Lupin III: The Immortal Bloodline - The first half of this was incredible. While they do their best to recap the previous films (that we have yet to get in the UK) this is the conclusion for what this side series of Lupin theatrical projects and is probably experienced in release order; Jigen's Gravestone, Goemon's Blood Spray, Lies of Fujiko Mine and Zenigata and the Two Lupins. Or is it?
That’s not rhetorical. I haven't seen any of them yet and genuinely don’t know. But my assumption for these Lupin the IIIrd movies were a unique spin-off where director Takeshi Koike was given the freedom to spotlight the individual members of the cast in each short film. With this final instalment being a grand adventure that brings them all together. This does’t really end up being that. By the middle there is a dialogue scene where the shot reverses and it turns out you need to have a broader knowledge of classic Lupin to even begin putting this in context. And I can’t explain how jarring it was to just just have Mamo just show up like it’s 1977 again,
Outside of that this is fine. It’s got a big mystery with an appropriate payoff that is absurd and ridiculous. Fujiko gets basically nothing to do and that's a disappointment. There is some really good action scenes but doesn't really play fair with the audience in places and forgets a few elements in a hurried conclusion (Koike’s Redline had a similar problem but was strong enough otherwise to not be a deal breaker). The ending is… I don’t get it. I understand it from a branding perspective but I’d need to hear from the crew to understand if this was always the goal or if they just wanted it over and done with. The action is really good but that’s but that’s not really what I dig about the series. Solid time in the theatre and I hope the rest the series is brought over by Anime Limited. I’ll buy them all and then rewatch Immortal Bloodline to give it another shot.
7/10
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence - Just called Innocence in Japan. Public Security Section 9 cybernetic operatives Batou and Togusa, Section 9’s powerhouse cyborg and a mostly organic investigate, find themsleves investigating a string of murders committed by androids from the same manufacturer. None of victims are connected but all of the perpetrators have seemingly destroy themselves in the aftermath.
What follows is a quiet, straightforward detective drama in a cyberpunk world. They predict things are gonna get a lot weirder and a lot more ugly the further technology advances. Best exemplified by a scene where the duo make their way from the ground floor of a police present, populated, bye animated characters in a normal room bursting with life to the upper levels of detective offices, where everything is artificial people working alone in completely three-dimensional spaces. It’s definitely an acquired taste. You can’t blame people for preferring the genuinely spectacular visuals of the original film over this movie. At it’s best it looks like Resonance of Fate or Final Fantasy game on the PS2. Especially when the camera is just rotating around an object and you can feel someone wanted to show off how much easily that was now.
But this indulgence in flashy digital effects feels like it works well with the verisimilitude of the the film. Or highlighting how verisimilitude is a lie. Batou is a man with mechanical eyes walking through a world of digital information, mechanised people in search of something real and tangible. Even if the previous film implied that truth and progress will be intangible. Part of the existential, drama of the 1995 film was the doubt that you could understand what makes this artificial creature different from a human. Or if some part of your existence has been rendered completely artificial without your knowledge, especially as the human brain is adapting to a technical society where your thoughts are becoming externalised. Where you write lengthy posts about your opinions, upload them elsewhere and review them later. Innocence does away with that aspect. Instead the robots are very clearly based on dolls. The robots are made to not look human but draw on things that have always been clearly fake imitations of humans. The new twist on this is that if every single aspect of the human body can be explained through mechanisms than the difference between a doll and a human is that humans agonise over the state of the being or their circumstances when the dolls do not. The doll, in theory, is not a reflection of humanity but a perfection of it. Which is something that Mamoru Oshii will let he's characters pontificate about at great length.
I watched this in the English dub as I like Richard Epcar’s take on Baton across the franchise. Yes, he has a very limited range and he can never shake the tone of a cool uncle. But between Batou, Jigen and Zangetsu he’s proven there’s many different kinds of cool uncle. And it gives Innocence, quite a low-key noir story about a man teetering on the edge of something against unspeakable evil and horrible reveals, a slight bemusement. You never really get the impression Batou is truly miserable and even in his bad moods comes across like he’s chill to be around. He just wants to go home, have a beer, play with his stupendously well-animated Basset Hound and relax between shifts. And I think it helps to highlight some of the intentional comedy of the movie I’d missed the first time with the very dry subtitles (apparently a more recent Blu-ray has better subtitles that capture the nuances of the script, instead of flattening everything down into monotone). It helps he’s with Chripin Freeman, who plays Togusa as a no-nonesense cop who just wants some straight answers instead of philosophical lectures from the menagerie of leads they have to chase down. Lectures that I find less irritating this time around because I’m further away from Philosophy 101. It pops up and unfortunately uneven set of performances.
Innocence does itself no favours with the English language marketing or when it tries to directly invoke imagery from the first film. When it's just being itself, a cyberpunk thriller animated like the Resident Evil Remake or a lengthy bootle episode about the franchise’s secondary lead, then you can appreciate it on its own merits a lot more. No, I do you think warming up to it has been based around me liking Ergo Proxy and playing old PS1 JRPGs. 8/10
but after looking online and finding the creator was massively inspired by it I let it slide and then it went in its own direction and I absolutely loved it. Cant wait for more.
All in all its had its ups and downs but overall it’s a fun show and I’ve for the most part enjoyed it.
