Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

Jin-Roh is one of the most mature anime I've seen. And I don't mean mature as in being really violent or anything, although there are some pretty dark scenes. I mean that the tone and nature of the story are a lot more serious than what you usually see. It starts pretty brilliantly with an escalating riot on city streets while they're held back by city police. A teenage girl delivers an explosive inside a handbag, which is used on the police, provoking them into assaulting and arresting members of the crowd. Underground, a special unit of military police eliminate a group of the terrorists, but a rookie is disturbed by what he sees down there, which goes on to affect his performance despite his great skill.

There's a slowly building political conflict between the special unit and the other police, and they both spy on and try to trap each other, as the rookie and a girl with a connection to the first one grow closer. The plot moves pretty slowly, although my attention was held the whole time thanks to the realistic animation and dark, ominous feel to everything. There's a running parallel to the Little Red Riding Hood story, which effectively foreshadows and enhances the film. The character designs are simple and a bit difficult to distinguish at times, which can hinder comprehension of the story a bit, but besides that it looks really great. From the highly violent "action" scenes (in quotes because they're not really normal action) to simple interactions, everything looks smooth and makes it more enjoyable to watch, even when what's on screen isn't something you want to see. Ultimately, it's a depressing and sad tale, worth watching for the skill with which it's told.

Angel's Egg

I wrote this for a class, which explains why it's a bit more analytical/spoiler-filled.

I'm a bit divided on Angel's Egg stylistically. It has a unique look which serves its purpose, and the animation is fairly well done. But there are many lingering shots of either simple events or nothing at all, that seem to drag the film out without adding much substance. Did we really need to watch the two characters sit motionless in a dark room for what had to be literally at least three minutes to establish the scene? I say no.

The aforementioned characters are nameless, and it makes sense, as they have no personal details, not remembering who they are or why they're there. Like in most experimental film, they're not there to be people but to be tools for the story. She has an egg, and he wants to break it. Pretty straightforward and nonessential.

The whole work seems to be a comment on religion, particularly Christianity. Water is everywhere, and towards the end the world is flooding. The man tells the story of the ark, and at the end it appears that they're living on a giant beached ark. His weapon is in the shape of a cross, the symbol of Jesus' death, and he uses it to destroy the egg, the symbol of Jesus' birth. There is nothing in the egg, yet the girl held onto her belief in it for so long, perhaps a message that religion is meaningless. The girl seemed to age to maturity upon her death in the water, but around that time the movie ceased to make sense and I sort of lost focus against the onslaught of weird imagery. Message films are fine, but I prefer it when they don't obscure it with layers upon layers of abstraction.