Kick Heart (2013) Short Film

As promised, I’m going to review a newer anime today rather than sticking to the decade of my birth like my last few entries. This short film is one that many people have probably not heard of before, as it was created via a “crowd funding” project. About a year ago, I found a film called Kick Heart by Masaki Yuasa and Production I.G. on Kickstarter. Mr. Yuasa is of course the man behind the surreal (and pretty much awesome) short film Cat Soup, so I knew I just HAD to back the project. It doesn’t hurt that I’m also a huge pro wrestling fan either! It eventually made it’s required money, but missed it’s “stretch goals” which would have potentially moved the project into a feature length film, but what we got was pretty awesome none-the-less.

The story follows a man named Romeo Maki as he tries to get by with a fairly surprising dual life. Romeo works as both a masked professional wrestler and the CEO of a rundown orphanage. He funds with orphanage via proceeds from his night job, but things aren’t looking good. Lately the roof has been leaking non-stop, and it appears that a large snake has taken the children’s restroom as his home. In desperation, Romeo enters a $50,000 “winner takes all” contest against another masked wrestler named Lady S, but things get weird real quick. Lady S “gets off” by inflicting pain on her opponents, and Maskman M (Romeo) get’s the same pleasure from receiving pain. I know this sounds like the makings of an adult film, but don’t worry, Kick Heart is pretty much PG-13. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Lady S also works at the orphanage as a quiet young nun named Juliet, but Romeo doesn’t realize this.

The animation in this film is pretty nice, and resembles those old Bill Plympton cartoons more than any anime I’ve ever seen. Everything is sort of “sketchy” and VERY brightly colored, which really helps this film have an “edgy” or “underground” feeling to it. It’s almost like something that would have aired on MTV’s ancient Liquid Television show really late at night. I enjoyed the fact that you never got to see Romeo’s face completely, this was mostly because he lived most of his life as a masked wrestler, and tradition generally goes that such performers are never to be seen in public without their masks on. Romeo, in businessman mode, always has a black censorship bar over his eyes, a little touch that gives this film something different that really makes it stand out.

The character designs are pretty awesome and some are even borderline grotesque. Lady S’s tag team partner, in particular, is a giant of a woman that is so large that she crushes a portion of the audience when she is defeated in one of their bouts. The cool thing is that because of this, no two characters look the same, and are “larger than life” just like how pro wrestling characters generally are.

I love what Kickstarter and other crowd funding services could potentially bring to the anime market. Films like this or the recent Bubblegum Crisis Blu-Ray release are products that most likely would not have been produced in the current anime market, so pre-ordering these projects beforehand really lessen the risk of the project being unsuccessful, and guarantees the releases. Eventually I want to see more experimental films like this, and maybe older anime getting put up. It really could change the landscape of the whole industry.

Here is a trailer:

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So, What Do I Mean by “Classic Anime”?

Captain Harlock (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The term “classic” is extremely vague and carries the baggage of a general correlation to the age of the subject. To some, it could even be seen as a sort of a pejorative term as many regard older media as inferior and “not cool”. I remember several anime club meetings at my local college where certain members would whine about having to sit through anything “old”. This disregard for the history of the medium that we all love definitely highlighted a division between fans, one I feel should not be there. I do have a nostalgic sense for things from my youth, but hope that this blog doesn’t exist as yet another window into the life of a jaded thirty-something yelling at kids to get off his lawn. With that in mind, how do I use “classic”?

(Bubblegum Crisis〕 (Photo credit: ccsx)

The label “classic rock” means radio rock ‘n roll from the 70’s and 80’s, “classic film” means anything from before 1970, and classical music ends sometime in the early twentieth century. When speaking of “classic anime” I had to think up a definition of a term that many use, but very few define. For some, it simply means “80’s anime”, and for others it means things from five years ago. For me, the anime industry shifted drastically around the year 2000, and I see anything before that to be “classic”.

In 2000 digital animation became the norm, and traditional animal cels went the way of the dodo. Suddenly anime hit somewhat of a “fad” and became a mainstream medium. Best Buy suddenly had an anime section, Hollywood actors were doing voice over work, and popular TV shows had anime parodies. Then the bubble burst. We’re now closer to the “old days” in anime then we ever were a decade ago, and to me that’s both a good and bad thing. Anime is no longer over-saturating the market, but it definitely lost some fans.

Akira-Tetsuo-lift (Photo credit: AlphaBetaUnlimited)

That isn’t to say I won’t venture out into this modern era, but I feel that most modern anime fans know quite a bit about these sorts of shows / films. So whether it’s because of nostalgia, or some sort of educational purpose, I’d like to mostly discuss forgotten gems, old school favorites, and new features that have older sensibilities. Think of this blog as the “alternative scene” to the “anime top 40”, it’s not that I dislike things like Naruto, I’d just rather discuss Galaxy Express 999!