Arcane Reviews: Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke

Hello ladies, peoples, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer! Here to end Movie Month with this new review. Now this month has been pretty fun, watching all these badass movies. Now when I started this month I began the reviews with a Hayao Miyazaki film, more importantly his first film. So now I end Movie Month with arguably Miyazaki's best film and for a while his last film. I present to you my review for Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke. Let's begin shall we?

Story:

The story follows our main hero, Ashitaka. A prince from a far away village that is living in seclusion. His village lives in peace until one day when a giant boar demon comes into his village trying to harm the citizens. Ashitaka fights off the demon and kills it but only to be cursed by the demon by touching his right arm. He soon finds out that the demon is actually a god that was shot in the side with a bullet and the pain caused him to turn into a demon fueled by rage. Now Ashitaka must travel to a far away land and sort the caused of the boars pain. He ends up in a huge battle between the humans and gods for the right of the forest. This story is probably the best set up in any of Miyazaki's films. The story has a very strong message of trying to preserve the forest and that we as humans should try to do our best to protect the beauty of the world. Is the story very simple? Yes. But does it diminished the overall quality of this film? Not at all because not only does this movie out do all of the other "save the forest" films but it actually gives it sub-genre some much needed balls! This film does not hold back when it comes to violence and it's just awesome to watch! All though I did notice that Miyazaki had quite a bit of a arm losing fetish going on in this film. The story felt like a very mature fairy tale, it had some graphic imagery and doesn't spoon feed the audience about the message and it doesn't flat out tell you who the main villain is. Well because there really isn't a villain. This film makes every other character aside from our main hero in a moral grey area. Every other main character has a real reason for fighting that can't really be considered good or bad. They all have legitimate reasons and it just gives more depth to both the characters and story. This movie's story is just so rich with depth and it comes off as a very mature story that was just so refreshing to watch.

Music:

The music in this movie is really damn good. Joe Hisaishi is the composer of this film and he did a damn good job with this film. The way the music makes assists with the visuals of the scenes is just breath taking to watch. What the music really does that's cool is that it can really up the scale of tension with it's music. It has this tracks that are made to put you in the high stakes situation that our heroes find themselves in and it can get the blood pumping at some points. The music can also bring things to a nice slow pace with it's very majestic and soothing tunes that seem to just put everything at ease. The music is just so damn good in this film and did an amazing job at putting the perfect mood for every scene in this film.

Characters:

Characters in this film are pretty solid. I already talked about them a bit in the story category but I'll talk about them a little more here. The whole cast are fleshed out pretty well in this movie, all the characters have reasons for what they do so everyone is set in a moral grey area. Lady Eboshi wants her village so thrive and for her people to live in peace, this isn't an evil goal but she is never treated as an evil character either. You have the secondary main character San along with the three wolf gods that are protecting the forest. The movie however doesn't present them as innocent, peaceful, or helpless. They're actually pretty damn vicious creatures that will and have killed anyone who endangers their home and that's the beauty of the this film. Nature in of it's self is a character in this film and unlike other films it doesn't down play nature. It isn't a small weak being that needs to be protected. No in this film, if you push nature it'll push you right back. Also the main character of Ashitaka is a cool character as well. He's isn't just a generic good guy that wants the forest to be saved, he actually started his journey so he can save his own ass. When he sees that war might start he tries to stop the war in the hopes that he can somehow save himself. But when everything does go down in the film he does see that he must take more responsibility then what he originally was their for. He's also not afraid to fight and will take up arms against an enemy that's in his way and he's not afraid to kill as well. He's a warrior through and through which helps with the films very mature tone just like of the other characters do as well.

Voice Acting:

Now seeing as how this is a Studio Ghibli it's pretty damn obvious that the voice acting kicks ass. The voice acting in this film is very solid with talents like Billy Curdup, Billy Bob Thornton, John DiMaggio, Keith David, and Claire Danes. All of them do fantastic jobs at presenting these character's personalities and certain traits to the English audience. I feel as though this is one of the best celebrity casts that has been assembled for a Studio Ghibli film that has gone unmatched until The Wind Rises which wouldn't be released until years later. Long story short, the voice acting is great.

Overall:

To end this review I'll just say that Princess Mononoke is my personal favorite Studio Ghibli film and is my second favorite anime film of all time. Going back to watch this film has showed me that this film is pretty much a timeless classic and it shouldn't be missed by an anime fan, period. So it's kinda obvious that I'm gonna recommend it. Now do yourself a favor and go watch this anime classic.

Arcane Reviews gives Princess Mononoke a 10 out of 10.

You can watch "Princess Mononoke" on:

Netflix(Dub and Sub, DVD rental only)                            

Arcane Reviews: Ghost in the Shell

Ghost in the Shell

Hello ladies, peoples, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer! Here to continue Movie Month! Well looks like I get talk about one of the most beloved franchises in the world of anime. Ghost in the Shell! Those of you who don't know what Ghost in the Shell is I'll briefly explain. Ghost in the Shell was originally a manga written by Masamune Shirow back in May of 1989, then manga was very successful as the manga had a very cyberpunk tone and look which made it stand out from other manga. Another thing that made the manga very popular was the subjects of whether or not machines can have spirits and what it means to be truly human. Eventually the manga would gain so much popularity that Production I.G would end up getting the rights to produce a Ghost in the Shell movie and having Mamoru Oshii direct the film. Afterwards Production I.G would end up making an actual show but that's a review for another time. But enough with the history lesson, is the film any good? Well let's find out shall we?

Story:

The story takes place in a futuristic world in which technology is everything. Almost everyone has something cybernetic inside of them which make for a very interesting world that this film is set in. We see that because just about everyone has these cybernetic, (most importantly their brains are cybernetic) this world does have hackers and there is one in particular that is a big thorn in the side of the this world. His name is the Puppet Master and he is a very mysterious hacker that our heroes in this story find and finally put a stop to his crimes. But in the middle of all this we see that there are shady things going on behind all of this. We also see a lot of themes being presented in the film are gender/sex identity and self identity. So yeah this film has a lot of shit going on. I actually really like a lot of the things that are going on in the film but I won't lie to you, I did get a little lost after awhile. The movie is very complex and has some straight up heavy ass dialog that admittedly I did get a little bit lost. Now that's not a bad thing because that showed movie was able to take chances with the audience and treat them like idiots, which I liked. Now with the who deep philosophical themes going on I feel like it gave more weight to the film but at the same time I feel like it did open by questions that were never really answered. This could be a negative for some but I really didn't mind from a personal stand point. The story is pretty much a give and take sort of deal. You can either take what the film's going for and run with it or you can feel lost and not really understand what exactly the film is asking. It really does come down to what you can take from it.

Music:

This soundtrack is trippy. The music was composed by Kenji Kawai who did music for the Fate/Stay Night anime, the Death Note movie, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and Mobile Suit Gundam 00. Needless to say this man is very good at making some damn good music and this film shows. The music in the movie is borderline horror style and it fits really well with the whole cyberpunk theme going on. His music does raise the level of quality that this movie has and it was just an amazing thing to listen to. The music also did a fantastic job at setting the mood for a scene and feel as though it could have been any type of thing going on and he'll find a badass way of making the scene even more intense with the high quality of music he provides. So long story short music is awesome.

Characters:

Now this is a bit of a weird subject to talk about because the movie does have a good cast of characters and it does do a good job at giving them their own distinct personalities but in the long run the movie never really develops them. This isn't bad though because all the characters do in fact have very well fleshed out character traits and we do very much see that no really big character driven plot is going on say for our main heroin having some personal questions she wants answered. Though that was very minor though it does tie in to the overall plot. So characters are fine and dandy but the story doesn't give them a lot of room to develop but I can see that this is not a character driven story so I'm okay with it.

Voice Acting:

Okay just to make this short and sweet voice acting in this movie is alright. Some of the voices are actually pretty solid but some are also pretty silly to hear. This can be good or bad depending on what your stance on voice acting is. So it's up to you, I didn't mind it but I do know some will be distracted.

Overall:

Well this movie is pretty much a kind of "all up to you" movie. It is an odd beast to review because while I enjoyed it very much so and I do indeed love he world of Ghost in the Shell but in retrospective I can see why some people would be a little disappointed or blown off by the complexity of this movie. So I guess I'll say this. I highly recommend this movie but be warned, it might not be for you.

Arcane Reviews gives Ghost in the Shell a 8.5 out of 10.

You can watch "Ghost in the Shell" on:

Netflix (DVD rental only)

Google Play (Dub and Sub)                        

Arcane Reviews: Perfect Blue

Perfect Blue

Hello ladies, peoples, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer! Here to continue Movie Month with another review! Well I'm not gonna lie, I love thrillers. Whenever I see a great thriller like Silence of the Lambs, Seven, Shutter Island, and anything Hitchcock related I just love it. As long as it's good that is. So you can guess that when I found this little gem that mixes anime with thrillers I was all over this. Then to later find out that it was directed by Satoshi Kon I was just stocked to watch this film. Now with all that said was the film any good? Well we'll just have to find out today when I dive into Satoshi Kon's animated thriller, Perfect Blue.

Story:

Mima Kirigoe is a pop-idol who want's to make it big by becoming an actress, but when she gets her dream everything around her starts to slowly fall apart. Mima can't tell what's real and what's not and soon it will drive her to her breaking point. Yeah vague synopsis but I really don't want to spoil this film because it's pretty great. The set up and overall tone to this film is surreal and very uneasy. It sets this almost dream like world that Mima is slowly losing herself in and it makes for really intense scenes especially some of the "dreams' scenes that Mima has. Also the animation here was a tad bit odd, then film goes for a very realistic look as appose to the standard anime look that some films have. This gave the film a very darker tone in my opinion because your're usually used to seeing normal actors portray these rolls in live action movies. But in here it's all animated and even weirder they try to go for a more realistic look. I like this because it sits very well in the uncanny valley which absolutely works for this film. Seeing as how everything here is in the uncanny valley. So the story here is a great piece in the world of thrillers but it's animated which makes it even more unique.

Music:

This film kinda works the same way as the Lupin the Third movie did to a small extent when it comes to music. A lot of scenes simply don't have music but it fits well because it drive up the creepy factor and gets you to really focus on what's happening because you never know what'll happen next. But when music does happen holy crap is it eerie. The music here can make you feel uncomfortable which by all means is the main point. you also have some of the tunes from the fictional band Cham that play in the background. These are pretty much standard J-pop songs but what makes them stand out is the placement of the songs. Basically these songs are put in moments that you really shouldn't be hearing them in. You'll hear a generic love song being played in the back while a man is being horribly murdered in the very same shot. It's kinda funny really. So music is pretty damn good in this movies and it never overuses it which I like.

Characters:

Now I will not lie and say that this film doesn't have the strongest cast of characters. Aside from Mima no one else in the film really gets any kind of development. Now this isn't really a bad thing per-say. Mainly due to the fact that this film is a character study of one character, Mima. So it makes scene as to why she's the only to get her character fleshed out......until the end. Now without spoiling anything I will say that a twist happens that involves one of the side characters. This twist was pretty cool but it wasn't as shocking as it could have been because that person never really got developed past the supporting character role that they were in. That being said I can safely say that Mima is actually developed pretty well. You get a good idea of just how her life goes from normal to bat-shit insane. The whole film is her descending into madness and you really get the feeling that she's loosing her mind through out the events of the movie. So even though only one character got focused on at least they did a good job of making her into a good character.

Voice Acting:

Oh boy what do I say about this section. Well if you haven't guessed I'll just say it. Voice acting in this movie isn't amazing. Not god awful but not amazing. Bridget Hoffman does a good job as Mima but I will say at first she was a bit on the rough side of things, however as the film progressed her voice acting did get better and really did stand out among her other co-stars. Also Wendee Lee did a great job as the character Rumi. But then again it's Wendee Lee and she always does a great job in her roles. Other voice actors such as Steve Blum, Stephen Apostolina, and Michael Lindsay all give their voices to this movie and all of them vary in quality when it comes to this dub. While it's not so bad you can't listen to it you'll probably need a minute or two to get used to the voices. Not bad but, not great.

Overall:

Well to sum up my overall feelings I have to say, I really enjoyed Perfect Blue. Now while it's not Satoshi Kon's best work it is still a pretty damn good anime. It has a some great suspense and the story is all tripy just like what a psychological thriller should be. So if you're in the mood for something out of the ordinary I recommend this film, you may walk out with some enjoyment like me.

Arcane Reviews gives Perfect Blue a 8 out of 10.

You can watch "Perfect Blue" on:

Netflix (Dub and Sub, Note: DVD rental only)                  

Arcane Reviews: Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro

Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro

Hello ladies, peoples, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer! Here to welcome all of you to Movie Month here on Arcane Reviews! This month I'll be covering anime movies this whole month of March. So why not start off with a Hayao Miyazaki film, seems like a good start. But before we start off lets go over some small rules here seeing as how these reviews will be a bit different from my normal reviews. First off I will not be covering Nitpicks or Animation in these reviews. Main reason to this is because I really don't have a lot of nitpicks to tell when it comes to movies, oddly enough I just say if it's good or bad and be done with it. But in anime series I usually find reasons to have some nitpicks seeing as how they are full fledged series as opposed to a one shot film. Animation won't be a category here due to these being movies, in other words; they all look really good. So I feel like I'd be going on like a broken record if I just keep coming on here to tell you that the animation looks great. So no animation category here. Secondly I will be covering voice acting but only for Movie Month. I don't normally talk about voice acting because I don't like the debate of Dub vs. Sub. It's meaningless and I feel like the voice acting should only really be talked about if it's really fucking bad or really fucking good. But even then I still don't like to talk about it. But for this month I'll cover voice acting because I feel that in movies you kinda have to raise the bar of preforming seeing as how it's a one shot film and you wanna leave a good lasting impression on the audience because this will most likely be the only time you ever play this character. So voice acting will have it's own category only for this month. So enough of that, lets start off Movie Month already with my review of, Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro! 

Story:

So we see our infamous gentleman thief Lupin the Third as him and his partner in crime Daisuke are finishing up robbing a casino. Everything goes smoothly until realizes that the money they stole is actually fake. They are the legendary Goat bills, a set of counterfeit bills that are so high in quality that they can easily be mistaken for the real thing. Seeing as how there's nothing else to do, Lupin and Daisuke decide to look for the source of the counterfeit bill only to run into a runaway bride and some shady looking men right on her tail. This eventually leads Lupin, Daisuke and the whole rest of the cast from the Lupin series to get evolved into a huge action adventure with tones of high risks and a lovely damsel in distress to save. So a pretty simple set up here and in all honesty that's [pretty much all I can say about this movie, it's simple. It's fairly short, straight to the point, and has some great action in it as well. This film was a whole lot of fun to see as it was able to have some serious imagery and even some dark tones but it never lost it's sense of fun and humor it was a it was also fun to see all of the Lupin characters here as well. They all had their parts to play and it was cool to see what Lupin was going to do next. The movies is also heavy on the action and it's animated beautifully, but hey that's not a big surprise seeing as how this was Miyazaki's first film and pretty much the birth of Studio Ghibli. The film is set up nicely and has a very satisfying ending which I was most thankful for.

Music:

This movie also did something that I didn't see coming, it had very little music. Now usually this method is used in movies and in shows to put emphasis on a scene but in this film that's not really the case. The lack of music really seemed there because the director felt as though no music is needed and it worked really well. It was able to draw you more into the scene and what the characters are talking about. But when the film does use music it makes the scene more meaningful or more exciting and action paced. The music is really used for most of the action scenes as well as some of the character development moments of the movie. I felt as though this was a very smart move as it made those particular scenes have much more weight to them. Not to mention all of the music here is very 80's and was really fun to here but that's mainly because I personally love 80's style music. So music here is really well done and just amazing to listen to.

Characters:

Oddly enough this part of the film is the most stale. Not to say that the characters are boring or anything but there's not a lot to say about the main cast because their already a group of welly developed characters. Daisuke is Daisuke, Goemon is Goemon, and Zenigata is Zenigata. But I will say that two major characters here did get a bit of a overhaul when it came to their characters. Lupin and Fujiko are not the same Lupin and Fujiko that are well known to all Lupin fans. Now all Lupin fans know that Lupin is a playboy and is a bit of a sleazeball. Well in this movie that's not Lupin at all. He's a nice guy. He's very friendly and polite until he has to get into a fight. He's a ideal main hero for an adventure movie, the kind hearted man who will save the day in the end. While Fujino in the original show and manga was very much a sexy, sultry, fem-fatal who will use here body to get what she wants is nothing like that in this movie. The Fujino in this film is very much like the rest of the female roles in other Miyazaki films. She is a very strong out going and very "I can take care of myself" kind of woman. Now while I love the original Lupin and Fujino I actually really liked these two incarnations of these characters. They fit the overall style and mood of the film, plus it's cool to see the first few character tropes that Miyazaki would go on to use in his other films start in this one. The only other thing I can say about the characters here are the two new characters. Count Cagliostro, the main villain, and Clarisse, the main female lead and the aforementioned damsel in distress. They are pretty much stranded character archetypes in a film like this. Their not bad but there's nothing really super memorable about them. Except maybe the Count death because it was kinda dark and funny at the same time. But that's just me. 

Voice Acting:

Okay this is gonna be fun, I'm going to cover the voice acting in this film. Most of the voices are fine say for a few. Zenigata's voice (played by David Povall) was a bit over the top, at least just for me. Edie Mirman's portrayal of Fujino was really good and Steven Kramer and Ivan Buckley's performances for Goemon and Daisuke were just as good. But my favorite voice actor here was David Hayter as Lupin. I thought he did a really good job at getting this much different type of Lupin the right voice and I personally loved it. Also it's pretty funny to see David Hayter play such a nice guy here and then play the Metal Gear games as he plays Snake who is a much different character but I digress. All the other voice actors do a fine job but I will say that Micheal McConnohie did a pretty damn good job as the main villain Count Cagliostro. But aside from all that the voice acting is passable in this movie and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Overall:

Well in the end I will say that this film was a hell of a lot of fun to watch and I highly recommend it, especially if you're a big Lupin the Third fan or a big Miyazaki fan. Or hell even a fan of action movies because this is one damn solid action flick.

Arcane Reviews gives Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro a 8 out of 10.

You can watch "Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro" on:

Netflix (DVD rental only)

Hulu (Dub and Sub)