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Over the years I have seen the snippets of Keita Kurosaka's work; some may have came across it randomly while exploring, especially the work "Mochibei", which has garnered some notable bewilderment. Kurosaka has a striking style, you know his work when you see it.

To see his style in a fully realized way, through a motion picture, is something I have always wanted to see. Midori-Ko is that achievement, created over the time span of 13 years and over 30,000 drawings.

The trailer sets us up for something ominous already. A girl living in an unnamed place in Toyko in the year 20XX has a fascination with ... plants, eventually happening upon a "forbidden" hybrid of plant and human named Midori-Ko. Things go wild from there.

The story, while interesting, is hard to parse at times; events happen, but sometimes feel random, as do the characters and such. At 55 minutes, the movie feels quite fast paced at times and out of control.

But this surreal world, with this surreal gloomy soundtrack, with this surreal, breathtaking, scary-at-times artwork is what makes this worth a watch. It is the fact it feels out of control that hooks me. The sheer effort made for this film is incredible, and its style is what carries the film alongside the wonderful score. And with how relatively short it is, it is something that can be rewatched to further attempt to grasp this fascinating, violent, erotic and exotic world without much issue.

I enjoy this immensely, and you probably will too if you enjoy Kurosaka's works or have an affinity for non-standard anime like this.

Eat-Man. The title alone is provocative. As you watch Eat-Man, you may ask yourself several questions. Here are some questions I asked myself.

1. What is this? 2. Who is this lumbering fool of a protagonist? 3. Is there an overall theme tying this show's episodes together? 4. What is the point of the broken flying airship? 5. What is the point of all this?

To answer these in order:
1. This is the show Eat-Man from 1997. Not the 1998 one.
2. Bolt Crank, greatest mercenary of all time in the world and universe ever.
3. Bolt Crank, greatest mercenary of all time in the world and universe ever.
4. ... Yes.
5. Yes.

With these questions answered, I basked in the horrendous, edgy, and hilarious glory of this show.

This show was a random encounter for a friend and I, and watching it would change our lives forever. Eat-Man, per my research, is not a direct adaptation of the manga. After viewing Eat-Man '98 and witnessing the sheer difference and sharp incline in quality, I can say Eat-Man is just as enjoyable, for all the opposite reasons to Eat-Man '98.

Something you need to know, I love shlock (ie. action, dialogue, whatever). I also hold no nostalgia for this show as this was my first viewing. When I state this, I mean it in terms of my perception: Eat-Man goes beyond shlock and becomes what I'd consider the ultimate "so bad that it is terrible, but also absolutely hilarious" anime I have seen thus far.

STORY:

There isn't much. Just know this: each episode is different and the only linking chains between them are Bolt Crank, the episode's girl of the week, and the ruined airship L'avion (which is still afloat throughout the series). In fact, sans the final two episodes, there is nothing connecting the episodes at all. It doesn't even feel like the same universe, or even the same show half the time until we see our hero, Bolt Crank, standing and staring off into the distance, waiting for the plot to happen to someone else, so they can bring him in and have him intervene in a minor way. Bolt Crank exists just because the plot needs him to do something each episode, whether it makes narrative sense or not.

Sometimes, the plots of each episode can seem intriguing, but sometimes they are dealt with so lazily or so unexpectedly it just seems so ridiculous. There were moments I looked over to my friend in stunned disbelief that the plot was unfolding in such a way, with Bolt Crank being made to appear badass but arguably comes off as incompetent or non-sensical. Absolute comedy gold.

The writing is laughable and lacks any context to the world or motivations. Episode 6, in particular, is so lazy writing wise and is without any real indication or attempt to construct a plot that makes sense, and reusing a 4 minute asset twice to pad out the length...it is lazy, but it is also very remarkable at how baffled I was watching it. Any questions you have about the world will go unanswered. Any questions you have about plot relevance will go unanswered. This is Eat-Man, damn it. Enjoy the half-baked symbolism.

I did find it funny, to be honest, that this came before Trigun. At least it doesn't seem like a ripoff.

Rating: 3.

ART:

Bog standard. Very dark, very 90's feel to the art, what they show of it anyway. The animation lacks fluidity, wirh extreme closeups and odd editing ruining any sense of gravitas (but they sure do make me laugh). There is some visual flair here or there, but overall the animation is serviceable at best and underutilized at worst. The character design for most denizens of this world are relatively generic sans Bolt Crank, who dons a large totally badass trench coat and super cool red sunglasses (that remind me of The Professional) and a strange haircut that doesn't make sense the more I look at it. In fact, the reason you recognize Bolt so much is his design; the man looks like a giant box with his shoulders that fuckin' square.

Rating: 4

SOUND:

One point of uniqueness for Eat-Man is that it does feature some pretty snappy music; the OP theme (while lyrically cheesy) does a good job to hype the viewer as well as the music heard throughout the show, mixing in ambient to rock to electronica to blues. It's not bad and I quite liked it when I heard it (unironically).

Rating: 7

CHARACTER:

The aforementioned design of the character is merely one aspect of the enigma that is Bolt Crank. When he is not eating literal bolts or metal objects (hence the title of the show), Bolt walks the wasteland in search of fun and excitement...I mean, mercenary work...I mean, places to stand for a bit and stare off into the distance. His other gimmick aside from eating metal is the power to reform any material in his right hand. In this show, it really underutilizes this concept as Bolt will usually just form a gun in his hand.

Almost all other characters are there but forgettable. There is a female each episode that will often find solace and comfort in the Frankenstein's monster-esque Bolt Crank or somehow involve him into the proceedings. It feels forced, rushed, and not fleshed out for most ideas here, but the characters especially are.

It's clear they wanted to make a badass character out of Bolt...this would be achieved in Eat-Man '98. Here, Bolt Crank is about as badass as Neil Breen is in his films. Also; both play mercenaries walking in the desert searching for jobs and are extremely deadly badass killers...I hope a live action version of Eat-Man stars Neil Breen, he would kill it.

Rating: 4

ENJOYMENT:

And here is why I feel I am a hipster; combine all I said from the previous sections. This show does so many things wrong but with such aplomb that I am amazed at how much I just wanted to see it through. Never is it boring. Never did I want to stop watching. Each strange choice and misstep just made the experience that much more fun. Enjoyed ironically it's a damn fantastic time, and unironically it's honestly such a baffling show with such a weird protagonist that I kind of love it.

Rating: 10

Overall, I was going to leave this unrated but you have to rate it. I think it is simultaneously a 10 and a 1, constantly riding the line between awful and amazing. Perhaps Eat-Man is both amazingly awful yet also awfully amazing, and I'm not giving this show a 1 after being struck with laughter so hard it made me cry. Perhaps I'm overselling the potential hilarity there is here, as humor is subjective and this is not intended to be comedic, but the sheer amount of baffling ideas and choices alongside cheesy action shlock just make me laugh and filled with happiness. If you have that mentality, this is a great show to gawk at and make fun of.

If you want a quality show, check out Eat-Man '98 instead.

10/10 best new music also 1/10

Minor Spoilers.

Yes, I know. I get it. It's a gimmick: a bunch of anthropomorphic (read: basically human) strains of rice set out to become the HarveStars in this food-based idol anime, glorifying white rice in what is essentially a propaganda piece/P.S.A. attempting to encourage more sales and growth of white rice.

With that bizarre scenario in mind, if you ride the irony, this show is absolutely hilarious. So much effort went into telling the facts of the grains industry and real world problems facing it, inserted clumsily into the actual character dialogue; you can almost imagine the meeting that was had in order to promote white ... rice effectively in the show. If you take into context the absolute corporate cynicism at display here, it becomes very humorous to think about, at least, for me.

It follows stereotypical rice boys, a complete set of oft-used anime personalities. They gotta train to be HarveStars, you see. When they do a special dance, it is a Harvest Show, and rice begins to grow. The main protagonist gets a crew together and the group is called Love Rice. There's also the bread boys, their rivals, whose group is called Yeast King. Even if it is enjoyed ironically there's some dumb but funny humor at play, with a lot of rice puns. Lots of rice puns.

Each episode is short and you could blaze through the series in a day. The first season episodes all end in a special rice-related recipe (done in live action footage, something akin to what you might find on your facebook feed), whereas the second season episodes end in rice trivia.

So the question being, is it fun to watch alone? Probably not. But if you get a good buddy and you both go into this anime, it's a fun watch for how dumb it is alone. Immensely enjoyable.

Mochibei is a short animation made in 2005 by Keita Kurosaka. It lasts about 57 seconds.

There is no narrative, or at least no narrative that can be immediately applied to the animation.

Yet again, the star here is the animation and style that Kurosaka exhibits. A strange human-esque figure almost slithers up from a black void and, whilst spouting profanity and insult laden dialogue, slams its face against the screen several times, distorting the face into frightening, distorted features. A moment of screaming ensues while the figure seems to bubble and twist and distort further. The figure eventually collapses after one final curse, revealing a blue ... sky, birds chirping, and what I believe are blades of grass falling.

Say what you will, the animation is gross, sickly, and ultimately perfect for the subject described previously. Kurosaka's animation style is immediately recognizable and is in top form, impressing despite the short length of the piece. The sound design is suitable, creating a claustrophobic atmosphere until the very final moments. Indeed, this is Kurosaka doing his style well and with great effect; this grotesque being will stay in your memory for quite a while, a testament to its overall effectiveness.

It's 57 seconds in total for some neat, grisly, and disgusting looking (but well animated) animation. What else can you expect from this man other than that?

Story: 5, Art: 10, Sound: 8, Character: 7, Enjoyment: 8, Overall Average: ~8

I was introduced to Another as a show where the gore is the highlight of the piece; because of this, I avoided it for a long while. I do admit I have a certain bias when it comes to gory shows or movies; if it is done right, it can add a hyper-violent atmosphere bathed in shock value that doesn't take away from the narrative. When done wrong, well, you get pure shlock that overshadows the entire experience (see Blood-C for an example of this).

After deciding to just sit down and check the show out, I can confirm that the gory moments are quite effective ... in their presentation when they are shown, but they are few and far between. Instead, most of the viewing of Another involves quite a bit dialogue, ferrying the viewer from episode to episode, cramming in information and setting up the rules for what is about to take place in the plot. Luckily, Another also keeps exposition subtle at times, using visual cues, great "camera" angles (Dutch angles abound all throughout just to give the feeling that something is off) and just enough foreboding imagery to keep the viewer thinking about what is to come.

Story-wise, Another is not very complex, and it makes it easy to follow along with the ideas presented therein, until it becomes convoluted with minor details everywhere. The dialogue throughout is serviceable, and delivered well by a great voice acting crew. The biggest highlight is the art style: beautiful paintings and scenery, decent to great animation, and very haunting and shocking effects (especially for death and dream sequences, which look like they made more of an effort into those scenes than others). Sound design is also top notch, with noisy interludes creating a nervous atmosphere and great sfx all throughout.

Characters in this, however, are a mixed bag; because we only get to know 8 of these characters well enough to remember them, the rest of the many characters remaining seem to fall by the wayside. We aren't very invested in most of them, and I ended up forgetting many of them, sans the main few characters, of course. These main characters do make up for it, adding to the narrative in unique ways, with endearing personalities and quirks about them.

Despite the aforementioned character issues, story issues, and some really weird editing choices (especially in the first few episodes, with the constant "doll" transitions), I did enjoy this anime quite a bit. It kept me engaged throughout, I was interested in the mystery, and the twist was satisfyingly sad.

Overall, I enjoyed it. 6/10.

Watashi no Kao is a hauntingly cool (yet sadly, very short) work by the (in)famous Keita Kurosaka.

Right off the bat, the story is not the focus, as there is very little.

What is of focus is the incredible art style that Kurosaka employs. A twisted, surreal depiction of humanity that embodies the grotesque, creating a style that is oddly part-realistic and part-surrealistic. This style is often seen in his works, and speaks to the unique nature of his artistry. I love it.

The sound design is very good, and backs up the intense imagery with an equal dose of intense sounds. It feels demented, out ... of this world, and engrosses you into the images therein.

I greatly enjoyed this short animation, and would recommend it highly to open-minded animation fans and Kurosaka devotees (all of which seem to be only me so far).

5/10/8/7/9/8

Ga no Iru Tokoro (A Place Where There Are Moths) is an interesting beast. The story revolves around urbanization and nature, with a middle-aged woman serving as the character we focus on, and her experience with the moths.

The art is photo-realistic...what seem to be animated portraits of things such as buildings, a pot, a middle-aged woman. The only exception lies with the moths, which seem unreal, not of the plane the woman exists in. I admire the odd art style and the decision to utilize it.

The sound is...fitting, but not without it's faults. The moths often use a small sound that could get irritating very ... quickly. However, this could be viewed as in line with the story, making it have a greater effect.

The characters are interesting, despite the brevity of the animation and the lack of introduction to them. There are only "two" characters, being the middle-aged woman and the moths. Evidenced by their environment, there is a clear struggle, a clear frustration between the woman and the moths. Urbanization and Nature are colliding, and it creates characters that seem fleshed out despite not being so at all.

Overall, I enjoyed this odd short film. While I am not inherently sure of its meaning, I can say the oddity of it and the surrealism it purveys is worth the watch.

7/7/5/7/7/6

Seizure warnings could not prepare you for Aki no Puzzle (Puzzle of Autumn). This is an exercise in experimentation and psychedelic imagery. Not much here for most people, especially with the constantly flashing lights and the noise-esque music.

However, if you dig the art style and the sounds, there might be something here for you. There is a certain character to the drawings that one may manage to even see.
The sound design is the only home-run here; perfectly suited to the cacophony of color and distortion, noise attacking the senses like a hammer. As a fan of noise, it was quite the spectacle, and raised my ... enjoyment of the piece.

Overall, it's an experience, I guess, but it was most likely made just to hurt your eyes.

1/5/10/3/5/4

Yukidoke (The Thaw) is a conceptual work. In of itself, it shows the viewer the perspective of a boy who sees a dog's carcass, and from then on plunges into his own fears. Due to the nature of the film being short, it doesn't leave a lot to see, but a lot to interpret. The visuals are haunting, disturbing, memorable. The sound, minimal, but droning. Dread is the key word here; it's heavy, demented, and sickly.

The negatives come with the character. There isn't much here in regards to that; the short film is more about the atmosphere, the feeling it gives, rather than the characters ... themselves.

Overall, this is a good short, not really meant to be considered "anime", but still important in terms of Japanese animation.
7/9/7/5/8/7