Mardock Scramble: The First Compression

If there’s one thing that can be said about anime, it’s that it can get quite controversial at times. From the Ecchi genre, to the Horror genre, to the Psychological genre, anime is often presented with scenes of intense language, violence, gore, nudity, sex, and highly questionable themes. Mardock Scramble is one such anime.

The story follows a young Rune Balot, who as a child was raped by her father. Enraged, her brother then proceeds to shoot the father. As her family falls to pieces, Rune grows up as an underage prostitute, and where she is ultimately caught and put in jail. Enter Shell, the ... main antagonist of this anime, who gets her out, gives her shelter, offers her his love and support… and then proceeds to blow her up.
Severely injured and on the verge of death, she is then rescued by Dr.Easter , who effectively turns her into a sexy Japanese version of Robocop. She is then given the ability to hack electronics, kick ass, and take names. To bring the crimes of Shell to light, she partners up with Oeufcoque, a highly intelligent electronical mouse that can transform, doubling as; her wardrobe, voice collar, gun, knife, shield, radar, emotional support, and love interest. Effectively putting batman’s utility belt to shame.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, yes this anime is rated R-18+, with themes of rape, incest, prostitution, murder, and impending bestiality. To put into perspective how fucked up this anime gets. One of the villains, is a giant tit sack. . . No really. While his boss, Mr. Pussyhands, gives quite a new meaning to the term “pussyslap”, and takes the act of “masturbation” to a whole new level.

One of the things I can say about this anime, is that it is very dark, and takes itself very seriously. You get a feel for Balot’s fear & mistrust of strangers, her loneliness & desperation, and her pain & anguish. As you begin to comprehend the tormented soul of Rune Balot, you start to get an understanding of what this anime is trying to convey.
A ‘balot’ , or ‘balut’, is an underdeveloped duck embryo. It is a representation of the fragility of Rune’s character as well as her torqued innocence. While Oeufcoque (French for egg shell), serves to protect Rune, both physically and mentally.

This dark and gritty concept, question of morals, and beautiful use of symbolism, makes this an anime I would definitely recommend checking out. The animation is a mix of 3d cg, brilliant slow mo, and fast paced action. While the anime takes very serious tones and displays them in a very serious manner. Which is a nice break from all the mindless violence, gore, sex, and nudity often found in other anime.

I hope you enjoyed this review, and as always, thank you for reading.
(P.S. I wonder what the director’s obsession with eggs is all about though. Dr. Easter, Boiled, Scramble, Balot, Oeufcoque, Shell, and Humpty Dumpty. Now all they need is a character named Sunny Side Up)

Short and sweet:

Story - Very interesting, but suffered from pacing issues. It moved wayyy too fast and didn't explain what was going on--or why--very well. Then again, some people may like this kind of vagueness that puts the jobs of interpretation and filling in the gaps on the viewer. If they had tacked an extra 20-30 minutes onto it, they could've SLOWED THE HELL DOWN and taken their time.

Art - Incredible, clean, and beautiful, except I'm not a fan of the grain layering they used over the duration of the film. It was different, but not my taste. Watching it ... on an HD-TV greatly reduces its gravity, so I recommend that.

Sound - Great sound effects, excellent voice acting (both English and Japanese). But there wasn't a lot of music--and when there was, it didn't stand out very much. Their take on "Amazing Grace" at the end sounded really nice, but wasn't appropriate whatsoever for the mood of the ending.

Characters - The two mains were very well-written and interesting. Balot's backstory was painted very vividly. Her actions are very appropriate for what she's been through. Oeufcocque has an intriguingly quirky personality, which is interesting to see when watching them interact. The rest of the characters, however, are sadly boring and underdeveloped--even Dr. Easter and Shell (the villain). Hopefully this changes over the course of the next two films.

All in all, it's definitely a fun watch worthy of multiple viewings both for enjoyment, and to help yourself understand the story. It's graphic and brutally honest, depicting the world as it truly is. Choice scenes of a nude Balot that would normally be taken as fanservice simply cannot be seen as such--given the situations in which they occur: her being used by men. Looking forward to the next installment. Too bad it was so short.

*Be advised: The sex scenes and nudity are censored in R1 DVD release, and a few scenes were inexplicably removed. Just a word of warning if you're looking to buy the North American version.

This install­ment of Mar­dock Scramble is the first in what’s planned to be a 3-part series. In it, a teen­age pros­ti­tute is killed by the man who took care of her, but she’s brought back to life by some magical sci­ence to try get revenge on her killers. She’s given a robotic body, lots of skin tight cloth­ing and a highly intel­li­gent golden mouse who can trans­form into whatever he wants, nor­mally a gun of some sort.

It’s hard to talk about Mar­dock Scramble without giv­ing out some plot set­ting spoil­ers. People might say that descrip­tions of the plot aren’t spoil­ers at all, but it does ... seem a shame to hurt one of the few things this movie actu­ally does very well. The expos­i­tion, often a clunky and tedi­ous part of a movie, was revealed in a gradual course of exchanges between the female lead, Balot, and her mouse sidekick, Eufcoque. Asides from reveal­ing how the world works and what the extents of Balot’s and Eufcoque’s powers are, it also builds up the rela­tion­ship between the two in one of the most strangely charm­ing duos I’ve ever seen. Balot doesn’t exactly think straight, hardly sur­pris­ing given her past, and abuses her powers for vari­ous reas­ons. Eufcoque doesn’t think like a human, see­ing as he’s a mouse and everything, but his mind works off a logic that hauls in Balot and builds a trust between the two. Using the other as a spring­board for fur­ther explor­a­tion, the movie excels in the exchanges between the two that make up about half of the movie.

I did say that this was one of the things that it actu­ally did well, which implies that the movie per­formed less favour­able in other areas. This movie has a lot of grand ideas about how great it is and how it’s explor­ing themes of depres­sion and sexual desires, but most of it is done in such awful fash­ion that parts of the movie come out as unin­ten­tional humour. There’s a group of under­ground sur­geons towards the end of the movie with a taste for attach­ing parts of human bod­ies to them­selves. One guy has eyes all over his body, which was prob­ably sup­posed to be intim­id­at­ing but really just looked stu­pid. There was another guy with breasts sewn all over his body like that ghost from the Fat Stock­ing epis­ode of Panty and Stock­ing. The rest all equally looked like char­ac­ters Apo­ca­lypse Zero. As for the dis­turb­ingly lit­eral nick­name of their leader, Pussy­hands, the less said the better.

These char­ac­ters were prob­ably sup­posed to sym­bol­ise humans liv­ing out their sexual fantas­ies, but like much of the rest of the fore­shad­ow­ing and imagery, it mainly res­ul­ted with scenes in vari­ous degrees of clunky or stu­pid. A bunch of the char­ac­ters are given names related to eggs, such as Boiled and Shell, prob­ably meant to sym­bol­ise birth of a new life or whatever, but that was rather eye-roll indu­cing, like call­ing the viol­ent vil­lain in your show Vicious or some­thing. There were some more stand­ard prob­lems, such as lots of cryptic con­ver­sa­tions that failed to grab the interest, or over­bear­ing level of mad­ness they gave char­ac­ters that didn’t fit well into the story. Oh, and play­ing Amaz­ing Grace as your end­ing song was pretty eye-rolling too.

Not all of the sym­bol­ism failed, to be fair, the rela­tion­ship between Balot and Eufcoque being the best example. Heck, any­thing good about this movie came about when it was just those two together. The best scene in the movie was one where Balot asked Eufcoque to love her, with the golden mouse’s stuttered retort being that he wasn’t cap­able of lov­ing as a mouse and that “I can’t just turn into a male human in order to love you”. The scene, asides from reveal­ing a slightly messed up side to Balot’s mind, also shook Eufcoque and revealed we wasn’t quite as assured and logic­ally per­fect as earlier scenes had you believe.

(As an aside, I kept expect­ing Balot to turn Eufcoque into a dildo. That wasn’t just a dirty mind at play in a highly sexu­al­ised anime. Balot kept going on about how she just wanted someone to love her, with the only way she knew love in her depraved life was through sex, but Eufcoque kept point­ing out that he was just a ves­sel that was incap­able of love and that he was just a tool to pre­tend she was being loved. See where I’m going with this? Con­trast this to our good friend Mr.Pussyhands, who quite lit­er­ally has sex with his hand. I would not be that sur­prised if Eufcoque becomes mas­turb­a­tion aid at some point in the later movies)

Again, this movie only ever good when it was just inter­ac­tions between the main char­ac­ter and her mouse sidekick, the rest of the movie being dumb, some­times pain­fully so. Thank­fully a lot of the movie was just inter­ac­tions between the main two, which is enough to keep my interest to watch the later install­ments. But it’s not enough for me to recom­mend it either.

"I wish I was dead."

Spoken by 15-year old prostitute Rune Balot, these are the first words that set the dispirited tone of the anime movie trilogy Mardock Scramble. The story is set in Mardock City, a cyberpunk world where the skyline is filled with skyscrapers, cars glide on fluorescent green roads, and everything sparkles like champagne. It's a stunning place to look at, but it’s also a savage place where cruelty and crime are often left unpunished.

Homicide has become so rampant that the government has authorized a controversial procedure to resurrect victims from the dead to help track down and testify against their ... assailants. This is one of the several unusual, and perhaps implausible, concepts in Mardock Scramble, but it's presented with such conviction that it’s not too difficult to get caught up in the moment and suspend disbelief.

The central plot-line, which is essentially about Rune’s revenge, is likely just a catalyst for weightier themes. There are some fantastical action sequences, but the series tends to be more of a character study than a typical action-adventure. The conversations are philosophical, covering a wide range of topics such as the nature of memories and regret, free will, finding a purpose in life, and rebirth.

There’s a lot of hidden symbolism to keep your mind busy if you choose to look for it—such as the egg references that frequently appear. The doctor who performs the resurrection procedure is named Dr. Easter; "scramble" is, of course, one of the ways in which eggs are cooked; and there's a yellow shapeshifting mouse named “Oeufcoque”, which is French for “soft-boiled egg.” What all these egg references mean, I’m not sure.

Mardock Scramble has a consistently abrasive aesthetic. The art is usually shrouded in shadows and textured by noise that must've been hell for the video encoders to deal with. GoHands doesn't appear to have cut any corners or expenses with the animation, which, especially in the action sequences, looks painstakingly detailed. And an electronic and ambient music soundtrack rounds everything off.

If you like science-fiction fantasy with a psychological twist, strong and stylish animation, and don't mind scenes with graphic violence, mental and physical abuse, and nudity, you should definitely check out Mardock Scramble. If you haven't read the synopsis yet, don't. The less you know going in, the more surprised you’ll be. Just sit back and get pounced by it.

Clarity is important to a movie's effectiveness. While it is true that clarity is always important in storytelling, a movie does well to keep that in mind even more, as there is much less time than usual to tell a story. With that in mind, as an introduction to a trilogy, Mardock Scramble: The First Compression does a wishy-washy job.

The main issue with The First Compression's execution is its confusing way of expressing itself. The first section of the movie consists of a vague and confusing sequence of related events. Many intense and provocative things are shown during this, but their relevance and, at a ... more basic level, what exactly is happening in them is all left unexplained. It seems there was an attempt to let the visuals do the talking here, but it doesn't work very well because absolutely nothing about the setting or characters was explicitly stated and the viewer is left scratching their heads until the sequence ends and the main character, Balot, wakes up in a tank to begin the next segment of the movie.

Once that is all over, though, things so relatively smoothly. The doctor, Dr. Easter, and Balot's companion for the rest of the movie, Oeufcoque, are quickly introduced. They are also utilized well in the sense that their conversations with Balot allow the viewer a more broad sense of the setting and the mechanics of Mardock Scramble's world. Unfortunately, while exposition was clearly part of the intent behind Dr. Easter and Oeufcoque's words, they fell victim to the movie's habit of keeping things too vague to be able to say everything portrayed in the movie made sense. This is a good thing in that their conversations were kept natural, but also a problem since there were no other chances given throughout the movie to expand upon the various political and technological developments that drive the movie's plot as a whole, making it all feel quite shallow.

While Dr. Easter's character is used mostly for storytelling utility and plot advancement, Oeufcoque stands as an anomaly among the characters, as he is interesting and unique. His development very much mirrors Balot's, as they are together through most of the movie and a majority of the dialogue is focused on them. However, unlike Balot, who's characterization begins fairly interesting and soon falls to melodrama and inconsistency, Oeufcoque begins the movie as the logical sidekick character and slowly reveals moments of real emotion and expression. He keeps the other characters in check and brings the tone of the movie to a more believable standard whenever he is allowed to have an influence on it. If there is anything this movie did well, it was Oeufcoque and in a related way his relationship with Balot.

Unfortunately, after some Balot-related plot developments are over, the movie decides to change atmosphere completely and enters a much worse territory than it was in before. Expanding upon its awkward focus on sexual desire, several incredibly undeveloped throwaway characters with a vague and uninteresting motivation are introduced seemingly for the sole purpose of giving Balot a reason to become a completely different character, presumably in an attempt to have her appear more complex. This was a mistake. The action scenes are boring and unimpressive, clearly given less thought than the rest of the movie was. The character designs are unintentionally hilarious and impossible to take seriously. This all results in a boring and unimportant final segment where Balot is shown fighting various enemies, leaving plenty of room for overdramatized scenes and a complete and intentional ignorance of the characterization that has happened thus far, culminating in a predictable cliffhanger for the second movie.

It really is too bad that Mardock Scramble: The First Compression was unable to stay consistent or find its identity in this movie, as it is very pretty and does take place in an interesting world in its own right, but not there's simply not much to be said after finishing it except for "well, what was all that for, anyway?"

"Sometimes winning is more painful than losing. The more you win, the more burden you have to carry" - Bell Wing

Preface:

Mardock Scramble is a very interesting trilogy of movies. Set in the cyberpunk styled future city of Mardock, Mardock Scramble follows Rune Balot, a teenage prostitute whose small and insignificant life is given new meaning after she gets wrapped up in a complex of despair, misery and destruction orchestrated by a man named Shell. After scraping for so long and being left in the street like gutter trash, Rune is picked up by Shell, an immensely wealthy and charismatic young man. Rune seeks nothing ... but some small inkling of love- but ends up another pawn in Shell's sick game of lies and murder.

After a night out, Shell rapes Rune, locks her in his car, and then proceeds to light it on fire. It explodes, killing her in the process. As Shell has a mental condition that required him to have a memory chip implanted in his brain, he can remove it at will and erase his memories, and thus the evidence, of his crimes.
However, Dr. Easter, a scientist working for the government under a new, borderline illegal law called "Scramble-09" retrieves Rune’s body and revives her, using this new technology associated with the Scramble-09 law . Though Rune isn't completely restored, she is alive, with a new body, and revenge on the mind. So, in order to prove the usefulness of the Scramble-09 law and technology, Rune has to submit to being part of an investigation of Shell, since she's the only witness they've been able to retrieve.
Along with the shapeshifting Artificial Intelligence in the shape of a mouse, Oeufcoque, and Dr. Easter- Rune has to dig up the lost memories of Shell, and help prosecute him, then she's free to go. But through the process, Rune finds a whole lot more than she ever asked for.


Artwork and Animation: 10

I enjoyed the cyberpunk/futuristic setting, which was this really fantastical city with a prismatic rainbow of light and colors, an incredible cityscape design, with lots of overhead shots to give it immense depth of both color and scope. Many scenes, particularly those set in the Paradise Labs and the Blue Egg Casino, feature a literal rainbow color in the background imagery- greens, purples, blues, reds, and yellows- with the vibrantly colored and exceptionally detailed characters taking the focus in the front.

How the scenes are framed are excellent- there are no impossible "anime" angles, and everything is shot as if watching a movie. The overlay of action panels, each with their own animation on top of each other, and the sweeps and pans make for a great cinematographic experience. The increasing closeups (particularly during the casino sequence) really give a claustrophobic feel to the intense mental/psychological action, much in the same way 12 Angry Men does.

One scene in particular, in the Paradise Lab, a glass knife falls down and sticks into a table after passing through these force fields that protect Dr. God and Boiled. As it settles, it shows Boiled in the reflection of the blade. A rain of blood pours down, bouncing and deflecting off the spherical fields surrounding them, crackling like electricity as Boiled steps closer. It's as if the entire Paradise Lab was underwater, the blood raining from the multicolored ocean in the sky above- complete with sharks swimming and feeding as though they were birds.

The 3D CGI in this is also among the best I've seen. Full photorealism on the cars- I could tell year, makes and models easily- they looked as though someone had inserted a 1986 Porsche 911 convertible, late model Fiat 500, Alfa Guilietta, or a late 2000s Nissan Armada into the movies, among other cars.

Everything flows mercurially, with no drop in quality throughout any of the 3 hours of runtime. There are some really cool fast-motion shots as well. The lighting in the movies is also quite awesome- drawing the eye to the action onscreen, while also highlighting the intricate backgrounds. The city backdrops and scapes are breathtaking, and everything has a very 'dreamy' feel to it, particularly with the prismatic rainbow of colors and design of some of the more fantastical characters.

A rare visual treat, truly.


Sound and Voice Acting: 8

Mardock Scramble was licensed by Sentai Filmworks- and they put together a very awesome cast with Hilary Haag as Rune, Andy McNavin as Oeufcoque, Leraldo Anzaldua as Shell, and David Matranga as Dr. Easter. Ms. Haag sounds appropriately fragile and timid, but volatile as Rune, and David Matranga's Dr. Easter comes off like a grown up, less socially awkward version of Okabe from Steins Gate, which is essentially his character. Ouefcoque's calm, nearly robotic, but warm voice is nailed by Mr. McNavin, and the volatile, crazed Shell sounds absolutely deranged.

The soundtrack is also quite good- with a lot of industrial sounding techno that fits the cyberpunk world perfectly. This,combined with some traditional orchestral pieces, and the crowning jewel of Amazing Grace. Performed by Honda Minako, it alternates between Japanese and English with a very ethereal sound, and plays in Rune's more emotionally raw moments with an effective, touching air.


Story and Characters: 8, 9

While the story follows a fairly typical journey to discover one's self, and to overcome a difficult past wrought with tragedy, Mardock Scramble takes these common plot elements and weaves them into a more intellectual and metaphysical tale of revenge, redemption, and the ability to live on beyond the difficulties of one's past- no matter how bleak.

Every character has their trauma. Rune's tortured past with her sexual abuse as a young child at the hands of her father, her early teens as a prostitute, then subsequent murder at the hands of Shell. Shell's past is equally as grim, though it's the focus of the story, so I can't say too much. Boiled, an assassin employed by Shell and Oeufcoque, also have analogous histories, much like those of Shell and Rune.

Rune's journey as a character starts from this broken, cracked egg of a character, spilled out everywhere- running into the streets. At the beginning, this is hardly metaphorical- she's very literally cracked and then put back together by Dr. Easter. True to her name, Rune Balot (Balot being an Asian/Pacific Island delicacy which is a fertilized duck egg, complete with a fetus) is born into an egg, and given a new life.

Oeufcoque and Boiled, who had previously been partnered prior to Rune Balot's entry into the story, also experience antithetical development of their own- with Boiled seeking to retrieve Oeufcoque and "use" (term Oeufcoque calls his 'employment' under a human being, as he's a "tool") him again, but for his own selfish gain. Conversely, Oeufcoque, who, once freed of Boiled, sought to make himself useful as a tool for good in helping Rune, and not return to aiding the destructive and hateful deeds of Boiled.


Enjoyment: 10

The casino scenes in the 2nd and 3rd movies were some of the most intense mental game scenes I've seen in anime. Very gripping, with nearly tangible tension. Imagine, if you will- the James Bond "Casino Royale" scenes mixed with the movie "21", but with twice the pressure and payout. It really felt like watching a high stakes card table in person.

There are quite a few symbolic and metaphorical elements to Mardock Scramble, and much of it wrapped up in the names. As mentioned above, Rune Balot is in reference to an egg. Her life is a fragile, delicate fetus protected by Oeufcoque (the French word for eggshell). The egg motif is present throughout the entire series, actually. Dimsdale Boiled, the secondary antagonist also bears symbolism- as he's an egg that's not yet cracked, but thoroughly 'cooked'. There's also Humpty Dumpty references, and where a large chunk of the second and third films take place- a casino called the Blue Egg.

With her second life given by Oeufcoque and Dr. Easter's intervention, and through the progression of the story, dealing with Shell and coming to terms with her own past, Rune's development as a person really breaks out of the "Shell" she had been in. She is born out as a new person, free of the anguish and grief of her earlier days.

Through the dialogue at the casino about conquering one's past, suffering and being alone in the dark- we really get an idea of the changed person Rune has become, through struggling with her desire for closure versus her thirst for revenge with Shell, her family, and her own will to live.


Overall: 9

There's a lot of dialogue to go with the "girls with guns" action that takes place in Mardock Scramble. While it's not a show constructed to be as deep as one such as Ergo Proxy or Serial Experiments Lain, it makes up for the lesser cerebral focus with great action and even better visuals. This is definitely a very adult trilogy of movies though- with sexual abuse, murder, torture, dismemberment, and a myriad of other vile acts. For the gorehounds, there's some fodder, especially with this gang of murderers who delight in removing body parts and organs from their victims, which they then transplant or graft onto their own bodies. There's a lot of blood and gore, and also a lot of nudity as well. For the fans of a great cyberpunk world, this will deliver. For those drawn to a beautiful, visually stunning action film- this will knock it out of the park.

I think Mardock Scramble is a fantastic trilogy of films, a real hidden gem in a million colored rainbow ocean of anime.


"I've died once. I'm like your brother: I know the horror of being alone in the dark. But, I was lucky. Someone was there to help me out of the locked car." - Rune Balot

As my username might give away, I love cyberpunk, and I always have. Ever since those first few ambient skyline shots from the original Ghost in the Shell, I've been hooked. For me, anime is as much about the characters as the setting itself. Cyberpunk anime always seem to offer backdrops oozing with emotion, from lonely and derelict alleys to streets bustling with life.

Mardock Scramble is by no means perfect, and I loved it just the same. While it does have a few flaws, I hope this review can highlight the strong moments for which I hold it so fondly.

STORY- 7

I won't give away ... any spoilers here. What you do need to know is that Mardock Scramble is only part one of the trilogy. With that in mind, the ending is quite abrupt, leaving almost all questions unanswered. Many reviewers looked at the movie from a stand alone basis, and gave it a an accompanying low score due to this issue. However, I chose to look at it as a whole, and while the movie's questioned are left open, you can be rest assured they will be tied up in the following movies.

The big issue with this movie is an admittedly slim storyline. The movie is really held up by the characters in it and their interactions with each other, but I'll get to that later.

ART- 10

Spend literally forty seconds watching the movie and you'll know what I'm talking about. The colouring in particular is incredible (I'm Canadian, you caught me). Almost every scene has contrasting hues, from murky greens to clear neon blues. It really is sugoi.

SOUND- 8

The music isn't extraordinary, but it helps to build the setting with ambient techno themes. What really caught my eye (or ear) was the end theme, a chilling rendition of "Amazing Grace" which came out of nowhere like a cat burglar and blew my mind.

CHARACTER- 9

Ho ho! My favourite part (fantastic animation aside). Rune Balot is a young prostitute and the unlikely heroine of the movie. What makes the movie so great is that she never strays from this character. There aren't any sudden upbeat moments or humour that seem to plague most anime today. Her past is incredibly dark (as you'll find out), and you're constantly reminded by it in her character.

But the greatest part of this movie is Oeufcoque. Yes, Oeufcoque, the golden mouse, and Rune's companion in the series. Oeufcoque is the polar opposite of Rune, and their interactions are the high points of the movie. I don't want to say more than that, but even the idea of a companionship between a talking mouse and a prostitute should pique your interest. C'mon.

OVERALL- 8

Okay, so this movie has a few issues, the biggest being the sudden and totally incomplete ending. But like I said, looking at the series on a whole this really is a non-issue. Everything gets covered in the end, and that's what matters. The movie is only 45 minutes after all so it's hardly an issue of time commitment to finish the series. I gave this rating with the knowledge that the story will be completed in the end. If you're only planning to watch the first movie, I can imagine your rating would be considerably lower. But with that cliff hanger at the end, why wouldn't you go on????? The story isn't too special either, but it's the characters that hold it up. And the animation is some of the best I've ever seen, hands down.

So watch it. (Oh, and did I forget to mention the nudity, obscene language, and horrific violence? It's anime!)

This movie popped up on one of my favorite sub groups so I figured I would give it a try. That ended up being a terrible mistake. Before I go into that, I will say the movie had some things going for it. First, the art style was really impressive. It was very clean and worked well with the genre. I also felt some of the characters were intriguing and the city it was set in seemed really cool. Unfortunately, the story is just horrid. The writer of this movie seemed to be of one of two mindsets. Either ... he/she wanted to make a mature scifi theme movie and thought that mature meant excessive amounts of nudity, sex/rape and at one point excessive brutality. Or they derived pleasure from taboo or grotesque themes. I felt awkward or uncomfortable throughout a lot of this movie and that was with no one else in the room. The biggest part about it is that there doesn't seem to even be a reason for most of it in the movie. So, if you didn't figure it out already I would recommend watching something else instead.

In my exposure to this first movie in the Mardock Scramble film trilogy, I must admit I am impressed enough with the movie where I'm tempted to want to see more of what it offers up. Taking place in a far future, First Compression features the start of Balot's journey where she gains her cyborg body after being nearly killed and along with her new AI companion, Oeufcoque, must survive to be a witness to the misdeeds of her former lover, Shell, who is heavily involved in the underworld of crime that plagues Mardock City. The major highlight of the movie for me came in ... the form of Balot's very character. Coming from some very tragic and ugly circumstances from within her life, she is quite insecure and withdrawn about herself as she tries finding meaning for her life after the near-death she experiences at the start of the film. The movie quite believably depicts the mental state of Balot's very character as she comes to depend on Oeufcoque greatly for companionship and purpose for the miserable life she experienced and becomes enpowered to fend off against any hired assassins sent by Shell to kill her.

Beyond Balot's character, First Compression does do a solid job for the most part in establishing its world as a traditional future seen in cyberpunk titles with its advanced technology allowing for humans to become cyborgs, corrupt corporations and crime being rampant within its setting. The movie mostly serves to introduce Balot's character while also setting up the main conflict that she faces throughout the film trilogy's run in the form of Shell and his henchmen. The first movie has its rough spots in its setup as the movie's fast pacing does usually lead to missed opportunities at exploring additional elements or depth to other characters seen within the series. In addition, the movie drops hints regarding connections between characters and other elements to the series that are left unexplored and the movie's plot is clearly left open-ended for the later two films. I can overlook these flaws as the later two films in the trilogy should be able to expand more on Mardock Scramble's characters and prominent elements.

The movie has gained quite a rep for its graphic content and controversial themes which there is quite a bit of in the form of nudity, rape of a minor, incest, teen prostitution, brutally violent deaths, profane language and grotesque moments involving a group of demented killers hired late in the film's run. For the most part, I did feel the movie's content was necessary at enhancing the horrific events experienced throughout Balot's life and adventure, though I did feel some elements to the movie existed only for the purpose of pure shock value like the mentioned killers.

The visuals to Mardock Scramble are quite impressive featuring highly detailed shots of the city landscape of Mardock City, smoothly animated and fluid battle scenes and character designs that had a great amount of visual detail applied to them. The subdued color tones used on the scenery and characters do well at enhancing the dark drama and action to be found throughout this movie.

Overall, this first movie to Mardock Scramble starts off solidly with introducing Balot's character and establishing both her bond to Oeufcoque and the conflict she faces with Shell. While obviously left undeveloped and unresolved with a number of its plot and character developments, the later two movies of this trilogy should expand upon them and I look forward to seeing how things develop in Balot's struggles for the later two films in the Mardock Scramble film trilogy.

My 3 AM thoughts on this 3-star movie that I watched 3 months ago.
This review is written out of boredom.
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I randomly got the urge to watch "Hellsing Abridged" (not to be confused with (Hellsing Ultimate), and during that scene in Seras' backstory, I got reminded of this movie's beginning.

So, in the most generic cyberpunk-ish dystopian advanced civilization, we follow this particular big shot with an underaged girl wrapped in his arms on a perfectly dark night in a perfectly isolated automobile in a perfectly isolated woodland, doing what the night asks except it's far from romantic. After a few minutes of doing his _thing_, the ... guy gets out of the car, locks the girl in, and then... BAM! The car explodes after a very graphic depiction of a young helpless girl frantically fighting to rescue her broken life.
This is insignificant. What counts is that an unaffiliated third party comes to her aid, despite the fact that he had been closely studying everything prior to the explosion with his heat vision goggles. They only save her psychologically by implanting her with an artificial fiber body, which completely messes up her mental state and nearly kills her, due to some law that allows the police to resuscitate the criminal witness. Now, this befuddled cyborg must defend her 'innocence,' as the mistake known as "Her Past" haunts her on both a societal and psychological level. Fortunately, she is being supervised by a professor com' scientist com' gambler and an AI resembling a rat, but how much can they handle this psychologically unstable cyborg while evading a hunter appointed by the villain?

TL;DR,
What if Batou was actually a villain and Kusanagi was actually a confused teenage girl in an edgy Ghost in the Shell rip-off?

One clear thing while watching the movie is the over-saturated colors. The entire movie is bright and shiny everywhere and every time, which is both a plus and a drawback. Plus, in the sense, it's ✨bright✨, and drawback in the sense, that it's so bright that it makes me avert my eyes. There are, however, some slick gun animations with some good camera usage and choreography. This is something that appears throughout the trilogy, so if anything, it gets entertaining eventually. Why eventually though?

Because the story is just edgy and pretentious (This goes down the lane as you progress into the trilogy). Not even in the entertainingly edgy but in the most boring sense. Like the court where our mentally complicated victim can only answer in a Yes/No/No Comment throughout the trial, or the whole irrelevant gambling plot that happens in movie 2, or whatever the fuck happens in movie 3. The story progressively degrades from being a mildly mind-bending character study, into edgy bullshit drama. As a trilogy it really fails, because you don't feel like you watched a coherent story unraveling character pasts or decisions, but 3 separate films with 3 different plot lines got superficially intertwined. You are better off spending those 3 hours on Ghost in the Shell 1 and 2, even as a rewatch it would be a better experience than this.

While 2 & 3 movies are definitely not worth the time, the first compression, however, is definitely worth experiencing because of this mildly mind-bending (I'm using this word for the 'Intelligence' effect. Don't take it too literally) character study between Balot and Oeufcoque. _Balotto_ is a confused cyborg who already has a damaged mind and past as a human being. Oeufcoque, while being an AI, shows genuine human emotion upon hearing this emotionless girl asking for its love, a cute & tiny rat-looking AI's love, and the movie does a surprisingly good job by not making this weird but making their interactions, endearing.

But that's all the credit I give for the movie in the writing department. Anything and everything else is just a poorly written edge fest with very little damn giving to portraying themes or invoking drama.
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Who should watch this?

If you want Ghost in the Shell but edgy, then watch the entire trilogy.
If you only want good parts and don't want to waste your time, then just watch movie 1 and leave it there. Or
If you want to see a pretense adult film with an overly sexual animation of a r*** victim, then go ahead and satisfy your kinks for all I care.
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Not a good trilogy but not a bad introduction.

This si a review for all 3 mardock scramble movies, and not just the first one.

Reading the synopsis of this anime may fool you into thinking that you're going to watch an anime with ton of action in it, perhaps with violence and gore. And cyberpunk. Basically, you'd expect something similar to Psycho-Pass or maybe Ghost in the Shell... that kind of thing.

And you would be wrong. This anime does have very well done action scenes, but mostly it is a rather slow and rather sad story about its characters, their inner demons and psychological troubles.

It also does have a problem of never explaining ... most of the futuristic setting...

Anyway, detailed breakdown below:

Story: 6/10:
It is interesting, but it has that slight problem where it never properly explains fairly big details of its futuristic setting, like certain powers characters use.

Overall it is a fairly slow/methodolodical exploration of characters and their troubles and their demons and "skeletons in the closet".

I found the 2nd movie to be weaker than 1st and the 3rd, and found some aspects of the story a bit forced, but maybe it is just me.

Art: 6/10:
It is good, without chibis in it. However, it uses cg environments and cg objects like cars and those stand out and are easily noticeable. It would've looked better if this problem was addressed.

Sound: 6/10:
Sound does its job, and has nice tunes, but nothing outstanding. I felt like voice acting on some side characters could've been better. There was a disconnect between certain voices and certain characters.

Character: 6/10:
I found characters to be a bit flat, and interactions with them sometimes headed into harder to believe territory. However, there were no obvious cliches and stereotypes, and characters resembled real people. More or less. I think that conversations between protagonist and protagonist's "partner" were done the best.

Enjoyment: 6/10:
Overall I liked it. It is not what I expected, but it was fairly well done.

Overall: 6/10:
It is worth watching, but I wouldn't call it s a "must see" anime. it is mostly a character-centered show, that could perhaps tell a bit more about the world portrayed in it.

Worth checking out.

This review is for the entire three movie trilogy, not just the first movie, as they are essentially one giant movie broken up into three parts.

I purchased the DVDs for all three of these after watching a trailer and reading the base premise. Dark, hypersexual and hyperviolent? That is about as up my alley as it gets! Unfortunately, I think that representation is significantly overblown and there's not nearly as much of any of those things as certain reviews would have you believe.

I didn't like this series as much as I'd hoped I would. It has a lot of problems that there just isn't any ... way around. Starting with the positives, the visuals are absolutely stunning, and this is easily the strongest individual aspect of the product. I'd also praise the originality of the story. However, major pacing issues plague this entire series, with an egregious example being the entire first half of the third movie spent sitting at a table playing blackjack, but this is but one of many examples. The tone, likewise, is inconsistent. It felt to me as if the anime lacked depth or purpose and wasn't quite sure what it wanted to be or what it wanted the viewer to take away from it.

The ending as a whole felt abrupt and forgettable. It did not make me feel anything one way or another and that too- a lack of memorable or emotionally impactful moments- also plagued this entire series. There are SOME sex scenes, SOME dark moments and SOME action scenes, but they are few and far between and the majority of the anime is fairly slow and boring. Also, the story as a whole is really weird and can be quite difficult to follow. After completing this I felt much the same as I felt after completing The Garden of Sinners- "I have no idea what I just watched, but, it was great to look at!"

At the end of the day there's a potentially interesting concept and setting here dragged down into absolute mediocrity by ultra rough around the edges execution. Outside of its excellent visuals this anime simply lacks polish. The characters aren't fleshed out, the pacing is off and it's not an easy watch in the context of understanding what you're watching. I don't walk away with a bitter distaste for this anime in my mouth, but if I'm being honest I'd have to stop short of recommending it to anyone. It feels very skippable.

OBJECTIVE RATING- 6-6.5
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 6

A true Tow Ubukata Creation...which means we dealing here with the sheer amount of incompetence one should expect from anything that involves this so called writer.

In Mardock Scramble, Ubukata does what he does best: putting random, incoherent and incomprehensible scenes together and ACT like he did the deepest screenplay ever, while in reality he did nothing but creating a pure dumpsterfire.

If you watched the second season of Psycho Pass or Ghost In The Shell: Arise, both written by Ubukata, then you know exactly what to expect from Mardock Scramble: random stupid shit that doesn't make no sense at all and character-exploration/development retarded as it ... gets. Plus uninspired and boring scenrey.

Mardock Scramble is yet another example of what a non-talented and horrendous writer Ubukata is.

Review up to the second movie. Will edit as I watch more.

This trilogy of movies had a rough time while getting green light for production. It was originally planed to be animated by studio GONZO, but after its almost bankruptcy the project was handed over to a new studio on the block, called Go Hands. This studio and the director haven’t made any good anime so far (their roster is full of crappy ecchis) but the final poject can’t possibly be any worse than that piece of shit that is GONZO. So I like this change.

So what is this show about? It is based on ... an award-winning science fiction novel concerning the attempts of a law-enforcing organization to fight crime by resurrecting victims of crooks and using them against said crooks as witnesses in trials. In one such case, a young girl is resurrected to stand in trial against a casino owner who has the habit of killing his lovers.

STORY SECTION: 6/10 [OBJECTION !]
Analysis: Premise 2/2, Pacing 2/2, Complexity 1/2, Plausibility 1/2, Conclusion 0/2

- As far as the premise goes, Mardock Scramble delivers in spades, as we hardly get trials in anime and I never saw another show where the dead are used as witnesses. Closest thing you can find is avenging ghosts (Mononoke) and supernatural vigilantes (Gungrave).
- The pacing is good for what the story is all about. You get all sorts of events going on, which don’t feel like they drag more than they should. A minor issue would be all the scenes where they describe the technologies they use; it will feel like they talk too much and nothing happens. Especially for those who don’t care about long explanations.
- Despite the fancy sci-fi dressing, the plot is not complicating. It is easy to follow and even resembles a typical action flick half the time.
- Despite the numerous explanatory monologues around how each technology works, the story still has major plausibility issues. After awhile you think they are using spells instead of microwaves or nanomachines and several characters simply make no sense. How is Shell remembering his past when it is constantly deleted? Why is Balot given so much access to super powerful technology when she is just a witness? How do you turn burned people to blue diamonds? How do you expect to get away with killing a witness when she has already been part of a trial and you are living in a world where everything is monitored? And many more.

CHARACTER SECTION: 5/10 [What do you expect me to do, turn to a handsome adult male ?]
Analysis: Presence 2/2, Personality 1/2, Backdrop 1/2, Development 1/2, Catharsis 0/2

The characters are not complicating to understand, nor are their actions mysterious and multi-layered. They are definitely very confusing because they usually do things that seem too hard to buy. They are otherwise cool and extreme enough to pay attention to but also think and act usually in a very linear or simplistic manner. So they are fun but not high-caliber material.
- Balot is the main heroine, a teen prostitute that is killed and resurrected with fancy technology to be a witness against her killer. She also gets this magic golden mouse called Oeufcoque (try to say that fast 10 times straight) which turns her to a super soldier that can do all sorts of fighting acrobatics. She is a tragic character; made to have a very weird idea of what love is. She only knows how to express it through sex and constantly feels betrayed and manipulated. Gets easily crazy on power and revenge too.
- Oeufcoque the Pokemon looks like a cute little mouse but in reality is the most hax mascot you have seen in your life. It can transform to anything better than T-2000, it can sense danger better than Spiderman, it can talk more philosophical than an average GITS character, and still look cute as a pie.
- Shell is your typical megalomaniac villain who likes to make money, have sex, and turn women to jewelry. He also has this condition where he must constantly take medication and have his memories deleted. Nothing about this concept has been exploited yet story-wise.
- Boiled is the evil henchman, an ex partner of the golden mouse. He seems to think he lives to constantly prove to others the vanity of life. He has cool gravity-control powers.
- And some goons with the craziest names, such as Pussyhand and Rare the Hair. Each one has a body member fetish and loves to wear it all the time by ripping it off its current owner. Ok, these guys are basically one-dimensional comic book villains but sure are more fun than your average faceless mook.

ART SECTION: 9/10 [I see nude people. –When ? – All the time !]
Analysis: General Artwork 2/2, Character Figures 1/2, Backgrounds 2/2, Animation 2/2, Visual Effects 2/2

Superb production values with only a few glitches in storyboard continuity (some poses seem off when the camera switches angle). The whole Mardock city is drawn to look like a fancy futuristic place full of aerial roads, digital machinery everywhere, and holograms scattered for decoration. There is smooth animation and funky visual effects to really believe there is heavy sci-fi going on in here.

There is also a HUGE amount of nude, sex, gore, and bloodshed in here, so keep it to a high place little kids won’t reach (damn rascals know how to use a BD player from the age of 4). I can even say it has TOO much of them and one can wonder if it would be so attracting without them. It kinda feels like they blended a serious setting and story will lots of guilty pleasure for kicks, so it is questionable if this degrades or elevates the movie. It is bold and cool though and I did have fun with the whole crazy premise of teen prostitute and mutated freaks being blasted to a pulp.

One thing many have notices is how the feel of the movie is very close to the first Ghost in the Shell movie and a very violent/erotic OVA called Kite. Especially for the former, you can literally find the exact same scenes in it. Not to mention there is a character names Shell… Indirect tribute or not, Mardock Scramble is definitely nowhere near as mature and philosophical as GITS, since it has too much guilty pleasure and crazy characters.

SOUND SECTION: 8/10 [Do you love me ? –YES – Then prove it by letting me rape you. – SILENCE]
Analysis: Voice Acting 2/3, Music Themes 3/4, Sound Effects 3/3

Nothing much to say here. Voice acting was good for everyone, although those mutant crooks really makes you iffy with their stupid cartoony pinch. Music themes were gloomy and sad but not exactly memorable. Sound effects were great for the context of the film.

VALUE SECTION: 6/10 [I like making precious blue diamonds out of women]
Analysis: Historical Value 1/3, Rewatchability 1/3, Memorability 4/4
I doubt it will have any significance to the fandom other than being a half-serious GITS. Also, there isn’t much to get from a second watch, other than watching a half-hentai. Other than that, it is very well made and quite memorable for its setting and crazy characters.

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 8/10
I enjoyed it as a whole but it definitely doesn’t try too much to get serious about it. There is way too much magical technology in here which makes all sorts of dangers to feel easy to overcome. Also the characters are too simplistic and defined through their sexual preferences or deviant fetishes to the point they become caricatures. I still need to see if they manage to develop the idea further than that and offer us a much more elaborate plot later on.

OVERALL: 7/10