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REVIEW: Bloody Escape -Jigoku no Tōsōgeki- Anime Film Review




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jroa



Joined: 08 Aug 2012
Posts: 549
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2024 7:07 pm Reply with quote
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On the other, we have the story itself. It's predictable to the extreme—both in the twists and character reveals. It's not hard to know with absolute certainty where things are going—especially once the adventure devolves into Mad Max: Fury Road with trains instead of cars (complete with its own enemy-mook-turned-ally comic relief character).


Frankly, I didn't realize that taking inspiration from the likes of Mad Max: Fury Road was supposed to be treated as an absolute negative trait by now. Is that so? Maybe I just didn't get the memo.

Based on the gist of this review and the comments I've read from Japanese viewers who already saw the movie, this is definitely meant to be primarily approached as an action film. Or perhaps as a bit of a throwback to the many action-centric OVAs that were produced in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Quote:
The action scenes are well-choreographed and imaginative, with excellent camera work that makes it easy to understand what is happening on screen despite all the visual chaos. Polygon's 3D animation takes center stage here—culminating in a frankly awesome fight between a "web-slinging" hero and flying villain across two speeding trains. The fights are filled with great little visual storytelling beats—like Kisaragi constantly being out of breath from all the physical exertion and how the villains are quick to chop off any limb of theirs infected by Kisaragi's blood. But outside of action scenes, the camera work is typically dull and uninspired.


In other words, it appears the staff intentionally devoted their main efforts to depicting some pretty good action sequences. Which was a rather common priority, way back in the OVA heyday.

In that sense...I suppose the single biggest problem with Bloody Escape is it was made in the wrong era. These days, only anime projects with connections to an already popular franchise or mass market talent tend to benefit from nostalgia throwbacks, which overcomes many a skeptic's indifference or intolerance for unoriginality (*cough* Gundam SEED Freedom *cough*).

Despite the ANN reviewer's personal misgivings, it sounds like the end result absolutely achieves the film's inherent objective (despite its inevitable box office failure). In short: "Entertaining action, but not very original" might read like a devastating criticism for some, but for me it can be understood as a relatively conditional endorsement. That is, you'll have fun if you're watching the movie with the right mindset.

For that matter, reading that at least two characters (Lunalu, Kisaragi) have decent arcs seems fair enough to me:

Quote:
But then we have Lunalu, who is surprisingly nuanced—especially in how she deals with the personal trauma she experiences throughout the film and how she grows stronger because of it. Likewise, Kisaragi's decent arc goes from a man who has no reason to live (or die) to one who manages to find meaning in his life by the time the credits roll.


You know, I can work with that. It's reasonable to like, say, one or two characters and find the rest to be one-note. After all, this is still a movie with a limited runtime.

Finally, I tend to feel disappointed upon reading that the reviewer did not care for the soundtrack. Then again, I'm also speaking as someone who has usually preferred the work of the often underrated Kotaro Nakagawa to, say, the overrated Hiroyuki Sawano.
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JRPictures



Joined: 03 Aug 2016
Posts: 130
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2024 9:08 pm Reply with quote
Surprised there wasn't any acknowledgement to this being a sorta-sequel to the Estab-Life anime. I'm guessing whatever capacity the main cast of that show appear in this movie for isn't particularly huge.
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Richard Eisenbeis
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 17 Dec 2018
Posts: 97
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2024 10:56 pm Reply with quote
JRPictures wrote:
Surprised there wasn't any acknowledgement to this being a sorta-sequel to the Estab-Life anime. I'm guessing whatever capacity the main cast of that show appear in this movie for isn't particularly huge.


Review wrote:
The characters themselves are also a mixed bag. Many are one-note—especially the aforementioned mook-turned-ally (whose main job is to be stabbed or shot in the butt at every opportunity) and the team of mercenaries who help people escape their clusters to re-settle in new ones.


The mentioned "mercenaries" are the characters from Estab-Life. To be completely transparent, I have only seen one episode of Estab-Life (back for the preview guide when it aired) so I can't really comment too much on the connection. But they basically have two scenes in the film: one where they watch from on high as the main character fights and one where they help the main characters start their big escape. There is nothing in the way of a character arc for any of them.
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AQuin1904



Joined: 13 Nov 2021
Posts: 270
PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2024 11:36 pm Reply with quote
Richard Eisenbeis wrote:
JRPictures wrote:
Surprised there wasn't any acknowledgement to this being a sorta-sequel to the Estab-Life anime. I'm guessing whatever capacity the main cast of that show appear in this movie for isn't particularly huge.


Review wrote:
The characters themselves are also a mixed bag. Many are one-note—especially the aforementioned mook-turned-ally (whose main job is to be stabbed or shot in the butt at every opportunity) and the team of mercenaries who help people escape their clusters to re-settle in new ones.


The mentioned "mercenaries" are the characters from Estab-Life. To be completely transparent, I have only seen one episode of Estab-Life (back for the preview guide when it aired) so I can't really comment too much on the connection. But they basically have two scenes in the film: one where they watch from on high as the main character fights and one where they help the main characters start their big escape. There is nothing in the way of a character arc for any of them.

Their arc is that somehow the wolfman can talk now instead of just making dog noises. I don't think anything explains this, and I hope nothing ever does.

The cast of Great Escape is definitely more of a cameo than anything else. Apart from some nods to how things shook out after that series's ending, it's kind of interesting to see them come off as colder and more mercenary here than they did in their own series.
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