Nendo no Tatakai 2

Wagwan! Alexandre desu.

After seeing the first part, we can see the evolution of the artist where this time there are more human traits in the main figures, however, some memories of his earlier works remain, such as the use of the hammer.
This time, instead of using different colors to represent the interaction between races, he used white such as blank canvas or to represent the supremacy of the Caucasian race in world capitalism. On the left side we have the representation of the 1% and on the right side the working class who, as shown, through various attempts to change working conditions and wages, the ... 1% always come out on top, using resources such as corruption, pressure groups and bureaucracies created by them. In the end, it tries to demonstrate that only the socialist utopia is the solution to today's problems, more specifically by the wage gap.

Or that a small hammer does damage, but a big hammer does more.

Esta review también está en español.

Battle of Clay 2 is the second short film made by Nagao Takena, that picturesque dude who likes to make clay as violent as possible.

The only sentence in the synopsis sums pretty well what happens: two dummies (actually, half of them, since they don't have legs) play rock paper scissors (or Jan ken po, if you prefer), and the looser have to wear a pot in his head, and get hammered (literally) by the winner. The animation is quite poor (similar to Speed Racer, but with clay xD), the characters are grotesque, no landscapes at all (really, we only see ... black), and the sound is very bad.

That being said, most of you are probably wondering why I give this a 5 and no less. Well there are two reasons: first, it last less than 2 minutes so, no matter how bad you might think it is, it ends quickly. Second, the end was ingenious. If something so short have a nice ending, then it isn't a waste of time.

This is one of Takena's weakest works (only better than the first Battle of Clay, in my opinion), it's obvious that he was just beginning with this claymation thing.
I recommend this only to fans of his work... and to people who have two minutes to kill without remorse.

Also, unlike his future works, this is not particularly violent (I mean no dismemberment or blood pools).
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Battle of Clay 2 es el segundo cortometraje de Nagao Takena, ese pintoresco señor al que le gusta hacer que la plastilina sea violenta.

La única oración que hay en la sinopsis resume bastante bien este corte: son dos monigotes (en realidad, solo la mitad, dado que no tienen piernas) que juegan al piedra papel o tijera (o jan-ken-po), en el que el perdedor debe ponerse una cacerola en la cabeza y recibir un leve martillazo por parte del ganador. La animación es bastante precaria (similar a la de meteoro, pero con plastilina xD), los personajes grotescos, el paisaje inexistente, y el sonido es muy, muy malo.

Dicho todo esto, probablemente se pregunten por qué lo califique con un 5 y no menos. Bueno, hay dos razones: la primera, dura menos de dos minutos, por lo que sin importar lo malo que puedan pensar que sea, pasa rápido. Segundo, el final es ingenioso. Si en algo de tan poca duración el final vale la pena, entonces no es una pérdida de tiempo.
Este es uno de los trabajos más flojos de Takena (de hecho, a mis ojos, solo supera al primer Battle of Clay), se nota que recién estaba empezando. Lo recomiendo para los fans de su trabajo, o para los que tengan un par de minutos que no teman perder. También, a diferencia de sus futuros trabajos, este no es particularmente violento (léase: no hay desmembramiento o fuentes de sangre).

If you thought the first Battle of Clay was bad... just wait until you see this

This time we have just two claymen who look like old men playing rock paper scissors with each other. Right next to them lies a clay hammer and a clay helmet. As far as I could understand, whoever wins the game gets to pick up the hammer, and the loser gets to put on the helmet. The hammer guy will then try to smash the hammer into the head of the loser before he manages to put the helmet on. The game goes on until one guy gets killed in ... the process. Just brilliant

The animation is even worse because the damn claymen barely even move. They just sit there shaking their fists for the majority of the video

What really kills this one however is the audio. Again, there are two versions following the same pattern as the first video; one is silent and one is not. The version with audio sounds HORRENDOUS. Seriously you can hear tons of static noises in the background from the recording, and the sound effects are awful. Just a bunch of awkward grunts and moans which sound like they were recorded by a drunk guy over Skype or something. I'd actually recommend the mute version more... if you can recommend this anime to anyone that is

The only salvation is that it's at least a few seconds shorter than the first video, so at least you won't waste quite as much of your life watching it


Again, if this somehow sounds interesting to you then you can find the two versions of the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFVHDLu5ZBI (silent)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BapeMPKnk0 (earbleeding static noise and grunts)