I originally saw this anime movie back in 1996 when it was released on Manga Video as a very good English dubbed version. I must say that this is one of my all time favourite anime movies. The animation and character designs for it's day are very good. It has a very interesting and well told storyline which made good use of a Horror theme. It also has an outstanding soundtrack.
The story centers around French-born Remy, the only woman in the Goshogun team of heroes. We follow her through three distinct moments in her life when she came face-to-face with imminent death. As a little girl, she was trapped in a pit for several days, where she heard a voice telling her that she might as well give up, since she was fated to die there.
As a young adult, she and her friends get stranded in a strange Muslim desert town, where each member of the Goshogun team receives a prediction that they would die in the following days. Remy would be the first to die, with only two days to go until her death. And with no way out of the town, and the locals insisting that these announced deaths where the predetermined fate of the Goshogun team, from which they could not escape, the outlook isn't exactly rosy. And as an older woman, Remy gets into a car accident on the day of a long overdue reunion with her friends, and ends up seriously injured and in coma, with the doctor granting her only roughly two more days to live.
The film jumps back and forth between these three time periods, with most of the screen time devoted to Remy's adventure in the spooky desert town. The non-chronological narrative seems a bit jumbled at first, but the film actually does a good job of telling all three different stories simultaneously as well as presenting their common theme of triumphing over despair and the refusal to abandon hope even in the face of impossible odds. These strong themes are carried out very well, and make the film really quite touching, as a whole.
A very moving anime movie which I strongly recommend to everyone as an Anime Classic.
The story centers around French-born Remy, the only woman in the Goshogun team of heroes. We follow her through three distinct moments in her life when she came face-to-face with imminent death. As a little girl, she was trapped in a pit for several days, where she heard a voice telling her that she might as well give up, since she was fated to die there.
As a young adult, she and her friends get stranded in a strange Muslim desert town, where each member of the Goshogun team receives a prediction that they would die in the following days. Remy would be the first to die, with only two days to go until her death. And with no way out of the town, and the locals insisting that these announced deaths where the predetermined fate of the Goshogun team, from which they could not escape, the outlook isn't exactly rosy. And as an older woman, Remy gets into a car accident on the day of a long overdue reunion with her friends, and ends up seriously injured and in coma, with the doctor granting her only roughly two more days to live.
The film jumps back and forth between these three time periods, with most of the screen time devoted to Remy's adventure in the spooky desert town. The non-chronological narrative seems a bit jumbled at first, but the film actually does a good job of telling all three different stories simultaneously as well as presenting their common theme of triumphing over despair and the refusal to abandon hope even in the face of impossible odds. These strong themes are carried out very well, and make the film really quite touching, as a whole.
A very moving anime movie which I strongly recommend to everyone as an Anime Classic.