violet_raven

Biases on the table first, I was hooked in by the cover image. Long dark hair? Trenchcoat? I'm in. I fully expected this to be a sketchy anime because I've never heard anyone talk about it; pretty magic, hot protagonist, but only enjoyable if that's what you signed up for and you've decided to like it regardless.

I was surprised by the quality of the animation, it shares themes with Akira and Steamboy, so if you've seen those I'm sure you'd enjoy it, though it had none of the cult following of the former, nor the budget of the latter. I'd highly recommend it to fans of Fullmetal Alchemist.

I'd rate it much higher as an undiscovered gem of an anime, but there are some serious flaws with the dialogue. I watched it in English, and the dubbing is excellent, but inconsistent with the subtitles. That makes for a very jarring watching experience. It's not that the dubbed dialogue is bad, in fact, they got some great voice actors. There's a bit of unnecessary dramatics (it's anime) but the dialogue is ok. It just lacks depth.

The subs are very basic compared to what's actually going on, and very different to the dubbed dialogue. I noticed even mild profanity is absent in the subs.

When you put both together you get a full appreciation, but you have pair lacklustre lines of audio with more eloquent the subs, or ignore subs that skim over a more poetic phrasing in the audio. If you could get the full script, supplement it with the better turns of phrase from the subs, and re-subtitle the entire thing it could be really good.

My recommendation is watch both the sub with the dub if possible. If you watch one or the other, you're going to miss out. A simple example is a character is facing away, no lip sync to explain the discrepancy, and he says to the repair crew "Don't screw up 'cause it's my ass on the line!" so you get a feel for his character. But the subs say "Be sure not to disturb the people's lives." Completely different angle. This is just one innocuous example but there's a few of these in pretty much every scene.

In some cases I'm hung up on semantics as a language lover, the difference between "redemption" vs "atonement" or "nice" vs "beautiful" are minor if you're not in a philosophical mood. But others like "I have regrets" vs "I'm sorry" change the feel of the scene. Even the main incantation "I challenge the law of logic and reason" vs "nature and reason".

Other than that massive issue, the magic is pretty, the gore is gorey; it's everything you'd expect. The chaotic elements of plot and character development detract only a little. It's like watching a movie of a long running anime that you haven't seen. You don't get the full immersion; you constantly feel like you're missing something, that there could be more.

I still rate it a seven because even though it's really a six star in my book, I'm shallow; Rayotte not only exudes that dark-and-brooding personality, he's attractive and has a nice voice in the English dub, which is the (un)holy trinity for a goth gal.

I'm gonna change my alarm tone to his enchantment: "I challenge the laws of nature and reason. EXIST!!!"

This could have been an 8 star anime, even up against the greats it still does very well. It just falls short of being amazing. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't already a fan of this genre of anime, which is a real shame.

The other reviews say everything I was going to, including a list of the films it rips off in such a glaringly obvious way it's painful.

I only watched the first 40 minutes and decided I'd rather die of dehydration in the desert, so for all I know it could be a one star film. The sole redeeming feature were the night photography of the sky.

I'm disappointed to the degree of being actively offended, and I LIKE low budget sci-fi; I can usually get a laugh or at least some entertainment out of scripts that have refinement lacking, or characters that aren't fully developed, or plots that leave something to be desired, but this film is like someone swept up the cutting room floor for Dune, Star Wars, Gladiator, Last Samuria (there are no Samuria, it just suffers from White Guy Saves The Day syndrome, probably dying in the process but I never got that far), and instead of pasting those together to make sense just threw them at the audience.

Honestly, I want to give this film one star but I feel sorry for the one actor who tried to give a credible performance and the camera-person who spent the nights in the desert getting some lovely shots of the sky, and some artsy shots of sand blowing off the dunes in the daylight.

I'm also deeply offended that the comic relief duo was predictably Scots/Irish like we're all bumbling idiots, and they even make a point of saying that what they're saying makes no sense! I've seen school pantomimes and home videos on YouTube that were better than this, on a budget of £5 for some cheap sheets to string up as "tents" and wear as robes.

Not sure why, on a world with hovercraft, everyone fights with swords anyway, and in armour? In the desert?

Truly sorry to the people whose names are associated with this production. Utterly dire. I'm actively angry this even exists, and that I paid 20p to own it. I'll feel bad donating it back to the charity shop.

One last thing, it has no subtitle track, not that it would help the script but it just serves to make it even more exclusionary than necessary. If you're tempted to waste time on this film, read the reviews instead, they're more entertaining.