Leper Gunsmiths; Crouching Harlots

Rating: Null/10 (15 June 2001)

Spoilers herein.
The first thing I want is to be transported. The further the better, the more competently the better. This film transported me. It had quite a bit different take on the world -- heavihanded, confusing, illogical, juvenile mysticism, pop morality -- all different than what we are usually served up. Some of this strangeness (I am convinced) is because the director is a poor storyteller.
Disney's ethic was that the simplicity in the art corresponded with a simplicity in the story, so much so that one could turn off the sound and get the story. Not just follow the story but follow the WHOLE story. Anime seems to want to turn that on its head, making the animation simpler than anything out of Disney, but blowing up the story complexity with so many threads that kids believe it is profound.
No matter for me, the confusion and pseudodepth was part of the experience.
But there is another element here, and that really did disappoint me. 'Akira' was genuinely artistic, not so much in the drawings themselves, but in the understanding of motion. I was impressed with how the edges on the screen corresponded to the edges between scenes. Akira had a similarly childish sense of the complexly profound, but the art showed mastery and self-awareness.
The vision in this film is just plain unimaginative in how the motion is handled. I'm not talking about the quality of the animation (which is poor), but the depth of the art. And the images themselves lack imagination: a wormy boar as a demon; the nightwalker was straight out of scoobydoo; the wolfgods?; the smurfy sprites? None of this reaches deep.
If you want an introduction to anime and are looking for art, go to 'Akira.' Don't even stop here.