackling various societal issues, his third feature, 2003’s Tokyo Godfathers, stands out from the rest of catalogue. Not only does it downplay the blending of fantasy and reality, it’s actually his most grounded work and, taking inspiration from the 1948 film 3 Godfathers, is more sentimental and uplifting. Despite this contrast with other works, however, Satoshi Kon never lost his unique touch and made a film worthy of adding to a Christmas rotation.

Paprika (2006)

Note: this review contains spoilers for Paprika.

Though Satoshi Kon may have passed before his prime, his films serve as a testament to the power of animation to blend dreams with reality. His final film, Paprika, based on Yasutaka Tsutsui’s 1993 novel of the same name, takes this idea to its logical conclusion, even making it a central plot point. Though watching the English dub of Kon’s series Paranoia Agent spurred me to seek out his filmography, one point of interest with Paprika in particular was seeing that the Christopher Nolan film Inception had been compared with it, though it had been years since I had seen Inception, so I was able to view Paprika on its own merits. After watching Paprika through an English dub on Blu-ray, it’s safe to say that Satoshi Kon’s cinematic career ended on a high note.

Millennium Actress

Note: This review contains spoilers for Millennium Actress.

Though his career was tragically cut short, Satoshi Kon’s work has left an impact on Japanese animation with his unique style of visual storytelling that blends the reality with the surreal. Of his four completed films, his second, Millennium Actress, is the only one I have seen, albeit through a sub-only DVD release from 2003. When I was younger and watched this for the first time, I wasn’t mature or well-versed enough in anime to fully appreciate it, though I decided to give it another chance years later after watching an airing of Kon’s only episodic anime work, Paranoia Agent, on Toonami. After doing so through that same sub-only DVD, and later an English Blu-ray, I was able to fully appreciate it and got very invested in the narrative.

Perfect Blue

Note: This review contains spoilers for Perfect Blue.

Among the legendary directors of Japanese animated films, one name that doesn’t receive as much attention is Satoshi Kon. A few years into his animation career, which interestingly included directing the twelfth episode of Studio APPP’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure OVA (“DIO's World: Kakyoin -Duel in the Barrier-”), Kon would make his feature directorial debut with Perfect Blue in 1997. Based on the novel Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis by Yoshikazu Takeuchi, the film would showcase Kon’s longstanding theme of blending fantasy and reality, which would inform his later works like Millennium Actress (2001) and Paranoia Agent (2004). When I finally obtained a copy of the English dub of the film on Blu-ray, I wanted to take a look back at where Kon’s output started and while I think his later works perfected the techniques he employed here, it’s still nonetheless an incredibly strong start.

Batman: Gotham Knight

Before the DCEU, there was a point where Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy colored the filmgoing audience's perception of Batman, for better or worse. The success of these films also led to an animated film project, Batman: Gotham Knight, which saw DC collaborate with multiple Japanese animation studios. I had no knowledge of its contents going in, but the idea intrigued me, which led me to stream it through HBO Max (if only because my DVR didn't catch the Toonami broadcast through their DC FanDome tie-in). Though I have mixed feelings on the Christopher Nolan films as a whole, I walked away pleasantly surprised by Gotham Knight.

Trigun: Badlands Rumble

While I am a fan of anime, there are some that I still haven’t seen, one of them being Trigun, or at least anything beyond the first episode. To clarify, I’ve been interested in Trigun, but I haven’t found the opportunity to watch or read it further (just look at the blog archive if you don’t believe me). My lack of Trigun knowledge however did not deter me from being interested in Toonami’s final film in their Month of Movies known as Trigun: Badlands Rumble. I had recorded it on my DVR when it first aired, but I only recently got the opportunity to actually watch it and I felt better about it knowing that the events of Badlands Rumble have no bearing on the plot of the series. Since I’ve seen it, I found that I really liked it.

Vash the Stampede, Trigun's main character.

The film opens with a thief named Gasback (John Swasey) performing a high-risk high-reward bank heist in the city of Macca. His men decide, during the heist, to stage an uprising against him, though they are stopped by someone complaining about how his donuts are ruined. The man turns out to be the notorious outlaw Vash the Stampede (Johnny Yong Bosch), aka the “Humanoid Typhoon”. Gasback is confused by Vash’s choice to save him, though Vash replies that it’s better to be alive. Gasback ultimately escapes by cover of explosions, one of which damages the city’s power plant. 20 years later, Gasback seeks revenge on his former henchmen, who have been living luxuriously ever since that earlier robbery attempt, wishing to steal a rotating statue worth $$5 billion (five billion double-dollars) from the center of Macca. In response, the mayor, who is one of the former henchmen, has hired nothing but bounty hunters as protection for the day that Gasback is supposed to strike. Vash is on his way to the city, traveling on the same sand steamer as a number of bounty hunters, and ends up developing a crush on a woman named Amelia (Colleen Clinkenbeard), who rejects every advance he makes. Once Vash reaches the city, he learns more about what’s going on while running into some old friends. However, he is unaware of just what’s in store for him as the moment of Gasback’s attack on Macca draws near.

Gasback after the time skip.

The plot of Trigun: Badlands Rumble was actually pretty easy to follow despite my lack of knowledge of the Trigun universe. In a similar vein to Bleach: Memories of Nobody, it uses its length of about 90 minutes to its advantage by setting up and fleshing out the characters and relationships in such a way that even a newcomer would be able to understand what’s going on. I was able to figure out the personalities of characters like Vash the Stampede and Nicholas D. Wolfwood (Brad Hawkins) so that their actions were understandable and in-character to me, plus Vash’s history with the insurance agents sent to Macca City, Milly Thompson (Trina Nishimura) and Meryl Stryfe (Luci Christian), is alluded to in a way that their actions and reactions are understandable as well. Thanks to care put into the writing, I was able to get into the groove very quickly and react appropriately when certain things happened. For example, I found Vash’s fun personality a little infectious and laughed when he did things such as laughing with bar patrons who didn’t believe he was the real deal. I also found Amelia’s backstory to be very sad and a bit of a tear-jerker and the plot twist related to her at the end of the movie is explained in such a way that it makes complete sense in hindsight.

New character Amelia in Macca City.

As far as animation goes, Badlands Rumble features some of the best I’ve seen in an anime movie. While this was no doubt helped by having a larger budget than the anime and the film being made about a decade after the series had ended, this does not make it any less impressive at all. There is a great color palette, filled with bright colors and impressive lighting and shadow work. The action is well-framed and fast-paced, as well as totally badass, especially when Wolfwood takes out his weapon (his use of a giant cross-shaped firearm despite being a priest gets explained). The times when Gasback uses the mechanisms in his arm after the 20-year timeskip are also cool because they animated all of the little parts moving in great detail, something that always impresses me in animation. One very specific scene I liked is when Wolfwood, while Amelia is chewing out Vash for something she sees as a mistake, pulls out a cigarette in the background and starts lighting it. The scene is fully animated, complete with fire from the lighter and smoke from the lit cigarette, and I still find it impressive that the animators could keep full action going on multiple planes at once. It may seem odd to praise that specific moment, but I believe that sometimes it’s the little things that sell a scene. There are also some moments that show off incredible hair, cloth and sand physics, which is more possible with traditional animation, but it’s good to know that they still put a lot of time into making sure it looked just right.

Wolfwood (left) with Vash (right).

Also praiseworthy is the incredible voice work. All of the voice actors are very talented and express a great range of emotions, in this way bringing depth to their respective characters. Johnny Yong Bosch, for instance, really brings out Vash’s fun and peace-loving personality, though when the situation calls for it, he can be deadly serious and focused on defeating someone (though naturally in a non-lethal way). Brad Hawkins’ Wolfwood is also very reserved and generally more serious than Vash and is willing to align himself with whoever pays for his services, though he is willing to break alliances when his contract is up and is able to work with others for the greater good. He is very mysterious, but just enough that I can really dig his character. It certainly helps that most of the voice actors already had experience voicing the characters in the dub of the anime.

Good voice acting makes Vash's first meeting with Amelia much funnier.

Trigun: Badlands Rumble is an anime movie worth watching. The plot is set up well and moves along at a good pace, the characters and their interactions are all very fascinating, with top notch animation and voice acting to boot. It’s also a fairly quick watch, clocking in at about 90 minutes, and is very easy to understand for both veteran fans and the uninitiated like myself. If you’re looking for an animated feature with plenty of laughs and great action, then look no further than this one.

Summer Wars

During the month of December this year, Cartoon Network’s revived Toonami block has been broadcasting a different anime movie each week for their Month of Movies, the first being the critically-acclaimed Akira, based on a manga series of the same name. Following Akira is another, similarly acclaimed feature, this one being a movie originally released in 2009 titled Summer Wars, the subject of this review. While I had not heard of this movie before, an ad I saw for it while watching Akira made the premise sound intriguing, so I became more interested in watching it, even after having already recorded it. While it is certainly a much different type of movie than Akira, I ended up actually liking Summer Wars, even though it has a few issues regarding the use of technology.

In the future, online communication has advanced to the point where a service called OZ was created, which handles nearly everything in everyday life. Kenji Koiso (Michael Sinterniklaas) and his friend Takashi Sakuma (Todd Haberkorn) are a couple of students who work part-time jobs as OZ moderators. As the two guys are working, a friend of theirs, a girl named Natsuki Shinohara (Brina Palencia), walks in and, while initially jealous of their jobs, wants to invite one of them on a trip to celebrate the 90^th birthday of her great-grandmother; Kenji ends up being the one to go. On the way over there, Kenji, when asked, reveals that he almost represented Japan in a math competition, which surprises Natsuki. Once the two arrive at their destination, Natsuki lies to her great-grandmother, Sakae Jinnouchi (Pam Dougherty), that she and Kenji are in a relationship, which is something Kenji is forced to go along with. That night, after meeting the rest of Natsuki’s family that showed up, Kenji receives an e-mail through OZ, revealed to be a long string of numbers. Unaware of its purpose, Kenji cracks the code, getting a foreboding response from the sender. The next day, OZ has been hacked and malfunctioning, putting the entire world at risk. Realizing what he had just done and the news branding him as a criminal, Kenji must now figure out who was behind hacking OZ and put a stop to it before things get really out of hand.

The plot of Summer Wars is actually really interesting. The film has a handful of sub-plots that nicely feed into each other without one taking up too much focus, all of them neatly coming together in the end. While there is a fake-romance angle present in the movie, a lot of the OZ plot can get really suspenseful, especially towards the end. The story also moves along at a fairly decent pace, with a good amount of character development given to the main cast, including some to many members of Natsuki’s family. There is plenty of drama to go around in this story without making the atmosphere thick with it, but that doesn’t mean the movie doesn’t know when to lighten up, and at times a given scene can become very funny to help soften the mood. Overall, the story has a more light-hearted atmosphere than plenty of other animated movies, Akira included.

The land of OZ (no, not that one).

However, there were some things that bugged me about the premise, mainly the setup of OZ. Why would any internet user want to link everything personal to a single account, let alone handheld devices and sensitive tech such as medical equipment and, apparently, nuclear weaponry? From what I know, it takes much more than just simply typing in a passcode to launch a nuclear weapon, and you’d think special emergency equipment would be unconnected to the internet. Granted, I went along with the idea of OZ, since the movie goes out of its way to establish this hypothetical scenario in the opening minutes, but as the movie went on there were certain things linked to OZ that I felt had no business being connected to it, especially since much of the world’s turmoil in the movie comes from the network getting hacked. While I hope something like this doesn’t happen (I try to keep things separated as much as possible, including my choice of handheld devices), I can’t help but feel that perhaps Summer Wars acts as a sort of commentary on the state of today’s internet usage, especially a few years after the movie premiered, what with sites like Facebook and Google, more so the latter, slowly transforming into a real-life version of the fictional OZ network. Though some parts of the movie have ended up accidentally becoming true in real life, one can only hope the rest of it doesn’t end up becoming reenacted as well. This is not to say the story of Summer Wars is garbage, it’s just that some of the smaller details related to OZ made me scratch my head a little.

That aside, there are some other aspects of the movie that I would give praise to, one of them being the voice acting in the English dub. The English voice cast was chosen very well, coming from Funimation’s pool of voice actors, and I don’t think it could have worked out as well any other way. Michael Sinterniklaas does a good job portraying the math whiz Kenji, while Brina Palencia pulls off a solid performance portraying the female lead Natsuki, both of them displaying a good chemistry between their respective characters. Maxey Whitehead, who I recognize as the voice of Alphonse Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, does a good job with the important side character Kazuma Ikezawa, who displays a great knowledge of computers as he helps Kenji try to fix OZ’s hacking problem. There are other recognizable voice actors in this film from other Funimation dubs, among them Chuck Huber (Dr. Franken Stein in Soul Eater), Christopher Sabat (Vegeta and Piccolo in Dragon Ball, Roronoa Zoro in One Piece) and Eric Vale (Trunks in Dragon Ball, Sanji in One Piece) to name but a few, who all in general give off great performances in their supporting roles.

Kenji (left) using Kazuma's (right) computer in an attempt to fix OZ.

The animation is also handled well, with evidence that some amount of care was given to ensure that everything flowed smoothly. Interestingly, the real world and the world of OZ, while having a sort of uniform look, have somewhat differing art styles, which helps each one to stand out from the other. Though there is surprisingly little CG work when displaying OZ, there is just enough to help sell the idea, with whatever CG there is blending in nicely with the traditional animation on display, and while the real world does not look like your average stereotypical anime world, everything is stylized enough that it does not step into any uncanny valley territory (although admittedly some shots of specific objects, such as a suit of armor on display, look uncomfortably photorealistic when against an animated backdrop). I also enjoyed the music used in the movie, at times having a nice subtle electronic sound that really does well complimenting more serious moments of the story, especially around the climax.

One thing I’ve learned from watching a lot of movies is that not even animated films, Japanese anime included, are safe from product placement (there’s a good reason fans of the show Code Geass have the phrase “Pizza Hut supports the Rebellion”). As such, Summer Wars features some rather blatant product placement for Apple’s iPhone (I couldn’t tell you which model) and Nintendo’s (now outdated) DSi handheld. While the characters using them don’t go out of their way to discuss these products’ features, it’s still rather obvious since they are animated so accurately, especially in regards to the iPhone, and both are shown to connect to OZ. This, however, doesn’t really take much away from the movie, but it is nevertheless very overt.

Overall, Summer Wars is a very interesting movie. It tells a good story while also providing some rather intriguing commentary on how people use the internet, topped off with some good animation and voice acting. The product placement may be blatant and some technological stuff a little head-scratching, but otherwise Summer Wars is an anime movie I would recommend, mainly to fans of slice of life and/or sci-fi material, although it’s not something I would recommend showing to a child, reasons including mild instances of nudity and swearing among other things. In any case, Summer Wars can be taken as a (sort of over-the-top) cautionary tale of what would happen in a truly unified online world.