Tag: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

Ongoing Investigations: Case #133

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In my Tsukihime round-up I finally got around to the Tsukihime PLUS+DISC. Mostly a few little stories added to promote previous releases of Tsukihime and Kagetsu Tohya. The Alliance of Illusionary Eyes is the main meat of the content of the disc and is mostly from the point of view of Akira Seo and her first meeting with Tohno Shiki. Her appearances in Kagetsu Tohya make much more sense after reading this. The other three stories are much sillier but sometimes enlightening. Geccha 1 and 2 are little behind the scenes looks at unanswered questions, plot holes, and unused material in a Type-Moon told in a comedic manner. I wonder how many people ship Arcueid and Ciel as they fight like pair that would surely be hooked up in yaoi fanfiction. Sad Birthday Girl fans can see unused Satsuki’s path material. There is also the utterly weird Kinoko’s Masterpiece Experimental Theater. This is mostly weird to be weird. There is no hidden material here. Just uncle Nrvnqsr Chaos. There is nothing vital here other the Alliance but there is a lot to enjoy. Plus I can attest that you can read all of this in just one lunch break if you put your mind to it.

I was so pleased to find Trigun: Badlands Rumble showing at Otakon this year. The movie plays out like an extended TV episode. This is one last hurrah for the fans really so as such it isn’t the place to start for the unfamiliar. Badlands Rumble features Vash’s legendary good-nature as he tries to protect Amelia who is looking for revenge against notorious bandit Gasback who is rumored to be heading for Macca City. Meryl and Milly are dispatched to keep an eye on things since their insurance company has insured a statue in the city for $$5,000,000,00. Wolfwood gets in on the action too, but I won’t say exactly how. I must say it was wonderful to hear the cheers and claps when Wolfwood appeared for the first time. Everything comes together in a spectacular action-packed end. Beyond new animation, there is nothing to say this wasn’t just a part of the show. I saw it dubbed and it didn’t quite have enough force behind it so I’ll be curious to watch it again on DVD. Trigun: Badlands Rumble is good fun with characters that you love.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #132

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Broken Blade‘s 5th movie really takes the series down a notch I am sad to say. The focus of the film is Girghe a lot, a character who as far as I’m concerned has no soul in their design. Perhaps this movie was trying to fix that impression, but it doesn’t work and the “reasoning” behind his past seemed like a cop-out full of holes. I just refuse to feel for the guy and I think they really wanted me to change my mind. While Girghe is acting crazy, Rygart isn’t helping the situation. They decide the best time for a vendetta fight (which they are having because why again?) is right in the middle of a major mission. Probably the only redeeming scene in the entire movie is the fight between Brocuse and Rygart, looks amazing, just try to forget why it is happening and why it ends the way it does. This is the problem with most of the film, it isn’t well put together and thus you start questioning why anything is happening the way it is.

Sadly since the defeat of Zess the Broken Blade series has not been nearly as strong as is started. Rygart just seems to lose a lot of strength as a lead character as he seems way too interested in dealing with Girghe but not nearly as invested in doing anything else as he should. And Girghe just comes off as an unrepentant and unlikeable psychopath despite them trying to soften him up during the movie. I think they want him to be the dark mirror to Rygart’s noble intentions but he just comes off as a big waste of time. Their last confrontation actually annoyed me. I don’t see why Rygart would waste time with his theatrics when everyone else is getting slaughtered. General Borcuse on the other hand as at least a little more subtle in his villainy. He sometimes twirls his mustachio but at least I can understand being a completely wretched human to your enemy on the battlefield. The dehumanizing effects of being a solider can do that to a man. Also his fight with Rygart was pretty good which was the highlight of the movie. Hodr and Sigyn mostly seem to show up in this movie to wishfully wonder how Rygart is doing. And Sigyn has to have more slumber part-time with the POW Cleo. I had such high hopes for Broken Blade. It started off so well but it seems to have sadly lost its focus.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #131

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Buddha is one of Vertical’s most acclaimed and best-selling Tezuka manga. So the fact that Toei Animation produced Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha: The Great Departure as part 1 of a trilogy of high budget movies adapting the legendary manga caused a good deal of anticipation in the anime community. While the movie is competent it sadly does not live up to its potential. Having to adapt eight pretty hefty volumes in three movies is quite a task. So they have to compress and rearrange some of the material. It can be a bit disconcerting to anyone who read the books but I did find it took me too far out of the story. The main problem is the movie is about as subtle as a neon pink elephant with a boom box playing a heavy metal cover of Pink Elephants on Parade. The original manga knows how to guide the pace of the story and your emotions so things come off as organic. The movie goes boom boom boom from one scene to another without any real elegance. A story like this needs time to breathe so the powerful scenes are more resonant. But with no tonal shifts everything becomes a monotone instead of a constant high. The soundtrack in pretty much over your shoulder the whole movie screaming in your ear the themes of each scene. Everything has a slightly cheesy feeling by the fact that the music is always in your face ham-fistedly trying to invoke an emotional reaction out of you. The animation is clearly high budget and theatrical but the direction robs any of the impact that would have had. It is not that this movie is bad. The problem is that it is so much lesser when compared the amazing source material it is based on.

Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha: The Great Departure is the first of three planned films. I have never read the original manga so this was my introduction to the series as well as the figure of Buddha who I only know a minimal amount about. The film is well and truly a fable so with that comes some things you either accept or don’t. With a fable there is a lot of grand gesture and speech, everything that happens is there with utmost importance to teach us something or drive home a point. And to that end, cut out are the little pieces that make up a character; they are more an idea than anything else. However, even rolling with that there are certain aspects of this movie that don’t jive. It was clear the filmmakers had a ton of material to get through which created some incredibly abrupt scene changes so much so that emotional impact was lost. The film is split about 50/50 between Siddhartha (who becomes Buddha) and Capra (a boy who rises in the caste system) however by the end of the film I was unable to fully link these two. At least not enough to justify spending so much of their precious little time on Capra but perhaps that will be resolved in the subsequent installments. And finally, I kept thinking that movie was over time and again but then it would just keep going. Buddha: The Great Departure isn’t an overly long film but because of its execution it wore out its welcome.

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