I had high hopes for this one, just based on a hunch.
It starts out similarly to Ninja Scroll, which is noteworthy for two reasons. One, it predates Ninja Scroll by approximately 6 years! Two, it’s a worthwhile formula and a testament to it. Because of its release date, it’s undeniably a contributor to many anime precedents.
I think that is this movie’s biggest contribution or footprint. Its 90 min runtime is a poster child of anime tropes. But the thing is, it’s doing tropes before they were tropes.
In ‘87, not every movie had an older teacher entrenched in an ages-old fight. Not only is it tropey in its specifics, but also its thematics. It is literally writing the rule of cool. In the third episode, the hero, Koitchi, inexplicably dons sunglasses to embody an anime Sylvester Stallone in Cobra. It’d be foolish to deny the 80’s aesthetic contribution to the rule of cool and this is an early relic of that translation from live-action style icons to animated.
When this movie drags, you feel it. It can’t muster a consistent momentum to compliment its periodic excellence. I struggled to rate this from 3 (goodish) to 3.5 (pretty good) and I just couldn’t find it in my heart to do 3.5 in good conscience. It doesn’t have an assured quality.
Watch any episode and, if you’re onboard with old school anime, you’ll get sucked in. But where its story may venture into further intrigue a la Ninja Scroll or Record of Lodoss War, it snubs that choice and flatlines.
I reiterate the withstanding credibility I posit this movie has, simply because it visualizes these ideas which would be improved or perfected later on. While it acheives aesthetic satisfaction, it fails to transcend the basic anime trappings. Therefore, it is a gem, but only for a certain audience.
I had high hopes for this one, just based on a hunch.
It starts out similarly to Ninja Scroll, which is noteworthy for two reasons. One, it predates Ninja Scroll by approximately 6 years! Two, it’s a worthwhile formula and a testament to it. Because of its release date, it’s undeniably a contributor to many anime precedents.
I think that is this movie’s biggest contribution or footprint. Its 90 min runtime is a poster child of anime tropes. But the thing is, it’s doing tropes before they were tropes.
In ‘87, not every movie had an older teacher entrenched in an ages-old fight. Not only is it tropey in its specifics, but also its thematics. It is literally writing the rule of cool. In the third episode, the hero, Koitchi, inexplicably dons sunglasses to embody an anime Sylvester Stallone in Cobra. It’d be foolish to deny the 80’s aesthetic contribution to the rule of cool and this is an early relic of that translation from live-action style icons to animated.
When this movie drags, you feel it. It can’t muster a consistent momentum to compliment its periodic excellence. I struggled to rate this from 3 (goodish) to 3.5 (pretty good) and I just couldn’t find it in my heart to do 3.5 in good conscience. It doesn’t have an assured quality.
Watch any episode and, if you’re onboard with old school anime, you’ll get sucked in. But where its story may venture into further intrigue a la Ninja Scroll or Record of Lodoss War, it snubs that choice and flatlines.
I reiterate the withstanding credibility I posit this movie has, simply because it visualizes these ideas which would be improved or perfected later on. While it acheives aesthetic satisfaction, it fails to transcend the basic anime trappings. Therefore, it is a gem, but only for a certain audience.
