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Sep 12, 2023
A mildly interesting chapter of manga for One Piece fans, this prototype story mostly fails to stand on its own merits with so little room to work with. It’s cool to see Oda’s art even more East Blue than East Blue (angular and more in line with his experience as an assistant on Kenshin) but removed from the context of being the first go at One Piece, it mostly falls flat.
Recommended for established One Piece fans only, there’s plenty of aspects that are not fully formed here (Luffy’s character is most apparent) so it can be interesting to see where Oda’s head was at when
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he was giving it a first go. If you’re somehow considering reading this and you’re not (yet!) a One Piece fan, don’t. You have nothing to gain and maybe a little to lose.
Overall, my greatest impression with this one shot is: I’m really happy Oda worked hard to nail down how he wanted to kick off One Piece when the time came to do it for real.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 12, 2023
Ready to be confused? Okay!
A common issue with early film (not just Japanese animation) is that you'll find more than one version of the same concept, named the same thing. This is especially true with famous fairy tales or stories, or with really successful films that other studios will rip off. Urashima Taro is considered a classic Japanese fable, and there are a lot of versions. This particular version is tinted pink and lasts a minute and 40 seconds (You can find it legally and for free here: https://animation.filmarchives.jp/en/works/view/72126
If that wasn't bad enough for discourse, it gets worse! For years, THIS film was thought to
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be a film made in 1918 by Seitaro Kitayama, but recently, it was discovered in a magazine from that time, that this isn't the same Urashima Taro as that Urashima Taro! So this film now lacks a director, a year (the entry is wrong, the year this film came out is unconfirmed) a studio or even a confirmed name!
All that said, this mystery movie is not very good, even if the timeframe is relatively correct. The oldest surviving narrative anime (Namakura Gatana) has far better gags and visual expression. As an adaptation of the story of Urashima Taro, it does a pretty poor job of conveying what that tale was all about, completely cutting out the man's kindness towards the turtle, his interactions with the Sea Princess or the nature of his final fate. The story is so famous in Japan that it didn't need to show everything to be comprehended, but this is just about the laziest way to tell this story. The strongest point I can give it is the cute depiction of sea life, which is mildly interesting.
This film isn't really worth your time, doubly so because it lacks cultural context almost completely (so watching it "for the history" is practically irrelevant). Do yourself a favor and look up an english translation of the original fairy tale (it should take less than 5 minutes to read) and you'll have a much better experience, and frame of reference for an aspect of Japanese culture. Skippable.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Mar 12, 2023
The only surviving film from Anime's first confirmed year as a business venture (rather than a novelty), Namakura Gatana (released as "Hanawa Hekonai Meitou no Maki") is the oldest anime film of one of the three pioneers of professional Japanese animation, Junichi Kouchi.
Junichi is somewhat of an interesting person. He studied under Kitazawa Rakuten (the first professional mangaka and the man who coined the term "manga" as we know it) and worked as a political cartoonist as a socialist. After doing illustrations for Anarchist magazines (and early girls magazines), he was scouted by Kisaburo Kobayashi who desired to produce "Japan's first animated film". He was
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beaten to the punch by Oten Shimokawa (another of the three pioneers) by five months, but the result of that effort was this film! (Added context, his second film, which seemingly intentionally provoked the brand new Japanese film censorship board, bears the distinction of the first "banned anime" for potentially "corrupting the youth". Unfortunately, it remains lost.)
Namakura Gatana was rediscovered in 2007 at a flea market (along with a film by Seitaro Kitayama, the last of the "three pioneers") by a film historian as a "home version" (meaning, this film was sold to the public in some capacity). It was later found that only the second half of the short was uncovered then, when a whole intro sequence was donated to a museum in 2014. Two further shots were found and assembled into the (presumably) complete film by 2017.
The film itself surrounds a rambunctious and dim witted Samurai. It's very interesting to me that Japan's oldest surviving narrative film, from an open socialist, lampoons Japanese heritage in this way, painting the Samurai warrior as a dullard and brute, and the peasants as the Bugs Bunny to his Elmer Fudd. The film was apparently met with positive reception, the oldest anime review known to exist called it "Excellent Worksmanship".
Personally, I found the film to be enjoyable enough with its physical gags and expressions. Namakura Gatana was produced with predominately cut-out animation (though the first shot did have some traditional ink straight ahead animation). You can think of cut-out animation as the way South Park does their animation (in fact, that's how they did their pilot episode "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" {1997} before they switched to digital compositing). Cut-out animation is the analog big brother to the now pervasive (in American/Canadian animation) flash or "puppet rig" animation that you'll see today on cartoons like Rick and Morty. Before computers, it was accomplished by cutting out pieces of characters, and sliding them around frame by frame (think Stop Motion). This method drastically reduces the number of individual drawings and eases the speed and scale of production. While I vastly prefer traditional animation, the context of this particular short is more than forgivable (it was 1917 for God's sake).
As far as "watching a film for historical value" this is one of the better ones, with an enjoyably goofy aesthetic, some decent comedic timing and an interesting subject matter. At a mere 5 minutes, this should be checked out by everyone at least once.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 12, 2023
It's easy to fall into the trap of considering the beginning of an artistic tradition as an "Adam and Eve" of an entire movement, to paint the history of a national institution as one flat timeline that has a well defined origin point from which everything else sprung from. Reality is usually far less simple.
Japanese animation, moreso than most cinematic traditions, has much of its early history shrouded in mystery, due to the devastating Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and the nature of censorship, both foreign and domestic, in the years leading up to, and just after WWII. Katsudou Shashin, a tiny three second fragment
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of animation painted directly to celluloid, made quite a splash around animation historian discourse when it was discovered in 2004 and subsequently dated as "being up to 10 years older than the oldest known Japanese animation up to this point". Media outlets turned this little curiosity into national headlines as more and more unfounded interest and praise were piled on top of this discovery, up to claims that this may be the first instance of animated film in the world... These claims have since been walked back, as little can be done to properly substantiate them. From what little information we have (this film has no known creator, nor does it even have proof it was ever exhibited), we know that this was considered something akin to a sideshow novelty, it was discovered among a collection of "Magic Lanterns" (European-derived pre-cinema projection technology).
It's unlikely we will ever be able to directly place this weird little film in the correct context in which it was created, and potentially viewed. We have no way of knowing what, if any, foreign animated films were seen by its creator (such as the works of Emile Cohl), or if the inspiration was one of their own design, but we do know that Katsudou Shashin has not been cited as an influence in any of the surviving histories of early Japanese Animation. The tiny industry that directly succeeded it (1917) had more to say about the early entries in the American cartoon series "Colonel Heeza Liar" than they did about Japanese animation. This trend of non-Japanese animation leading the charge of the innovation in the Japanese cartooning industry, and finding greater favor in the Japanese public, is a defining historical consistency of early Japanese animation in its first decades.
Rather than venerating it as a landmark origin point, the mystery of this film is its primary draw. One wonders how it played into the tapestry of early world animation, if ever at all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 29, 2022
This is a review of the extended edition, unlike Battle of Gods I wouldn't consider this cut to be essential, it's just a bit of flashback fanservice and an ad for the Future Trunks television arc, nothing serious.
This canon sequel to the previous film, Battle of Gods, continues to deliver a fun and engaging followup to Akira Toriyama's legendary shonen manga. Whereas Battle of Gods treaded similar ground to Yo! Son Goku and Friends Return!, with a nice balance of slice of life and fighting, this movie is all about the fights, which isn't really a bad thing! Once again I'm very pleased to see
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side characters get focus, most notably Krillin who has a nice little scene with his wife, Jaco who was nice to see animated and Master Roshi out on the battle field kicking ass! As far as a film where the conceit of the thing is bringing back the most popular villain from the dead, Fukkatsu no F essentially delivers on everything it needs to. The world progresses logically, we get to see Goku and Vegeta pushing themselves to the next level of strength, Frieza feels consistent and love-to-hate as ever. Once again the Super Era seems to have a healthy level of self awareness, recognizing Goku and Vegeta's flaws directly in the text, rather than between the lines, Beerus and Whis also feel right at home among the core cast, I really like them!
It's not all sunshine and rainbows, the production side can still be a little rough. The effects animation was definitely better this time around, and generally the fights and characters were smooth and on model, but the use of CG, especially in the crowd scenes remained an eyesore. This is a marginal improvement over BoG, but not quite where a film in a series this big should be. The music was a bit all over the place in this one, some of it I really liked (specifically Frieza's surprise death metal theme!) but some cues felt a bit out of place. Finally, and most glaringly, there is a form in this movie that was not built up to properly, this is probably my biggest issue with the plot of the film. Still, this stuff isn't enough to kill it for me, and it shouldn't be enough to kill it for you. I'm excited to keep moving forward into the Super era of Dragon Ball!
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 8, 2022
This is a manga adaptation of the semi-canon Toei special of the same name. Toriyama claimed he preferred this version slightly (in his classic non-commital fashion) so I was curious to see what the difference was. It's really very minor. As a story the manga is very faithful to the original short, down to the same jokes and situations. On the changes, most of them are what the manga chooses to cut, stuff like Goku and Vegeta being competative when they first meet up, extra scenes of the old characters, stuff like that. Some of the fight is changed for the better, but for the
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most part the weaknesses that I had with the original special remain present here. Stuff like Vegeta feeling a bit off, the premise being inconsequential by nature, etc.
As an artist, Ooishi is servicable for the material, her art is consistent and I never felt like she drug the adaptation down, but she isn't as good as Toriyama. Her backgrounds felt a bit lifeless and her panneling is nowhere near as good as the master. Still it was interesting to see a take on these characters where they're drawn a bit cuter (especially the guys).
Ultimately i'd have to err on the side of the Toei version, I thought the material was covered slightly better there (funnier jokes, better use of old characters) but it's really a wash. I suspect Toriyama's statement might have been for marketing reasons or to be polite to Ooishi, but if i'm to take his word as the truth, i'd say perhaps cutting some material made the characters feel a bit more consistent with the manga and the pacing was a bit more his style. My recommendation to others would be to choose the medium they prefer, and you're gonna get about the same experience either way.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 2, 2022
This semi-canon anniversary special loses a lot of it's value in the post-super era, but it's still worth a watch for Dragon Ball fans who want something short and sweet. The special takes place in between the end of the Buu saga and (at the time non-existent) Super, and really it's just an excuse to see our characters we like hanging out only to transition to a low stakes action setpiece predominately featuring (kid) Trunks and Goten. I mistakenly skipped over this when I watched Battle of Gods but now that i've circled back around, I feel like Battle of Gods actually might have taken
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from this special, mostly in terms of structure and focus (ie, old weaker characters mattering, a focus on comedy and the action setpiece at the end). I think overall Battle of Gods did a better job with this formula, but I do prefer the production aspects of this special, which surprised me with consistent art and a lack of garish digital coloration/bad CG (which means above average for digital Toei). The characters all felt a little flanderized, but never too ridiculously far that it felt offensive (though Vegeta was getting there). Overall this is a low stakes, simple side story with the characters you know and love from the manga and original anime. Totally skippable, but totally watchable too.
Random additional thoughts:
-Launch was remembered!
-Vegeta having a little brother stretches belivablity in canon a bit
-Power scaling is a bit fucky (main villain should have been obliterated in two seconds lol)
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 31, 2021
Note: This is a review of the "tokubetsuban" version with 20 minutes of additional footage, this is the definitive version.
Pitched as the first "canon" elaboration on the finale of the manga, Battle of Gods marks the transition of the franchise from the long completed "Z" era, to the (at the time of release unnamed) "Super" era. With that in mind, a lot of the future of the franchise hinges on this film, and i'm happy to say Battle of Gods "gets" Dragon Ball. Time has been good to Akira Toriyama. Gone is the rushed, seat of your pants energy that permeated the last arc and
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a half, and instead we arrive at a unique good natured tone that feels at home with the early parts of the manga, without distracting from the story or devaluing the characters like some of the comedic choices in the Buu saga. This reverance for the source material in its totality strikes a welcome balance of slice of life comedy and action and it left a great first impression for me experiencing Super content for the first time. In a lot of ways, it felt like Toriyama and company were specifically addressing common issues with Dragon Ball in this film. We got to see less relevant characters be themselves and do things, we got to see Goku and Vegeta care for their family (specifically their wives) instead of being complete sociopaths, the film even makes a point in the end that it's not just Goku and his main character powers that matter, but the Dragon World as a whole. I liked seeing the Pilaf gang make a return and I enjoyed Beerus as the antagonist. I can imagine a world where someone who values the most serious aspects of "Z" era Dragon Ball above all else would think of this film as too light hearted and breezy, but anyone who enjoys any more than that specific narrow viewpoint of Dragon Ball should have fun with this. My biggest criticism of the film would be the visual presentation. It's digital era Toei so I braced for impact but it still shocks me that some of this CGI and post effects are considered theatrically presentable. It's not the worst i've seen from them and there's nothing that is outright offensive, but don't come to this film for the production value, there are plenty of television shows that put it to shame, average cut to cut and peak Sakuga to peak Sakuga. The Japanese cast delivers as usual and the insert song used during the fight did it's job to hype me up.
Recommended for fans of the Manga or the Toei anime adaptation, not recommended as the entry point into the franchise (Start at chapter 1!)
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 30, 2021
A short and sweet manga from Akira Toriyama that tells it's own self contained story in the vein of his more light hearted stuff, that is until the end when it's actually revealed that this is a prequel to the famous Dragon Ball! This is my least favorite period of Toriyama's art, but even then it's still tremendously appealing. Dragon Ball fans need to come at this with an open mind and realize that the pandering to them is secondary to the story that Jaco is trying to tell. There are no mind blowing revelations for Dragon Ball here, honestly the bonus chapter was the
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worst of the manga, I much preferred the good natured fun of the original characters and story.
Read this if you want some early style Toriyama hijinks, and enjoy the Dragon Ball info as a bonus, not the other way around.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 30, 2021
It's hard to review Dragon Ball as a whole, through its run it becomes many different things, the first chapter and last chapter are barely recognizable. I tend to prefer the early part of the manga which is an adventure comedy series over the more fight heavy action series it develops into, but the series is engaging all the way through, only seriously stumbling towards the very end. Toriyama's art is beautiful (especially in the first half), and his use of pannelling for action is awesome.
I've never grown up with this series, but I can say without a hint of nostalgia, it's worth checking out
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if you enjoy fighting manga, don't expect perfection in logic or the neatest ending in the world, but you will have fun all the way.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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