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After entirely too many years we once again have as our guest Youtube’s Patrick Macias! He’s an author, editor (of both Crunchyroll News and Otaku USA Magazine), podcaster, Internet video star, admirer of bad fashion, and television personality. He’s also a paranoiac who’s a menace to our society, which is why we need HIM to back Gerald up as he reviews the…divisive…Rintaro film Harmagedon!
You should buy Harmagedon because it’s dirt cheap. If you want to watch that Entropy AMV we mentioned, it’s on the Corn Pone Flicks website. You should watch the other things they have on there too if you want to get the references to them that Daryl continues to make after all these years. Particularly B.A.D. 1-3 and all of the shorts.
Full disclosure: we do mercenary work for Patrick in exchange for money and Mutant Growth Hormone. And you know what? We repeatedly forget to plug that work here! In the issue of Otaku USA that will soon be out, Daryl’s writing about the Dirty Pair OVAs, the Axis Powers Hetalia movie, and the Blade anime TV series. On the website, he’s done a few writeups on such grand topics as the original Bubblegum Crisis OAVs, the criminally underrated Karas (if you like GARO, you really should watch this; PS: nobody understood from the AWO Karas review that the sound clips were from Thief II: The Metal Age, not the anime dub), and legendary “bad anime” Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned.
You know, back when I first saw Adieu Galaxy Express 999, I thought it was a real disappointment. But that’s only because I saw it after the first film. If you see Adieu after the TV show, it’s a lot more satisfying. As for Be Forever Yamato, it does have its merits.
“Action sequences. Rintaro excels in those areas.” — I’m kinda wondering now what Patrick thought of Yona Yona Penguin now. 🙂
Oh, I gotta add that part of the fondness I have for Harmagedon was I was into Silverhawks when I was a kid, and that scene where they united to defeat Genma just gave me a kick. Plus, it did the whole incorporation of classical music into anime. I think Rintaro did it for atmosphere, not just because he was being pretentious. As for the dub, thank gawd I only saw this sucker subbed.
“Roujin Z”? You’re mixing it up with Neo Tokyo and Robot Carnival. As for “Tezuka’s eyes,” I heard Tezuka was a rival with Otomo at one point.
X: The Movie – I don’t *love* it, but I do like it more than the TV show. The latter gave me the impression that CLAMP was a bunch of overrated bores, but going through the manga made me realize there was a lot more energy to the story. Makes me wonder why Kawajiri was unusually subdued on that production and why they didn’t just make a second X movie. Meanwhile, Berserk is going the other way: we’re getting unnecessary movies, when we should be getting a new TV series.
Rintaro’s movies are a grabbag of bugshit insane, and I love him for it. One thing I notice about his films is that as flawed as they are, the only parts I actually remember are a handful of really cool moments. I mean, I realize that Metropolis had its share of pacing problems and plot holes, but the only thing I really remember from it is the world falling apart to “Can’t Stop Loving You,” Mr. Monopoly beating the shit out of Shady Mc.Sunglasses, and robot firefighters racing to the rescue. Rintaro is the master of outstanding individual moments that don’t necessarily add up to a great movie, but ones that still make you glad you saw the movie.
The use of “Can’t Stop Loving You” on Metropolis totally blew me away. As a song meant to underline humankind’s dependence on technology, I think the choice is as epic as “Daisy” was for HAL in 2001.
I felt that way too. Now it’s hard for me to hear that Ray Charles tune without thinking of something being destroyed beautifully!
Although I count myself as one of the many anime fans who doesn’t like Harmagedon, I can’t bring myself to outright hate it. It’s probably my least favorite out of all the anime Rintaro has directed, but it does have a few exceptionally well-animated scenes. I wouldn’t even count it as one of the top 10 worst anime I’ve seen. Even with its convoluted plot and ethnic stereotypes, it’s still nowhere near as bad or offensive as other anime out there, such as Elfen Lied.
Also, I must admit I do have some fondness for the soundtrack. I’m a big progressive rock fan, and Keith Emerson’s score is pretty catchy.
When Daryl said “and refuse to talk to the Robot and the Racist Girl” I instantly assumed he was referring to Gerald and Clarissa.
Closest someone from Pink Floyd did something for an animated movie was Roger Waters contributing music for “When The Wind Blows” (a film about an elderly couple trying to survive during a nuclear attack) but that’s all I can think of.
Funny you didn’t get into “Bega’s Battle”, but perhaps this video will do the trick!
Speaking of fashion, Patrick did a good write-up on something close-to-home you should not be wasting your money on!
http://patrickmacias.blogs.com/er/2011/11/feature-5-reasons-to-say-no-to-gwen-stefanis-harajuku-mini-check-out-these-japanese-brands-instead.html
Oh yeah, also funny people do confuse this film with that stupid Korean flick I had to get on tape from a friend unsuspectingly. Certainly not something to watch besides drinking to.
Sometimes I think that these classic anime productions suffer from the same weaknesses as video games (the ultimate example being any cut scenes from a Sonic the Hedgehog game). You cull together all these amazing talents from the visual arts world – mech designers, character designers, the guy who does the bitchin’ watercolor backgrounds . . . but none of them are storytellers. You put them all around the same conference room table and they have just as much probability of producing a cohesive, engaging story as any randomly assembled group of people off the street. They just can’t seal the deal, and this goes far beyond some of the usual “you don’t understand Japanese narrative” bs some otaku have trotted out (even Haruki Murakami knows how to make nonsensical material still have proper pacing and structure). Harmagedon is really the tip of a ginormous iceberg (or turd, if you want to take it there).
Thinking about how Rintaro needed someone to egg him on in the audio commentary, I wonder if that’s similar to the shyness I have over showing off my artwork to someone for the first time? I find it can be hard at times to admit you did something or explaining things if the viewer may get puzzled as to what you did. I usually end up doing it alone without that someone to egg me on.
Speaking as someone who has done a couple of audio commentaries: they are frustrating to make and hard as hell to pull off. You watch a movie in a sound recording booth and can’t really have a normal or in-depth conversation since you have to keep things specific to what is being shown on screen. A filmmaker would probably have to content with even bigger issues like memory, personal politics, and maybe even being more visually oriented than verbal. Considering the sheer amount of information and insight Rintaro gives about the background of the film, I’m amazed that anyone would find it problematic at all.
One of my favorite things about X – the Movie is the reaction on the CLAMP ml to the super rapid dispatch of Subaru and Seishiro. They were on fire with outrage. Now, I like me some Tokyo Babylon, but the next (and last time) I watched the film I enjoyed it even more. Not that it’s not an imperfect piece, but other people’s distress does make me happy.
Other than that, if I’ve gotten one lesson from Japanese fashion it’s that there’s no look finer than the host look. All men should tease their hair to the skies in pursuit a pefrectly proportioned face. A man’s spray tan should be about five tones darker than his hair. Yup.
Regarding Harmagedon’s impact on pop culture: have you seen this before?
Also is it just me, or is Earthbound/Mother basically Nintendo’s super-deformed take on this?
(You cannot grasp the true form of Genma’s attack!)
Taako-Chan put it DOWN!!! Was that amateur-produced? Those 3 minutes were more entertaining than all 5 1/2 hours of Space Symphony Maetel, which I just subjected myself to recently.
This was one of those fan-produced films much like the familiar Daicon films done by the future Gainax crew. There’s been a lot of them back in the 80’s I noticed.
Guys, I for one am a huge fan of Harmagedon! Also, I gotta agree, as a massive Galaxy Express 999 fan Adieu Galaxy Express 999 is tops! You got this down Macias, but you’re so wrong about Godzilla 1984. It’s the best!
Scored two of the last copies of the Harmagedon 20th anniversary collectors edition on Amazon for a cool $4.90 total with free 2 day shipping. Was so cheap I went on a buying spree and picked up such classics as Garzey’s Wing, Judge, Garaga, and Hades Project Zeorymer among others. I was out $40 for a stack of old US Manga factory new titles.
Thanks AWO for prompting the impulse buys. I like to think my picking up 2 copies of Harmagedon marked the single highest sales day for that title over the nearly ten years it’s been out.