Furi Kuri

I honestly don’t think I’ve seen anything more disturbingly ‘out-there’ in Anime before. Make that in any sort of media. Furi Kuri is probably one of a kind, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the creators were given a budget for 24 episodes. They only made 6. Needless to say, the plot isn’t exaclt fantastically told, but then again, the case is the same with Evangelion, and look where that got to. Secondly, because of this blatant disregard for monetary gain, the creators have come up with an anime which is highly entertaining in every sense of the word, as well as visually incredible, normally associated with OVAs or Movies in Anime, which is not something that often occurs which such a vicious market (Thank you Production IG!).

The plot does seem to have an underlying theme to do with adolesence, but it mainly revolves around Noata, and a MAD space whats-it-a-thingy called Haruko, who likes beating people up with guitars to transform their minds into wormholes. Don’t give me that look. However, that is the downfall of the series, in the fact it is so off-the-wall and bizarre that half the time you’ve got to give up hope grasping the plat and just sit back and enjoying. But, to be honest, it is nice just to sit back and laugh without having to worry about every single piece of the subtitle to make sure that you know what the hell is going on (not that doing so helps much in this case.)

The humour (I say it again) is fantastic; I mean I watched it the whole series with a friend in one sitting, and he had watched it all the day before as well. It’s that good. There are constant parodies of Japanese and Western Life, as well as other Anime’s, such as Evangelion and Lupin III. There’s even a parody of South Park! One of the most ingenious parts of the series is an Inspector who has fairly large eyebrows, a-la Rock Lee. The animators though it would be a great idea to make them using scanned in pictures of sushi nori.

Just go watch it now, honesly, just do it! Or, if you want to read more about it, go here. Then watch it!

Rating: 8/10

Black Jack: The Movie

Okay. Osamu Tezuka. Legend of Anime Directors. Written on the side of the DVD. So I just haaad to buy it *giggles* …

I’ve heard of Black Jack a few times before, from scanning through some Anime Review sites, but it was just a name that stuck in my mind, and because he had funny hair like Rogue from X-men. But anyway. I bought the DVD out of curiosity more than anything, but to be honest I was pleasantly surprised that my purchase was a pretty worthwhile one.

The story begins with our underground surgeon hero, Black Jack, going about his daily business of gathering large amounts of money from normally impossible operations, around the time of the Summer Olympics. Suddenly, there are athletes who are surpassing the limits what was previously thought humanly possible: for example, a female 100m sprinter breaking both the male and female World Records at just 16, shaving a whole second of the records. These aptly named ‘Super Humans’, seem fine, but over the next two years, they begin to fall ill and die off. It is up to Black Jack to find out what is causing their organs to age tremendously in such as short space of time, and to stop the genocide to follow.

Black Jack: The Movie is like one of those movies you sit down to watch when you just want some entertainment. Let me make this clear: this is not a classic piece of cinema. Entertaining as is presents a situation you can happily get yourself involved in to pass the time, but not right up there with other Anime films of a similar genre. The main story takes place outside of the operating theatre, which is strange as this is a medical drama, and presents plenty of intrigue and twists to keep you watching for the full 90 minutes. However, you really have to suspend your disbelief throughout, as some of the plot elements seem a bit farfetched and rushed, such as the desert Nomads at the end, and there are also a few inconsistencies, such the time it takes for the condition befalling the ‘Super Humans’ seems to change during the film.

Overall, this is an enjoyable film to sit down to with some friends, but if you have a limited budget, and wish to buy some anime films, it probably would be best to give this a pass if you don’t enjoy the series or OVAs.

Rating: 6/10

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 12th, 2006 at 5:45 pm and is filed under Anime. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Anime Reviews Vol 2 »