BitSnark

Described as a directors cut of sorts, Gamespot is reporting that Square Enix will be releasing Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, next year in Japan.

Available on both DVD and Sony’s newly touted DVD successor format Blu-Ray, it seems as if there will be new scenes spliced into the movie and extra special features not available in the original release.

Hmmm, sounds good in theory, so long as the extra goodness can justify the price of double dipping.

Anime News Network is reporting that Madhouse is involved in the production of a 12-episode TV series based on the hyper kinetic gothic action game series, Devil May Cry.

The series will reportedly air next spring and will contain demons, guns, swords and much coolness (hopefully). So hopefully while all us fans can dig in, it will also be a decent enough show to bring those in who havent played the games.

They even have a Japanese website, the address being:

http://dmc-tv.com/

No news yet on a U.S/U.K release, but considering the license, I guess it’s only a matter of time.

Oh and BTW this journal is NOT dead… far from it as you will soon see ^_^

A review has been a long time coming folks so apologies for that, but here is one of a long lost gem. Enjoy =o)

Now & Then, Here & There

Genre: Adventure Drama
Director: Akitaroh-Daichi
Distributor: Media Blasters
Duration: 25 minutes approx per episode with 13 episodes total
Production Creation: 1999

Plot Synopsis

Shu is an ordinary, happy go lucky Japanese kid. He goes to school, he attends Kendo class and pretty much gets beat at every Kendo class he attends. Shu though, is never disheartened and always tries his best and always tries to look on the bright side of everything. Shu’s world is shattered though when he meets a mysterious girl watching the sunset on top of a smoke stack in his town centre. Before, he can get to know this mysterious stranger, they are both thrust far into the future, into a world that Shu neither recognises, nor wants to stay in.

It’s a dark future, where Shu finds himself imprisoned and tortured by an army of captive children who are being manipulated into fighting by their psychotic ruler King Hamdo, and his sadistic generals. Stuck between people that he wants to save and child soldiers who know nothing of innocence, Shu takes up the fight that nobody else will. He fights for the future of all the innocents who cannot or will not fight for themselves and will do anything in his power to prevent further death, pain and destruction in this already hellish world.

The Review

Whoa, I certainly didn’t see this one coming. Hailed as the sleeper hit of 2002 by many anime review websites, I can now see exactly why Now & Then, Here & There gained such critical acclaim.

For a start, the characters are extremely well thought out and developed. Shu seems to be your everyday happy school kid, but beneath that he has an unrelentless sense of optimism coupled with a strict sense of morality. While his polar opposite, King Hamdo, is a massively insecure, neurotic coward of a man, who has only one goal and will do absolutely anything it takes to achieve it. It’s not just these two characters who have such intriguing levels of depth either, practically every character in this show is driven by a myriad of feelings, emotions and events that really fleshes them out and as a result, you actually find yourself eager to see what happens to them.

Other characters such as the tragic teenager Sara, abused and beaten by her adult captors, yet struggling to find the will to live, Nabauca, the duty bound child soldier who denies the innocence that he has lost, and the mysterious girl La La Rue also managed to really strike a chord with me.

The big theme that runs throughout this show is innocence, or more to the point, the loss of it and it’s this which puts Now & Then in a league of it’s own. The child soldiers themselves are proof enough of this, as they were once innocent children taken from their village and forced to kill and maim the enemies of the insane King Hamdo, thus depriving them of not only their childhood but their innocence too. We get to see how this affects the children psychologically too, as some become duty bound soldiers who can commit violence with terrible indifference and moral abandon, while others, such as the toddler Boo, struggle to even hold the weapon in their hands and continually doubt themselves and their purpose. It’s all about children being forced to grow up too quickly and as such, you feel pity for them and what they have to go through.

The impact of the destruction of childish innocence is increased by the very fact that it is often contrasted with scenes of children who still have their innocence and naivety. The director skillfully achieves this by showing the children playing, asking naive questions, showing affection and just enjoying themselves – all of the things that the child soldiers of King Hamdo’s Helliwood fortress are unable to do.

As you can probably deduct by now, the world depicted in Now& Then, is not very pleasant and the audience is privy to some really brutal, cruel and harrowing scenes such as child beatings, animal cruelty, torture and much more besides. I won’t go in depth about them, but let me just say that some scenes in particular made me feel quite uncomfortable. Thankfully to give some respite to the somewhat melancholy mood, the director has done a superb job of juggling the more distressing situations with lighter, more relaxed scenes, such as showing children enjoying their childhood in more serene settings along with more traditional action sequences too that serve to up the pace a bit.

The storyline itself as discussed earlier, is largely upheld by the whole theme of innocence and the director uses it to it’s fullest effect. Aside from this, there is a fair amount of tragedy in the plot also since, at the risk of spoiling the show, major characters die quite frequently and this just adds to the whole sombre mood of the show.

The plot maintains a very brisk, if slightly uneven pace. The show starts off extremely quickly, showing you Shu in happy surroundings for the first episode and before you know it the show changes mood quickly and throws you right in the deep end so to speak with the brutality and violence that was mentioned earlier. A whole lot of events and characters are established within the first two episodes, but after this for about three episodes or so, things begin to slow down a bit. Consequently, just over halfway through the series, the plot picks up speed again and the audience is swiftly propelled toward the awe-inspiring climax. Some have argued that thirteen episodes wasn’t enough for this series to really spread it’s wings, but I disagree.

Personally I think that throughout the span of the thirteen episodes, both the plot and especially the characters, are afforded a great deal of depth and detail and that any more episodes would make the series somewhat plodding and too drawn out.

On the technical side of things, Now & Then succeeds pretty well too as production values seem to be quite high. The artwork is remarkably solid and detailed, vividly depicting a world far into the future that is stuck in a rut of almost Mad-Max esque technologies crossed with almost alien wastelands and other such environments. The character designs are quite good too, and especially in the case of the children, really help in showing you the whole gamut of emotion and distress that they go through.

The animation is very competent too with fluid character movement, smooth background and foreground panning and virtually no re-used frames throughout the course of the show. Of note, the use of still frames after an emotional exchange or event, is done not just to allow the audience time to reflect on what is happening, but also to show the uneasy pauses between some of the characters as they interact with each other.

In terms of the music, it tends to be quite foreboding in order to reinforce the whole gloomy atmosphere of the show. The use of the violin especially is significant, since it is utilised to reinforce moments of tragedy or the general melancholy mood of the show and succeeds well in doing this.

Ultimately this is now of one of my personal favourite shows and I cannot find much to fault with it. I know it won’t be everybody’s cup of tea since the stark and brutal nature of it will invariably put a lot of sensitive folk off it. That’s quite understandable, but even so, this is a superb show that I don’t think anybody should miss out on.

A definite keeper.

Ratings Summary

Animation: A-
Art: A
Music: A-
Content: A

Overall: A

Review by: JP Jones

Suitability for children

The show contains a whole lot of blood, general violence, brutality, torture, abuse and lots of other nasty things which are thankfully only implied. Even so, this coupled with the tragic and sombre nature of the show, makes it only suitable for those aged 17+.

If you liked this why not try…

Grave of the Fireflies – Central Park Media
Barefoot Gen – Image Entertainment

A little bit of news regarding the forthcoming Hellsing Ultimate OVA that is due at the end of the year from Geneon, ANN is reporting that the cast who took part in recording the TV dub will reprise their duties for the OVA. This for a Hellsing fan should be cool, as we get to hear Crispin ‘Rude’ Freeman continue to utilise his dark, raspy tone for roles that he will unfortunately be typecasted in for the rest of his career.

Still at least we get a decent dub ^_^.

Just like the previous season, Play.com have slashed the price of the first two, two-disc volumes of Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG.

They can now be bought for a spanktacular £7.99.

If you havent started picking up this series, do it now. In fact, do it yesterday.

Here are the links:

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/842399/Ghost_In_The_Shell_Stand_Alone_Complex_2nd_GIG_Vol_1/Product.html

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/877307/Ghost_In_The_Shell_Stand_Alone_Complex_2nd_GIG_Vol_2/Product.html

According to Animenewsnetwork.com, another anime to see a live action adaptation, and certainly one that would succeed well given it’s genre, is Blood: The Last Vampire. Directed by Ronny Yu who recently directed Jet Li’s Fearless and produced by Bill Kong, producer of Mandarin epics Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, we can be at least assured the action will be up to scratch.

Don’t let us down on the rest guys ^_~

Square-Enix’s long awaited CG masterpiece is finally here.

Dig in people! ^_~

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Genre: Science Fiction Fantasy
Director: Tetsuya Nomura
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: One movie – 101 Minutes
Production Creation: 2005

Plot Synopsis

Based on the supremely successful Playstation Role-Playing Game Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children begins the story two years after the fall of the main villain of that game, Sephiroth. With the planet now trying to find it’s feet and restore itself after the damage that Sephiroth and the Shin-Ra Company dealt to it, many of the younger children find themselves infected by a strange new disease, known as Geostigma.

Blaming himself for the death of his close friend Aerith Gainsborough during the struggle to defeat Sephiroth, Cloud Strife now lives a quieter life as a deliveryman, thinking that he is no good to help anybody else, he keeps himself to himself. However, a trio of mysterious silver haired men appear, seeking the head of Jenova, the alien abomination which spawned Sephiroth. Stopping at nothing and even going as far as to infect the fragile minds of the diseased children, these men wish to create a reunion with their Mother, Jenova, so that they may resurrect a defeated evil from the past.

Now Cloud must take up his sword and steel his confidence once more, as it will take everything he can give and also the help of all his friends, to counter this final and most deadly threat to the planet.

The Review

Every time I see an anime based on a computer game, I wince, especially if it’s based on Final Fantasy. Legend of the Crystals, FF: Unlimited and Spirits Within have all been lackluster adaptations of a series that is overflowing with great characters, ideas and deep, compelling storylines.

How does Advent Children fare though? Well I’ll keep it simple, if you’re a Final Fantasy fan, your day has arrived, if not, prepare to be subtly alienated by the plot and dazzled by the oooh pretty! CG.

Those of you reading this who fall into the latter category will find plenty to enjoy and cherish here. Seriously, being a FFVII fan myself, I got a whole lot from this as from a fan’s point of view everything that I could have wanted was pretty much there. All your favourite characters are here brought to life in vividly animated and lushly detailed CG, complete with a lot of locations from the game and of course the trademark battles, limit breaks, summons and much more.

The plot, while somewhat weak by normal standards, is given a fairly wide concession by FF fans as everything speeds along at a frenetic pace. We understand and ‘get’ what the characters are talking about when they harp on about things like ‘Jenova’s Reunion’ and ‘Materia’ and stuff like that, poor old average Joe though, has no idea whatsoever, he’s just there for the ride. While the amazing CG and hyper kinetic battle sequences will keep non fans entertained, it’s clear that from the wafery plot which relies on a past understanding of the FF7 game, that this was a work for those who love the game and as such, isn’t for the uninitiated.

The characters also, demand a degree of understanding that would only come from the game itself, as there is little to no exposition here for any of them. The writing also isn’t exceptionally brilliant either, as it seems that the scenes where there isn’t any fighting merely serves as a brief vehicle to get the audience to the scenes where they are.

Something of note though, is that on the DVD release Square-Enix have seen fir to include a nice little extra called Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII, which is basically a story digest of the key plot points in that game. While moderately informative, those who have not played the game will unlikely take the time to immerse themselves in FF: VII lore and those that have played the game will have no use for it anyway. This is quite literally a stick of gum solution to the problem of making a film for a specific audience.

As we all know though, what has gotten the movie the coverage it has isn’t due to it’s plot or characters (unless obviously you’re a big fan in which case you wont really mind about the plot) but instead it’s quality shines through in the visuals, the audio and of course, those awesome battle sequences.

Never up until now had I seen CG used so expertly not just to render those crazy battle sequences (multi sword battles on turbo bikes with the kind of gravity defiance that Chinese action cinema would be jealous of) but also quiet more tranquil moments, where you can make out minute reflections in the characters eyes, imperfections in the skin, and even fine follicles of hair.

I will go out on a limb here and just say that this the best example of CG I’ve seen to date, no it’s not done in a hyper realistic like Spirits Within, but then again it was never meant to be as it was always meant to be larger than life (and thankfully CG techniques have moved on since Spirits Within because we no longer have the ‘dead eyed doll’ look anymore).

The music too deserves equal praise, being a very pleasing and deftly composed mix of metal, electronica, rock and opera. Nobuo Uematsu, who was also the composer for the original game, handles the duties here and deserves full credit for the tremendous musical score that he has put together for this movie.

The bottom line is that if you’re an FF fan, you will love this more than your own mother, if you’re not, then Square-Enix haven’t catered for you as all you’re going to get is a bunch of really cool CG action scenes strung together loosely by a weak plot with characters that you don’t know or care about. Personally being an FF fan, I love it, and fans of action cinema will probably get something from it too.
To those two audiences I say, give it a shot, to the rest of you either get involved with the original game or give the movie a miss.

Ratings Summary

Animation: A+
Art: A+
Music: A
Content: B-

Overall: B+

Review by: JP Jones

Suitability for children

There are gun fights, fist fights and sword fights galore. There are a few cuts but no real blood as such. Still the intensity of the fights doesn’t make this suitable for the very young. Parental Guidance is recommended.

If you liked this why not try…

Appleseed (2004) – Geneon Entertainment USA

Time for a lil’ backstory. Hellsing always was (and probably will be) one of my favourite anime shows. Why? Primarily because i’m a sucker for cool vampire shows with lots of guns, stylishly depicted action sequences and crazy knife weilding clerics with evil Scottish accents. In all honesty though when the original TV series debuted a few years ago I couldn’t peel myself away from it, and while some lamented the departure from the plotlines of the manga, I found myself blissfully ignorant as I ploughed through the series.

Now it’s 2006 and i’m watching the new Hellsing Ultimate OVA, not a remake per se’ of the TV series of a few years ago, but instead a faithful recreation of the manga storyline. So far i’ve only watched the first episode of four, and so far it pretty much reimagines the same events that took place in the first three episodes of the TV series, so I cannot comment as yet regarding how different the manga storyline to the TV series.

While the structure of the story and the events that unfold are pretty much the same as the manga and the TV series (before it went its own way with the whole Incognito storyline that the manga lovers hate so much) there are a whole bunch of things that are just depicted differently. For instance, the fight between the zealot Vatican priest Alexander Anderson and Alucard is not an even fight at all, with Anderson basically decimating Alucard almost completely to the point that Integra Hellsing herself has to physically interject on his behalf.

On a character level, most of the characters appear to be the same, except for Walter who seems a whole lot more sinister this time round and Seras Victoria, who is very different from her TV series counterpart. Initally when you see her, she appears to act very similiar to how she did in the TV show, vulnuerable and scared. When Alucard turns her however, it all goes very different. It begins with this weird, almost chibi-esque dream sequence that she has about her being chased by these undead fiends, which has an animation style you would expect to find in something like Azumanga Daioh, and seems out of place somewhat. Crazy stuff.

Soon she wakes up, checks herself by pulling up her top (alucard blew a massive hole in her breast) sees that she’s ok and realises that Alucard was sat on the bed oogling her the whole time with his trademark grin and then she freaks out, almost Naruto style. Her whole character as a vampire completely threw me here, as on one hand she appears to be playing the role of the comic relief and on the other she’s a cold hardened killer, that although has moments of vulnerability, has little hesitance and certainly doesn’t have the aversion to blood that her TV series incarnation had.

In terms of animation, the duties have been passed over to Satelight, the guys who helped produce the animation for Heat Guy J, and the visually stunning Macross Zero. The charcter designs have been tweaked somewhat to bring them more in line with the characters illustrated in the manga, and as such, everything now has an almost sketchlike quality to it, which lends a whole different look in contrast to the TV series. Obviously being a OVA, the budget has been upped signifcantly and it shows. The battle scenes are more visceral and dynamic than they ever were, and the CG use is excellent but done sparingly which is good, as it would certainly detract from the integrity and quality of the new character designs had they over-indulged.

I am loving this series so far. I really am. My only nit-pick, and one that I am sure will be cleared up for the stateside release, is the dub. What made the original Hellsing TV series so damn watchable were the funky British accents that were used. In particular, the cool menacing Scottish accent of Alexander Anderson. In the Japanese version though, you miss out on all this, but ah well, i’m hoping that the cast of the original series make their return.

So there you have it, everything seems immensely promising so far if you’re a hellsing fan (manga or otherwise), or just a fan of high-octane gothic action.

Roll on the official release.

Time for something from the vault now folks. What I consider to be the ‘kickstarter’ of the mecha genre proper.

Mobile Suit Gundam: 0079 TV Series

Genre: Mecha War Drama
Director: Yoshiyuki Tomino
Distributor: Bandai Entertainment
Duration: 25 minutes approx per episode with 42 episodes total
Production Creation: 1979

Plot Synopsis

Due to chronic overpopulation, mankind has expanded out into space and in doing so has created space colonies, known as sides. As more and more sides were established, a resistance movement who called themselves the Principality of Zeon, wanted to declare independence from the Earth and the Earth Federation.

Unshakeable in their intent, the Zeon forces began a war to ensure that this dream of independence was realised. The story begins at the start of this war, Universal Century 0079. After the genocide of billions at the start of this war and the use of high-tech combat mecha known as Mobile Suits, the Earth Federation have very few experienced pilots remaining. Young teenager Amuro Ray finds the calm peace of his life shattered when the war spreads to his colony. Swept up in the chaos, Amuro somehow finds himself at the controls of the Federation’s newest and most deadly weapon, the Mobile Suit known as Gundam.

Known as the ‘grandaddy’ of the mecha genre, Yoshiyuki Tomino’s original Gundam effectively kickstarted the whole genre in the first place with it’s unflinching and realistic portrayal of war, action packed mecha battles and believable characters.

The Review

When I first got into watching anime, it was Carl Macek’s Robotech that actually started my love with the whole mecha genre. After that I ‘graduated’ onto Macross, Neon Genesis Evangelion and other such great stalwarts of the genre. At some point recently I thought something was missing in my mecha anime. This feeling was compounded by the fact that I had heard innumerable praise about Gundam and in particular, the original Gundam series. Intrigued, and at the same time somewhat skeptical that an old crusty anime from back in the 70’s was as good as everybody had told me, it was with almost clenched teeth that I sat down to watch the series. With bad memories of other 70’s anime fresh in my mind, I figured I wasn’t going to be greatly enamoured with Yoshiyuki Tomino’s original Gundam series.

How silly and misguided those prejudices were.

Mobile Suit Gundam is the anime, at least in this reviewers humble opinion, that can be credited with the genesis of the mecha genre. Above and beyond that though, Mobile Suit Gundam can most significantly be credited for being the first and still one of the best anime for illustrating the horrors of war in a believable and non-patronising way. Whereas some other shows may simply show war as the good guys versus the bad guys, Mobile Suit Gundam shows you the conflict from both sides and the full gamut of human emotion displayed by each.

To achieve this in a convincing manner requires characters that are both interesting to watch and entirely believable. Fortunately, Mobile Suit Gundam has these in spades. Everybody from Amuro Ray, the young reluctant rookie of the Federation, through to the cunning yet admirably driven Zeon ace, Char Aznable, seem to have truly fleshed out multi-dimensional personalities. Just when you think they might fall into a generic role, they surprise you with actions or words that really make you realise just how superbly deep these characters are. The plot too isn’t a half-hearted venture either as you might imagine, as there are political power plays on both sides, criss-crossing relationships, betrayals, plot twists and a fair amount of tragedy thrown into the mix. Oh yeah, before I forget, there’s a whole load of pretty good mecha battles for you action junkies too, just so you don’t feel shortchanged. At the risk of spoiling the plot, I will simply say that if you are looking for an intelligent, human portrayal of war and how it affects those that are both directly and indirectly involved, Mobile Suit Gundam is rarely bettered.

The aspects in which Mobile Suit Gundam have been subsequently bettered are, as you probably would have guessed by now, the technical stuff. Original broadcast in 1979, but failing to gain any kind of mass audience until the movie remix versions were released sometime later, Mobile Suit Gundam is a very dated looking yet functional looking show. Line art tends to be simple, as do any kind of detail on the characters, mecha or backgrounds. Animation also tends to feel stunted, dated and jerky at times, with some really low frame counts at times. Even so, for anime of it’s time period, it was a remarkable achievement as the production values were good for it’s time and it managed to keep the values steady throughout it’s entire forty-two episode run. Sadly though, it doesn’t really compare to the shiny vistas and glossy CG aided animation that many of us are bombarded with today in our anime shows, and as such, will be criminally overlooked by those who can’t get past the dated visuals.

Thanks to Bandai, some extra effort has been afforded in bringing the audio in this show up to scratch. The music appears to be substantially different and better than the original ultra-cheesy tunes that blighted the shows original broadcast. As good as the music may be compared to the original, it still seems a bit cheesy and overly repetitive at times. The sound effects though fair a bit better and don’t quite carry the same typical 70’s sci-fi sound effect selection that was present to start with. Not bad, but you can still tell that the audio aspect of this show somewhat reflects the time in which it was made.

Ultimately though, Mobile Suit Gundam charm lies in it’s great storytelling and compelling characters. Sure it isn’t the pretty show around by the longest shot, but look beyond it’s dated technical aspects and persevere. Trust me, if you have even the remotest interest in a good story with drama and mecha action in equal parts, you will be like me: wondering why you doubted it in the first place.

Highly recommended.

Ratings Summary

Animation: D
Art: D-
Music: C-
Content: A

Overall: B+

Review by: JP Jones

Suitability for children

Despite it’s appearance and the time in which it was produced, Mobile Suit Gundam does have some scenes of civilian death, people being burned alive in their cockpits and events like that. Thankfully, they are not depicted in any kind of explicit way and are tastefully done. There are some fistfights and some scenes where a small amount of blood is spilled, but just this and the minimal amount of profanity, make this suitable for those aged 11+.

If you liked this why not try…

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team – Bandai Entertainment
Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: – Bandai Entertainment
War in the pocket
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 – Bandai Entertainment
Moblie Suit Gundam: – Bandai Entertainment
Char’s Counterattack
Macross TV Series – AnimEigo
Macross Plus OAV – Manga Entertainment

AnimeNewsNetwork have quite an interesting story on the next Ghost In The Shell anime that we can expect to see. Named ‘Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society (what a damn mouthful ^_~) is in fact a 100 minute theatrical feature based on the Stand Alone Complex universe.

It is also said that the movie will retain all of the TV staff that helped create the two seasons of Stand Alone Complex, whilst enjoying a higher production budget in order to facilitate a more cinematic visit into the Stand Alone Complex universe.

Two words.

Bring it.