Anime: Armitage the Third: Dual Matrix

Content Warning: Nudity and violence

After almost 20 years, Armitage returns...

The movie opens with Armitage being a house wife, making a cake. And then she starts seeing images from a secret Third factory on Earth. We then get to see Ross, who has taken up the alias Kevin Oldman, as he picks up their daughter, Yoko. I have to say that I like Yoko's character design as she really looks like a mix of Ross and Armitage and it works. Of course, Armitage leaves her family behind to travel to Earth and investigate what is going on with the Thirds. While she's gone, Ross foils a terrorist plot, working as a security guard, and is sent to Earth to vote on a bill about “robot rights.” Which feels very forced and I'm surprised they're still dealing with robot rights after the last movie. We return to the plot with Amritage going after the military leader who killed everyone at the facility and finally meet the real villain of the piece, Demitrio. He wants to have robots be slaves so he can live out his power fantasy but is also obsessed with the Thirds ability to conceive, making his whole goal a real mess. The plots link up as Demitrio kidnaps Yoko, forcing Ross to throw the vote on the Robot's Rights thing. Ross and Armitage link up and go to rescue Yoko, and escape Earth, only to have to deal with twin copies of Armitage that have been upgraded for combat. With knives that pop out of their bodies and roller-blades. I wish I was making that part up.

All in all, this was a movie that didn't need to be made. There's nothing really new here, except for Yoko. Ross and Armitage barely get any screen time together and Armitage just seems to abandon her family to put on a sexy outfit to dish out some revenge. The whole thing about the Thirds being able to procreate but wanting a slave race just doesn't follow any sort of logic. I think it should have gone either direction, either Demitrio wanted to eliminate anything to do with the Thirds so he could prove that robots don't deserve rights (as Armitage would prove that they can be just as human as we are) or he should have been obsessed with making his own Thirds to show that they DO deserve rights. I can't seem to wrap my head around his plans here. As I was watching it, I got a very Matrix vibe from some of the scenes. I realize that the Matrix borrowed from anime and this movie came out a few years after the Matrix, meaning that the designs were probably influenced by it. It makes sense, given how much the first Matrix film was hugely successful. I also noticed that the animation quality seemed to have dropped from the first film and it included some very early CGI in one chase scene. I'm not sure if they were cutting the budget or trying to be cutting edge. It's entirely possible that it could have been both.

In the end, there was no reason to make this movie and while it is enjoyable, it's not very good. I bought it when it first came out on DVD and got the collector's edition, including a lunch box (it was a thing back in those days) and an Armitage figurine. I don't regret buying it, I just wish it was better.

Rating: 2 out of 5
Suggestion: Watch it only if you really need more Armitage in your life.

Manga: Gignat Volume 2

Content Warning: Nudity, sexual activity, massive urban destruction and death, and teenage stupidity (again).

I hope you've read the first volume of this series because we need to catch up..

The first half of this volume follows a familiar pattern from the last one, namely spending time with Rei and Chiho, after talking a bit about the plot. There's some talking heads going on about E.T.E. And how some people aren't believing it. We also find out that Ryuji, Chiho's boyfriend, hasn't returned. This leads to Rei asking Chiho out, apparently changing his mind from the end of the last volume. After he guilt trips her into letting him become her boyfriend, they start having sex. Like, that night. I had to stop reading after he whines until she says yes. Then, I had to take another break after they bathe together and she goes down on him. I'm also noticing that Chiho is very... Static? Stoic? I don't know how to describe it but she's just... Standing there, looking at him or just going along with things. This continues as they continue dating, with her just going with the flow. The only real moment of her taking action, before all of this, is turning Rei down. But then she reverses it and they go out. I was also a little uncomfortable with the relationship when it started, as Rei is in high school and Chiho is an unknown age but at least over 18, and I think Rei is around 17-18. Now, I did have to stop and think about this, if I would have had the same problem with it if the genders had been reversed. And, yeah, I probably would. But, Japan has a different culture and different laws, so I just tucked those thoughts away and continued reading, wanting to see where things are going.

As the relationship continues, Chiho starts to act differently. I think the moment that really showed me how much she had changed was when she jumps and gloomps Rei when they're starting their date. There's also some touching moments where Chiho talks a bit more about her childhood and a boy she had a crush on. Again, I'm here for this content. And Rei, I have to admit, does act like a decent guy, for the most part. Their dates and conversations are cute. There's a real awkward moment where Rei asks her to marry him. And I just felt so bad for him. He's clearly infatuated with her and she's starting to fall for him. There's another telling moment when Chiho asks Rei if he's losing interest with her and offers to do it “like they do in a porno.” Of course, things can't last and Rei gets caught lying to his parents about what he's been doing. Apparently, he's been telling his mom that he's been hanging out and spending the night with Nakashima (who I'm assuming is his friend, his only friend) but she happened to talk with his parents and busted! He tells his parents he has a girlfriend but nothing else. One thing that really made me wince was how his dad acts. He as a very “boys will be boys” attitude and dismissing his wife's, Rei's mother, concerns out of hand. It made me very uncomfortable, as I don't want Rei to start emulating this behavior. I want Rei and Chiho to be happy, preferably together. So sue me, I like my happy endings, okay?

Now, half way through the volume, things shift dramatically. While Rei is spending time with his parents in Roppongi (a famous district in Tokyo), Chiho is watching TV when a “special news bulletin” happens. We see a “we closely resemble but are legally distinct from the” Stay Puft Marshmallow Man fighting another guy that looks like the weirdo that gave Chihi her device (except he's wearing a American flag tank top and underwear and has a blonde beard) in New York City. And then E.T.E. unleashes a “God of Destruction” in Tokyo. Starting with Roppongi. Rei and his family have a front row seat as this thing starts destroying buildings. Chiho tries to get a hold of him and they breifly speak. He tells her “goodbye.” As the line disconnects, Chiho's heart starts beating and she seems to have a flashback, as we see “Chiho? Daddy had a bad fall.” This scene, watching her crying while those words appear on the page break my heart every time I see them (seriously trying to not ugly cry right now). She uses her device and starts running, giant and naked, towards Rei.

And that's where things end. It's such an abrupt ending, I started cussing out the creator, the publisher, and the American translation company for making me wait several months for the next volume. I am really enjoying this series but we're a third of the way through the story and there's a lot unexplained. Who or what is Enjoy The End? Why was Chiho picked for this or was it really just random chance? Who hit the Weirdo? Will Rei continue to be a good boyfriend or will I need to travel into that reality and slap the shit out of him? Will I ever find out more about Chiho or am I going to need to torture Oku and get the information out of him? Okay, I wouldn't do that, no matter what he does with this story. But, I might be a little rude to him if I meet him.

Yeah, I am excited for the next volume. Which I've already pre-ordered (and volume four) as when I went to buy this one when I got paid, it was out of stock and it hadn't even been two weeks on Amazon. And then I tried other places. And then tried third-party sellers on Amazon, paying more than I wanted, and still had to wait another few weeks until a reliable company actually had it in stock. I am NOT doing that again for this series. Plus, pre-orders look really good to publishers and distributors.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Suggestion: Buy it.

Update: I just received an email from Amazon informing me that volume three won't be delivered until late January/early February 2021 (thus proving that 2020 is still screwing me over hard). As such, I'll probably be doing an extra review to cover it as soon as I get it.

Anime: Armitage The Third: Polymatrix

 Content Warning: Nudity, violence, violence towards women, and a badge toting terror in hot pants.

Armitage the Third: Polymatrix is a near future science fiction “movie” with cyberpunk elements. The film starts with the arrival of Ross Sylibus from Earth to Mars and things start moving fast from there. We're quickly introduced to Naomi Armitage (the aforementioned terror in hot pants) who is our main character, and Rene D'anclaude, the villain of the piece. It's quickly discovered that D'anclaude has murdered a Country-Western music sensation, called the last country singer in the galaxy, and that she isn't really a “she” as such. The musician is an android or robot that is composed of organic parts. And, shockingly, able to conceive a child.

From there, the story is a bit of a detective story, finding out who these androids, or Thirds, are, why D'anclaude is killing them, and why they were created. The androids are called Thirds as there's already a very common type of android called Seconds. One thing I found interesting was that almost all of the Seconds depicted are attractive females, some with inhuman traits like odd colored hair, pointed ears, and glowing skin. While the Seconds seem to be rather ubiquitous, there's a lot of hate for them shown mostly in the background. The reason that's stated is... Well, you've heard it before: They took our jobs! I find that rather interesting as you'd think that having robots and androids to the shit work on a colony would be seen positively rather than negatively. It's also interesting that it's men saying this, not women, given what I saw above. 

Very quickly (too quickly in my opinion) we find out that Armitage herself is a Third, but also claims to be the daughter of one of the greatest scientific minds on Mars. This complicates things as Armitage is smitten with Ross, who lost his former partner, and possible lover, to a renegade robot attack on Earth. This causes a bit of “star-crossed lovers” trope to pop up but not for long. Thirds are still dying and it might be Armitage who's doing it, as D'anclaude is in custody. But, wait! More plot twists! D'anclaude is an assassin bot with multiple copies! And the last Third isn't a woman but a teenage boy. This mystery is never really solved. One thing that I noticed about the Third we see is that, except for Armitage and the boy, all of the Thirds are artists in some way; the first to die was a singer, the next one is a novelist, and the last one who dies is a painter. And a lesbian. I point this out, as if the point of the Thirds was to boost the low birth rate of the Martian colonists, why would she be “allowed” to be attracted to her same sex/gender? And, if the birth rate is so low, is the prevalence of so many sex bot Seconds to blame, even a little? This is important, as one of the last things they throw at you at the end of the film is that Earth is a “Feminist Government” or something like that. You'd think that Mars would want to clean up the gynoids first, before the ones that can live like humans. Androids so perfect at being human, you wouldn't have known unless you saw their insides, and they can do the one thing that has long been the exclusive providence of women: the ability to carry and birth child. It doesn't jive with what I understand of feminism, given that so long as they are treated equally (which they are, given that you don't fucking know that they're not “real” people), it shouldn't be such a major issue. Personally, I find the fact that the Seconds seem to have no rights, are used for sex, and that the Martians don't seem to have a problem with that to be much more problamatic.

Of course, there is a reason for all of these plot holes and very rushed feeling of the whole film. It was originally a four part series of OVAs that was chopped up in the Polymatrix movie. So, we're clearly missing a lot (and I mean A LOT) of character development and world building. The romance between Ross and Armitage is just kind of there, with no real build up and explanation. There's a few other cops in the unit they work in that clearly have personality traits but we only get glimpses. I know there's a lot more going on with Mars and its relationship with Earth. And I will bet good money that there's more Thirds that die. It's just a mess of editing, cutting what looks like half of a story out. And since this was only releases with an English dub, there's more problems. They got Kiefer Sutherland to voice Ross but he barely expresses any emotion with his voice. On the other hand, Elizabeth Berkley is fantastic as Armitage and you believe her performance. The difference between the two is night and day. I wish I could track down the original OVAs because I bet the story in there is much better developed.

As much as I've just ranted, I will say that there are some really good things in this movie. The first is the soundtrack (which I'm currently listening to as I write this). It's a great mix of moody, rock, synth, and industrial that you can actually listen to when doing other things. There's one vocal track, well, really two but it's just an English version and Japanese version of the same song. In addition to the stand out music, there's some fantastic visuals going on. The design of the characters and Mars is outstanding, making you really believe the setting. Each character is unique, visually, so you don't have to worry about getting them confused when they only turn up for their tiny bit parts. Of course, Armitage herself is the best. Her look is iconic and is why I picked up a figurine of her, as I rarely buy merchandise like that. She's got a look that you can instantly recognize, which I think is great. Yes, she's wearing something that would better fit a hooker than a cop but she wears it well. You don't feel like it's forced, it's just who she is and... Yeah. She's a stand out in the halls of cyberpunk characters.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Suggestion: Watch it if you really like cyberpunk stuff

Manga: Gignat Volume 1

 Content Warning: Domestic violence, teenage stupidity, feces, porn industry, sexual content and nudity.

 Gigant is a manga by Hiroya Oku (probably best known for Gantz). Sent in modern day Japan, the story follows Yokoyamada Rei, a high school student who dreams of becoming a film director, and Johansson Chiho, who works as a adult film star under the name PaPiCo.

Our story begins with Rei filming around Tokyo with his phone, shots of crowds and the ground. This brings up one of things I find a bit jarring about the manga. Rei, and most of the other characters, are drawn in a typical manga style, while crowds and minor characters are photorealistic style (and the posters, vehicles, etc). I don't know if there's just a filter applied to pictures, they're traced, or what exactly, but it kind of throws me off when I'm reading.

As our story continues, we're slowly introduced to the characters around Rei: his father, who wants him to do well in school in case he can't fulfill his dreams of becoming a director. His friend, who doesn't even get a name in this volume, who he talks about movies with and is trying to make a movie with. And PaPiCo. Her introduction is a porn BluRay (with the caption: Her Jiggly J-Cups) that Rei buys and watches. The masturbation is implied. Or maybe that's because I was once a teenage boy.

PaPiCo, or Chiho, has a proper introduction a bit later. Rei sees a sign saying she lives in the area and she'll have sex with someone if they ask. Who put this up is as of yet unexplained. After Rei removes the last poster, Chiho comes up behind him and asks if he put up. Soon, she's buying him dinner, telling him her real name (!!!), follows him on Twitter, exchange Line numbers, and leaves both of them happy.

As the story continues, we see much more of Rei, until Chiho sees a strange man get hit by a car. While trying to render aid, he puts some strange device on her forearm, and then turns into a cloth doll. Yeah, you read that right. Anyway, she ends up discovering that she can grow in size. Her piece of shit boyfriend, Ryuji, just kind of checks out. Later, she starts using this power in her porn vids. We also get to follow her around some more, which I absolutely loved, meeting her three brothers and her mother, and also see a picture of her Swedish father, and we learn more about how people in her life treat her. Which is to say, rather poorly. When Ryuji asks her who Rei is, after looking through her phone, he doesn't like her answer and then slaps and kicks her. She fights back and they end up in an odd embrace, with him apologizing and saying he loves her. She also reaches out to Rei to help her see what's on a DVD that was left by the strange man (who I call The Weirdo). He watches it and discovers that the disc has over 168 hours of footage. Which, you know, is kind of impossible.

Next, Chiho invites Rei over to her tiny apartment (as her terrible boyfriend is out of the house after losing tons of money at the Pachinko parlor). When she shows him that, yes, she can become a giant, Ryuji walks in. She's giant and naked. All hell breaks loose. But, Ryuji ends up running away. I think this is where I knew I was going to really like this manga.

After this, we start getting some major hints about what exactly is going on. Where (or perhaps “when” is a better word) The Weirdo came from, what the purpose is of the device now on Chiho, and that this very well could be the end of the world. If you want to Enjoy The End, I suggest you read it for yourself.

I absolutely loved this read. While I enjoyed getting to know Rei, even if I want to reach into the panel and slap some sense into him half the time, I really wanted to get to know Chiho more than we did in this volume. The author uses images to tell us about them, not using any internal monologue. The dialogue is also used to say things and NOT say things at the same time. We get a sense of how shy Rei is and his obsession with films and film making just from the dialogue. With Chiho, we find her using a lot of slang and very informal way of speaking. Her facial expressions are also great. While it's not outright stated, it's kind of obvious that she's got some issues. At one point, she mentions that she takes medication for her anxiety. I also think that her father is dead, given how we get one flashback of them together when she's a child and don't see him when she goes back home and meet the rest of her family. He isn't even mentioned more than once or twice at most.

 Rating: 5 out 5

Suggestion: Buy it.

Anime: Serial Experiments Lain (overview)

Content warning: Suicide, homicide, child death, drug use, surreal images, and weirdness

Serial Experiments Lain is a series that deals with reality, perception, identity, and technology, and how they can intermix. That might sound familiar as there was something about the late 1990s and early 2000s and these concepts. While more philosophical, as well as having a Hollywood blockbuster style, The Matrix delved into some of these. At the same time, so did Dark City, but with Noir styling. Lain is something uniquely Japanese in how it views things and the concepts it explores. 

The show begins with a young girl jumping off of a building to her death. That's a hell of a way to kick things off, let me tell you. But this what triggers our inciting incident. It's not the death of Lain's classmate but the email that was sent from the girl's account. After she was dead. This gives us a chance to learn a bit about Lain, mostly that she seems disconnected from the world around her. I don't even think of the girls she talks with as her friends, just her classmates. But this event also causes another change: Lain begins to use her computer and the Wired. I'm not sure if this was suppose to be set “30 minutes into the future” or an alternate reality. There might be an answer at the end of the series, I'm not going to spoil it for you now.

As the series progresses, the episodes are titled “Layers” and it is very apt. We are introduced to the world around Lain, people, places, and things. There's a great deal of mystery in the first few episodes. Not just odd people but there are things that I'm still not sure if they're hallucinations or visions that Lain experiences. As we meet people, some of them seem to know Lain but not her exactly. Is it some kind of dark mirror version or her or is it something she's forgotten? There's also little things that seem like we temporally skip into a different reality. That one is hard to explain but you'll know it when you see it.

Lain, as a character, is somewhat hard to get a grasp on. She's introduced without history, no sense of who is and where she's come from. All we really know is that she's a girl beginning to cross the threshold into womanhood. I find this is best exampled in the first few episodes. At night, Lain gets into a rather cute set of teddy bear pajamas before bed. In one episode, her “friends” (the girls she goes to school with) go out to an underage club and invite her along. While the other girls are clearly trying to show off their sexuality, Lain turns up in a long dress and wool cap. She's laughed at but I think it shows how different she is. She has an older sister that's clearly part of the rest of the world, but the relationship between the two is very fuzzy. If this show was being made now, people who probably say that Lain is Autistic. I don't know if she was suppose to be but I can, in hindsight, see that she was coded that way. I'm assuming it wasn't the intent of the creators but it's there if you want it to be.

I honestly have a lot of trouble trying to communicate just how good this show is. Part of it is not wanting to give out spoilers and part of it is that you really have to see this stuff to understand it. Or perhaps you don't understand. When I finally finished the show, I still had a few lingering questions. The conclusion feels complete and not at the same time, like if it had maybe just one more episode, there could have been a bit more to tell. I do not regret the time I spent watching it at all but do regret not buying the whole series when it came out on DVD. But back in those days, an anime DVD was $30. Which is better than it was on VHS, where it was $30 for subbed (assuming you could find it subtitled) but only $25 for dubbed, as most Americans don't like subtitles.

If there's one great thing about this series, it the opening credits. The song, Duvet by Boa, is fantastic and fits the feeling of the show so well. If you like it, I strongly recommend the acoustic version over the techno remix. If you're wondering if you want to watch this show, see if you can track down the opening and watch it. If it doesn't sell you on this series, after this review, nothing else will.

Rating: 4 out 5

Suggestion: Watch it at least once.