By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Hiroshi Hamazaki | Kôjirô Tsuruoka | Nanako Shimazaki | Satoshi Kon | Takayuki Hirao | Takuji Endo
Starring: Liam O'Brien | Mamiko Noto | Michael McConnohie | Shôzô Îzuka | Toshihiko Seki
Original language title: Môsô dairinin
Country: japan
Year: 2004
Running time: 325
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433722/reference
Tom G. says: “I promise, promise, that I won’t review anime series often, if ever again. However, I thought this may be of interest of those of you who enjoyed Satoshi Kon’s other works Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress and/or Tokyo Godfathers.
“Because given the opportunity to work with the larger confines of a 13-episode OVA series, he’s created yet another masterpiece.
“As with any medium, anime has a ton of genres, from sci-fi to romance to period pieces (be it samurai epics or westerns) to comedy to pirates to arthouse to horror. One popular sub-genre of the horror genre is the morality tale, not unlike Tales from the Crypt here in the states. Each episode stands alone, while an outside force comes along and teaches the character in focus an important lesson usually not survived. While pretty well received here, I pretty much despise this genre.
“Satoshi Kon takes this genre and completely turns it on its ear. Right from the FANTASTIC opening sequence (with music by Susumu Hirasawa, who scored Kon’s movies, as well as this series) you know you’re in for something very different. A young teen, nick-named Li’l Slugger, is coming to people at their moment of despair and clubbing them quite viscously over the head with a bent, golden bat. Each episode does seem stand-alone in the beginning, but every character makes a return and fits into the puzzle that composes the final episodes. And instead of the contrived, stale morality tales found in other series of this genre, the tales are much more compelling, interesting and even clever and funny (in a dark way) than what’s come before. And a real shocker comes at the end of the first volume, episode four, when the mysterious Li’l Slugger is caught by a cop. OFF-SCREEN. This stunned me so much I had to rewind and make sure I didn’t mis-read the subtitle.
“The atmosphere, the episodes, the music, the character design, hell, the characters, the animation, the arc. It’s all top notch.
“Seriously, I’m not one to try to convince people to watch Anime, but if you did catch and enjoy Kon’s other works, I think you’ll really like this.
The 13 episodes are spread over 4 DVDs and all 4 are available now. I think this one is worth a netflix rental at least.”