================
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.
