Category: Reviews

Special Screening: Death Note the Movie, I needs more L

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So, all around the country, for two special nights, Death Note the live-action movie was playing in theaters. I was not about to miss this as I quite enjoyed this movie and its sequel. I love the chance to see movies on the big screen, I always wish I could do it more often. But in NYC you pay 10-11 dollars to see a movie…I swear. So I only bust out that hard earned cash for special moments, this was one of them.

I too like to see anime movies in the theaters as well. I would really like to see a good comedy, as good comedies are only enhanced by an audience. Though I don’t know of any comedy anime that would be popular enough for their movies to be playing in American theaters. I suppose that I will take what I can get. I know they are going to be showing the Bleach movie soon as well. The dub alone will keep Narutaki away but I might just go out of random curiosity, since I’m one of the few people who has not seen it. No amount of loyalty to anime fandom will make me pay money to watch a Naruto movie though. I would not so secretly like to see the Kara no Kyoukai movies in theaters but there are going to seven of them and that it’s not popular in the U.S. so that makes it almost impossible. I am also sure that the Evangelion movies would be simply amazing on the big screen but someone has to shell out some serious cash before that will ever happen.

We saw the film, along with other friends, at the Regal Cinema at Union Square. We pre-ordered our tickets but I didn’t see any big line for the event. Also, I noted before we went up (maybe 15 minutes before show time) that the event had yet to sell out. The theater was pretty crowded though and our seats were forced to near the front. I have some friends in Indianapolis and they said their theater was pretty crowded, too. So I’ll assume it was pretty much the same all over.

It was crowded enough that they will hopefully do something like this again. It was not enough to have it to play for several weeks but I think it’s enough to get two showing for those who want them.

Unlike the manga and anime Death Note the movie starts slightly in medias res. The movie begins with criminals all over the word suddenly dying of heart attacks. Law enforcement agents around the world are baffled as to who is doing the killing and how exactly they are doing it. It turns out that they are being performed by Light Yagami a young college student you uses a Shinigami’s magical note book to kill people. When Light writes anyones’ name in the book, while think about their face, the person who’s name he writes dies. As the Japanese police force start their investigations, they are approached by L the world’s greatest detective who has some theories about these murders. The Japanese form a task force with L at the helm to try and solve the mystery of the deaths.

I quite liked the pacing of the movie. It kept the wonderful cat and mouse that drew me into the original manga. We got a lot of the defining moments from the beginning of the story, like: the L TV broadcast, the bus scene, all the Raye scenes really, and the chips. There were new additions as well, especially the twist at the end which is completely new and you really see the director moving things to his own needs at that point. But I liked that, I am happy with the way he is telling this lengthy story in a just a few short hours. Also the Death Note manga is extremely word heavy and I was glad to see they didn’t bring that to the movie, not tons of internal monologues or any such thing. You were really able to read the characters emotions form the actors.

I think you just like the fact that Misa Misa was kept to a minimum in this movie. When you only have two movies to adapt a 12 book series, I suppose it helps that several arcs in the manga are weaker than others and can mostly be axed out with no problem. The director certainly knew how to show and not tell which helped cut down on the need for lengthy mental dialogues, while still showing the back and forth between people trying to outwit each other. I also like that Naomi Misora was given a little more time in the movie. I had always wished she stuck around longer in the manga.

Fujiwara Tatsuya comes out of the gate being the charming and intelligent, young man with a god complex, Light Yagami. It is always engrossing to know what Light is up to unbeknownst to the rest of the characters (except possibly L) and realize how cunning his interactions with them are. After Light falls into L’s first trap, he wises up and starts to push the envelope of how far one can think ahead. Fujiwara takes acting with his CG partner, Ryuk, in stride and never over acts to compensate. However, Ryuk comes off as much more comic like than I felt in the original story. Which added some downright laugh out loud audience moments.

I think everyone noticed that really odd scene where they used a cardboard cutout instead of CG to make Ryuk’s shadow. It was an interesting bit on unintentional comedy. I don’t think they played up Ryuk’s comedic aspects as much as minimized the creepy/scary moments. Oh and I think you have forgotten a most important fact: Light’s father is played by none of than Chairman Kaga from Iron Chef. I admit it’s not easy to see, especially when at no point in the movie does he dramatically bite into a pepper or wear a flashy suit.

I was quite amused and couldn’t help getting caught up with the crowd when L appeared on the screen; the theater went into applause. Kenichi Matsuyama really looks the part of L and once he opens his mouth he solidifies his rendition of the eccentric, but brilliant, detective. L’s character is very much in tune with his manga counter-part, he thinks like no one else and is able to get results, albeit not always by ethical means. And as he sat on the couch making pastry-kebabs I knew the character was spot on.

From what I can tell, L seems to be the most popular character in Death Note so they better have picked a good actor for him. I was happy with L as well. I think Kenichi put in the right combination of playful, creepy, eccentric, and amazingly brilliant to his portrayal of the world famous detective.

I was really surprised it was dubbed, really wasn’t expecting that. Because as most people can attest, possibly from watching some swanky kung-fu movies, dubbing real people is a whole different ball game than dubbing animation. It is just plain more difficult. This was probably done due to its popularity on Adult Swim. However, the most important ones were decently done. Though I’d be lying by saying it was great and preferable. Light and L’s voicing was close to their characters’ original sound at least and most of the time they didn’t speak like William Shatner. I can’t say the same for the rest of the cast. I can also blame the major amount of chuckling to the dub, too. I am glad to have seen it fan-subbed first. And what I couldn’t understand was the lack of subtitles for cell phone messages, newspapers, etc it was just plain lazy.

Odd that you mention swanky kung-fu movies because the dub really does come off as an old Shaw Brothers movie dub at times. I half expected Light to comment on the weakness of L’s crane style investigation-fu at the end of the movie. All the live action Japanese movies and TV dramas we have watched together have been subbed so I wonder if it’s just the way most live action movies come off or is this movie weaker than others? I have noticed for some reason when they play Japanese movies, be it live action or anime, they tend to play them without the option for subtitled signs in theaters. Most of the time you can get away with it but there are far too many scenes where plot was being conveyed by text for it to be anything less than very silly.

The bonus, a making-of featurette after the movie, was mundane at best. There were no real insights, a very brief interview with the director, and mostly us seeing scenes from the movie but with all the equipment in the shots. The only nice thing was the preview for Death Note: The Last Name. I would guess that Viz plans to release that theatrically in a similar manner. When is yet to be determined.

Other than getting a laugh out of a few of the directors odd comments I don’t think we got any grand insight into the movies though the featurette. It was nice to have a little extra that you did not get with the fan-sub but I’m sure Narutaki just wanted more Kenichi Matsuyama running around as L. I suppose that explains why L: Change the WorLd and Death Note: Another Note got made in the first place. The world just needs more L.

Evangelion 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, We mustn’t runaway!

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Narutaki and I spent a good deal of time wondering if we should even attempt this article. Neon Genesis Evangelion is such a loaded beast that writing anything directly related to it is a dangerous subject. You can talk about any of the alternate universe or spin off materials like Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days or Girlfriend of Steel with little fear because they are so removed from the original work that they are safe. The problem is this remake movie is just as touchy a subject as the original series. Any praise, scorn, criticism, or analysis is just as loaded as it would have been for the original.

Evangelion is a show that will never go away, never be forgotten. I can still remember my dad bring home a couple of VHS tapes of it for me, so many years ago, and immediately popping them in. I didn’t know what that series was going to be with just those first four episodes but I knew that I wanted to find out. Anything as big as Eva is going to cause endless discussion. Sometimes you don’t even want to touch it with a thirty-nine and a half-foot pole but the new movies seemed like a nice place to dive into the danger zone.

I saw the first four episodes of Evangelion thanks to the always amazing King of Players Benjamin McGraw. I remember thinking it was interesting but I did not finish the series until years later. It’s odd. I never have had the usual two reactions to Evangelion. I did not embrace it like chocolate covered love nor rejected it like poison coated manure. While I have always thought Evangelion was interesting I was never fanatical about it to any extreme.

We here at Reverse Thieves show no fear because fear is the mind killer. We watched a whole episode of Clannad and I think we both came out of that as stronger people. Okay, Narutaki might cry himself to sleep at night but he is a stronger man who cries himself to sleep at night. Plus I cried myself to sleep even before I watched Clannad. We shall surely only win at life more than usual because of this this article.

We are going to attempt (ATTEMPT) to talk about this movie as if we haven’t seen the original work it is based on. This is somewhat easier for me as far as plot goes since I tend to forget just about every thing anyway. But what I don’t forget is how a series makes me feel, what characters I connected with, and how I desperately waited to see what would happen next. To me these are the harder things to disconnect from.

In the world of Evangelion, giant mysterious creatures named Angels have been attacking the earth after a gigantic environmental disaster and the called the Second Impact killed much of the world’s population. Shinji Ikari has suddenly been called my his estranged father to Tokyo-3. Instead of a reunion he gets a mission: to pilot a giant robot to fight the Angels. Not surprisingly he is reluctant to do so. After being strong armed into piloting the robot Shinji eventually settles into his role with the assistance of his fellow pilot Rei Ayanami and his guardian and superior Misato Katsuragi.

Both the Angels and Evangelions (the giant robots) have mysterious natures. We also have no real knowledge why these attacks are going on or why they need Shinji of all people. NERV, the organization behind creating the Evas, is shadow and does not seem very upfront about their motives. I certainly don’t think of them as the good guys right off the bat, but that is a huge part of the series…the gray factor and the unknown.

I think the mysteries and the pacing of their reveals has always been one of the major selling points of the series. They throw you into the middle of everything and no one seems to be in any big rush to tell him any more than the bare minimum. At the end of the movie we has a conclusion but no real answers. Most of this has to do with the fact that the first movie is the opening act. It is supposed to lure you in with mysteries, tell a complete story arc that draws you in, make you care about the characters involved, and then leave you wanting more. I think it succeeds in this respect.

Shinji Ikari comes off a very mild and shy. At 14 he is thrust into the responsibility of protecting a city full of innocent people. His father uses him quite openly and the first time he gets into a robot it is out of guilt for another injured pilot. However, as the movie goes on we see him time and time again step-up to the plate. While understandably reluctant, once he feels the direness of the situation he puts up quite a fight. In fact, the last battle in the movie was so totally awesome and suspenseful that when it was all over I almost wanted to cheer. Shinji’s life outside of NERV is filled with the uncertainty of youth combined with burden of his responsibilities to the people around him. Shinji tends to internalize his pain. His relationship with Misato, a woman who sort of takes him in, is one of the most interesting as they are both discovering what the word family means.

I think that we would be remiss is forgetting to mention that Shinji does spend a good deal of the movie trying to run away from his responsibilities no matter how understandable running away might be. He has to be guilt tripped into piloting the Eva each time. He also runs away from NERV for several days until they recapture him when they need him again. Shinji is clearly not the hotblooded robot pilot that loves piloting his mecha nor is he the icy cold ace pilot who always does what needs to be done without a second thought. He is clearly an awkward and scared boy who has been thrust into an overwhelming and dangerous position with no training or preparation. He eventually does what is need to be done every time but he never seem comfortable or willing to pilot the Eva until the end of the movie. Even then he only seems to have a beginning of acceptance of his role as Eva pilot.

The entire cast is sort of an enigma that we only get glimpses of their true motives. Anyone except Shinji, since he is the main character we spend a lot of time with him, feels like there is so much going on below the surface. Who they are can change from one situation to the next. This really brings the most ominous feel to the movie, it is done subtlety however. You feel it as a viewer, nothing is as it seems and who are all of these people caught up in it? Once again, since this is the first film in a series, it brings a lot of flavor and suspense for the coming movies.

I think you’re forgetting one of the more iconic characters in anime history. The Rei. She mainly acts as a stark contrast to Shinji’s attitude while also occasionally being his motivation. Rei seems to be unthinkingly loyal and dedicated to being a Eva pilot. No matter how injured she is, no matter what the danger is in, she is ready to pilot her Eva. It mostly seems that she does it because of a machine like personality but we get hints that is due to a loyalty and even love for Gendo. Shinji surely would have never piloted the Eva the first time if it where not for a half dead Rei and she is instrumental to getting him to fight against the third angel.

I didn’t forget, I just avoided. Rei is this paradox of helplessness and killer instinct. She is very husk like to me; as though there is something ticking in there, but we rarely see it. In fact, we see it when she is blindly defending Gendo of all people. But I like that, the relationships of everyone are complex and we as the audience just get the beginnings of them.

Gendo. We don’t really get much insight into him but they are fairly good at presenting him as a cold and even vile person without making him a snarling villain. He is obviously a man with a grand plan and will sacrifice anything and any one to get to that goal. We mostly see an emotionally detached manipulator who moves all the characters including his own son like chess pieces. Gendo’s famous pose with his hands clasped together under his nose will forever be the mark of the manipulator.

Misato acts as both a sexy older sister and a hard commanding officer to Shinji. In many was she is the gentle and warm parental figure in his life while also being the harsh tough loving figure as well.

The battles are well-paced with intense action and plenty of suspense. All of the battles’ big factor is the will he won’t he with Shinji. You really don’t know what he is going to do, but when he does it something surprising usually happens. I can see this getting annoying but at this point it wasn’t. This animation quality is really working itself in these scenes, of which there are many. If you are anything like me, I have to go back to the original to really see the difference in animation; except for the final battle. Wow, what a difference!

I think the battles are very well done and now take advantage of the clearly larger budget and more modern animation techniques of the time. The fight are usually pretty dramatic and tense. I think the fact that you don’t know what Shinji is going to do keeps the fights interesting because you know he can’t just whip out his equivalent of Form Blazing Sword and win. Half the battle is Shinji verse himself and half the battle is Shinji trying to figure out how to fight the angel. Anyone not impressed by the updated battle against Ramiel is just one jaded human being.

The use of music to bring tone to the movie is very well done. It has a modern classical feel. The original TV series had great music and it is nice to see that tradition continued into the movies. Also is has a killer ending song Beautiful World by Utada Hikaru which is more in the realm of things I know about. It actually creates great juxtaposition between the things happening in the movie and what the song is saying. Sort of like the contradiction of NERV’s slogan, “God is in his heaven, all is right with the world.”

I felt like the ending song was almost a love song to Shinji but maybe that is just me. Maybe it is nothing more than a random song thrown in on the end because people like Utada Hikaru and she has undoubtedly drawn a little more attention to the project by doing the end theme but I want to think that it is more than that. I feel the lines about “What a beautiful boy. Yet, you are unable to see your own beauty.” just strike me as being about Shinji. I might just be reading into things that are not there but I would like to think that I might have something here. Who knows? Maybe Utada Hikaru is a huge Shinji fan girl reading all the Shinji X Kaworu doujinshi she can get her hands on.

Not surprisingly since this is a series of movies, we are left with more questions than answers. In fact a lot of questions! Especially since a lot of things that aren’t introduced until much later in the original are mentioned or shown in this first quarter.

I’m am curious to show this movie to anyone who did not see the original TV series. I followed along with the plot quite easily but I already saw the original. However, the first six episodes of the TV series are simpler than the later episodes. They don’t really have much of the trippy and hard to follow storyline that the last quarter of the series contains. Despite this I wonder if the movie is just well written or was I filling in any holes with my knowledge of the TV series and assorted surrounding works. Do you gentle readers know of any Eva virgins that have only watched the first movie? What did they think of it?

I doubt if anyone outside of Sony, Warner Brothers, or another major movie studio can afford to license this considering the current state of the anime industry. The End of Evangelion movies are famous for being insanely expensive. I remember hearing that someone at ADV said the could licensed 10 TV series for the asking price of End of Evangelion. I can’t see this movie being any less expensive. So unless one of the major U.S. studio decides to fork over the cash for Evangelion, I assume the only way we would get this movie is if Gainax decides to release it themselves. Maybe that is what Gainax is going to be sending people to fanime to announce.

I have no doubt that everyone in the anime industry would sell pieces of their body for this license but it wouldn’t make a difference. Because no one is going to get their hands on it. They just can’t afford it. I mean ADV is totally out. They couldn’t even afford to hang on to the license for Gurren Lagaan (another Gainax title). And unless the people at AnimEigo feel like it, which I don’t think they do, no one else has enough capital to fund such an endeavor. Eva made record sales in the the theaters and also with its recent DVD release. I want it, but I have my doubts.

It does not matter if you love it, hate it, or are quite indifferent. You cannot deny that its impact on the whole of anime is significant. Well, you can ignore Evangelion but it is sort of foolish. It would be like deliberately ignoring the works of Osamu Tezuka or Hayao Miyazaki. Any legitimate anime scholar must watch it at least once to understand it’s impact on the industry. It basically created a whole new genre of mecha anime. It is also the target of countless parody and homage. There is still as much Evangelion merchandise being sold for a 25 year old show as there would be of an anime that is currently playing on TV.

UPDATE: Evangelion 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone is now licensed by Funimation!

Hataraki Man, Three times the speed of a normal worker!

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I had been interested in this series for a while. It probably started when I learned a little about it after seeing some of the artwork displayed at Kinokuniya.

Hiroko Matsukata is an editor at the entertainment magazine Weekly JIDAI. She is a workaholic that tends to even unnerve the other workaholics at her office. When she is facing a near impossible deadline she has been know to go into Hataraki (Working Man) mode and is able to do three times the work by blocking out everything else out and just working. Her love life seems to be on life support as she has a boyfriend, but they hardly ever seem to connect anymore due to their jobs. Hiroko is of course surrounded by a very colorful but extremely realistic cast of characters. This is the story of a hard working ambitious woman and the trials and tribulation of her career.

And while the show is about her, some of the episodes focus on one character that is surrounding her. So you get a lot of insight into the many people she encounters on a daily basis.

The Hataraki Man manga ran in the working man friendly seinen magazine Morning but most people categorize the manga and the anime as being josei. I have to say that it clearly has an appeal to both genders. I feel it leans towards josei if only for its strong, well written, female lead. Hataraki Man still retains a strong seinen feeling because although the story never ignores Hiroko’s romantic life it also never focuses on it more than any other part of her life as well.

My first question when I found out it ran in seinen magazine was, “Did a man write this?” Hiro is so well written, that I was going to have to pay major praise to the guy. She comes off as determined and competent without becoming a major bitch. However, that is not the case. A woman does write it and she is great at capturing the underlying emotions of a career oriented woman.

I feel this balance is what is what made this series so popular among women. A female lead who competes and succeeds in a male dominated workplace. As we mentioned in the post on shojo manga, much of shojo focuses primarily on the romance aspect and most josei is no different. But in focusing on Hiroko’s career we get a different type of manga that really fills a void. A salary-man manga for women who need a hero and role-model in a workplace that is not accustom to women taking positions of authority or power. There was even an article in the UK paper The Times about the manga’s effect on the Japanese work force.

Well, what I think is drawing is although we see Hiroko mostly through her pursuit of stories, you never feel that is the plot of what is going on. We learn about who Hiro is through her trials and tribulations at work but the series is in no way about the work, it is about the woman. I also like that she is not vilified for making her job the most important thing to her. Often times we see a story about a working woman but how her life is unfufilled in some way. Hataraki Man is telling a simple story about a woman who loves having a career and how that fills up her life.

Hiroko Matsukata is an excellent and well realized character but her coworkers are just as interesting and play off of Hiroko well. The chief editor of weekly JIDAI mostly acts as a comic relief character but has serious moments. Kimio Narita takes on several roles: friend, mentor, and a hard ass boss as his job and his personality require him to be. Fumiya Sugawara is the gruff paparazzi who often clashes with Hiroko. Her fellow female editors Maiko Kaji and Yumi Nogawa are both interesting looks into how you can be a successful woman in the industry while following alternative paths and philosophies to the one Hiroko Matsukata has taken. Her friend and coworker, Mayu Nagisa, represents a more stereotypical look at a female worker in an office environment. The newest editor Kunio Tanaka acts as a her greatest irritant by being Hiroko’s complete opposite in working philosophy. We also get to know several other people who work at the magazine and others outside of work. Each character gives us some insight into who Hiroko is while often having complete stories in their own right.

I have to say Tanaka represents the opposite of the Japanese work ethic and it is pure comedy gold seeing Hiro freaking out about it. Of course he is mostly oblivious. The stirking contrast gives good depth to them. In fact, all the characters in the office are distinctly different in the way they look, act, and view the world. I found myself intensely interested in a number of them and wished there was a little more time to get to know them.

I also feel the story telling is very organic. Stories started in one episode don’t necessarily have to be 100% concluded in the episode they start in. In the first episode for example, Hiroko writes a story uncovering a corrupt politician. The episode ends with a strong a definite conclusion but that does not mean that that story is never spoken of again. We later see other peoples’ reaction to the article, articles in other magazines about the politician, and follow subsequent articles being written about the politician throughout the series. This gives Hataraki Man a rich mature flavor that sets it apart and makes Hiroko’s life seem more realistic. Too often such a series would lend itself to each episode being very standalone and only certain key plot points every being ever carried over. Hataraki Man rises above that and gives you something to sink your teeth into.

This series is quite short (only 11 episodes) which, in my opinion, is a shame. It is the type of show that could go on and on with the way the stories are told. You tune in weekly for a little bit of Hataraki Man. You really only get a small piece of the pie. This could be attributed to the manga series being on hold, however since I haven’t read it I couldn’t really say. But Hiroko is the type of character you want to watch succeed and grow and change without having a real expectations of where she is going to end up.

I do find the place where the series ends very unusually. It ends on a very monuments event but not the type of event that a series of its type would normally. A manga would end on a big promotion, the completion of a monumental article, the conclusion of a major showdown, or the start of a new relationship. Instead the series ends on a personal tragedy and only begins to show how Hiroko beings to recover from it. Part of me wonders how much of the end is intentional and how much of the end is due to the fact that the author has placed the series on hold. Either way it gives the series a sense that no matter what happens Hiroko’s life and career go on. It shows us no matter what life throws at Hiroko she is always the Hataraki Man.