Categoria: Animation

The Flying Luna Clipper (1987) [REVIEW] | Laserdisc Vaporware Of Yore

Think there is little to new variety to the blog, maybe lamenting i don’t review stuff like Walerian Borowczyk’s filmography? Too many occasional ninjas, exploitation flicks, or ninjaxploitation flicks? You’re wrong, but for the sake of it, we’re going into proper obscure, cult classic weird territory with The Flying Luna Clipper, the best intro movie to a game that doesn’t exist.

Imagine an obscure japanese point and click game heavy on surreal imagery of moon faced TV presenters, birdmen and anthro fruits, all natively dubbed in nearly “engrish” fashion, but instead of having to solve inventory puzzles or explore or witness dream scenarios while Osamu Sato tunes play in the background… minus the gameplay aspect.

Because this was never meant to be a game, but a showcase of what the MSX line of 8-bit computers could accomplish, an art film distributed by Sony and directed by Ikko Ono, the graphic designer mostly known for the cover artworks of MSX Mazagine, also having a column in the magazine itself for various illustrations, Ikko’s Gallery, that would later be featured in this film, presented by/as “Ikko’s Theathre”.

And it’s the very definition of forgotten gem, since it did receive various releases on home video in Japan at the time, but it was basically only salvaged from the darkness in 2015 when Matt Hawkins found a copy of its Laserdisc release in a thrift store, and uploaded it to Youtube, and ever since growing its niche popularity, to the point it’s definitely one of the main inspiration for what would later become the “vaporwave” art scene, itself stemming from the music style of the same name.

Continua a leggere “The Flying Luna Clipper (1987) [REVIEW] | Laserdisc Vaporware Of Yore”

[EXPRESSO] Inu Oh (2022) | Rock The Biwa

Masaaki Yuasa is back in cinemas after 2019’s Ride Your Wave, as in it finally hit theathers here, and this time he’s ready to bring in a tale of Heike era Japan’s Sergent Pepper Magical Mystery Tour, minus the Earth Wind And Fire collab and the quest for the musical instruments, but with fantasy elements set to blow the minds of the 14th centhury Japan’s musical scene.

Set in ye old medieval Japan, the movie follows the friendship of a blind musician Tomona, and a physically deformed dancer that calls himself Inu Oh (“Dog King”), as they travel through the Ashigaka era, performing in an odd troupe and rising to fame to their artistical prowess, despite them being ostracized by society for their appearances and differences..

It’s a fantastic and creative take on jidai-geki narrative, posing the question of what would it be if a rock n roll revolution swept through 14th centhury japan, with the protagonists not only expressing themselves though fame and success, but also being literal mediums of ghosts from the Heike era that just want their stories told, to be heard, even if they don’t belong in the approved history chronicles the government is redacting and enforcing for the sake of unification.

It’s a beatifully, psychedelic animation musical that pays homage to classic rock music but doesn’t just pay lip service through the surreal and stylish visuals Yuasa is known for (handled masterfully by Science Saru), the amazing musical numbers as they retell the stories of spirits that history forgot, an ode to the ones on the margin, the rejects, the exponged, and how despite everything, someone will come to give them a voice, to tell their tales through the power of art.

All in a packed yet concise 100 minutes runtime.

A masterpiece, highly recommended.

[EXPRESSO] Lonely Castle In The Mirror (2022) | Castle Club

The more recent movie from Keichii Hara (Colorful, Miss Hokusai, Summer Days With Coo, various Crayon Shin Chan movies), finally getting a limited theatherical release here.

The premise see a shy outcast girl, Kokoro, that one days sees the mirror in her room glow, only to be magically drawn into a fantasy castle, where other six teens like her where also invited. A mysterious girl in a wolf mask tells them that if they find the key hidden in the castle, one can get its greatest wish granted.

Though, anyone that breaks the rules of the castle will get eaten by a wolf.

Lonely Castle In The Mirror is what i would describe as an incredibly, slow, SLOW burner that hinges on the third act twist and the revelations it holds to make it all worthwhile, and actually DOES fixes issues you’ve might had, as initially less interesting or banal elements of the plot gain new meaning, and characters actually becoming complete as we learn their whole story and their role in the “grand scheme”.

Animation aside, which is fine but also kinda unremarkable, especially for a feature lenght.

Also, while the ending is fairly powerful and the third act elevates the movie, it doesn’t fix the fact you still have to sit though some mild teen anime school melodrama about characters that feel relatable but not really interesting, wondering why even have fantasy elements at all, and having to contend with what – initially- feels like a direction-less stroll.

Even with these flaws, the ending serves perfectly the exploration of themes such as teen isolation, bullying, escapism and trauma, makes all plot threads and character arc collide and complete, and does pack quite the emotional – and througly earned – punch.

Definitely worth a watch, at the very least.

Pirate Warriors 4 and the sudden DLC deluge (extended bitchin’ edition) (UPDATED)

So, after i discussed Namco Bandai announcing a new Character Pass of 9 playable characters to be added as paid DLC over time, we now know the first DLC pack of characters (aptly titled The Battle Of Onigashima) will include Gear 5 Luffy, Kaido in his hybrid humanoid dragon form, and Yamato.

Which is a bit iffy since 2 of the 3 characters are just variants of previously existing characters that most likely won’t have a completely different moveset, but no, i didn’t write this article just to bitch more about Tecmo Koei and Namco Bandai DLC practices, even though i never get tired of it and it’s always right, especially when talking Tecmo Koei DLC bullshit.

Aside from this info and a glimpse of how Yamato will play, the trailer also included the announcement of a different DLC pack split into 3 parts meant to release piece-meal over time as well, called the Additional Episode pack, as in new actual content to play through, with the first one we know being about Yamato travelling through various stages (including Big Mom’s kingdom, as the first and only image – included below and taken from Gematsu article about the news- about the episode shows), and this one will also include a new power up map to learn new skills, increase stats and skill levels even further, and shit like that.

I feel like a stepped on a monkey’s paw, because YES, finally, new meat for the meat god, actually new episodes/missions/stages to play, BUT it’s paid DLC yet again, for a game that – as good as it is, and it’s a very good Warriors title – could have used some actual longtime support and some free content via update, like they did with Hyrule Warriors, even the base release on Wii U, especially due to its decision to cover less of the story arcs and hence do less unique maps/level.

I don’t need TK to also join the fuckin bandwagon and make “work in progress free to play but 60 bucks to enter” games that change over time, but you know, some support and little things or a clearer declaration of how/when the game will have new content arrived to it would have been better.

Honestly, i’d prefer they actually did a proper Xtreme Legends style expansion pak, but they make more money like this, so they won’t.

As previously said, i will be reviewing the new DLC Character Packs as they are released, with the Battle For Onigashima one still having a generic “September 2023” release window despite the fact we’re almost half-way through the frigging month,while the Additional Episodes Packs have a TBA release date as of now, but yes, i guess i’ll review them as well, why not at this point?

POST SCRIPTUM: Both the Battle Of Onigashima DLC Pack and the first Episode Pack (or whatever they’re gonna call it) of the Additional Episodes Pack will be available from the 14th of September (source: Gematsu)

That’s on me for not checking again before publication, i will take the blame for that because i really should have checked, and i do apologize for this.

[EXPRESSO] Gamera: Rebirth (2023) | Stand By My Gamera

Lil G is back after 15 years of official silence… and it’s a Netflix animated series by the co-director of the Godzilla anime film trilogy, with similar 3D CG animation, despite being handled by ENGI (Kemono Michi, Uzaki-chan Wants To Hang Out) and not Polygon Pictures.

We’re not starting on the right foot, but it’s not like Gamera fans can be picky, this is the first official anything since 2006’s Gamera The Brave, though the premise gave me ‘Nam flashbacks of Gamera Super Monster, since it has my boy face off against 5 old foes, including his arch nemesis Gyaos, over the course of 40 minutes long 6 episodes.

The series is set in the summer of 1989′ Japan, with a group of young boys (six-graders) that have their savings stolen by a bully nicknamed “Brody”, the son of an American army commander, confront him, then a giant monster, Gyaos, attacks Tokyo, but the children are saved by another giant monster, dubbed Gamera.

It’s basically a kaiju gauntlet of sorts, with the human side of the story feeling very Stand By Me-ish but also fitting in theme of Gamera being linked to children, proposing a reinvention of the character and franchise that mixes elements from the old Showa era films with the beloved Heisei trilogy, meaning it’s not actually intended for kids at all, as the plot unfolds more in the ways of conspiracies and dark secrets.

And both the plot and characters are surprisingly compelling, making for a good series in spite of studio ENGI trying to emulate Godzilla Singularity Point’s animation as well… but with lesser results of awkard, stiff looking animated 3D CG humans, when the monsters do look good, sport some great redesigns, and their fights – even if often brief – are indeed quite good.

Interdit Aux Chiens Et Aux Italiens (No Dogs Or Italians Allowed) AKA Manodopera (2022) | Piedmotion Animation

A french-italian stopmotion animation, already a white fly, and for less than 4 bucks due a nationwide italian & european cinema initiative? Say no more, i’m so gonna see this, even more as it won a prize at Annecy 2022’s edition.

This is basically the director, Alain Ughetto, tracing back his italian ancenstry, depicting the lives of his grandfather and family of farmers that back in early 1900’s moved from their small mountain village in Piedmont (dubbed affectionally as “Ughetterra”, the land of the Ughettos), crossing the Alps to start a new life in France, in search of any menial or dangerous labor that they could do, their eventual rise to small land-owners, and their nomad lifestyle due to labor but also – among other things – the rise of the Fascism in Italy.

This is told in an amusing and wholesomw fashion, that not so much breaks the fourth wall but use it as a “portal” tool to deliver the narrative, as the director-animator narrates and creates the stopmotion sets, its characters, directly interacts with them (like letting his hand into frame to hand a character a tiny hammer), but frames it as a dialog with his grandmother that recounts the chronicles of the family through the decades, encompassing many heavy subjects as wars, epidemics, racism, clerical hypocrisy, but also the joyful moments (and some fun meta gags).

It’s a really intimate, charming and emotional portrait of turn of the centhury italian immigrants bound to a rough life of difficulties, of split loyalties and fractured national identities due to family always living – often literally – on the borders, malincholic but also fond of having a few laughs and exactly as long as it needs to be, even if that means on the shorter side of things.

Warmly recommended.

[One Piece Film Retrospective] #15: One Piece Film Red (2022)

Yeah, bringing back the One Piece retrospective…. kinda, more like continuing it, with a full, detailed review of the last released One Piece movie, Film Red, that hit theathers in 2022, after the EXPRESSO review done at the time it released in theathers here.

For context, that year i was able to see the tie-in episodes of the series during the yearly Lucca Comics & Games convention in Italy, sadly i missed the early projection of the movie itself, but i did see the aforementioned episodes meant to tie-in to Film Red that detailed a young Rufy meeting a young Uta in Fusha Town when Shanks and his crew set anchor there.

Which are cute but as you would expect they’re not mandatory viewing in order to understand the plot of Film Red, it’s a big popular franchise, they’re not gonna risk alienating people who don’t watch or follow the TV series but do follow the manga, for example.

Who’s Uta, you might ask? But she’s the new character and protagonist of Film Red, a world famous livestreamer and renowed singer that is finally having a concert on the island of Elegia, ammassing a huge amounts of fans coming from all walks of life, be it Goverment soldiers, Navy officers or pirate ships, and of course the Straw Hats come too, as Luffy arrives there and reveals he and Uta were childhood friends.

And then he drops the bombshell that Uta is Shanks’ daughter.

Continua a leggere “[One Piece Film Retrospective] #15: One Piece Film Red (2022)”

One Piece Odissey PS4 [REVIEW] | Cube Memory

One Piece might not be a franchise that you would immediatly associate with RPGs, but like Dragon Ball its surprising how the genre is represented in their many videogame iterations, especially if we’re talking about older systems, and even more so if we’re talking about Japan-only releases, as the first One Piece videogame was a RPG on the old black-n-white WonderSwan, and more came out for both the Wonderswan family of consoles as wells as for Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and even on the original Playstation.

But sadly most western fans are not familiar with some of these quirky GBC One Piece RPGs where (among other things) the Straw Hats are turned into animals, no, most likely you’ve yearned for years for a localized One Piece RPG, only to find out that it exists, One Piece: Romance Dawn, and that it’s sadly a very shit game, even worse as it’s a port from PSP to 3DS, and a cheap one too, because knowing this it makes all sense for the game to look that much like old ass.

I reviewed that one as well, but today we’re here holding hope to finally retire this status and have a big budget mainstream RPG that can make the series some justice instead of wishing they wouldn’t have bothered to begin with, with the long anticipated One Piece Odissey, developed by ILCA and published by Namco Bandai (who else?) in January 2023 to celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary.

Available pretty much on all the platforms, old gen and new…. but not the Nintendo Switch.

For the record, this review is based on the PS4 version played on a PS4 Pro.

Continua a leggere “One Piece Odissey PS4 [REVIEW] | Cube Memory”