Vexille: 2077 Nihon Sakoku

In an alternate 21st century, the robotics industry undergoes a period of rapid advancement worldwide. By the year 2050, Japan has firmly established itself as the leader in robotic technology and manufacture with Daiwa Heavy Industries. As the technology evolves to include robotic enhancements to the human body, the blurring of the line between man and machine triggers a sudden shift in world opinion. In response, the U.N. passes a unilateral ban of further research and development on robotics in 2067. Japan fiercely objects to this ban, but is unable to prevent its passage. In protest, Japan withdrew from international politics and chose to pursue a policy of high-tech national isolation. While only trade continues, Japan disappears from the world scene.

Ten years later, a series of bizarre incidents lead the American technology police agency SWORD to believe that Japan has concealed extensive development of banned technologies through the use of the RACE network. SWORD dispatches a unit of special agents to infiltrate Japan and gather intelligence on the country. Vexille, a veteran agent among the group, uncovers the horrifying truth behind the ten years of isolation.

Serra, Vexille Main

Kuroki, Meisa Japanese

Takashi Supporting

Park, Romi Japanese

Maria Supporting

Matsuyuki, Yasuko Japanese

Zack Supporting

Kuroda, Takaya Japanese

Taro Supporting

Kakihara, Tetsuya Japanese

Saga Supporting

Takahashi, Kenji Japanese

Kisaragi Supporting

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Hoc Supporting

Itakura Supporting

Saitou, Jirou Japanese

Borg Supporting

Sugou, Takayuki Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Sori, Fumihiko Director, Script, Screenplay

Burgmeier, John Script

Boom Boom Satellites Music

Reviews

Feb 10, 2008

Beatnik

Recommended

Vexille is in the same vein as cyberpunk thriller franchises Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell. There is excellent animation and world/mecha design on display, with great music by Paul Oakenfold.

The story is intriguing and has moments of awe, but is overall generic and subpar. The premise of having the main protagonist from America and treating Japan like current-day hermit North Korea is very cool but not expanded upon creatively.

Vexille settles for obligatory action setpieces and clichéd villains to fill the running time. All stuff straight out of the Rebels-Fight-Empire 101 textbook. A textbook that is in need of a new edition, ... I think we can all agree.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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May 11, 2008

Ranivus

Mixed Feelings

Set in the year 2077, this cyberpunk thriller starts off with a bang and unfortunately goes out with a wimper.


The story evolves around roughneck yet beautiful girl named Vexille who works for an elite military force codenamed: S.W.O.R.D. In a nutshell, Japan has elected to become an isolated country and decides not to play ball with the rest of the world. A semi interesting story ensues...

Fortunately, as soon as the movie starts you are well treated for some nice visual eye candy. As you would expect from a CGI heavy movie, everything is rendered with utmost detail. But almost immediately you will notice that ... the characters are altered slightly than what you would normally expect. They appear to be more styled in a cel-shaded way. A little minor gripe with cel-shading is that sometimes theres a little TOO much 'shading' on the characters. The style may look a little weird (semi-simplified characters over an extremely detailed background) but you will most likely grow used to it after a few minutes. There are a few flaws in the animation but thats proof of how beautiful this movie is. You'll be actively searching for things in the artwork to nit pick.

A great thing about a cyberpunk universe is understanding the universe itself. The back story and technology throughout the movie will most definitely do its job in to pulling you into the Vexille universe as all the technology is pretty believable (for the most part) and cool to look at. Unfortunately what pulls the story down a few points is that the actual plot is very unspectacular. When the viewer discovers the plot, seasoned anime viewers will notice how cliche' the whole move is from the climax to the ending. Which disappointed me so much since they could have easily gone a unique route but decided to take the safe (and unimpressive) route.

With a weakening plot, unfortunately the characters have to suffer as well. As they are near replicas of other cyberpunk characters. It also means that the characters faces don't show emotions very well for some reason (i.e. happy, sad, etc). To add more salt to the wound, the characters don't speak as much which is good and bad. Good as in usually when they're not talking some kick ass action sequence is going on, and bad as in the character chemistry is virtually nonexistent. If you have been following any of my reviews, chemistry is what makes a good anime great.

Don't get me wrong, this movie was for the most part, pretty good and I am most likely going to buy the dvd when it comes out, but the storyline and characters started to wane (or letup) further into the movie. If they only kept its intensity and uniqueness all the way to the end, this would definitely be a 9, but this movie deserves no more than a 6.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 19, 2009

PhantmShado

Not Recommended

The story telling in Vexille is entirely unimaginative. Yes, that should be where this review begins; very little to no thought at all went into making the story line. Nearly everything is predictable far before it happens and the things that aren't you won't care about because there isn't any character depth to hold it together. This is not helped by the flashy animation style which accomplishes its shiny veneer at the cost of removing emotions from the faces of the characters. Seriously, it's not fair, the characters don't have that depth to lose. The fact that anime emotions are exaggerated beyond actual ... human expression limits is not actually always a bad thing. The premise of the story on the other hand is somewhat original, but still entirely implausible.

Sound was unimaginative too, didn't stand out in most scenes, and those scenes had a plus as a result. Which leaves the art itself which, as has been stated, is very shiny. But it's kind of a painting over the hole in the wall rather than fill it sort of effect. The flaws are still there and fully visible.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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FUNimantion announced Vexille will open in theaters and DVD in August 2008. For those who crave cg futuristic robot anime then you will be looking forward to this. V...read more

Aug 9, 2007 7:11 AM by Darkanger | Discuss (1 comment)

	Poll: Vexille - 2077 Nihon Sakoku Episode 1 Discussion cyruz - Feb 3, 2008	37 replies	by Titadou »» Nov 23, 7:06 AM
	SPOILER ALERT! something's amiss in ending. grayle - Mar 8, 2009	1 replies	by HNSeijin »» Mar 24, 2009 11:13 PM
	Looks great! :) Mad - Jul 5, 2007	19 replies	by Code_Monkey »» Feb 6, 2008 10:06 PM

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