Gunbuster (1988)

Director: Hideaki Anno

Studio: Gainax

Finished Watching: 18/11/2020

Review contains ***SPOILERS*** for Gunbuster

Ratings:

OVERALL	NB: These are not weighted equally (if at all)	Plot	Storytelling	Animation	Characters
5		5	5	6	5

I wanted to not mention that Gunbuster was Hideako Anno's directorial debut (even though that's basically the only reason I watched it), because things should be judged on their own merit and Anno's name is a pretty heavy one. But I have to admit, it's almost impossible not to mention that fact, since Gunbuster is pretty much exactly what you would expect from the mind behind Evangelion. It's even got a lot of very similar elements to NGE, the main similarity being you'll have a lot of questions as a viewer and receive next to no answers.

The plot is okay, maybe on the low end of 5 outta 10. There's no real explanation of why Noriko is the chosen one (other than her dad being a space hero), which is made worse by the fact Coach literally chooses her but never explains his decision. No explanation of why Gunbuster is so good either. The main storyline is that some monsters want to destroy the earth so they can survive and breed; although the show does flirt with the suggestion that that's understandable and the humans are the real threat, they barely scratch the surface and it just turns into an 'us vs. them' with no real substance. The enemies literally do not communicate in any way, so it's pretty brainless. I did like that the cost of missions was the passage of time on Earth - that felt very real. Everything else was very predictable though. There's also quite a lot of pointless side stuff - e.g., Smith was basically a convoluted plot device to make Noriko suddenly get serious and Jung could have just not existed and we'd have the same story.

This stuff kinda ties in with the storytelling - there aren't many plot hooks, so there isn't much 'storytelling' in that sense. Screen direction is good though - you see what you need to and they weren't afraid of a scientific/military map to orientate you. The ridiculous fanservice is enough to actually decrease your enjoyment of it, though.

The animation is a little bit plain. Frozen jaws, sliding cels and all that. The fight scenes are a bit of a mix, because the Gunbuster suit itself moves really well but the majority of the battles are just long-range gunfire, which is a bit naff (despite the effects animation being pretty good). Machinery on board the spaceships was animated well and I'm almost completely convinced they didn't use any kind of modelling for it (not sure what was available in 1988 tbf). They also did this outline blur thing at high-impact moments, which just looked a bit dead to me. I'll give it a 6 overall, just because the artwork was really nice (on the aliens especially).

Characters were pretty meh. They weren't complex as much as they were just inconsistent with themselves. Coach is the clearest example of an anime staple taken straight off the shelf. In contrast, Kimiko was someone who felt very real. Wouldn't get a poster with any of the characters on it though.

A kinda interesting watch but would only recommend if you're an Evangelion obsessive.

The Black Cauldron (1985)

Director(s): Ted Berman, Richard Rich

Studio: Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Silver Screen Partners II

Watched: 31/10/2020

Review contains ***SPOILERS*** for The Black Cauldron

Ratings:

OVERALL	NB: These are not weighted equally (if at all)	Plot	Storytelling	Animation	Characters
3		3	4	7	2

Disappointing. Would never have imagined such brilliant animation would make such a boring film. Pretty much a story and storytelling disasterclass.

The animation is really nice and in that classic Disney style but it falls just short in some areas. For example, the character animation is really expressive but movements are in little jumps, rather than being completely fluid. The mouthing of speech seems to miss out a few syllables here and there, which makes it look a bit sloppy. A fair few of the animations feel a bit weightless too. That said though, it is still very well done throughout and definitely makes the film look appealing at least. One sequence that really stands out for being good is Hen Wen being captured by the dragons, especially where they used the dragons' shadows to build up the anticipation. The art design is a bit bland. Like the character designs are so bog standard that I don't even think an allowance can be made for the time the film was made. Shit was already tired back then. But the art itself is quite nice.

Anyway, here's a very poorly structured stream of thoughts on why the story and characters are so bad:

Taran's only want in life is to be a warrior. Fair enough in itself but we have absolutely no idea why. He just says it. Yeah there's the cute little fake swordfight thing at the start but that only half ties us into the already weak character motivation. Basically, they tell us but don't show us. Then in the castle, he finds a magic sword (through no action of his own) that kills all the bad guys for him. So he has no actual development - he's no closer to being a warrior than in minute 1 - but even worse, he starts being a cocky little prick about it. There's just no reason you, as the viewer, would be behind him.

Also, when he's in a situation, he stands around saying "no", "don't", "come back" and stupid shit like that instead of just getting stuck in and trying to help. That gets really annoying really quickly and is made worse by the voice actor, I think. It's honestly so bad that it makes the previously mentioned scene with Hen Wen almost unwatchable, despite how good it looks. His little winge at Gurgi is also unbearable.

The only character with anything likeable about them is Princess Eilonwy, who's actually proactively trying to escape from the castle. No idea why nor how she got there in the first place but at least she's influencing her own destiny (despite her magic little light ball thing doing a fair amount for her). But then of course she has a completely baseless romance with Taran. So that's 0/2 on characters.

There isn't really much wrong with Fflewddur Fflam but you could basically remove him from the entire film and the story would be exactly the same. So clearly a poor character and just highlights how weak the story is. I will give credit for his snapping strings being quite a cool quirk and the decent banter between him and one of the witches.

Speaking of the witches, what was the point of them? They were a terrible 'challenge' for the main characters to overcome to get the cauldron. Every rule they set out ends up not sticking, so they could literally have been replaced with something like a small hill that needed to be climbed. They con Taran and co. out of the magic sword but then Taran gets it back at the end. Then the very fundamental story device they add is that someone will have to give their life to destroy the cauldron... but then at the end, Gurgi just comes back to life anyway. It also does not make any sense why the witches would want the sword or the cauldron. They're another one that seems to just be there for decoration.

The fairies are rubbish and literally magic the main characters to where they need to be. For free. They didn't even ask them a riddle - just did it. So again, what was the point of them?

Gurgi was possibly the worst comic relief/cutesy character I've ever watched. His voice was creepy more than anything, so I never found him cute. His design was cool but the very prominent moustache made him look too adult-like, which just did not sit right with the rest of his design. Made him confusing and a bit uncanny. Also, he has no affiliation to anyone, so doesn't put himself in danger, which I quite liked. But then he sacrifices himself to destroy the cauldron for no apparent reason. At that point, he'd escaped capture and could easily have just carried on with his life. We didn't see any moment of resolution or rising to the challenge; he literally just popped up and was like "yeah, sorry about that" then hopped in the pot. Made no sense.

So that's like the main story point solved by a side character who doesn't even develop into the role but even worse, the big bad Horned King literally just dies. It's not said in the script anywhere that committing in the cauldron would cause someone who rose people from the dead using it to die. So Taran and them didn't even have to fight the Horned King in any way. Everything really does just seem to happen at random, with no link between anything.

Also, earlier on, they have the Cauldron and knew exactly how to destroy it but just sit around and don't for some reason. They aren't even deliberating about the fact someone would have to die; any one of them could have just popped themselves in it and wrapped ths whole thing up. Really dumb.

So yeah, basically a rubbish story with really unlikeable characters. Wasn't even spooky. Would not recommend this film to anyone, honestly.