Badmovies.org Forum

Finally I find some anime dserving a review here.  Well, actually I saw this one some time ago and am only writing a review of it now.  And no, I have not stolen any trademarks from other boards (any who post on the Scifilm message board should be aware of who I am now)

I honestly cannot give a storyline.  There is no coherent storyline to speak of.  Let me try summing it up anyhow...in the future, the world is ruled over by a huge corporation ruled over by the faceless Persona.  All that Persona has yet to purchase is a segment in the Himalayas (or some other mountain range: I forget exactly where) and that, of course, is where a group of freedom fighters are based.

This movie takes place in a burrough in Tokyo, where a few freedom fighters are meeting.  Into this unrest comes Darkside, a telepath who has no discernible purpose in the story--he cures lives ruined by nightmares.

The animation is rather good, but that's about the only good thing I can really speak of in this abomination of a movie.

The biggest problem I have with this movie is the fact that it ends too abruptly.  At the screening I attended, I had to go to the toilet towards the end, so I went thinking I wouldn't miss a thing.  I came out, and everyone was being let out of the lecture theatre that was being used.  And when I asked about it on a message board, they said that the good guys still ran when they were in a favourable position against Persona.  Uh....come again?

My appraisal was confirmed when I read a review on Anime on DVD (http://www.animeondvd.com) where the reviewer was confused by quotes in favour from sources such as Animerica.  Actually, I think they were the ones who said that the nonexistent appeal of this movie was impossible to describe (sounds more like they couldn't figure it out either).

I suggest bypassing this movie and reading the original novel (if you can understand Japanese--and I can't) or just going for Ghost in the Shell or Akira (heck, even Appleseed) if you want films with revolutionaries.