During FanimeCon 2009, I watched three movies/OVAs (all of them happened to be with lolikitsune as well) in the screening rooms: Perfect Blue, Ninja Scroll, and Spring and Chaos. While I was wide awake for the first, I slept through a part of the latter two works, so take these following opinions with a grain of salt.

Perfect Blue
I had not heard of this film prior to the showing in the wee hours of FanimeCon 2009 day two, but some of lolikitsune’s friends said the film was amazing. Going on that recommendation, we hit up the screening room that was showing this. They said that the film was some sort of psychological mindfuck, and indeed what I watched was some sort of psychological mindfuck.

Perfect Blue deals with a pop idol by the name of Mima who leaves her idol group to, on an agent’s advice, pursue a career in acting. Some of her fans are dismayed by her decision, including one rather obsessed fan who sends her a death threat. As the story goes on, she deals with the increasing pressure caused by this particular fan and a series of gruesome murders.

There is incredible detail in both the artwork and animation, and the direction and storytelling are extremely well done. I really don’t wish to give away any more than that because this is simply a film you have to see. It’s not absolutely perfect – the story begins rather slowly – but the film easily develops into something gripping and and mesmerizing. Definitely recommended if you haven’t seen it already.

Ninja Scroll
This film I had heard of, and played immediately after Perfect Blue in the same screening room (note that at this point, it was like 3 or 4AM -_-). lolikitsune and I decided to watch it.

I fell asleep about thirty or so minutes into the movie. I remember dozing on and off as I struggled to remain interested in the title. I woke up before the last thirty or forty minutes of the movie. Unfortunately, Ninja Scroll wasn’t compelling enough to keep me awake through the night.

Ninja Scroll is in no way bad; my impression of it is just rather flawed given the fact that I slept through a chunk of it. The plot’s fairly straightforward (super crazy solo sword fighting dude takes on evil bad demon guys and also falls in love with some ninja princess lady) but seems cliche or boring. The fighting bits are kinda cool and entertaining. The art’s great, animation’s fluid, etc. etc., but I just don’t think I’m into this type of action enough to really enjoy it.

Perhaps what I had read about this film set my expectations too high. Perhaps it was the sleep that prevented me from fully appreciating the film. Whatever the case, I don’t think I’d ever watch this again, even to see what I missed during my short nap.

Spring and Chaos
So only after the OVA ended did lolikitsune reveal that Spring and Chaos was about some dead poet. Even so, I can’t say I liked the film. There’s cat people in the film. Something about some dude with a dream and he wants to help people, and he tries but his plans fail. The villagers hate him and… something happens.

I slept through a lot (maybe half) of this because… it was just so boring. So slow and… boring.

However, unlike Ninja Scroll, I would give Spring and Chaos another chance when I’m fully awake. Now that I know it’s a tribute to some famous poet dude, I can actually perhaps understand why this movie was so bizarre.

This post is tagged fanimecon, lolikitsune, ninja scroll, perfect blue, spring and chaos