Deddo ribusu

If Madhouse's Redline is a "flashy action ride", then Dead Leaves is a "nuts-to-the-wall flashy tripped-out action ride on speed". The movie's high-contrast comic book-like visuals had me expecting something unique, but I don't think I could properly have prepared myself for just how unique Dead Leaves turns out to be. The comic book style applies not only to the frequently grotesque characters and outlandish scenery, but also to the cinematography itself with several "panels" often being shown on screen at the same time, sound effects appearing as actual floating words, and unusual framing used to emphasize certain parts of the scenes. The narrative begins with the protagonists, Retro (a TV-headed man) and Pandy (a woman with a mysterious red spot over her right eye) waking up naked and without their memories only to go on a crime spree which gets them sent for life to a prison on the moon called Dead Leaves. Not for the straitlaced or faint of heart, Dead Leaves' mere 52 minutes zoom by at break-neck speed in a flurry of explosions, gore, sex and nudity, but if you can stomach the off-the-wall content you're in for a very enjoyable if lamentably brief anime experience.

This is what happens when some of the most talented and creative people in japanimation get really drunk. A vulgar, violent, sexy caleidoscope of an acid trip that is simultaneously a love letter to japanimation and a parody of all its cliches, set to driving Yoko Kanno beats. In short it's plain freakin' awesome.

This came out around the same time as Masaaki Yuasa's mindgame and even almost 20 years later both still feel like the future of animation. Yuasa with his sketchy lines and paintbrush beauty, Imaishi with his vector-like graphical clarity and excess.

The story of Dead Leaves is simple. Two convicts from a lunar prison facility, Pandy and Retro, awaken on earth with no memory of their past and immediately get pursued by the cops. Wickedness and shenanigans ensue.

It's definitely a unique trip and a good introduction to Hiroyuki Imaishi's aesthetic that continues to evolve and refine, as evidenced in the recent opus Promare which managed to gain a more mainstream audience than Dead Leaves will ever have. Which is by design mind you.

It's beautiful madness from beginning to end, gleefully indulgent in sex and violence which are both played for laughs and can be exhausting if you don't know what you're in for. That is not to say it's ever just random. Every frame despite the excess is drawn with a level of taste, purpose and clarity that is rather unique to this day. It's basically the visualization of a great electro punk album and a testament to the creativity of Japanese animators. A promise to the future by Imaishi that he continues to keep.

Makes for a great double feature with his more recent short "Sex and violence with mach speed".

I'm not an anime fan. I started to go in to why, but deleted it and decided to write about why I like Dead Leaves. How I am going to do that is by saying that even though I am not a fan of the genre, FLCL is one of my all time favorite viewing experiences. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it, and have owned various DVD releases of it and watched them many times, each viewing finding something new. Until tonight, I was disconsolate that no other anime would ever make me sit up and take notice.

Now, Dead Leaves is not quite to FLCL's level, IMO; however, they are kindred spirits. First of all, it's a short, just over 3/4 of an hour, so it didn't have the time to develop its characters or plot as well, neither does it have the bittersweet, weird love story of FLCL, nor the coming of age subtext rife with adolescent realizations that makes FLCL so special, but then again, it doesn't want or need any of these. What it does have are tons of LOL, WTF and "AWESOME!" moments, packed in so tightly, this is something that will need to be watched again and again. It also shares FLCL's humor, twisted sensibility and style.

Another comment indicates that the director of Dead Leaves also worked on FLCL, but I can't find confirmation of that here on IMDb; however, I would not be surprised in the slightest that that was the case.

This short has given me hope that Japan hasn't only made one anime that I can appreciate. It is confirmed that it has now made at least two.

Normally I ask for a plot in my movies, but when this was movie was finished I realize that you can still have a great movie with practically no plot. This movie gets this score for its amazing animation style, its no bars held style of action, its tongue in cheek humor, and style dripping out of every poor. Some of the humor was a bit low (I'm look at you Drill!) and the story was really confusing, but overall I thought that this movie was one of the most memorable pieces of work I have ever seen. If you come into this movie expecting a deep tapestry, you will be shocked and appalled, but if you liked Kill Bill and movies that are as fast as an fighter jet, rent or buy this movie now!

Let me preface this by saying I don't watch a lot of anime, and when I do it's Howl's Moving Castle, or something along those lines. I think I came across Dead Leaves by googling for abstract or surreal movies or something like that, and the synopsis intrigued me so...why not?

The good: inventively insane visuals, unusual but effective animation style

The bad: everything else. Terrible, repetitive music. The plot is somewhere between flimsy and nonexistent. The characters are just vehicles for crude humor and gruesome violence, with no merit of their own.

I watched with interest for about 20 minutes as things just got progressively weirder and weirder, but it eventually became clear that the movie was going to just be an endless stream of pointless violence and crude humor and that's all, so I turned it off. If you already know and are familiar with this type of anime then maybe it will work for you. If you're looking for any degree of substance, then keep looking.