Batman Ninja (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Junpei Mizusaki
	Actors (voices): Kôichi Yamadera, Wataru Takagi, Ai Kakuma
	Country: J, USA
	Genre: Animation, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 29.06.2020, VOD, Japanese version with English sub-titles, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: Batman, along with a number of his allies and adversaries, finds himself transplanted from modern Gotham City to feudal Japan.
Review: Not satisfying by the offer in Action movies at the Far East Film Festival, I interrupted it to search something different on Netflix, and my choice quickly turned to Batman Ninja even though I am not in best terms with DC comics (I haven't gathered the courage to watch Joker yet although I heard it is good), and I know that full-length animated features are usually aimed at a younger audience and of poor quality but released just to surf on the success of their life-action counterparts, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse being an exception. Batman Ninja stands apart, first of all because it was produced by a pure Japanese team and that the Americans had little control over it. To the point that they couldn't translate its dialogs and they had to make up 90% of them, leading to in fact two completely different movies (read that article to know more). It usually matters little in which language you watch animation, I personally prefer to watch American movie in English because the track was supervised by the movie makers and they took good care of it, while I avoid watching anything dubbed in English because they do it so badly (compared for example to European countries which are much more used to it). So in the case of Batman Ninja I watched of course the original Japanese version, but after reading the story I mention above, I am tempted to watch the dubbed version as well for a different perspective. Irrespective of the language, the movie turned out to be much more Japanese and complex than I expected. Where I thought Batman would be alone doing some ninja stuff (as Logan is alone in Japan in The Wolverine), he ends up with many classic Gotham characters of which I knew not all. Where I thought the characters would try not to alter the timeline in what is after all a time travel story, they try to take over Japan. Where I thought they would stay low-profile in some kind of realistic Universe, they end up turning on each other with the help of (spoilers, highlight to read) giant walking castles turning into assembling robots!!! I was not disappointed by this movies that goes over and beyond my expectations, even though it is filled with nonsense and exaggeration of the villain's characteristic traits.
Rating: 6 /10

Starship Troopers 5: Traitor of Mars (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Shinji Aramaki (Starship Troopers: Invasion), Masaru Matsumoto
	Actors (voices): Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers 1&3), Dina Meyer, DeRay Davis
	Country: USA, J
	Genre: SF, Action, Animation
	Conditions of visioning: 07.01.2020, VOD, 11" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Federation trooper Johnny Rico (Van Dien) is ordered to work with a group of new recruits on a satellite station on Mars, where giant bugs have decided to target their next attack
Review: After a fourth movie in the Starship Troopers saga that I really liked (read my post on this Invasion), this one produced five years later is really disappointing. The concept is the same as in the last movie (fully animated) but this time even Casper Van Dien and Dina Meyer are back to voice their characters from the first Starship Troopers. It is amazing that 20 years after the release of Paul Verhoeven's movie, its influence can still be seen on today's directors and producers, to the point that they keep on delivering new movies with the hope of reproducing what they saw, maybe what drove them to work in Cinema in the first place... But whatever good visuals, story and production magic operated on the previous movie, this one lost it all. The characters' faces and their displacement look very bad, the backbone of the story is simple but not very attractive, but the worst of all is the character development which is awful. In particular the young soldiers and clumsy and cowards, and it doesn't make any sense that bad-ass Johnny Rico has to stand them. The Action scenes are also badly directed, with problems and solution appearing when the screenplay needs them to, as bugs getting killed more or less easily depending on the needs of the story, this kind of things. It is pretty annoying to watch. I have the feeling that the American co-production that had controlled the previous movie this time left free reign to the Japanese crew that delivered a typically Japanese product with a very awkward pace. Not recommended.
Rating: 2 /10

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Rob Letterman (Monsters vs. Aliens)
	Actors: Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool 1-2), Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), Kathryn Newton, Bill Nighy (Shaun of the Dead), Ken Watanabe (Godzilla)
	Country: USA, J, GB, CDN
	Genre: Animation, Polar, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 16.09.2019, in-flight entertainment, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: After his dad, a detective he barely knew, dies in a car accident, Tim (Smith) travels to the big city to wrap some things up. There, Humans and Pokemons live in harmony. He will soon meet his dad's Pokemon which he can speak to, and discover an evil plot.
Review: I missed the Pokemon video-game craze by a few years, I was just a little too old to ride it (and a Sega guy rather than Nintendo). But I remember it very well, my brother played it and I know the basics: the tournaments, trainers, underdog Pikachu, even the big bad Mewtwo. I think the movie talks to this audience, the one that played the game when it went out and is now in its thirties, but also to different generations that may have played different versions of it during the years, including the addictive Augmented-reality Pokemon Go. In fact the movie is also an adaptation of a 2016 video game. The movie nicely treats the whole tournament story into the past, giving just enough backstory for the newbies, and then moves on to a different thing, a sort of Adventure-Polar-Comedy-Superhero movie. The talking pet plot reminded me of Ted, probably thanks to the voice of Ryan Reynolds and the few dirty, definitely not children-suited jokes he managed to place. The World-building is fine, probably better if you are nostalgic of when you played the game in your youth and recognize the variety of Pokemons shown on screen. The story is not too bad, except for a few major loopholes that pulled me out of the movie, most importantly (spoiler, highlight to read): how did the kid not recognize the voice of Pikachu?!? In the end not as bad as one could have feared for another adaptation of video game that seems to come too late and drowned in many other (The Angry Birds Movie to quote just one).
Rating: 5 /10

Godzilla: Monster Planet (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Hiroyuki Seshita, Kôbun Shizuno
	Actors (voices): Chris Niosi, Martin Billany, Robbie Daymond
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 18.01.2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: After Earth is devastated by monsters including Godzilla, humanity is forced to escape from the planet and seek refuge in the stars. After more than 20 years of travel close to light-speed, one human in particular is strongly motivated to take back our mother planet which has meanwhile aged thousands of years.
Review: I have described my history with the famous Japanese atomic monster in my review of the 2014 American version Godzilla. Since then the emblematic Toho studio has produced a reboot in 2016 entitled Shin Godzilla, and Netflix has now entered the game by distributing this movie, first of a trilogy, also produced by the rights' owner Toho. Making it an animated film gives then the possibility to the movie-makers to extend the story beyond the classic attack against the Earth (well, usually mostly Japan). So you have to hold on for the first 20 minutes of the movie that explain the whole backstory filled with useless elements that are not of importance afterwards (what are two alien species doing in the mix?!?). This long introduction, like the rest of the movie, follows the Japanese cinematic tradition of over-explaining everything and doing so twice to make sure you got it. Paradoxically, the motivation of the characters and the military strategy stayed very confused to me, and the story stays full of loopholes. The designs are OK although not new, and there are plenty of displays everywhere but it is hard to enjoy them while watching the movie in original Japanese that forces you to read the constant flow of sub-titles, so much that I switch to English spoken language for the last half hour in the hope to try and enjoy the graphics if I couldn't the story. This didn't help much. Quite a disappointment. Japanese blockbusters are often like that, and one should rather travel to the Udine Far East Film Festival to enjoy the much better small popular productions the archipelago has to offer.
Rating: 3 /10

Perfect blue (1997)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1997
	Director: Satoshi Kon
	Actors: -
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, Polar, Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 12.11.2017, Cinema am Ostertor, Weird Xperience, German version
Synopsis: Mima Kirigoe leaves the J-pop group Cham, in order to pursue her dream as an actress. Her agents Rumi, ex-singer, and Tadokoro drive her in different directions. Mima climbs up the rocky road to success by performing as rape victim and posing nude for magazines, but is haunted by something.
Review: The story is really complex involving several layers of interpretation for most the movie, so that I was always wondering what was real and whose imagination I was watching. Then the complex machniery is sorted out with many twists and turns. The dramaturgy is amazing, the different steps in the story, the way the characters are drawn fitting to what the story is supposed to tell, the different views of living and dead bodies as well as the time when these images appear. The style of the movie is maybe the most original and marking thing of this anime. It takes some features of the subgenre that we like a lot in JoRafCinema, the Giallo. A woman at the verge of a nervous breakdown, an almost invisible criminal, a few mysterious characters looking suspicious (Me-Mania), nudity and sexuality. But no killer with black-gloved hands. The psychological distortion of Mima is excellently rendered via the drawings and also via the voice, thanks to the German translation and the voice of Solveig Duda.  The blu-ray quality was quite bad, even if I don't know whether it comes from the blu-ray itself, by Rapid Eye Movies, or from the projection. It was also a good opportunity to meet the organisers of this projection Weird Xperience.
Rating: 7/10

The twilight of the cockroaches (1989)

	Also Known As: Gokiburi-tachi no tasogare
	Year of first release: 1989
	Director: Hiroaki Yoshida
	Actors: -
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, War, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 28.05.2016, Naxoshalle, Japanese version with English subtitles, NCF2016
Synopsis: A society of cockroaches who live peacefully in the apartment of a bachelor named Seito until a woman moves in and the humans begin to exterminate the cockroaches. Then the different groups of cockroaches try to find out a military strategy to fight against humans. But humans have weapons of mass destruction. The cockroaches are depicted through animation, and the humans are depicted through live-action footage.
Review: I wanted to watch this movie because of the visual concept like in Roger Rabbit to mix real characters with animated characters. And also because of the plot: a story of cockroaches. I have not been disappointed. Even if the live-action footage lacks of image quality, it is well done to shoot the environment of cockroaches. We always look with their eyes and the change of perspective is very original and very interesting to experience.  The story itself has not many surprises. It might be symbolic about people confronted to weapons of massive destruction. Most of the creativity and surprises for me came from the way the live-action footage is mixed. The way the cockroaches are using all what they can find in the house. This gives many funny scenes.
Rating: 6 /10

Hâmonî (2015)

	Also Known As: Harmony
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Takashi Nakamura, Michael Arias
	Actors: -
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, SF, Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 25.05.2016, Mal Seh'n Kino, Japanese with English subtitles, NCF2016
Synopsis: In a short term future, Toan travels around the globe, working for a World Health Organisation (WHO) medical care program. When an infiltration of the corresponding surveillance system triggers a suicide wave, Toan must face the ghosts of her past.
Review: The author of the original novel, Project Itoh aka Satori Ito, became many awards in Japan for the Science Fiction novels he had written, Genocidal Organ, Harmony and Empire of Corpses. Many stories related to the body and the medicine. He died from cancer at age 34.  The movie is almost fully in off tone with few dialogues. The two main characters, Toan and her school girlfriend Miach are very rich and have strong backgrounds. Each phrase and character (including secondary ones) seem to have a major importance, but as no progress to provide clarity is given, I felt more this as a melancholic atmosphere. In particular Miach is fascinating. The global conspiration theory to control the health and the conscience of the humans is explained along the movie and its history as well. The content seems so rich that the anime cannot be satisfying.  The camera driving is done as if it was a real movie, for the focus for instance. And this did a good impression on me. But sometimes the camera movement is a bit exaggerated with some shaking. From the three novels, all have been shot as anime. So there is still more to discover from this author, and also the novels themselves.
Rating: 4 /10

Momo e no tegami (2011)

	Also Known As: Lettre à Momo, Ein Brief an Momo
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: Hiroyuki Okiura
	Actors: -
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 05.04.2016, Bluray, Japanese version with French subtitles
Synopsis: Momo and her mother arrive in a small fisher town in the island of Shio after her father died. The last things she did with him before his death was insulting him because he gives the priority to work rather than to family. There she meets some other kids and tries to live like them. But it is difficult for a Tokyo kid to feel like a village kid. She sees some beings as well: the flatulent lizard Kawa, the childlike Mame and their hulking ogre leader Iwa. With them she will experience adventures.
Review: As in many Japanese animes the main character is a child, here a girl, discovering a new world, here a town. Momo's feeling toward her father are depicted with a very sensible view. To compensate this sadness and find also a kind of salvation, her life is pushed aside by three hilarious characters. And they are really funny. Two of them look like adults but behave like kids making silly things in town, mostly stealing food and eating in secret.  This mix of real story and banalisation of extraordinary beings makes it like the Magic realism of García Márquez that I really like. These characters look like from Chihiro by Miyazaki, and therefore their appearance as monster does not reduce the kindness and naivety they radiate. In a very psychological way, Momo discovers herself via these funny inhabitants and manages to go over the loss of her father. A nice Japanese tale for kids but also adults as the discovery of oneself takes often a long long time.  More steps in Momo's way or more originality could have increase the rating of that already good movie.
Rating: 6 /10

Kakurenbo (2004)

	Also Known As: Hide and Seek
	Year of first release: 2004
	Director: Shuhei Morita
	Actors: -
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 04.02.2016, DVD, Japanese version with German subtitles
Synopsis: Among the ruins of the city, there is a game only children can play. It is called “Otokoyo”; a game of hide-and-seek. But whenever children play this game, one by one they would disappear into the blinds of the buildings… So the legend. One night, 8 children play the game, each for their own reasons. A boy named Hikora has joined in search of his missing sister who played the game last. But when the game does begin, it becomes apparent that the rumors were true.
Review: This anime is quite short (25 minutes) but manages to settle a good atmosphere. All the characters are well done and we can imagine that each of them could have been developped more. For a small studio, YamatoWorks, they did it good.  And while the children disappear and the solution comes closer, the surprise is great. It is not easy to transmit feelings through masks, thus only the size and position is used to make it.
Rating: 7 /10

The Wind Rises (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away)
	Actors (voices):  Hideaki Anno, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Miori Takimoto
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 05.01.2016, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Jirô Horikoshi (Anno) has always dreamt of designing beautiful planes.
Review: Supposedly the last feature length film to be directed by genius Hayao Miyazaki, I has read a lot of good about The Wind Rises and wished to see it to further complete his filmography on JoRafCinema. I found two things particularly interesting about this movie: one is that Miyazaki (and the Ghibli studio) is going against the trend of showing more and more realistic images in live action movies and animated ones as well (I remember the technical perfection in the 2004 Steamboy from another studio). In this movie on the contrary the drawings are very simple (including the backgrounds), and nothing is shown that is not directly related to the story. Back to the roots of animation, all for the best. Secondly, unlike usually with Miyazaki, the story of the movie does not take place in a Fantasy world in which he transcribes his dreams of flying and humanity's problem with war. The Wind Rises actually depicts the real story of the creator of the Japanese Zero planes so dreadfully efficient during WWII, and the advantage of Animation shows up during the dream sequences of the main character. Note that Miyazaki's father was a plane designer during that period. I loved it that the movie depicts engineers of that time as dreamers and artists, trying to creating the most beautiful flying machines regardless of their application. I was thinking about a parallel with the creators of the Atom bomb, who wanted to create a warm light for the world to share, regardless of the consequences. The Wind Rises is actually an animated historical Drama, thus reminding of the Melodrama Grave of the Fireflies (1988) also from Ghibli and produced with relatively little time and money so that it looks very crude but with a powerful story nevertheless.
Rating: 7 /10

Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001)

	Also Known As: Le voyage de Chihiro, Spirited away
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Hayao Miyazaki
	Actors: -
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 06.01.2016, DVD, Japanese version with French subtitles
Synopsis: The 10-years-old Chiriho is on the way to her new home with her parents. By looking for the new house, the parents enter into a park. When they see a well smelling restaurant and start eating all they can to pay later, Chihiro leaves for a walk and meets the boy Haku. When she comes back almost at night, her parents are pigs and the whole park becomes a village with a huge bathhouse in a magical world full of demons and gods.
Review: The story is wonderful. Not only for the many different fantastic characters but also for the spirit behind it. Here Chihiro gets a lot because she does not want to get much. This humility is a beautiful virtue. The creativity behind each characters is great. In each scene all the characters are showing something special, either something on the topic of humility, or identity, or something funny. Then the recurring characters are surprising as they interact with the only human in town, Chihiro. And all this without the rythm of a Tex Avery, but with the poetry of Miyazaki.  This movie is one of the best anime I have ever seen and also one of the best movies. Big thanks to the Studio Ghibli.
Rating: 8 /10

Vexille (2007)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2007
	Director: Fumihiko Sori
	Actors (voices): Meisa Kuroki, Shôsuke Tanihara, Yasuko Matsuyuki
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 27.09.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: After Japan becomes leader in robotics, it isolates itself from the rest of the World. Ten years later, not knowing what happens in that country, an elite SWAT team tries to infiltrate it.
Review: Released on the same year as Appleseed: Ex Machina, Vexille contains the same elements of futuristic technology, androids and Mechas, and a SWAT team with a strong woman character, I thought because both are adapted from Mangas popular with the young generation, but after some search it turned out that Vexille is original material. A different choice was made for the look of the animation, not photo-realistic 3D in this movie but half-way towards traditional animation with black contour lines around the drawings, not too bad-looking. The Rock-electro soundtrack fits quite well the action scenes. But besides that I was disturbed by the lack of coherence in many scenes, often looking like they had to be placed there because they look good. There is also a love triangle that doesn't bring much to the story. By the way Vexille is the name of the female lead character, where does that come from? The movie is apparently supposed to be remade live in Hollywood this year, but information on that subject is scarce.
Rating: 3 /10

Appleseed: Ex-Machina (2007)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2007
	Director: Shinji Aramaki (Starship Troopers: Invasion, Space Pirate Captain Harlock)
	Actors (voices): Ai Kobayashi, Kôichi Yamadera, Yûji Kishi
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, SF, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 14.04.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: In a post-apocalyptic future, the new state of Olympus is the most advanced and part of its inhabitants are cyborgs. We follow a couple of police officers in charge of maintaining order around a peace conference.
Review: I hadn't watched this movie in quite some time and I can now tell that the animation is ten years old. It is indeed not photo-realistic, but actually half-way to a traditional 2D animated film, i.e. we can sometimes see the contour of the characters as a black line. But this gives it a certain style which can be appreciated. It is noticeable that the same director is responsible for Starship Troopers: Invasion (2012) that I liked, and Space Pirate Captain Harlock (2013) that I didn't. There is a lot of action in this movie which is good because then you don't have time to get bored by the otherwise very classical Japanese Animation story of Mechas, world war and virus infecting the Cyborgs, reminding of Ghost in the Shell for the story if not at all for the style. A bit annoying also is the very manga design of the characters (big eyes, long legs, big breast for women...) and the cheesy romance, but I guess this is what one should expect when watching such a movie. On the other hand some Mechas, ships and city design are very innovating (probably coming from the manga from which the movie is adapted). At some point I may watch the two other movies Appleseed (2004) and Appleseed Alpha (2014) or the OAV Appleseed XIII (2011).
Rating: 5 /10

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1984
	Director: Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Porco Rosso)
	Actors (voices): Sumi Shimamoto, Mahito Tsujimura, Hisako Kyôda
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 15.10.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: A thousand years after a cataclysmic event, humanity survives in small states avoid the toxic jungle populated with giant insects. Nausicaä is the princess of one of those tribes and she seems gifted to communicate with the insects.
Review: In the past months I have watched quite a few movies directed by Miyazaki and/or produced by the Ghibli studio, so it is logical that I now watch the first one coming out from this studio. It definitely bears the mark of its director as the main topic is the conflict between Man and Nature, and the movie contains a large amount of flying scenes (he loves that since his father worked in a plane factory during WWII). I could notice the age of the movie and fewer experience of its animators because of some less good-looking drawings here and there, and some less-than-perfect animations, but in general it is very impressive (the flying scenes in particular). However, I may start to get less attracted by the style and universe of the Miyazaki movie which is, let's face it, constantly the same (young heroin, steam punk technology...). This is why my rating is not higher. The next Ghibli movie on my list? Princess Mononoke which has a similar topic, and is also the first one I ever saw by Miyazaki back in 1997 and in a theater.
Rating: 6 /10

Astro Boy (2009)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: David Bowers
	Actors (voices): Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell
	Country: HK, J, USA
	Genre: Animation, Adventure, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 26.09.2014, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Toby (Highmore) is a science genius like his father Dr. Tenma (Cage) and he would like more attention from him. After a terrible accident, the father recreates a robot at the image if his son.
Review: It is not a coincidence that I watched this movie a few days after I did Space Pirate Captain Harlock: I was watching both animated series as a kid, so I guess my memories of ones are linked to the other. Actually I was so young when watching Astro Boy that I remember better my collection of stickers than the series itself. We didn't hear much about Astro Boy the movie when it was released and it was quickly forgotten. Not surprising actually: if it can please kids, it is only as basic as that and the level is too low for an adult audience, in spite of an attractive voice cast: Nicolas Cage, Samuel Jackson, Alan Tudyk, Elle Fanning, Donald Sutherland, Charlize Theron... The SFX are good and the characters could be interesting, but for me the story is very weak and too predictable, making the movie no more than easy entertainment for an evening when you want to watch animation.
Rating: 3 /10

Albator, Corsaire de l'Espace (2013)

	Also Known As: Space Pirate Captain Harlock (English)
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed, Starship Troopers: Invasion)
	Actors (voices): Yû Aoi, Ayano Fukuda, Arata Furuta
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, SF, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 23.09.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema, 2D
Synopsis: While the decaying humanity is forbidden to go back to sacred Earth by the Gaia Coalition, Captain Harlock and his crew aboard the Arcadia are fighting against the established order.
Review: The fact that a whole generation enjoyed watching the animated 24-minute episodes of the cult TV-series when they where young doesn't mean that they will appreciate this long-awaited cinema adaptation. I was not the biggest fan of the series, finding it too dark for me at the time (I was probably too young for it) but I could still easily watch the episodes in which Albator (The name of Captain Harlock in French) was fighting against the bigger and bigger weapons that his enemies could conjure, and I definitely loved the design of his emblematic ship. This dark aspect is also present in the movie, the design of the Arcadia is awesome, the two mega weapons are impressive (one converting neutron stars into pure light power, an the other making use of Jupiter as particle accelerator!) and the space battles nicely done although the Arcadia seems too strong to be true, defeating some 68000 ships! When I first saw the trailer one year ago, I immediately noticed that the spaceships laser weapon design look very similar to the ones in Starship Troopers: Invasion (by the same director) and it is indeed the case, but pushing the comparison further I noticed that the landscapes, faces, movement animation, cities... are better-looking in this Captain Harlock thanks to progress in technology in only one year's time, or maybe a different approach, I don't know. Unfortunately, for me this avalanche of nice-looking shots doesn't compensate for the too slow rhythm, and the typical Japanese characteristic of being over-explicative and elliptic at the same time. It is also really difficult to relate to the characters because of their non-understandable reactions (like the one who changes side three times over). No wonder that the international version is 4 minutes shorter than the Japanese one (that I watched) to improve the rhythm, I even thought it would have been shortened to 1h30, like they did with The Day of Resurrection (a.k.a. Virus) in the 80's. Another disturbing element is the borrowings (mostly in designs) to many many other SF/Space Opera movies or books: from Wall-E to Starship Troopers Invasion, Titan A.E., Star Wars, The Universal War graphic novel, Joe Haldeman's Forever War, several Asimov and Clarke's novels...But this may as well only be because some of those were inspired by Japanimation in the first place, like James Cameron has never hidden.
Rating: 4 /10

Sherlock Holmes (1984)

	Also Known As: Meitantei Holmes (original), Sherlock Hound (English)
	Year of first release: 1984
	Director: Kyôsuke Mikuriya, Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Porco Rosso)
	Actors (voices): Taichirô Hirokawa, Kousei Tomita, Yôko Asagami
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: February-June 2014, DVD, Home Cinema
Synopsis: In the England of the late 19th century, the gifted Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Doctor Watson investigate the most curious cases that Scotland Yard cannot solve.
Review: My motivations to watch this 30-years old Japanese TV-series are triple. First, I have recently read a good part of the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle so I am now quite familiar with it. Second, this TV-series was created and partly directed by Hayao Miyazaki, whose movies as director I am currently (re-)discovering ; in particular I have come to Sherlock Holmes after watching The Castle of Cagliostro. Finally, I remember watching and loving the series when I was a kid, so nostalgia is my third motivation, and also the reason why I bought the collector DVD-set in French. The dubbing in my mother tongue brings an additional level of comedy because even if not true to the original voices, it was made in a funny way that also reminds me of the French version of City Hunter. The poor quality of the first image of the opening credits made me fear the worst but actually the video quality is good (but not as good as for a film). The colors are a bit pale but I could fix that with the auto-adjust function of my projector (mainly increasing the contrast). The sound is a bit muffled but acceptable. The DVD box-set comes with an informative booklet. The series consists of 26 episodes that were aired between 1984 and 1985. The idea of having all characters with dog faces could seem odd in the first place, but turned out to greatly help make the success of the series, also thanks to a mix of comedy, adventure and steam-punk action. The first episode The Four Signatures is quite cheap-looking and very slow, with long pauses and static shots on the faces of the characters, but I guess it is the fate of pilot episodes. The quality improves dramatically with the following episodes (The Crown of Mazalin, A Small Client, ...) thanks to a more detailed story, more action, more characters on screen and the general energy that I remembered from the series. Some episodes have been written and directed by Miyazaki himself and you can feel his influence because they are a little more complex and feature much more flying and diving machines, in particular the episode 8 Treasure Under the Sea involving boats and submarines and episode 9 The White Cliffs of Dover with its plane races. In general throughout the series I liked the good design of Moriarty steam-punk machines. Towards the end of the series some episode depart from the usual scheme and cross-over with other universes: episode 16 The Secret of the Sacred Cross Sword takes place at Stonehenge and reminds strongly of an Indiana Jones adventure although in the heart of England. And episode 17 The Adventure of the Thames Monster is definitely inspired by Jules Verne's 20000 Leagues under the Sea. But apart from those two special episodes, the stories are quite repetitive: a mystery occurs, Scotland Yard fails, Holmes intervenes and solves it all with few clues. It is already a bit the case in the original books, but the wonderful writing by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle makes of each adventure something new. However the single bad thing I found about the TV-series is that Moriarty is the villain in every episode, making it too repetitive after a while. I wouldn't ask for a mysterious villain appearing from nowhere in each episode (like if is often the case in the book, or in the Scooby Doo animated TV-series), but a bit of variety would have been welcome. In spite of those reservations, it is a pleasant TV-series to watch and I recommend it.
Rating: 6 /10