From eed8fb12c968ae09d100217aa1a9e94d9a13a00f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: dakkar Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 12:08:42 +0000 Subject: review: cyborg Reviewed-by: dakkar --- src/anime/review/009-re-cyborg/.gitignore | 2 + .../review/009-re-cyborg/document.en.rest.txt | 130 +++++++++++++++++++++ src/anime/review/009-re-cyborg/du2html.xsl | 1 + 3 files changed, 133 insertions(+) create mode 100644 src/anime/review/009-re-cyborg/.gitignore create mode 100644 src/anime/review/009-re-cyborg/document.en.rest.txt create mode 120000 src/anime/review/009-re-cyborg/du2html.xsl diff --git a/src/anime/review/009-re-cyborg/.gitignore b/src/anime/review/009-re-cyborg/.gitignore new file mode 100644 index 0000000..08d33d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/anime/review/009-re-cyborg/.gitignore @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +/document.en.du.xml +/document.it.du.xml diff --git a/src/anime/review/009-re-cyborg/document.en.rest.txt b/src/anime/review/009-re-cyborg/document.en.rest.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0341ba7 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/anime/review/009-re-cyborg/document.en.rest.txt @@ -0,0 +1,130 @@ +================ + 009 re: Cyborg +================ + +They were born 50 years ago. They were never forgotten. Now the world needs saving, they're back in action. +=========================================================================================================== + +:CreationDate: 2014-03-19 12:03:25 +:Id: anime/review/009-re-cyborg +:tags: - anime + - review +:rating: 4 +:original: http://www.easternkicks.com/reviews/009-re-cyborg + +Fifty years ago, in 1963, ISHINOMORI Shōtarō (石ノ森 章太郎, +1938-1998) started writing what would become the most successful work +of his hugely prolific career: Cyborg 009. It was the first +"super-powered hero team" in Japan (for a historical comparison, DC +launcher the JLA in 1960, and Marvel launched the Avengers in 1963), +and was so popular and lover that, although Ishinomori tried ending +the series several times, fans kept demanding more, and he continued +writing it until 1981. + +The adventures of the nine cyborgs have been adapted for the big +screen four times, in '66 ("Cyborg 009"), '68 ("Cyborg 009 怪獣戦争 / +The Monster War"), '80 ("Cyborg 009 超銀河伝説 / Legend of the Ultra +Vortex"), and last year in this latest instalment. There were also +three TV series, in '68 (in black and white!), '79, and more recently +in 2001 ("Cyborg 009 The Cyborg Soldier"). Almost everybody in Japan +knows their names and their special abilities, just as everyone knows +that they fight in the name of peace and justice against anyone who +would wage war and destruction. + +Cyborg 001 is the Russian Ivan Whisky, with the body of an infant; +he's super-intelligent, and has various ESP abilities, like telepathy, +telekinesis, and the power to teleport himself and others. 002 is the +American Jet Link, who can fly up to Mach 5 on his jet-powered +legs. 003 is the French Françoise Arnoul, the only woman in the team, +with enhanced vision and hearing. 004 is the German Albert Heinrich, +with a machine gun hand and missiles in his legs. 005 is the Native +American Geronimo Jr, his body is armored and extremely strong. 006 is +the Chinese Chang Changku, who can breathe fire. 007 is the British +Great Britain (yes, that's actually his name!), a shape-shifter. 008 +is Pyunma, from somewhere in central Africa, who can breathe +underwater. And finally, the main character, 009, the Japanese (did +you have any doubt about that?) Joe Shimamura, whose body contains +most of the modifications trialed in the other cyborgs: he's nearly +invulnerable, he has an "accelerator" that allows him to move and +react hundreds of times faster than a normal person, he can survive +without air for long periods, etc etc. Together with Isaac Gilmore, +one of the scientists who built them, they rebelled against the Black +Ghosts, weapon merchants who are working to start a new world war, and +who funded and directed the cyborg program to produce weaponised +soldiers. + +Although most of the stories are action based, and many of the enemies +they fight are clearly evil, there is space for plenty of political +arguments and ethical ambiguity, and more often than not the +characters expound on philosophical themes like the nature of good and +evil, and what could be the defining characteristic of humanity. + +There are two incomplete story arcs in the manga, the "Angels" arc and +the "Battle of the Gods" arc. They are two versions of the same story, +in which the Gods come back to Earth to eliminate humans and start +again from scratch. They're filled with slow, abstract sequences, +philosophical discussions, and introspective monologues. They have +relatively few action scenes, and both lack any kind of resolution: +Ishinomori never wrote and ending for either. + +The "009 re: Cyborg" movie is director KAMIYAMA Kenji's (神山 健治) +effort to give closure to those stories. A new 3D cell-shaded CGI +technique has been employed, producing very realistic backgrounds and +giving the characters very fluid movements. The character design has +been updated to modern sensibilities, getting rid of the racial +stereotypes that afflicted earlier depictions of Chang and Pyunma, and +making all of them at the same time "typically anime", realistic, and +completely recognisable. If I gave the impression that I disliked any +kind of CGI in anime, it's only because most of it is rather +poor. This film sets a new, high bar for what's possible with the +right tools, people, and funding. During the Q&A after the European +premiere on April 4th at the BFI, Kamiyama said that making this movie +cost, in money and effort, about four times would it have cost had +they used more traditional techniques, so we won't see anything this +good from lower-budget production for quite a while. + +Kamiyama has quite a curriculum: started out as background artist on +Akira and Kiki, worked alongside OSHII Mamoru (押井 守) on "Blood: the +last vampire" and "Jin Roh", then directed "Ghost in the Shell: Stand +Alone Complex" (both series and the movies) and "Eden of the East" +(series and movies). For "re: Cyborg", to fit everything in less that +two hours, and well aware that most people know all the characters +already, Kamiyama opted to skip most introductions, and concentrate on +Jet and Joe, who often argued against each other in the original +manga. The director also said that using the American and Japanese +characters to drive the story has resonances with the actual +international relations of the two countries. One aspect that was not +discussed in the Q&A, is the way 003/Françoise is written: in the +manga she's very rarely on the front lines, preferring to act as +support and coordinator. In this story, instead, she often drives the +group's decisions, and the only reason she does not save the world on +her own is the narrative imperative to have the main character in a +final show-off. Sure, she's still portrayed as a very sexual woman, +and the 3D very much accentuates her "assets", but she's a far cry +from the decorative damsel in distress she could have been. + +The movie is full of references to the Cyborg manga (a scene near the +end is the same as the closing panels of the second story arc, for +example) and to other works, mostly Oshii's (Françoise launching +herself into the void just like Major Kusanagi, soldiers kitted up +with the same armor seen in Jin Roh, a diaphanous girl leading our +heroes like it Avalon). I was a bit perplexed by this abundance of +Oshii-isms (at least there's no dog), until I discovered that in 2010 +Panasonic sponsored a short (4 minutes) 3D CGI animation directed by +Oshii, called "009: The Reopening", which forms the basis of "re: +Cyborg". Also, as is evident in GITS:SAC, Kamiyama quotes Oshii very +often; here, unlike in "Solid State Society", such choices don't feel +forced or repetitive, but work pretty well inside the story. + +When asked about the possibility of more 009 productions, Kamiyama +said that since his film is as close as we're going to get to a +conclusion of the saga, there is now the chance to re-start from the +beginning, with new adventures. He was particularly ambiguous on +whether such reboot would be directed by him or by others. + +The general theatrical release of "re: Cyborg" is expected some time +around July, and I strongly encourage everyone to go watch it, and +watch it in 3D. There may be some aspects of the story that people +won't like, mostly due to the very Japanese syncretistic approach to +religion, but it's still a technically impressive and very worthy +addition to the long saga of the nine cyborgs. diff --git a/src/anime/review/009-re-cyborg/du2html.xsl b/src/anime/review/009-re-cyborg/du2html.xsl new file mode 120000 index 0000000..371d03d --- /dev/null +++ b/src/anime/review/009-re-cyborg/du2html.xsl @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +../../../../templates/du2html-review.xsl \ No newline at end of file -- cgit v1.2.3