Is there a rule that feature versions of anime series have to be incomprehensible? This one plays almost like an outtake reel, and at first I thought the DVD player had scrambled the chapters. It's even more obscure than A Girl in Gaea.
I enjoyed the series a lot, but was disappointed in the plainness of its art. I'd always thought that it deserved something more ornate. And here it's got it, all right: the movie looks like surrealistic French comics. However, the plot is compressed, like the Reader's Digest version of "Gone with the Wind" as imagined by Mad magazine ("Fiddle-de-dee!" said Scarlett. Bang! "Thank God that bloody war is over"). The movie can't seem to keep its mind on its subject. A lot of it is showing off by the animators, the characters and plot elements are poorly introduced, and most of them are dropped before the end. The big secret that Anthy is keeping, or half-keeping, is lost. I also missed the ritual of the Absolute Destiny Apocalypse. And I thought it was a big mistake was to make the entire setting phantasmagoric; that just makes it more difficult to keep the meanings in focus.
And I didn't understand what the movie was doing with Utena. I've seen the manga, and there she seemed to be the same character as in the series; here I didn't get her at all, either in the writing or in the drawing, and I didn't much like the way they drew her in any case. I also didn't like the overt sexuality. The story had more meaning, as well as more appeal, when this was kept ambiguous.
But what a great movie this could have been!
I enjoyed the series a lot, but was disappointed in the plainness of its art. I'd always thought that it deserved something more ornate. And here it's got it, all right: the movie looks like surrealistic French comics. However, the plot is compressed, like the Reader's Digest version of "Gone with the Wind" as imagined by Mad magazine ("Fiddle-de-dee!" said Scarlett. Bang! "Thank God that bloody war is over"). The movie can't seem to keep its mind on its subject. A lot of it is showing off by the animators, the characters and plot elements are poorly introduced, and most of them are dropped before the end. The big secret that Anthy is keeping, or half-keeping, is lost. I also missed the ritual of the Absolute Destiny Apocalypse. And I thought it was a big mistake was to make the entire setting phantasmagoric; that just makes it more difficult to keep the meanings in focus.
And I didn't understand what the movie was doing with Utena. I've seen the manga, and there she seemed to be the same character as in the series; here I didn't get her at all, either in the writing or in the drawing, and I didn't much like the way they drew her in any case. I also didn't like the overt sexuality. The story had more meaning, as well as more appeal, when this was kept ambiguous.
But what a great movie this could have been!