DEDDOMAN WANDARANDO Episodes 1-4

DEDDOMAN WANDARANDO (DEADMAN WONDERLAND) (2011)
 Episodes 1-4
JP
Directed by Koichiro Hatsumi

PLOT:
     After being setup for the slaughter of his class and the soul survivor of the massacre, Ganta, is sent to a privately run prison in which the inmates are the performers of a bloody circus of death for the fun of the masses.

REVIEW:
    It's been about a week plus since my last review, sorry about that to all that read this. So I had some time to think what I wanted to do next and I decided to review a complete series as the what's next for me. Those that have read what I've written know that I've done some reviews for anime titles before and this will be a good exorcise for later on this year when I review another full anime series as well. As for this set of reviews I decided to review the Japanese version of a series that is on air at the moment here in the U.S. That series is Deadman Wonderland as it is something different. Something more raw and savage. Each installment of the reviews for Deadman Wonderland will include four episodes as the whole series runs only twelve episodes. So without taking to much more of your time readers with my ramblings on to the review.

DEATHROW INMATE:

     As far as first episodes go, you have to grab the attention of the audience quickly to keep them involved in what they're trying to watch. In that regard Deadman Wonderland does that in spades as we're introduced to Igarashi Ganta with his friends at school talking about past times they have spent together and talking about a earthquake that destroyed Toyko ten years ago. It's at this point that a person wearing red armor and cape is seen floating outside the classroom window before the entire class is slaughtered in a matter of seconds by the smirking Red Man. Quickly Ganta is railroaded as being the cause of the slaughter and sent to the prison Deadman Wonderland with a death sentence. Once there Shiro, a mysterious albino girl is introduced and seemingly knows Shiro from when they were kids, though Ganta has no memory of this. At the end of the episode it is shown that Ganta has the same power that the red man does as it saves his and Shiro's life after an explosion goes off that was planted to kill Ganta. The first episode is fast moving without any pause except for when Shiro is introduced and snaps Ganta out of his depression. This one episode is one of the best first episodes I've seen in a long time due to that the character's emotions aren't hidden and no one person is seen as being flat or two dimensional but more rounded.

ANTIDOTE (CANDY):

      Unlike the first episode, this one is slow starting as the environment Ganta is forced to live in is explained as Deadman Wonderland is more than just a Circus, but is more of a small city unto itself. We are also introduced to Takami Yo, another prisoner that has quick hands and a thief explains the ins and outs to Ganta and that to live everyone has to eat a antidote called candy for the poison that is slowly killing all the prisoners due to the collars the inmates wear. But to get "candy" the have to earn cast credits to buy more, and to do so the inmates have to work and perform for the amusement for the general public as this is a circus the live in. It is here that Ganta, Shiro and Yo  decide to enter one of the more extreme amusements, Dog Race. Seeing that Ganta is involved with this race both the warden, Makina, and Tsunenaga Tamiki who is the real force behind Deadman Wonderland pay close attention to see what he does. The friendship that starts to form between Ganta and Shiro is the main focus of the episode as Ganta sees that Shiro is trying to protect him no matter the cost. Because of this Ganta finds the will to live no matter what.

G BLOCK:

     Tsunenaga Tamiki, puts Yo in charge of keeping tabs on Ganta, is forced to witness the return of the redman. It turns out the redman goes by the name Wretched Egg and is kept at Deadman Wonderland in a state of suspended animation most of the time. As in before, destruction follows Wretched Egg as multiple prisoners are killed, yet this time there are survivors. Wretched Egg seems to show up just to see what Ganta would do and to test him. This is also the second time Ganta uses his powers that seem to flow from his wounds. In the aftermath, Ganta wakes up in the infirmary with Shiro by his side. It is here that Ganta learns that Wretched Egg is kept in G Block which is separate from the rest of the prison. With a direction to finally go in, Ganta and Shiro go in search of G Block with Yo being dragged along due to his bad timing. It is at this time Warden Makina views footage of Ganta using his powers and orders him to brought to her no matter what. The interesting part of this episode is that we find out that there is more going on at Deadman Wonderland than what is shown on the surface and that those that think they are in charge find out just how little power they truly have. Ganta and Shiro's friendship is also shown to grow more as Ganta is shown to start caring more for Shiro and how he would truly be lost without her.

CROW CLAW:

     Finally finding G Block, Ganta is forced into a realizing that besides for him and Wretched Egg, there are others who have the same powers. The power is called Branches Of Sin and it depends on the users blood and each carrier of the virus has a different type. All this is explained to Ganta by Kiyomasa "Crow" Senji who calls Ganta "Woodpecker". Crow, also explains that people with these powers are referred to as Deadmen and that his fight with Ganta wasn't supposed to be until tomorrow yet doesn't mind that Ganta wants to fight today. Ganta at this point starts to learn how to use his powers and the cost of it. Before the fight can go on to long it is stopped by special forces that are kept at G Block. After waking up Ganta comes face to face with Tsunenaga Tamiki who explains that he was the one who got Ganta convicted of the slaughter of his class. Tamiki also explains that G Block is the true Deadman Wonderland which is fights between Branches Of Sin users called Carnival Corpse to the death or until one user cannot fight anymore. Tamiki also tells Ganta that he has his first fight the next day against Crow. Throughout this episode you see Ganta being beat down and broken because of what he finds out and the desperate situations he finds himself in all thanks to the sadistic nature of Tamiki, all for his enjoyment it seems.

BEST DEATH:
     Razor runway multiple amputation.

BEST LINE:
      It may be crazy to you, but that's only because reality is absurd.

FUN FACTS:
     Here's the lyrics to the song Shiro was singing when Ganta is first brought to Deadman Wonderland.

One mischievous little woodpecker
Today, poking your holes
Ruining the woods
The angry old forest god turned your beak into a poison knife
Poor little woodpecker
Your nesting holes are all tainted
Your food rife with toxins
If you touch your friends
They will all die
Oh, sad little woodpecker
Poisonous tears shining brightly
As they stream down you cheeks. 
     

GENOCYBER

GENOCYBER (1994)
JP
Directed by Koichi Ohata

CAST:
Akiko Hiramatsu (Japanese voice)  Anna McKay (English voice) - Elaine
Akiko Hiramatsu (Japanese voice)  Rosemary Elliot (English voice) - Diana
Shigeru Chiba- Radonekku

PLOT:
     As the nations of the world begin to merge, world peace is threatened by the private armies of individual corporations. The Kuryu Group has just discovered a weapon that will tip world power in their favor.

REVIEW:
      So here we have an anime I watched almost twenty years ago and I still have memories of it. One of the things I wanted to do with the reviews I do is of course let people know about the newer genre films, yet also the older films I watched in the past, and there is a lot of them. But to do the reviews for the older ones justice I have to re-watch them to refresh my memory of them . Hence why there's more new film reviews more than older ones. I am trying to get older films up though so just stay with me and think of when they do pop up to think of them as a treat, or a blast from the past if you will. I still can't believe it's been almost twenty years though and here's to the past.

     While some things age well with time, others do not. Genocyber is odd because it does stand the test of time and at the same time it doesn't. The setup for the series is one of brilliance as there is talk of a alternate universe of shadows and images.  Every so often that universe is shown as a bleak landscape of barren red rock and red skies filled with lighting. Yet there is no shadows or otherness that was talked about. Instead we are shown one of the two main characters stuck in a organic bubble with her head sticking out of it. Nothing else is shown of the others that was mentioned. And the time there is kept to a bare minimum. The one thing that could be the gateway for the series to become something more and interesting is thrown away.

     Another downfall of Genocyber is that there is almost no plot to it that can be followed what so ever. You are introduced to characters that say a word or two or you spend half the show with them that gives hints and says that they've been following one of the characters around for years only to be killed out of the blue for no purpose. The story for Genocyber is one of the worst I've been privileged to watch in a long time. The story is jumpy and inconstancy throws Genocyber against every wall it could find to see what could stick or just to see if they could make a stew out of different stories if they were thrown together. The story of the two sisters if it was given a chance could have been the main story and could have made this a more character driven story. Instead the two main lead's, the sisters,  story is given a total of what felt like one minute, and the gore and violence is given the main story instead and character development is thrown out the window. I wished that this would have held up since it's release but it doesn't and instead it just seems like it's an excuse to kill things in an animated world in a way not possible in live action films.

BEST DEATH:
     The detective's vivisection nightmare. 

BEST LINE:
     I'm hooking a human subject up to a PSI-scanner.......We can clearly see all sorts of images and shadows displayed. This is known as the "Mind Shadow". Withing this shadow lies a still unexplored universe.

FUN FACTS:
     Genocyber is the first part of a five anime OVA (Original Video Animation) series.

     OVAa were known to be more violent and risque than regular anime due to it didn't have the strict restrictions as anime that aired on television in Japan had.

     Genocyber  referenced the cult anime film Chojin Densetsu Urotsukidoji or known in the U.S. as Legend Of The Overfiend.

GYO

GYO (2012)
JP
Directed by Takayuki Hirao

PLOT:
     Something in Okinawa reeks, and it isn't long before Tadashi and his girlfriend Kaori realize that the smell are coming from dead fish, which are walking out of the sea.

REVIEW:
     As those that read my reviews by now know I like to mix things up somewhat with what I review from the truly awful to the surprising films that I wasn't expecting to be good. Anime is one of the genres that is usually looked over when someone searching for something in the horror genre. There's so much to be explored in anime that you can spend a month just finding titles that sound interesting. Gyo is one of those titles.

     I read the manga for Gyo  awhile back when it first came out in the states back in 2003. It had a very different take on the monster formula than what I was used to reading.  It had a weird vibe where you didn't really know what exactly was going on, and that carries over into the anime as well. Then again, how often do we, as viewers get to see fish on land, and blood thirsty as well. Not so much outside of a Mytho's tale. The design of the fish is very realistic which adds a depth of believability to the anime, or as much as possible. The character designs for the cast is different that in most, as the design for them is more realistic as well. The cast though is cookie cutter for the most part as you have a female in love that is cut off from her lover. With her is her two friends, one more of a bookworm and the other a oversexed tramp who only is out for herself.  After the walking fish start showing up the divide between the friends start showing as Kaori, who is the main character, leaves to the dismay of said friends, the other two start trying to kill the other. Kaori though makes it home to find that her hometown is overrun with aquatic life and with the help of a reporter tries to figure out what exactly is going on while trying to find her lover.

     While Gyo is interesting, it is not without problems. One being that everything happens very quickly and character development is left in the dust as once the characters are introduced what you see is what you get. No more, no less. While what is going on is somewhat explained, toward the end of movie a whole other aspect to the story is told but not elaborated on. That one bit of information  makes the story expand only to be forgotten completely no more than a minute later. Another problem is the main person we follow at first is a strong female lead, then halfway through just becomes a cry baby, not at what is going on around her or the fact that her love is missing, but because she is blocked by from going over a bridge of all things. One more fault is that one of the creatures that is shown in the distance is massive, and looks like it could be a whale, yet we only see a glimpse of it. I will say that it's not all bad. The pacing is well done as there really isn't a dull moment, specially once the fish start showing up. The story for the most part is very concise except for the stuff I mentioned before. While not really scary, the elements are there to make a truly great film if more time was giving to the movie. Instead we get a fast paced story where nothing is truly explained, yet we are treated to lots possibilities.  

BEST DEATH:
     Drowning by walking fish.

BEST LINE:
     It's like the march of the underworld!

FUN FACTS:
     Gyo is based on the manga of the same name by Junji Ito.

     Some Junji Ito's manga work include Uzimaki, or Spiral, and  Tomie.

     Uzimaki was made into a live action film in 2000. And Tomie has been made into a film series in Japan in 1999 and has 8 live action sequels.

GANTSU

GANTSU (GANTZ) (2011)
2011
Directed by Shinsuke Sato

CAST:
Kenichi Matsuyama - Masaru Kato
Kazunari Ninomiya - Kei Kurono
Natsuna Watanabe - Kishimoto

PLOT:
     Kei Kurono and his friend Masaru Kato who die in a train accident and become part of a semi-posthumous "game" in which they and several other recently deceased people are forced to hunt down and kill aliens with a handful of futuristic items of equipment and weaponry.

REVIEW:
     I have actually seen some of the anime this was based on and read the first volume of the manga as well, so when I found out there was going to be a live action movie I had to see what they would do with it. The thing about going from anime or manga to live action there is always going to be some loss in the material no matter what or a change in the pacing due to time constraints. Some times it's not a bad thing as this could mean a part where something slows down in the source material is thrown out and speeds up the story, but at the same time it also usually throws away character development that happens during that time. So adaptations are always a mix bag and sometimes past knowledge of material can sometimes hurt going into a movie.

       While watching this I kept going back in my mind about the original source and how mean, vicious, and perverted it was and was wondering what happened with that. There was no snide, nasty comments about the other people made by Kazunari Ninomiya's Kei Kurono and I was saddened by that fact. part of the reason why the original was interesting was seeing how low and repugnant people can get. I don't mind the fact that the film makers washed away most of the sexuality for the live action movie, but part of what made the character of Kei is his maturing from a horn dog that doesn't mind seeing people die just so long as he get's his release sexually, into someone that actually becomes a leader that actually somewhat cares in a screwed up way about the other people around him. The same can be said about the other characters in the movie, as you can tell something is missing in each character as most of them seem somewhat flat even though back stories are hinted at, yet no real time is spent exploring those backgrounds of the three leads.

     As far as the transposition of the source material to the big screen I was quite surprised by how well it looked and translated. The body suits and weaponry looks just like the drawn and animated version do and act just the same as well. The aliens are perfect and varied throughout and at times funny. One thing that can be said is that the violence is still intact, as this movie gets wet and messy when ever the games begin with only destruction being the end result of each battle, and usually on a larger scale. Even when the action becomes more large scale, with each new alien the special effects never falter nor does the camera work fail to keep up with what is happening on screen nor does the camera try and hide what is going on.

     This was quite a surprise as this movie translated better to the screen than I thought it would and was acceptably done sci fi movie that tries to translate a dense story into a fast paced action movie that works amazing in some parts yet fails in others. If there is one complaint I truly have, it's the disservice the dubbing company did with Gantz. The voice actors performance is lifeless in most parts and the timing of speech to lip movement is just horrendous in most other spot. If you can see the subtitled version, do yourself a favor and watch that one instead. Yet I'm not going to discredit this movie for that as the movie gets better as it moves forward. The translation of source to film is one of the better ones I've seen and if you get a chance watch it enjoy it for what it is as it's better than most other sci fi movies being made at the moment.

BEST DEATH:
     The very wet and sloppy death of Onion.

BEST LINE:
     What doe the scores mean?

FUN FACTS:
     Hiroya Oku, the creator of the manga, first thought of Gantz's story when he was in high school.

     The idea for Gantz came from the Jidaigeki television program Hissatsu series and Robert Sheckley's Time Murderer novel.

     This is the first movie of a two movie story.