I was really happy when I heard that Studio Ghibli had released a new movie and that it was Hayao Miyazaki’s son Goro Miyazaki that was the director. This is what I thought about the movie:

Story:

“Ged is a wandering wizard which is on the journey to investigate why people suddenly have started to see dragons in the sky. On his journey he meets a young boy named Arren who is escaping his home since he has killed his own father, the king. Ged soon realize that the young boy possess both hate and strength. When the witch Kumo learns this she realizes that she can make use of Arren to get to Ged.”

Gedo Senki lacks the depth which I have been used to when watching Hayao Miyazaki’s wonderful movies,  therefore I was strongly disappointed in this movie even though this was Goro Miyazaki’s first movie I still expected more. The story is really slow and it doesn’t  happen much through the movie though at the end it speeds up in the story and it starts to become more enjoyable. The movie has an medieval theme and starts out on the sea during a terrible weather, the crew of a lonely ship get’s to witness the fight between two big dragons in the sky this is supposed to be an unusual sight as the dragons is supposed to live in their own world. And therefore the crew of the ship takes this as an really bad omen and the news spreads to the king. As the story goes on we don’t get an explanation to why the dragons was in the human world instead the story kind of ignores that it ever have happened, the story goes on and suddenly from nowhere one of the main characters a girl named Therru turns out to be an dragon.

Animation:

There were actually two things with Gedo Senki which didn’t make me disappointed the first one was the animation which is the typical sweet Studio Ghibli style, if you have seen Princess Mononoke or Howl’s Moving Castle I guess you are familiar with the animation. The art and character design is good and it feels like they as always have put much effort into the animation, the style is warm and colourful and they captures the medieval theme without a problem.

Sound:

Now for the second thing which didn’t make me disappointed, the beautiful song called “Theru no Uta” by Aoi Teshima. I really enjoyed the part in the movie when the young girl called Therru sang this song, as it really is a warm and wonderful song which fits more than well in this movie.

Characters:

When it comes to the characters I can’t say that I was really impressed since I don’t feel like you got the chance to really learn to know and like them. And through the movie it wasn’t much of character development all of the main characters continued in the same way as they had started out.

Enjoyment:

Sure I maybe expecting too much from this movie since it was made by Hayao Miyazaki’s son but even if it was made by a different company I still would have had the same thoughts, it would still lack of depth in the story. Even though the bad story I really enjoyed the animation and sound so for that I want to highlight this movie but I assure you that If you want a movie with story depth, good animation, good sound and good characters then it is better to watch one  of  Hayao Miyazaki’s wonderful movies.

Story: 4
Animation: 6
Sound: 6
Characters: 4
Enjoyment: 4
Overall: 5

]]> http://chibiblogger.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/gedo-senki/feed/ 0 drusila Gedo Senki http://chibiblogger.wordpress.com/2008/10/18/cyber-city-oedo-808/ http://chibiblogger.wordpress.com/2008/10/18/cyber-city-oedo-808/#comments Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:32:21 +0000 drusila http://chibiblogger.wordpress.com/?p=13 ]]> To get a good start of my blog writing I decided to start out with a review of an old action packed anime from the 90′s, so here to you I present . . .

First let us take care of the story:

“It is the year 2808 and Tokyo has become the cyber city called Oedo, as the criminal activity has been rising the Cyber Police has decided to recruit three convicts in order to use them to fight the major criminal activity. To ensure that the three convicts do their work they have been given one collar each which will blow their head off if they don’t follow their orders.”

In Cyber city Oedo 808 the three main characters is given one episode each, the first episode makes us familiar with the head strong Sengoku Syunsuke, as he is sent on a mission to save hostages in a company building which has been taken over by the ghost of a former employee which with his good computer skills wants to take revenge on his killer.

The second episode starts out with the brutal murderer of a criminal and Gabimaru Rikiya “Gogul” is sent out by the chief of the Cyber Police Juzo Hasegawa to find out who killed the criminal.

In the last episode of the anime we learn to know Merill Yanagawa, which first meets an mysterious beautiful woman and then is sent on a mission to learn more about a “vampire” which has been killing several researchers.

Each of the three episodes is centred on the main character and doesn’t leave much room for other smaller characters. And the three episodes much follows the same concept, the main character get’s a mission to kill a criminal if he don’t do it in time his head will be blown into bits. Even though the similar pattern the producers (Madhouse Studios) still succeed to make the happenings unique and action packed. I am not a fan of action and this was the first time that I honestly felt that I enjoyed watching an action anime.

I will give a warning flag though for the English dubbed version as it is full of swearing, every second word is “Fuck You” , “Fuck off” or some other improper word. Which will after hearing it over and over again make you wonder who translated the anime into English, since I haven’t seen the Japanese version I can just hope that it is better than the dubbed.

Now let’s take a look at the animation:

Counting in that Cyber City Oedo 808 is an oldie from 1991 it still has good animation; if you are familiar with Vampire Hunter D bloodlust or Ninja Scroll you will most likely recognize the animation since they have the same director Kawajiri, Yoshiaki.

The music:

This old goody is opened with a rocky song called Burning World by Hidemi Miura, which perfectly fits the style of the anime, though as the song goes on it becomes more of a pop song. As an ending to each episode we get the calmer song called “I May Be In Love With You” by Hidemi Miura which I can’t see how it fits in to this action and sifi filled anime.

Let’s take a quick look at the characters:

The first character to hit the stage is charming Sengoku “sen-goku” Syunsuke a cocky criminal with a sentence of 375 years. He is a man who because of his constantly swearing is in need of a dictionary, except for swearing he enjoys teasing Benten for his effeminate looks. To his displease he is followed everywhere by Varsus a robot which works as the link between the criminals and the cyber police.

Second character out is Gabimaru Rikiya mostly known as Gogul, a rather rough guy with good computer skills. Before being captured by the Cyber police he worked with a female colleague called Sara as an hacker.

The third and last main character of Cyber City Oedo is Merill “Benten” Yanagawa, not only his white long hair makes him special but also his red painted nails and female look. He is a man which unlike the other two prefer silent weapon mostly he uses monowire which is hidden in his right ring.

What makes this anime especially good is that the characters have such a difference in personality which makes all of them interesting and enjoyable.

Now what I think of this anime overall:

As I think I have mentioned earlier I am not a fan of action animes though I found this short series really nice. The animation and the characters made me want to watch more of it and I think that three episodes was just right for an anime of this kind especially when each episode was over 40 minutes long.

Story: 5
Animation: 6
Sound: 5
Characther:6
Enjoyment: 6
Overall: 6

And with that I will have to conclude my first blog entry ever =)