Virgin Punk: Clockwork Girl

I went to a Fathom event and it did say it was the first episode and labeled as 1 hr. 40 min. Before the show started there was about 10 minutes of video of the director and two other people who worked on it hyping you you up and they said there would be other bonus footage after the show, which is fine and has happened at other Fathom events. However, I thought the show would be feature length, 70+ minutes, not a 35 minute short film. I've been to other screening where they showed more than one episode and some behind the scenes footage. This one had more behind the scenes footage than actual show. I did enjoy the show and hope it becomes a TV show or a feature length movie, but I wish they had made the price cheaper since they had over an hour of behind the scenes footage.

They should just release a full length movie rather than release 35 minute short films. Total waste of $18. The animation was great, and just as the story was starting to get somewhere the movie ended. Of the advertised 1.5 hours running time (this running time is advertised on most theater websites), 1 hour was BTS segments. Do not waste your money to watch this in theaters.

The animation style feels dated (except for the backgrounds which are great), the plot points are creepy (but not in a good way), and it feels like a luke-warm stew of things you've seen before. All this, and it's too short to be considered anything but a failed pilot for a series - but because of the content & story points (which won't be revealed here) it could never make it to U. S. television screens.

IMPORTANT: At showtime, there is actually 5-10 minutes of interview of the director hyping up his movie. "10 years in the making" but they do not seem excited, they are not detailed in describing its production and it is them sitting around being boring for the first ten minutes of showtime.

When the movie ACTUALLY started, (sadly the mood setting was destroyed by the stupid interview at the start) I was loving it! It's action packed, crazy well animated, and very engaging but the director also keeps true to his infamous track record going with nudity in his films. (Kite, Mezzo Forte) It was quite shocking and I feel like people should expect about 90 seconds combined total of female top nudity before going in. About 8 people left the auditorium who probably were not expecting to see exposed bodies of lolis.

The story is messy, the script isn't anything special, but the cyberpunk world built, and the character design is pretty epic! But it leaves you hanging just as it's about to get good.

In conclusion, I can say this experience is definitely NOT worth $20 and I strongly encourage you to demand a refund ASAP as soon as the anime ends. Otherwise, there is an hour left of the same kind of boring interview bonus content after what you really came for. (You are not missing much, it's just the director boasting how his 35 minute film is better than art) I do hope we get more obscure anime like this shown in the U. S. but wait for the second part to come out before watching this action packed epic.