#devilman movie 2004

[the-lonely-flower]

Miiko get bully in school ( indonesia subtitles )

Sorry i couldn’t find the eng sub

[lostcryptids]

ryo's keychain in the 2004 devilman movie we all screamed at

[wanderersrest]

An Abbreviated History of Mecha Part 1: The Mighty Atomic Prelude (The 50's and 60's)

Welcome to An Abbreviated History of Mecha anime. Today, we're starting at, as Fraulein Maria would say, at the very beginning. We're taking a quick peak at the beginning of the canon, which means that we're starting back in 1950 (specifically 1952). I should also confess right now: there are two series on here that are demonstrably NOT mecha shows. However, due to their sheer influence on Japanese media as a whole, I feel it is important to bring them up as being honorary mecha shows due to their sheer influence pop culture.

Tetsuwan Atom/Mighty Atom/Astro Boy (1952)

Starting us off is Osamu Tezuka's seminal manga series, Mighty Atom. Known over here in the west as Astro Boy, this series would be what kickstarts a lot of the modern anime and manga industry due to its sheer popularity. Astro Boy would also be one of two series that would be emblematic of how Japanese pop culture would portray the recent use of atomic energy. It should also be worth noting that realizing that Astro technically is a mecha is what got me to start using a broader definition of mecha instead of the classic giant robot definition.

Due to its fame, Mighty Atom has receive multiple adaptations throughout the years. Of note are:

The original 1963 anime.

New Mighty Atom (1980) which updates the series to 1980's animation standards.

The 2003 anime, which does the same, but to the standards of early 2000's anime.

The 2009 CGI movie.

Gojira/Godzilla (1954, honorary mecha series 1)

1954 would also give us Ishiro Honda's Godzilla, the movie that would make tokusatsu-styled live action stories in Japan. Godzilla, alongside RKO's King Kong, would play a large part in popularizing the concept of kaiju. And boy will kaiju play a big part in the history of the mecha canon. As we'll see soon enough, the history of tokusatsu heroes, kaiju, and robots are all intertwined with one another.

Godzilla has starred in numerous movies since the original, but for stories based off of the original there are:

Godzilla Raids Again (1955), a direct sequel.

Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: All Out Monsters Attack (2001), a Heisei-era production that uses the original '54 Godzilla as a manifestation of the horrors of World War II.

Shin Godzilla (2016), a re-imagining of the original movie set in contemporary times directed by Hideakki Anno.

Godzilla Minus One (2023), the most recent outing inspired in part by GMK.

Tetsujin 28-go/Gigantor (1956)

(Oh hey, this gif again!)

Tetsujin 28-go is the creation of one Mitsuteru Yokoyama and is generally regarded as the grandfather of the giant robot style of mecha. Tetsujin is unique amongst mecha in that it is controlled not by a pilot riding inside of it, but by a little kid with a controller. Tetsujin 28, alongside Mazinger Z, would help to codify a lot of the tropes common to the classic superhero mecha anime that would be prevalent in the 70's. Like Mighty Atom, Tetsujin would receive multiple adaptations throughout the decades.

Shin Tetsujin 28-Go/The New Adventures of Gigantor (1980), which updates Tetsujin's design to look more in line with something like Mazniger Z.

Tetsujin 28-go FX (1992), sporting a radically different look that's more akin to something out of the Brave Franchise.

Tetsujin 28 (2004), a faithful adaptation of the original manga (at least I think it is) directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa.

Cyborg 009 (1964)

Created by Shotaro Ishinomori in 1964, Cyborg 009 is another classic human-sized mecha series. Cyborg 009 would be the first of many hits for Ishinomori, and he will be mentioned again later in this series.

Oh boy... I am not a Cyborg 009 nut, but in terms of adaptations, Cyborg 009 has:

The 1966 Film

The 1980 Film

009 Re:Cyborg (2012)

The Call For Justice Trilogy (2016)

The 1968 Anime

The 1979-1980 Anime

The 2001-2002 Anime (I actually remember when Toonami aired this series!)

Cyborg 009 vs Devilman (2015 OVA)

If you want to follow someone who follows a lot of Shotaro Ishinomori's works, I'd recommend checking out YouTuber Mercury Falcon for more info about Ishinomori.

Ultra Q and Ultraman (1966, honorary mecha series 2)

(The urge to use a gif of Ingraman is strong)

Ultra Q and Ultraman are the first two entries of Tsuburaya's legendary Ultra franchise, with the latter in particular being one of the most famous pop culture icons of all time. Ultraman's influence on Japanese media is so large, that I'll be mentioning it at least once in relation to other series later on.

Ultraman, like Godzilla before him, would get the Hideaki Anno treatment with Shin Ultraman in 2022.

Giant Robo/Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot (1967)

Another one of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's classic manga series, Giant Robo deserves a mention due to its influence on tokusatsu. Giant Robo would usher in an era of tokusatsu that would rely on using giant robots as the main protagonist.

In terms of adaptations, there are two animated adaptations, but only one will be listed here:

GR: Giant Robo (2007)

If you want to learn a little bit more about the history behind Giant Robo, I'd recommend checking out blunova's video on Giant Robo for more info on this important series.

Conclusion

As the 60's would lead way into the 70's, we would see a lot more live action tokusatsu series involving giant robots. Of course, this would be untenable due to how expensive it was to do tokusatsu effects for television. However, one robot would appear in animation that would change everything.

(Read in the voice of Tessho Genda) AND ITS NAME IS...!!!!

[dragonofeternal]

So one of the coolest bits of animanga ephemera that I own is probably these two volumes of the Epic Comics printing of AKIRA.

In 1988, American comics publishers were starting to take notice of the growing popularity of Japanese animation, and Marvel wanted a slice of the pie. A few years earlier, they had made the Epic Comics imprint to run more adult stories free of Comics Code censorship, including both standalone titles and non-canonical spinoffs of their more popular characters. The fledgling imprint seemed like the perfect place for a slice of that cool, weird Japanamation pie. They set their sights on Katsuhiro Otomo's AKIRA, which had done well in Japan and was set to get film adaptation that year. The editor of Epic at the time felt that the disaffected youth, psychic powers, and post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting would be familiar enough touch points to make the series resonate with American readers.

However, Epic didn't think that American comics readers would be as drawn to something that read "backwards" and was black and white. So, they did what would become the standard for many years- they flipped the pages to read left-to-right. They then enlisted colorist Steve Oliff to create a full-color version of AKIRA. While it's easy to jump to thinking of this as a butchering of the original work, Otomo was actually fully on board, as he wanted his work to reach as many people as possible. Otomo collaborated with Oliff directly at first, flying out to meet with him and share some of his personal desires for the coloring. He had some initial color guides, stills from the as-of-yet unreleased movie, and a deep passion and desire for his work to do well in the west. For the first five or six issues, Oliff sent all of his colorings off to Otomo for approval, but after that, Otomo was pleased enough that he gave Oliff free reign to go with his instincts for the rest of the comic's run. The colored version was even re-licensed, flipped back to the Japanese order, and released in Japan! I've never seen any copies of that, but I bet it's cool as hell!

I got these as a Christmas present sometime in the mid '00s from my Aunt Ing and Uncle David, who knew I liked anime and manga, but knew absolutely nothing about the stuff. They picked them up at a garage sale in DC for pocket change, and gave them to me along with a second hand copy of the DEVILMAN live action movie from 2004. I clearly remember them saying something along the lines of "Here, I hope you like this! We know you like that manga stuff. Hopefully 'Akira' isn't Japanese for like hardcore donkey porn or something, hahaha!" ...As if you couldn't flip the book open and see what was in it for yourself, Uncle David?

(Also worth noting that I had already seen the Akira movie at this point, so it's not like I didn't know what I was getting into!)

The manga (and the not-long-after release of the anime) made AKIRA a hit in the states. The Epic Comics run split the series into 38 issues that ran from 1988 to 1994. However, the legacy of Epic's colored run has an influence outside of just helping to introduce this iconic series to American readers.

It was also one of the first digitally colored comics.

Oliff and his company, Olyopitcs, were pioneers in using digital coloring methods. While he made initial color guides on paper versions of the pages using traditional methods like pantone films and paint, the finalized versions were all colored digitally, allowing for a wide, rich range of colors. This style of coloring incentivized Marvel to print it on slightly higher quality paper, and the series' success made Marvel more interested in looking to computers as a way to enhance their art and workflow. Perhaps he overstates it a bit, but Oliff credits his Eisner award-winning run as the colorist for AKIRA as the turning point for digital art's acceptance in comics.

It's unlikely that the colored version of AKIRA will ever be re-released, as the rights that Marvel held have LONG since traded hands, first to Dark Horse and then back to Kodansha. Copies of the colored version of AKIRA are hard to come by and pricy now, ranging from $10-100 for a single issue on eBay depending on condition and what particular issue it is (climactic issues are obviously more expensive than more laid back ones). It's not completely out of the question that it'll see the light of day again, however; Oliff still has all the digital files of the colored version of AKIRA, and he has expressed that he would be more than happy to have them reprinted if Kodansha wished to.

If not, though, I still have my two issues, and a very cool piece of anime localization history.

Historical info for this post was fact checked/sourced from this Japan Times article from their 30th anniversary retrospective and this 2016 ANN interview with Oliff. Feel free to check them out if you want to know more!

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

Tag Game

I was tagged by @liferockingitout thank you :)

Three ships: MSR (X Files), Ryokira (Devilman), Griffguts (Berserk)

First ever ship: Probably Erik/Christine from Phantom of the Opera

Last song: Aphrodite by Honey Gentry

Last movie: The Shining (and Alexander 2004 right before that lol)

Currently reading: Frankly many things! I’m rereading House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas so I can read the sequel. Game of Thrones by George RR Martin, and Network Effect by Martha Wells. Girl From the Other Side and Berserk

Currently watching: Again so many! I most recently (re)watched a few episodes of Succession. I’m also slowly making my way through Breaking Bad for the first time. Rewatching True Blood, and X Files

Currently consuming: Red wine with several spoonfuls of sugar stirred in it while my boyfriend judges me

Craving: I’ve been wanting sushi and ramen. I’ll probably get some tomorrow

Tagging: @victorianho @cryptidmak @milisandia @hellalugosi @alltheyuletidecarolscantbelies @docmartensanddietcoke @forthegothicheroine and anyone who feels like doing it! I’m not entirely sure who likes doing tag games rip

[imdevilmaaaaaaaaaaan]

Found it

Trying to find France's dub for the live action movie again

[flameangel12]

My favourite gifff..this is from the Devilman movie (2004) i made this gif for Devilman fan although i know most of you hate this movie😂😂😂its ok! Enjoyyy(´∩｡• ᵕ •｡∩`)

(tbh i actually like this movie because of this two little twins(≧▽≦)

[mushroom-home]

Someone PLEASE help me, I don't know where to watch the 2004 live action movie of Devilman

[canmom]

Toku Tuesday 4 - fashionable lesbians

It’s Tuesday, which has become the day I watch (more or less) weird Japanese special effects movies! One day we might even watch something on-Japanese on a Tuesday, but not this day.

Tonight we’ll take a break from godzillas to watch a couple of movies with heavy lesbian overtones. To begin with, we have @lyravelocity​‘s pick, Cutie Honey dir. that guy who’s everywhere, Hideaki Anno!

Anno probably needs no introduction (but just in case, Animation Night 18 when we watched Rebuild of Evangelion is probably the most I wrote about him), but let’s continue the story after he finished the original Eva series. He was, I’m sure you’ve heard, tremendously depressed; after the release of Rebuild of Evangelion exploded everyone’s heads, Anno started working more outside anime, starting with a low-budget, experimental drama Love & Pop (1998) about a schoolgirl getting in over her head in a kind of underage sex work called enjo-kōsai. I hear it’s a very effective film, though naturally pretty unsettling.

His second live film was also an arty drama film, Shiki-Jitsu (2000), an adaptation from a novel by Ayako Fujitani with the novelist portraying herself. The story is a very loose fictionalisation of the period she worked on her dad Steven Seagal’s film The Patriot, while struggling with mental illness and suicidal ideation. In Anno’s film (and perhaps her novel?), her character instead spends about a month having a fling with a former anime director turning to live action, played by real-life indie director Shunji Iwai. Beyond that rough premise summary, I know very little about this one!

Anno’s next live action film was experimental in a pretty different way! Cutie Honey (2004) is an iteration in a very long series of adaptations of a manga by the renowned early mangaka Go Nagai, also known for other pioneering series like Devilman and Mazinger Z. Cutie Honey portrays a catholic schoolgirl turned transforming superhero, defining a lot of the motifs that would later become standard for magical girls. It's mostly action and heavy lesbian overtones.

The first adaptation was a 70s TV anime by Toei; it saw a revival in 1994 with an 8-episode OVA titled New Cutie Honey, also by Toei, which looks pretty impressive from the clips I’ve seen! Toei followed this with a more shōjo-styled series, Cutie Honey Flash in 97.

Anno enters the picture in 2004, direction two versions in the same year: a tokusatsu film Cutie Honey and a new OVA animated at Gainax, Re: Cutie Honey, with both telling the same story. The film stands out because of its incredibly anime-like direction, using techniques such as pixilation (stop motion with human actors) and extreme, Kanada-school style poses, often shot at a reduced framerate. (The filmmakers termed this technique ‘Honeymation’.) We watched a clip from it last week (thanks to it happening to show up on Twitter lol) and it has so much fun energy as a style!

The OVA is likewise notable as the debut of Hiroyuki Imaishi, future director of Gurren Lagann, Promare and Kill La Kill, who started showing off his frenetic directing style - this is the source of the amazing inbetween where Honey turns into a wiggly noodle.

Plan is, tonight we’ll watch the Cutie Honey film, and then maybe in a couple of weeks we might watch the Gainax OVA on Animation Night. We’ll see!

The other film I have tonight, courtesy of @mogsk​, also features bikers and lesbian overtones and unusual use of animation. Shimotsuma Monogatari: Yankī-chan to Rorīta-chan (下妻物語　ヤンキーちゃんとロリータちゃん), released in the West as Kamikaze Girls.

This film follows two girls in a rural Japanese town who each identify strongly with a particular subculture: Momoko is obsessed with lolita fashion (which broadly centres on extremely elaborate, Victorian/Rococo-inspired outfits) to the point of social isolation, while Ichigo is the leader of a yankī all-girl delinquent biker gang (yankī is a fashion subculture, generally working-class and carrying connotations of rebellion and dropping out. At least per that description, it further connotes aggressive masculinity but not to the extreme of bōsōzoku). The two hit it off over their mutual love of fashion, but Momoko’s stubborn independence starts to give Ichigo ambitions to depart the gang...

The story began as a light novel by fashion designer and novelist Novala Takemoto, before finding its way into adaptation as a film directed by Tetsuya Nakashima, who would later see a lot of acclaim for the thriller Confessions (2010). Beyond that? Little information is available. I did find this little tidbit about the novelist:

Novala Takemoto (嶽本野ばら) is a japanese author and fashion designer. His real name is Toshiaki Takemoto, however, his pen name is translatable as "The Wild Rose." Takemoto has been one of the most active promoters of the Lolita lifestyle and remains fascinated with the Rococo era in particular.

How that will all play out in the film, I don’t know, but I’m looking forward to seeing!

Tokusatsu Tuesday #4 will start around 7pm UK time, around two and a half hours from this post, at twitch.tv/canmom. Look forward to seeing you there!

[tsunflowers]

why didnt I know there was a 2004 devilman movie that looked like this

[titusmoody]

2021 Q2 stuff

Games

Return of the Obra Dinn -- Very different. A great experience to play, it doesn’t use any typical “gamer” skills or knowledge. It also hit on a lot of my personally prefered sensibilities (stories self-contained to ships, non-linear storytelling, mysteries, and meticulous attention to detail)

Kentucky Route Zero -- Even more different. I’m glad I played it for the atmosphere, though it didn’t click with me the way Obra Dinn did. Extremely atmospheric and cool, but also has a strong academic curiosity to it.

DOOM (2016)-- Okay, we’re back to regular video games. Everything about this one seems very carefully crafted. I had a good, mindless time with this one.

Spider-Man -- Not as well-crafted as DOOM, but also less juvenile. I also had a good, mindless time with this one.

Metroid: Samus Returns -- Feels like Metroid. The moment-to-moment combat is different than Super Metriod and Fusion, which is a nice way to keep things from getting stale.

TV

Shadow and Bone -- Sometimes tropes exist because they make for good stories. This show was a good example of that.

Pani Poni Dash -- WTF Japan, in a good way

Princess Tutu -- Much like I felt about Cowboy Bebop, this show was very well-made and I had an easy time appreciating what it was doing, though in the end it’s not the kind of thing that’s really for me

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid -- Pleasant to watch, mostly lighthearted but could definitely have emotional moments here and there to keep you interested.

Kakegurui -- Shows like this are the reason anime fans are so self-depricating. It was thoroughly trashy, but I’d be lying if I said that the trashiness didn’t lead to a lot of fun.

Love, Chunibyo, and other Delusions -- An excellent comfort-watch. About a high-schooler trying to run away from his cringe-y middle school phase. I definitely have criticisms of it, but I’m also definitely going to watch it again.

Devilman Crybaby -- I swear, Masaaki Uasa takes the most overdone premises and portrays them in such bonkers ways that they become pretty cool. This isn’t one of the best examples of that, but it still works.

Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket -- Part of Gundam’s brand is that it shows the effect of wars on individuals. This is a great small-scale example of that. 

She-Ra -- It’s good. The plot kinda meanders and the backstory lore is presented confusingly/unclearly at times. But the central characters are good enough to carry at least a few seasons, and the secondary characters really elevate the whole thing. I was personally very fond of Scorpia as well as the way the writers used Entrapta both in the plot and as a character foil.

Chernobyl -- Second time watching this, it’s definitely a favorite. 

Movies

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again -- You already know what this is like and whether or not you enjoy the sort of thing it is. 

Moulin Rouge -- It’s hard to watch Mamma Mia without thinking of this one, so I watched it soon after.

Minari -- My personal reward for being fully vaccinated was to go to the movies by myself. This was a good movie, though overshadowed by the circumstances in which I saw it. I would’ve been very happy to be seeing anything.

My Fair Lady -- An iconic pop-culture touchstone. Not my favorite musical, for sure.

Interstellar -- This movie is in the odd position of currently being my favorite Christopher Nolan movie despite the fact that I don’t like it nearly as much as I liked either The Dark Knight or Memento when I saw those for the first time.

The Perfect Storm -- George Clooney, big wave.

Legally Blonde -- I didn’t hear the term “sitcom” until oddly late in life, and when I heard it, I assumed it meant movies like this where there aren’t a ton of jokes, but the characters are constantly in inherently funny situations. I don’t like this type of humor that much.

Jurassic Park -- A big “moral” of the movie was “don’t trust computers to do anything important” but today it’s hard not to get the message as “never underpay your system administrator” instead.

Apollo 13 -- Pretty good

ET -- I really didn’t like this movie and I don’t quite know what it doesn’t do that Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones do. Imminent danger seem to be part of it, but I don’t think that’s the whole picture.

The Day After Tomorrow -- *shrug* I had fun watching it

Pearl Harbor -- expected it to be bad, it was bad. It was definitely bad in interesting ways, and was almost good a lot of the time.

Die Hard -- I was looking for suspenseful movies with clear character motivation and this fit the description. It was good, though I didn’t like it quite as much as I hoped to.

Star Trek V -- Star Trek is often silly and I just can’t get on board with some of the silliness, like the last part of this movie.

Terminator 2 -- Yeah, I do like suspense. I don’t think I’ll look back on this as a favorite, but I was pretty into it. Moreso than Die Hard.

Cast Away -- Pretty good

Predator -- Somewhere between Die Hard and Terminator 2. I was a bit bored by the end, which ironically was the part that most closely resembled what I was looking for.

Braveheart -- I think romanticising medieval Europe is fun and cool. Unfortunately this movie has some creepy sexual hang-ups as well as rampant “no step on snek” energy that ruin the whole thing.

Redline -- Just a cool looking movie

State of Play -- I forgot the whole plot of this already, but I enjoyed it

Troy -- It’s not as bad as its reputation suggests, though the end does get really over-the-top cheesy

Demon Slayer -- I liked going to the movies by myself so much the first time that I did it again. This time it was in a much more full theater and I was one of very few people over 17. Fun action anime movie, though.

Gladiator -- I’m so disappointed that I didn’t connect to this movie, since over and over I felt like I was very close to loving it. I think the revenge motivation was what ultimately prevented me from really getting into it.

K-19: The Widowmaker -- Hell yeah, extremely tense submarine scenes, that’s exactly what I wanted.

The Manchurian Candidate (2004) -- The movie felt like it wanted its premise to feel plausible, but it really didn’t. Still pretty good, though

The Big Lebowski -- Still not a big fan of this one. 

The Naked Gun -- This confirms that my sense of humor has not gotten more refined since age 17 or so. I still thought this was pretty funny.

Dances With Wolves -- Mostly just boring. 

Angels and Demons -- Even at age 15 the book’s riddles and clues premise felt a bit too contrived. The movie has the additional disadvantage that verbal explanations are the most boring way to resolve questions, unlike books where words are all you have.

Chinatown -- Meh, a fine detective story but nothing really clicked with me. The director’s life is wild, though. He escaped the holocaust, had his pregnant wife murdered by the Manson family, and is currently a fugitive from justice for raping a 13 year old.

The Core -- Like The Perfect Storm, appealing in the “so bad it’s good” way.

Porco Rosso -- Think the type of character study of Kiki’s Delivery Service, but about a middle-aged man, so it doesn’t resonate with Miyazaki’s audience enough for many people to talk about it.

Uncut Gems -- My second time watching it, it’s definitely a favorite. Between this and A Serious Man, I seem to love extremely stressful movies about mediocre jewish men.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) -- Interesting to compare/contrast with the other version. I like both

Galaxy Quest -- another movie that fits my personal definition of what “sitcom” should mean. Again, not my favorite type of humor

Fantastic Planet -- Looks like something between the animated sketches in Monty Python and Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Very weird, it personally really worked for me.

Scarface -- I think romanticising organized crime is fun and cool. 

In the Heights -- colorful, catchy, happy and fun. 

Books

The House in the Cerulean Sea -- a good comfort-read. very simplistic and a little clunky and amateur-ish, but ultimately pretty cute.

There There -- not a comfort-read at all. A super raw look at the modern life of a variety of Native American situations. Very harsh but also interesting.

Six of Crows -- Fine YA fantasy fluff.

[the-lonely-flower]

Miko classmate bully Miko

[lostcryptids]

Devilman 2004 live action is one of the best movies ever made.

[animebw]

Short Reflection: Mind Game

And thus begins my journey into the filmography of one last acclaimed anime director: Masaaki Yuasa. I’m familiar with Yuasa’s work from watching Devilman Crybaby and The Tatami Galaxy for this blog, as well as Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, so I already know he’s the real deal. His stories are among the most visually imaginative, densely layered, and effortlessly rewarding anime on the market, bursting with his uniquely sloppy animation style and a visceral understanding of what makes people tick in their best and worst moments alike. That said, he’s also responsible for Japan Sinks, which I’ve admittedly softened on a bit over the past year but was still a catastrophic misfire on pretty much every front. So he’s clearly not an unimpeachable talent. He can make mistakes and put out bad results, same as everyone. So it’s a damn good thing I was already familiar with his work before checking out Mind Game, his debut film from all the way back in 2004. Because if this had been my introduction to Yuasa, I would have been tempted to steer clear of everything else he’s ever done.

Mind Game is a hard movie to summarize, because it’s one of those surreal art-house affairs where imagery and Big Ideas take precedence over basic coherency. It jumps between at least three different genres and tones, haphazardly pulling all sorts of disconnected tropes out of its ass and discarding them the moment it’s finished with them. Things start off like a romantic drama; wimpy college kid Kishi reconnects with his childhood crush Myon who’s getting married to a hot stud, and we spend like ten minutes just watching them talk and hash out their life stories in the bar run by Myon’s older sister. Then a couple Yakuza toughies break down the door for some reason I’m still not entirely sure of; I think Myon’s father cheated them out of world cup tickets or something? Anyway, one of the yaks tries to rape Myon but gets distracted and kills Kishi instead, at which point Kishi goes to the afterlife meets God- yes, actually God- represented by a series of rapidly changing characters from people to fish. God tells him his time is up, but Kishi doesn’t want to die such a pathetic death, so he literally escapes the afterlife and comes back to life right before he dies, at which point he steals the attacker’s gun with his buttcheeks and uses it to kill him instead, resolving to live a full, passionate life from now on. And that’s the last we see of God for the entire movie; we never visit him or the afterlife ever again, and it’s barely even brought up.

Anyway, after... that happens, Kishi pulls Myon and her sister into the yakuzas’ car and makes a getaway, at which point Mind Game becomes a high-octane Fast and Furious car chase with the yakuza’s partners trying to run them off the road. All the laws of physics and reality are broken as they make their mad escape, dodging other cars and enemies firing guns, until they’re run off a bridge and plunge toward the dark water below... only to be swallowed by a gigantic whale that shows up out of nowhere, drowning the yazuka in the process who also never show up and are barely mentioned ever again.

This is just the first forty minutes of the movie.

Mercifully, once our cast of characters actually finds themselves in the whale’s stomach, we stay in that location for the entire rest of the film. Kishi, Myon, and her sister meet a crazy old man who was also swallowed by the whale long ago and has build a little wooden village for himself to live in. From here on, Mind Game essentially becomes a trippy slice-of-life scenario following the characters living in the whale’s belly, the stress it puts on their emotional state, and how they all change and grow as a result of it, punctuated with sequences of LCD-induced lunacy as the characters let their emotions run hog-wild and we lose all sense of grounding in anything even resembling reality. Sadly, the jarring randomness of the film doesn’t vanish now that we’re stuck in a single location; every scene feels disconnected from the one that came before, every flight of fancy feels like a complete non-sequitor, and there’s basically nothing in the way of plot or character arcs until it’s suddenly revealed that the whale is dying and everyone decides they’d better try escaping despite its seeming impossibility. And then everything climaxes with, I shit you not, at least five straight minutes of the characters wordlessly running up a cascading waterfall as they try to escape the whale, with no variation and basically nothing going on but them running on vertical water and gradually losing their clothes in the process.

I don’t normally describe the entire plot of a movie or show in my reviews, but I need to give you the sense of how fucking nonsensical Mind Game is to watch. The closest thing it gets to a point is in some abstract notion of living your life to its fullest, which I guess is what all this insanity is supposed to represent, but it’s all so thoughtlessly thrown together that it comes off as little more than white noise. There are so many weird, bizarre, utterly unique images throughout this movie, and I remember basically none of them. I couldn’t begin to tell you why anything in this movie is the way it is. Why does it sometimes shift art styles so the characters are portrayed as photos of real-life people animated like stop motion? Why have the afterlife section at all if it’s never gonna come up again? Why is there a montage of moments in our characters’ pasts at the beginning and end of the movie? Is the crazy old man supposed to be Kishi’s father? Why does Myon have sex with Kishi after he tells her a story of tiny space explorers who live on her cells like they’re planets until she literally shits them out? Yes, go back, read that sentence again, that is an actual thing that happens in this movie. Also, we randomly get flashes of backstory for Myon right in the buildup to the big escape and she tells her that she’s sorry for always dumping the burden on her, which feels like it’s supposed to be the climax to a character arc, but I’m honestly not sure if they had a single conversation prior to that point, save for a brief moment in the bath that’s interrupted by Kishi and the old man perving on them, because of course it fucking is. Oh, and you better believe that Myon’s huge tits are a popular subject of both the characters’ conversations and the camera’s lens, even shortly after she’s almost raped. Because it’s deeeeeep, man, you just don’t get it, maaaaaaan!

Yeah, no, this movie sucks. It’s an incomprehensible clusterfuck of meaningless imagery mistaking confusing and obtuseness for profound insight and artistic brilliance. The only reason I’m not rating it lower is that it’s not offensive enough to really piss me off. It’s just baffling and annoying and a waste of time that no one should bother watching. Yuasa would go on to make actually good anime after this, with stories worth telling and visuals that supported them, so I won’t hold it against him. But even as a debut project, this is too stupid to enjoy, and I give it a score of:

3/10

Hopefully his future films will give me more to gush over, yeah? See you next time!

[aveljay]

My favourites

» Comics: 1. Batman. » Games: 1. Genshin Impact; 2. Dragon Age; 3. Keepsake. » Books & light novels: 1. “A Little life” by Hanya Yanagihara; 2. “Brave new world” by Oldos Haksli; 3. “Captive Prince” by C. S. Pacat; 4. “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his years of pilgrimage” by Haruki Murakami; 5. “Eragon” by Christopher Paolini; 6. “Harry Potter” by J. K. Rowling; 7. “Heaven Official’s Blessing” by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu; 8. “Legend of the Galactic Heroes” by Yoshiki Tanaka; 9. “Mirage of Blaze” by Mizuna Kuwabara; 10. “Mo Dao Zu Shi” by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu; 11. “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins; 12. “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes. » Manga & manhwa: 1. Acid Town; 2. Banana fish; 3. Dark Heaven. » Anime & cartoons: 1. Avatar: The Last Airbender; 2. Berserk; 3. Blue Exorcist; 4. Death Note; 5. Devilman Crybaby; 6. Dororo; 7. Free; 8. Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu; 9. Legend of the Galactic heroes; 10. Mirage of Blaze; 11. Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin; 12. My Hero Academia; 13. Oban Star-Racers; 14. Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki; 15. Promare; 16. Sailor Moon; 17. Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou; 18. Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi; 19. Shingeki no kyojin; 20. Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu; 21. Tiger & Bunny; 22. The Promised Neverland; 23. Voltron: Legendary Defender; 24. Zankyou no Terror. » Movies: 1. Angels & Demons; 2. Dead Poets Society; 3. Fight club; 4. Gattaca; 5. Ghost; 6. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; 7. Jumanji (1995); 8. Meet Joe Black; 9. Remember me; 10. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe; 11. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; 12. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire; 13. The Judge; 14. Tron: Legacy; 15. Van Helsing (2004); 16. The Last Samurai.

[romana73]

GOOD HEROINES AND VILLANS IN LOVE 2 PART

Post written by ME. The animated gifs shown AREN’T MINE and DON’T BELONG TO ME IN ANY WAY.

I keep to answer who claims Rey will never fall in love with Kylo Ren ‘cause she’s good and he’s villan…

1) In Disney's animated movie, "The Lion King II. Simba Pride", beautiful and good Princess Kiara falls in love with Kovu, heir to terrible Scar, raised by Simba's enemies:

2) In “Charmed” TV show, beautiful and good witch Phoebe Halliwell, falls in love with cruel demon Cole Turner and she marry him:

3) In "The Originals" TV show, bloodthirsty and ruthless vampire Klaus falls in love with beautiful and fair human Camille, a psychologist who will try to redeem him and reciprocate his feelings:

4) In "Girlmore Girls” TV show, beautiful and diligent Rory will fall in love with turbulent and bad Jesse who, first, disappoint and abandoning her, then he will always try to win her back:

5) In "Once Upon A Time” TV show, good heroine Emma will fall in love with terrible Captain Hook, her enemy at first, then he’ll fall in love with her. Good outlaw Robin Hood will find his great love in Regina, show bad redeemed and good Belle will have a long and turbulent love affair with evil Rumpelstiltskin:

6) In Manga He, the devil! (Akuma de sorō), from which was taken Taiwanese live action Devil Beside You, sweet and innocent Qi Yue falls in love with the terrible Jiang Meng who, before, blackmailing her, forcing her to be his slave, then finds himself in love with her :

7) In Manga, Anime and Live Action Devilman, Amon terrible and cruel champion of demons falls in love with beautiful human Miki:

8) In Manga, Anime and Live Action Hanayori Dango, poor and simple Tsukushi is first bulled and tormented by arrogant, Tsukasa Domyoji, beautiful and rich leader of F4 gang who, then, falls in love with her and will court her endlessly, up to conquer her:

9) In Arséne Lupin 2004 movie, beautiful and sweet Clarisse falls in love with famous thief Arséne Lupin, who before will betray and abandon her, then return to her:

10) In Hex TV show, beautiful and good witch Cassie Hughes will be tormented by terrible Azazeal, Fallen Angels leader. The two will fall in love, while they keep fighting on opposite sides: