Type: Movie
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 45 min
Directed By Wakabayashi Kanji
Produced By Production IG and SME Visual Works
Year Produced: 2001
Not one of my favorites not to mention confusing as hell for someone not versed in Japanese mythology or symbolism, this movie (OVA, actually) had one or two things that I wanted to talk about here, even though it wasn't the best experience of my life.
Made in a dramatic color scheme, this is the story of a young girl who's entire family is killed by her uncle during a power-grab during the Shoreki Era (in 889 A.D.).
Kintoki was named successor by her father, and her uncle didn't like that, and so killed everybody, chasing Kintoki, disused as a boy, and her cousin, Ohni into the mountains.
They are finally cornered. Ohni is stabbed and Kintoki is about to be killed as well when a samurai lord Raiko saves Kintoki, but ultimately leaves Ohni behind.
Kintoki is then brought up as a boy, training to become a warrior. She eventually joins the Ministry of Defense in Raiko's specialized "Four Horsemen" unit.
At best this was a rushed anime. The character development was nonexistent, it felt like there was a prequel or some main story, and this is actually and OVA by many standards, but it's got no background, and that was annoying.
That being said, it was a massively interesting anime to watch. It had a couple of things that were cool about it.
First off, the way the characters walked was significantly different.
A pretty useless attention to detail, but if you watched the character's bodies as they were walking, you could actually see that the difference in their height was actually expressed, rather than keeping everyone on a track. Cool!
Another thing was the color scheme. The entire thing was produced with this kind of white film over it, which made it kind of difficult to see during some scenes, but everything was offset with a brilliant red blood color, it was pretty cool.
The plot left something to be... explained. Hell, I didn't know the real story until a couple months after I watched it originally, but I was just watching for the action.
... Yes, I did watch this before I reviewed it, and I wouldn't have chosen this to watch out of a pile of anime, let alone review if I had not. I watched it after getting bored at a video store. I don't know what inspired me to chose it, but the selection was slim and I was just getting back into anime.
The art was pretty sketchy. A lot of what looked like Samura Hiroaki, but it obviously wasn't. But it was pretty anatomical.
The animation style was very interesting. A lot of foreground and background variation, manipulating the various planes, keeping one unusually steady, and shifting the other wildly.
Same goes for the action sequences, the camera was thrown around a lot, moving with people. This was the main reason I decided that this anime was good enough to review. Never mind the story, I was fascinated with the animation!
Japanese or English, it doesn't matter. You don't exactly watch this for the story, so just pick for yourself which one doesn't distract you.
The music is the same. Don't really care. There's nothing in there you could even find on Youtube probably. Mostly some kind of fusion of old songs with a new singer or something. Not to my taste.
Kai Doh Maru English Sub Megavideo
I actually couldn't find this for download with my current patience level, so the best I could do is find a Japanese version on Megavideo (sponsored by Megaupload... or maybe it's the other way around...).
Coming up Next!
Fate/Stay Night!
Alert!
If you don't like spoilers, or still want to watch the show now, you'd better stop reading!
Okay, since this sure as hell didn't make any sense to me when I was watching it, I'll explain it to you.
Ohni isn't dead. She's actually become the lord that her father (the uncle) wanted to be through acts of sedition and treachery. She's hired some scrawny little guy who's awesome with a sword to do her dirty work. This guy is kind of strange. I don't know, nor do I particularly care what gender it is, but in the English version, it's probably a guy. At least it sounds like one.
In the Japanese version, it sounds a lot like a girl, but they could be doing that thing where they get a girl to play a young boy's part, but if that's the case, this one sucked.
Either way, Ohni's been possessed by a vicious oni (probably attracted to her by her name), and come back to find Kintoki and make "him" her husband, something that she offered when they were children, and Ohni didn't know about Kintoki's secret.
To do this, Ohni wreaks havoc all around the city that Kintoki and Raiko and the others are guarding. In the course of duty, pretty much everybody gets killed and one of the more favorable guys get mind controlled by a pair of random brats, when then use him against Raiko in the end of the movie.
In the end, Ohni manages to capture Kintoki, but since Kintoki's developed feelings for Raiko, she cannot return Ohni's, and Ohni is so distraught by this that she kills Kintoki and herself. Raiko also dies. Everybody dies, probably including that random monk who shows up near the end without any explanation.
What the heck?
And, oh! What does all this have to do with the Kai Doh Maru (or the Kaidohmaru, I don't know which)? Absolutely nothing. They mention it a few times in the beginning of the Japanese version, but then it like, disappears off the face of the show. What in the hell is the Kaidohmaru?! All I know is that Kintoki might be it, and that's not very helpful.
But like I said, if you go into this anime asking rational questions about the plot line, you're going to get blown out of the water... so just let it go and enjoy the ride. You'll find the animation style something different at the very least.
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