King of Thorn

A mysterious virus, nicknamed Medusa, is spreading around Japan, turning its victims into stone. Given the impossibility of finding an immediate cure, the government opts for cryopreserving a select group of patients until they come up with a solution. Kasumi, one of the chosen ones, has been asleep for years and her awakening, more than a bed of roses, is a bed of thorns, and happens in the midst of total chaos where monstrous creatures lie in wait all around. Based on Yuji Iwahara's manga by the same name, King of Thorn puts animated images to a sensational cross between Aliens and the series Lost. Enigmatic and highly explosive.

I quite liked this film.

For an Anime, then "King of Thorn" ("Ibara no O") was actually quite alright.

The storyline was interesting and captivating, well at least it was for three-fourths of the movie, right up to the point where the enormous winged Godzilla-like thorn monster rose from the castle, from then on it just went fast downhill.

"King of Thorn" is about a strange virus, named Medusa, that is fast spreading and causing those infected to become ill and eventually die from petrification. A selected few, 160 people, have been chosen to be put into sleeping chambers until a cure can be found. However, those people are abruptly awakened from their slumber to find the facility overgrown with thorny vines and strange monsters are lurking in the hallways.

I enjoyed the story, right up to the last quarter of the feature, then it just fell to the floor and became ridiculous.

The animation was good and fluid, lots of really nice scenes and lots of action as well. There is a very dynamic feel to the animation in "King of Thorn", which really works out quite well. Lots of adrenaline and a constant good flow throughout the story.

However, some things did puzzle me with the Anime though. For starters, just how long were the group of people asleep in this sleeping facility? And what was up with the monsters, where did they come from? Don't get me wrong, they were really interesting in design and great to look at, impressive and awesome, but just where did they come from? And finally, for a technical and medical facility to hold sleeping recipients, the design of the compound was rather strange. Sure, I can understand the incorporation of the castle, but come on, certain parts were just a bit too much.

One of the stronger sides to "King of Thorn" was the characters. They were really nicely drawn and were full of characteristics and personalities, which was really great, where as it might as well have been the opposite; generic characters that had no personalities. There is something unique and admirable about all of the individual characters.

But again, to put a finger on a crucial point, why were everyone speaking Japanese? Even the Scottish, British and American. It was just a tad too stupid. At least have the common sense to have people speak with the proper native language given their nationality. It was just a minor thing, but still a nuisance factor.

In overall, then "King of Thorn" is actually a fair experience, and worth the time to sit down to watch (aside from the last quarter, in my opinion). The Anime had a great concept idea, good execution from idea to screen, great characters and interesting monsters. So all in all, well worth a watch if you enjoy Anime in general.

I read the original manga to this and was looking forward dearly to experiencing it again in the form of animation but was quickly disappointed by the many inconsistencies and differences in the movie than the manga. Especially how half the story was cut away and edited. The ending is far from the original and just leaves a bad taste in my mouth from it.

It seems, that last generation of Japanese writers are obliged to create story around school-girls and huge bodybuilders. They got great ideas and smash em at the dumbest characters. After interesting prelude outline and impressive visual you had to watch talking patterns until you eventually start scrolling timeline.

Compare to this decade King of Thorn not that bad. Good visual, multicultural characters, lots of fanservice, but with zero art ambitions. I understand why.. but still is a shame.

I knew nothing about King of Thorn going in, except that it is a horror anime. Its story begins to unfold with a sense of dread that is very palpable and unique. Nothing violent or apocalyptic occurs within the first 30 minutes or so but, without spoiling the story, those 30 minutes are very dreadful in terms of what looms on the horizon for a set of characters that have a mysterious disease. I remember feeling as emotionally frightened when I read the first third of The Stand, at a younger age, but King of Thorn managed a similar emotional tone without a story of massive, apocalyptic outbreak. The world of King of Thorn manages keep a tentative handle on the disease that plagues it and the dread comes from the sacrifice that the main characters decide on to find a cure, placing their well being in the care of a questionable corporation and tossing away their lives as they've know them.

That is the feeling I had in the first act of this movie. By the second act things become a bit more conventional. The second and some of the third act become survival horror in the vein of similar Japanese stories like Resident Evil. This does not take from the compelling nature of the story and its mystery, but did not feel as rare a story experience as the first act.

The third act however, is filled with exposition that is difficult to follow and otherwise loses interest for me. At one point things become more "anime sci-fi" (a concept I simply cannot explain well), which is not a problem; expect that I didn't feel the story up to that point was building toward it. It felt less creditable for me.

The last 20 minutes, things become very muddled and subplots for the remaining survivors and their true motivations get tangled up in a more and more nonsensical plot. Things become more fanciful for the sake of animation visuals and sci-fi explanations for such events, if not ignored, seem to be quickly served out. More interesting, if you can trudge through these problems, is the ultimate twist ending involving the young female protagonist.

And my major complaint with King of Thorn, however, is that many action scenes switch from the otherwise traditional 2D anime style, to a cell shaded CGI animation process. It's 3D computer animation that is processed to look flat and try to mesh with the majority of the rest of the movie's hand drawn style. No doubt this was a cheaper way for the animation team to create complex action scenes and have more control, but the two styles do not mesh well. The cell-shaded CGI is not as glossy in color as the 2D animation and also misses many drawing details, like grime and dirt on the characters faces. Inexperienced anime viewers might not pick up on the switch all the time, but may still feel the action scenes have an odd movement and don't quite sit right.