My Thoughts on: Attack on Titan 進撃の巨人

In recent years, I've been longing for the Kaiju Giants to make the return to the big screen, such as Godzilla, Gamera, Mothra, etc... We've haven't seen a Japanese Kaiju film since 'Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy,' or as it's know 大怪獣バトル ウルトラ銀河伝説, a worthy 43rd anniversary of  Ultraman series back in 2009. Before that Cloverfleid in 2008. We could argue that films like Monsters and Troll Hunter apart of the 'Kaiju genre' but nothing has really scratch that ich, and with Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim just around the corner, and a new 'Godzilla' in the works, my slightly niche needs are finally being met.

With that said my needs have been catered for in Manga and Anime for a while now, and I've been sitting here literary kicking myself for not coming up with the premise for 'Attack on Titan,' otherwise known as 'Shingeki no Kyojin' (進撃の巨人). A heavily stylized show where humanoid creatures called Titans have forced humanity to retreat into a system of concentric Walls, and cower in there 'cage' while Titans 'rule' the Earth.

You have no idea how much that appeals to me as a writer. Its a script which has elements of humanity at it's lowest, pointing out there flaws and kaiju elements. Genius!

But with that said does 'Shingeki no Kyojin' live up to it's premise?

Just as side-note this should really be called "My 'Early' Thoughts on: Attack on Titan 進撃の巨人." As at the time of writing there are only twelve episodes of the Anime and ten volumes of the Manga available. I'm currently on episode ten of the Anime and haven't started reading the Manga yet, so this won't be a full 'review'.

 “The story starts off with the potential to be a thought provoking piece on the down fall of civilization, but quickly show its true colours…”

We follow Eren Jaeger, an idealistic and impulsive young man, who after the Titans breach the outmost wall and lay waste to the town witness his mother meet her end at the hands of a Titan. From that moment onwards Eren vows to "erase their existence from this world." Eren soon enlists into the military along with his adopted sister Mikasa Ackerman, and close friend Armin Arlert.

While goofy at times, the show is genuinely unsettling. Everything from the design of the Titans to the way they move is slightly disturbing. There design encapsulates the fear and threat of the Titans, perfectly. And there something symbolic about the biggest threat the human race is facing is a race of humanoid creatures. Something along the lines of “I think it's man's nature to go to war and fight.”

The story starts off with the potential to be a thought provoking piece on the down fall of civilization, but quickly show its true colours as a revenge story featuring giant monsters which in its self is fine. Around episode nine the show slowly becomes a text book ‘Battle-Manga’ where the main character finds that he has a special gift to fight the Titans with. At least before this revelation it was an unconventional ‘Battle-Manga’ along the lines of Neon Genesis Evangelion. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed but the show never pretends to be thought provoking piece, but I would also be lying if I said I wasn’t pumped full of excitement at the set pieces featuring the Titans.

These set pieces are where Shingeki no Kyojin’s Kaiju roots come alive, as the slow methodical Titans make their way through the city wreaking havoc and leaving only death in the wake. The cinematography during these moments is fantastic, giving a good sense of scale and context to the larger creatures and depicting the insignificant of the human characters. Along with the amazing score by Hiroyuki Sawano (澤野 弘之), also known for his work on Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (機動戦士ガンダムUC(ユニコーン), define these set pieces with adrenaline pumping pace.

The main theme "Guren no Yumiya" (紅蓮の弓矢) by Linked Horizon also gets a special mention for being so, for the lack of a better word, epic.

Sadly there isn’t much to say on the sound design other than its serviceable, the sounds of the ‘Titans’ and the ‘3-D Maneuver Gear’ are as you would aspect. But the sound never encapsulates the sense of destruction and confusion of an attack and relies on the Sawano’s music a little too much.

Going back to “a revenge story featuring giant monsters” this is where the biggest flaw with the show becomes apparent. None of the main characters, apart from Mikasa, are that interesting. That’s not to say there not interesting at all, it just that the entire main cast can fit into the generic cardboard ‘Anime’ archetypes. Mikasa is the only main character to barely escape her archetype by have some interesting redeemable qualities, otherwise she would fall into the quiet, mysterious archetype with the dark past. There are a few side-characters that have some remember-able quirks but beyond that the star of the show ends up going to the Colossal ‘skinless’ Titan. Who spends most of the series menacingly standing at the edge of the wall overlooking the destruction.

The animation quality seems 'fragmented' at times. For the most part the animation is defined, and bold. You can feel the weight, or the lack of weight, within a scene. As Titans rip through stone walls and take a cannon ball to the shoulder.  It’s engaging. While at other times it's static, but this is a common practice within the genre, it’s still immersion breaking.  

Ultimately, 'Shingeki no Kyojin' left me a little conflicted. As I said, I'm currently on episode ten of twelve and the series is ongoing so I can't defiantly say whether this is worth your time or not. For the most apart, I had a good time with 'Shingeki no Kyojin' I found it weirdly engaging but it wasn't without its flaws. None of the main characters stuck with me, other than the Titans. The Sound design is lacking and mentionable at best. The animation is at times defined and full of character while at other times it seems static. I can't recommend this to everyone, but if you're interested in Kaiju films, or unconventional ‘Battle-Mangas’ such as Evangelion it's worth a watch.

My Thoughts on: Death Note デスノート (2006)

I started to take a deeper look into Japanese cinema back in 2006, and around this time I kept hearing all this hype about an Anime called Death Note. I avoided it, in the fear that the hype had set my expectations too high. A couple years later and after being pressured into watching it, I finally sat down and watched Death Note in it's entirety. Not only did it live up to the hype, it surpassed it. It was clever, tense, and engaging. I still use this as a example on how to write compelling characters, and an interesting story. I loved the Anime so much that I engolf myself in anything to do with Death Note, I brought and read the Manga, read the One-shots, and research the authors to death.

During this time I heard that their was a series of live action adaption based on the Manga, directed by Shūsuke Kaneko (金子 修介) who directed some of my favourite films such as Gamera reboot; Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (ガメラ 大怪獣空中決戦), Gamera 2: Attack of Legion (ガメラ2 レギオン襲来), Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys (ガメラ3 邪神〈イリス〉覚醒). But there was there was nothign but negative comments surrounding the films, how bad could they be?

OK. On a side-note I'm review the film based on it's own merits but I will be comparing the film to the Anime since they are both visual based mediums and not the Manga. Although the Manga is just as good as the Anime and the same goes for the Manga.

I want to start off by saying that the film isn't that bad on it's own merit but if your going to compare the film to the Anime then the film does fail to impress but I'll get on to that in greater detail later.

The story follow Light Yagami, an university student, who finds a notebook called the Death Note. The Death Note contains the power to kill anyone whose name is written within the book, as long as the user writes the name of the person the user wished to die while picturing their face. Light uses this new found power to "cleanse the world" by wiping out all the low life criminals & proclaim himself as the "God of the new world" that he is trying to create. After a few months the police start to investigate into the deaths they hire the help of the worlds greats detective, L, from here the story follows a cat and mouse of Light and L as they try to work out who each other real identity.

The film follows the original source martial to the best of it's abilities and does a good job of reacting some of the most remember-able scenes from Anime. For some reason the film does trails off the original source martial by introducing new events in the story, while the story reaches, near enough, the same conclusion in the Anime the means as watch they get there isn't as interesting. Film the throws this weird ending that completely skips over a key character arc from the original Anime that shows how Light acted in tough situations, and instead throws a ending that dumbs down the creative genius of the main character. While I will give the film credit for trying to show a more evil side to Light.

For the most part the cast is decent and all do a go job of playing these iconic characters but for the most part the acting is sometimes stiff. Most notable of this is Tatsuya Fujiwara (藤原 竜也), who plays Light Yagami, and Takeshi Kaga (鹿賀 丈史) who plays Lights father, Soichiro Yagami. One of the stronger deliveries comes from Kenichi Matsuyama (松山 ケンイチ) as L, who does a really good job of bring one of the most well develop characters from the Anime to life. Kenichi gets everyone of L's quirks spot-on, from sitting on a chair to how he answers a phone, and is one of the strongest rolls in the film.

I know this won't be a big surprise but the special effects are really bad and almost cheesy at times. Don't get me wrong there aren't that many effects in this movie but for the handful there are, they just look bad. The effect they choose to show when a character is having a heart-attack from the Death Note is pretty boring and forgettable. Some of the other effects are just awful to look at in true Japanese style.

A small criticism at best but is still worth a mention, is Ryuk's 3D model. While the model its self is fine and sticks to Ryuk's original design for the Manga, the textures are so flat and look almost cartoon-like, in contrast to the other actors on set is really noticeable. Every time Ryuk was on screen I always seemed to pulled out of the immersion of the film.

Overall... Wait I forgot the wiredest criticism of the whole package. Throughout the film has an original score written by Kenji Kawai (川井 憲次), who wrote the score for the original Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, but for some reason Red Hot Chili Pepper's Dani California is both the song that plays through DVD menu and credits. While theirs nothing wrong with this it's just out of place.

The song is even in the trailer and that just makes the song stick out more in amongst Kenji's score. The inclusion of the song makes the DVD release feel like someone in distribution need something to relate to Western culture and just slap the biggest music release at the time on the box... I could be wrong... Maybe Red Hot Chili Peppers are big fans of Death Note, I don't know...

Overall as I said before the film on its own merits stands up pretty well but in comparison to the other adaptions it fails to impress. I find it really hard to recommend this film. On one hand if you were to just come across this film without any knowledge of the Manga or Anime, the film is a enjoyable watch with an interesting permise. If you are interested in this film and haven't read the Manga or Anime I can't recommend it enough. But if your already a fan of Death Note then I can only recommend this film to you if your willing to over look the slight deviants to the story, bad special effects, and some stiff acting.