Shisha no Teikoku

This review is my very biased opinion. I am a huge sucker for redjuice and EGOiST and it will be apparent in the review.

Let's start with the good point(s).

Art: 10
The art and animation is amazing. Redjuice has provided the movie with some great character design followed by incredible backgrounds, animation of scenes and effects.

Story: 3
The story is hugely inspired by Frankenstein. This might be due to me not being able to understand the story, however it mostly seemed like a mediocre fanfiction which includes major characters from many classic western novels such as Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes books and more. This might be due ... to the fact that this is a movie adaptation from a novel. With knowledge of all the characters (I only knew about 30% beforehand) this might be an interesting approach.
The movie has a lot of plot holes, pretty much nothing is explained or showed (unless this is caused by my lack of understanding) and the story pretty much uses the most cliché plot twists to a point where it's not even surprising at all. In the same way action scenes seemed hollow and seemed to follow some kind of cliché setup taken directly from the worse end of Hollywood action movies.
The events defy common logic and the choices made by the characters makes no sense but this is something you'll see in many old novels (in my very biased opinion).

Sound: 9
Soundtracks wasn't used a lot (unless I failed to notice) which in my opinion was a nice decision which made the movie feel closer to the time of the events (19th century).
I was quite impressed by the sounds the zombies made and the sound effects in general were nice.
The 2 ending themes, Door by EGOiST and another one was quite nice and fit the movie really well, but they were the only clear instance of music or soundtrack (I might be very bad at noticing soundtracks).

Characters: 5
Even if the art of the characters are 10/10 the characters themselves are quite mediocre. The characters don't seem to resemble the source material (how they are in their respective books) and seem to fit a stereotype quite well. Without spoiling too much, the sidekick Barnaby (I'm pretty sure it's Barnaby) is basically random sidekick nr. 1.

Enjoyment: 8
This was quite enjoyable to watch as the art (backgrounds, characters & animation quality) was so good that I could fap to it. The story was interesting, as it used tonnes of references and had some really great ideas, but it wasn't good enough to keep me hooked. Questions I wanted answered during the movie was usually like: How are they going to explain this? The answer was it wouldn't be explained. The characters, while not being unique, they weren't terrible either so just mediocre.

Overall: 7 (I allowed myself to vote 8 on it for bias)
Quite similar to Guilty Crown by having superior art and bad story.
Also had other Guilty Crown feels and elements (Guilty Crown haters shouldn't watch this imo :>)
Might not be the movie you remember as the best but it is definitely enjoyable as you watch it.

Story: 7/10

This story is heavily influenced by Frankenstein. The whole plot revolves around the possibility of reanimating corpses infusing them with their "souls". These corpses prove to be very useful after time and they're used for different works. Watson is hired to retrieve some notes that would help to recover the souls of the corpses, but there are some conflicting opinions. Some people think this process is awful, and some others want to take advantage of it. Watson will find himself in the middle of this situation and will have to take a decision that will affect everyone.

This story is a re-reading of Frankenstein ... and the moral conflict it arises from the use of corpses. There are some changes, like the technology used, but the similiraties are there.

Art: 10/10

The art is stunning. The characters are absolutely beautiful and very different from each other. The details in the backgrounds are simply amazing. Visually, this movie is a masterpiece.

Sound: 7/10

The music is nice and it fits with the situation of the movie but there's not any remarkable song.

Character: 8/10

Okay, this may be my favourite part of the movie. All the characters are based in literary figures. If you've read the works it's funny to see some similarities between the characters with the original sources, like how Watson is actually studying medicine, for example. For me this was a very nice touch, but I admit that if you don't know the works this little details are going to pass unnoticed. Either way they're not necessary to understand the main plot but it is a nice touch either way.

Enjoyment: 8/10

I think this movie is pretty enjoyable. It can be confusing at times but it is interesting enough.

Overall: 9/10

The animation is amazing, the characters varied and the story is interesting enough to keep you entertained. The only problem can be the fact that the plot is not that original but a re-reading of Frankestein and that it can get complicated at some parts.

Shisha no Teikoku (The Empire of Corpses) a movie from the Project Itoh, so this entire movie was some how confusing, I enjoyed it, but I had problems understanding part of it maybe with a re-watch in the future I will understand more, part of the reason it's hard to understand is the characters since they are from different novels/books and without reading them you may not understand some characters decisions so moving on:

Story- 6/10

On the paper, Empire of Corpses looks like the coolest thing ever. Seriously, a movie about zombies who become part of society and are used in our daily lives in a ... Steampunk London with famous characters from various novels? Fuck Yeah but as always the sad part is, the movie promises you lots of things but has trouble to keep them. The story looks simple at first sight but it’s actually way more complex that you think. The first half of the movie is pretty good but it falls apart in the second half, the ending will leave you with lots of questions that will never be answered nothing is explained multiples brains had to work together on this movie to understand it well i guess that’s something.

Characters- 8/10

The characters are almost all from various novels/books or are real people that I believe lived in London during that century. But that doesn’t really matter actually. Aside from little references that made me smile like “ooh look it's Frederick Burnaby” the characters being named after famous people has no influence on the story whatsoever.You have the Main Character Dr. Watson (sidekick to Holmes) Hadaly Lilith (from the book The Future Eve) and many others so are they well developed? I’d say meh i guess without reading those books you can't know how much alike they really are or different they are, the character designs are great.

Sound- 7/10

Really nothing big to say here, the OST had nothing memorable but it was good enough to set good moods for action or drama.

Art- 10/10

Now this was the best thing from the movie, the Art is amazing, Wit studio has done a great job once again the movie is eye candy for anyone from snowy cold landscapes to the noisy, full of corpses city of London, corpses exploding and fighting scenes everything was detailed, well draw and animated.

Overall/Enjoyment- 8/10

Should you watch it? well if the movie sounded cool you should check it out, I know I’m kind on this one, but the Art saved this show, I also liked the characters and the story of this movie i belive there is more to it than what i understood or what you can understand watching it only once it’s obvious that it could have been better handled and executed with maybe more explanations on the incentives of the characters and the story as a hole. Anyway it's a good movie and i don't think you lose anything from watching it :)

It's so sad to see how people misunderstood this masterpiece because well known names were used separately to whom they belong to. Shisha no Teikoku is part of a series based on novels written by Project Itoh ("Genocidal Organ", "Harmony", "Shisha no Teikoku/The Empire of Corpses"). Unfortunately the 3rd novel - "The Empire of Corpses" - was finished after Satoshi Itoh's death (2009) using a few of his ideas he managed to write about his future story.

Story (might contain spoilers)
9/10

Even though it was confusing at times and I had to watch some parts many times to understand them, at the end of it I ... was sitting in my chair satisfied with how the story turned out to be.
After a person dies, his body becomes 21 grams lighter which is thought to be the weight of the soul. Two bright med students engage in a dangerous experiment to prove a lot of their theories revolving around life and death. One of them offers to be the subject of their experiment (Friday) of bringing back to life the deads along with their souls. In Friday's opinion "thoughts define soul". Since all the rest of the deads brought back to life until then seemed to have lost their soul and their whole identity, Friday tells his friends, Watson, that he will let him know if he (or a part of him) is inside his revived body by touching his nose with a pen. And this is how the amazing story begins.

Art
10/10

Breathtaking, after all we're talking about Wit Studio, the one that produced Shingeki no Kyojin and Koutetsujou no Kabaneri.

Sound
10/10

Fitting the story perfectly. Ending performed by EGOIST - no need to say anything about that, we know what happens when ops/eds are performed by them.

Character
10/10

I liked almost all characters and the way they reacted to various situations. Most of them are named after famous writers, characters of famous novels, famous soliders and leaders.

Overall

10/10


--Thank you--

Artwork
I'll start off with the art and consistency of it. It's very consistent in terms of the drawn sections of the anime the quality never really dropped in terms of that style. The problem is that there is multiple instances of CG used in the film which detracts a fair good amount from it's visuals. I still managed to appreciate it but clash of styles if very clear.

Sound Design.
A day from watching the event I can't remember any of the music that were used but there are definitely moments in the film that music definitely elevated scenes well and there are times when the director/editor ... knew when not to use music.

Story
The story has a rather simple premise but the story doesn't rush its premise and shows you in depth what it's going to be about but still manages to not answer everything. The story goes to many different locations during the film moving from place to place to the point where it arguably could have stayed in locations for longer but none of the locations felt like they spent too long there. It's a film that has a few twists and turns and some of them can be on the obvious side if you've watched many Sci Fi classics.

Setting
Set in the latter half of the 1800s (1870s area) it does for the most part establish that well. It isn't like our version of that so there are several differences. I feel that some of the buildings shouldn't be as futuristic for the time that they are set in.

Characters
The characters are all to an extent archetypes of characters you already know. The Main character feels like your average main character that is rather smart (thought he doesn't show much of that during the film) though his name in popular culture would say otherwise. The film does focus more on story progression but the character do evolve slightly with the way that they are thinking.

Enjoyment 
I enjoyed this film thoroughly but I did find a 5 minute section near the ending to be not as entertaining as I would have liked. There is a constant struggle with the main character and his friend that does feel rather repetitive and by the 3rd time it happens I had a good indication what was roughly going to happen later

Misc
Unfortunately I feel that the synopsis and character list slightly spoil/ruin the movie if and so I would recommend not reading that but I'm pretty that's going to convince most of you to read it. I watched this at the MCM Loves Anime event where everyone aside from me (aside from two girls who came back during the end) left during the credits of the film.

They missed the epilogue that happened at the end of the credits which is important to see as it's important to know actually know what happens so remember to watch the credits or at least the last minute of it.


Overall
To conclude it's a good film that I would recommend people to go watch. It has some repetitive moments but unfortunately the last 20 minutes seems to get a lot of people that watch it confused. If you don't pay too much attention to films then I can see why you could easily get confused as some things don't get explained twice though most things do.

It has a very good plot, but its kind of hard to follow. I have to watch it more than once to completely understand the movie.
but overall, all of the confusion is worth it for the masterpiece plot.
I love the the artworks, it is beautiful the soundtrack is also good to hear. what I love the most is how EGOIST successfully fit in the movie.
The character development is kind of slow, but it is still acceptable.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. But it left some unanswered questions.
if you like a goth anime such as black butler theme, you should watch it!

The idea that someone could speak ill of this is unfathomable. You will only fail to enjoy this movie if you come in with wildly inaccurate expectations.

This is perhaps not the MOST cerebral flick around, but it isn't like there is nothing to chew on from that angle. As a tale of one man's search for an almost philosophers stone-esque ideal, it's explores its chosen intellectual premises quite thoroughly.

Don't waste your time watching this solo. Some of the historical references are just a touch on the obscure side, enough that having some extra manpower around to increase the chances someone knows what is going on ... will increase your enjoyment. While there isn't strictly any actual comedy in the movie, you'll be hard pressed not to burst into laughter at times.

MOSTLY though, this film is incredible because it is like a million rad as hell things crammed into a single movie, mostly coherently. This film has everything. Cool steampunk necromancy bullshit, Ulysses S. Grant, 007, flamethrowers, the Afghan War but with zombie ninjas, frankensteins, samurai, seriously they covered it all. All animated with the sort of love and attention we've come to expect from the increasingly well resourced Wit Studios.

Empire of Corpses depicts an alternate interpretation of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein mixed with several characters from other notable Victorian era stories. Set in an alternate Victorian era England where technology used to reanimate corpses has allowed for England's quick technological advance, corpse engineer John Watson illegally reanimates the corpse of his close friend and former partner, Friday. To avoid punishment for his crimes, Watson is given the mission of retrieving the journal of the famous Victor Frankenstein, whose records have information on potential advances in reanimation of corpses that could allow them to gain free will and the possible restoration of their original soul.

Empire of ... Corpses offers off a great balance of adventure and philosophical dilemmas in its focus on Watson's search for Frankenstein's journal. I'll dabble into the adventure aspect first as that will be more straightforward to discuss over the philosophical elements. Watson's search for the journal with his allies lead him to trek to Russia and Japan in search of its whereabouts. This provides some solid world building to exploring how these countries each make use of the reanimation technology and provide more exploration of what the contents of Frankenstein's journal would mean for the reanimation process. Some shocking plot twists come about with the revelations from the journal, as the series introduces a couple villains who have their own ulterior motives for using the journal's knowledge. One of them will be very familiar to those who have read Mary Shelly's novel and their motives play into the movie's philosophical themes very nicely. The other antagonist plays into more conventional territory with his motives where while a unique twist to standard “take over the world” motives of villainy, still comes off as cliched and less intriguing compared to the other notable villain of Empire of Corpses.

The philosophical element that comes into play is regarding the corpses as sentient forms of life. Within the alternate world portrayed in Empire of Corpses, the corpses that serve humanity are regarded as little more than tools, much in the same vain that alternate futures portrayed in sci-fi anime would usually involve human treatment of robots. This is a moral dilemma faced by Watson throughout much of the film as he desires Frankenstein's journal to uncover a means to restore Friday's soul back to his body, yet comes to realize the flaws of such research when he discovers the ethical lines that are crossed when trying to produce a corpse having free will. The dilemma is further complicated by the emergence of one of the movie's villains who faces his own personal tragedy from the society established in the movie and seeks to correct it by any means, even if it risks the fall of humanity to do so. This sparks an interesting debate similar to what is portrayed within Mary Shelly's classic novel if one could consider our villain and the revived corpses to be humans or monsters. The movie ending wraps up this dilemma in an ambiguous matter intentionally to allow viewers to come to their own conclusions over how to justify the treatment of corpses and what defines a living being as man or monster.

Visually, Empire of Corpses is an impressive-looking film that depicts steampunk-like settings with how life within the alternate reality of the movie gets depicted. Settings are drawn to be faithfully accurate to the time period in which the series is portrayed while mixed with steampunk elements that include the use of steam-powered technology and automatons that are major components to the world of the movie. The historical accuracy is also passed along to the type of dress that British and Japanese characters have around the time period, with a minor issue being Hadaly's style of dress clashing badly with public decency trends of the time with her cleavage being on prominent display. Animation is consistently fluid throughout the film from the movement of vehicles to the unnatural and disturbing slow walking of the reanimated corpses as they assist their masters and attack intruders or enemy threats.

As a fair warning, this film is quite bloody and disturbing at many points with the integration of reanimated corpses into society and some nasty methods of death that take place as more of the plot regarding Frankenstein's diary gets unveiled, thus I would avoid showing this off to younger or more sensitive viewers. But if you have the stomach to handle this film's macabre themes and plot, Empire of Corpses offers an engaging adventure that dabbles into themes from Mary Shelly's Frankenstein in its own unique way and offers some surprising developments that Watson and his comrades encounter throughout their search for Frankenstein's diary.

Shisha no Teikoku is a psychological anime with a Victorian Steampunk setting and the unusual twist of zombies which, in this universe, play a vital part in the worlds economy.

The core of the story was extremely intriguing and, if transposed differently, could have made for a exceptionally delightful film experience.

It started off well with an eerie yet gripping scene that made for a truly exiting first impression. Yet I first got bothered by the first proper dialog, in which the plot was presented in a manner which was unclear to me.

Throughout the whole movie the conversations built around the progress of the plot ... would be the most frustrating factor for me, since too often I was not quite sure in which direction the story was heading or what the incentive of the antagonists were.

I find it a great shame that such a rich and promising story line fell short of its worth in its anime adaption. Yet I must commend the atmospheric value this film had with its melancholy and macabre feel and its harrowing setting which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The art of this anime was its strongest point in my opinion, the animation is impeccable and the art design utterly beautiful. I especially loved the mechanical details and would consider this movie a treat to people who enjoy eye-candy as much as I do.

The soundtrack to this film was pleasant and fitting yet nothing stood out to me as remarkable.

My critique on the Characters range from both sides of the spectrum. On the one hand I liked the many different character designs that were created, used and invented upon. On the other hand I often thought the characters to be one dimensional and distant.

At times it seemed as if the protagonist, John H. Watson, was somewhat detached even though it was evident that he was not supposed to be a cold character.
Yet in other scenes he would show a great amount of emotion. It's a pity that his personality is this inconsistent since the emotional experience plays a big role in the enjoyment of this film due to the morals and philosophy of the story.
I would have liked him to be more feeling throughout all of his scenes due to the inner impact they left.

The degree to which Shisha no Teikoku entertains is based heavily upon whether you as an observer enjoy the genre or not and how much you value emotionally stimulating visuals and story lines.
I myself adore Victorian Steampunk settings as much as I like to feel touched and mournful during a movie and am therefore quite biased towards this film.

All in all even though I had a lot to criticize about this film I still enjoyed it very much and would definitely consider re watching it for its stunning visuals and the emotional turmoil it sent me through.

Alright, took a dive into this steampunk-zombie-ish flick recently, and let's just say... it's a mixed bag. First off, if you're thinking of giving it a whirl, do yourself a favor and avoid the DUB like it's last year's expired milk. The accents they attempted? Yikes. Felt like they were juggling too many balls, dropped a few, and decided to keep juggling.

As for the plot, imagine Swiss cheese. You got it: holey. I mean, there are moments when you think it's onto something profound, and then BAM! It throws you a curveball that has you thinking, "Wait, what?" It's like the movie itself is on ... a wild goose chase trying to figure out what it wants to be.

All in all, it's not the worst way to kill a couple of hours, but if you're setting your expectations sky-high, maybe lower that bar a smidge. Or a lot. I was hyped, maybe too much, and well... let's just say I've seen better. If you've got popcorn and a blank evening, give it a shot – just keep those expectations chill.

Today, I have decided to check a new local anime streaming site and picked one of their anime to watch. Knowing that this anime is having an EGOIST song as their ending, I quickly clicked for this anime movie. This is an anime produced by WIT Studio, Empire of Corpses or Shisha no Teikoku

While the premise of this anime is very unique and the progression is pretty good, I found the ending is a bit disappointing. The ending is not as grand as what I have thought in the beginning of the movie and left me with a feeling of "What? Why?" just because it ... is a little bit rushed in their way to the major villain's reveal. Most maybe caused by the travels that supposed to feel a little bit longer in that time feels too much fast like they were travelling with planes which was not invented back then. It was not immersive. I think the best way to fix this is to make the travels a bit longer and that's why the first half is better than the last half.

Which that leads us to the character building of this anime. I think almost all of the character is not fully built and I think it as a major flaw caused by how the story flows. I felt like Friday and Watson's background was not explored enough to make us attached to them even they are the main characters of this anime. It is a bit saddening since I really wanted to know more about Friday and Watson's relationship before Friday's supposed death.

The soundtrack is pretty epic for their action sequences but I think the most impressive is the ending by EGOIST which has this vibe of mystery and made the anime ended with more mystery lurking around it.

Overall, I think this anime have so much things to be patched with. Since the world build has been done so well, this anime have a great potential but ultimately wasted it in the last half of the anime. You still should give it a try, though.

I have come back to this two hour movie more than ten times now, trying to understand the movie as a whole. I first came across the movie as "The Empire of Corpses" and I dare say that my brain burns from trying to understand from scene to scene. Probably thinking that it is just me that does not understand, but man, I give the show a nine overall. Watching it more, I changed it to a ten.

Alrighty! So starting off with the story:
RATE: 8
The story seen as a whole is great but then watching from beginning to end is a brain exercise. ... Perhaps it is a challenge of intellect. In the beginning, a brief idea is told to the fourth wall about the empire of corpses. I would presume because, by giving a brief intro, the info gave light to what exactly am I supposed to hope of what happens and happened. The story starts off with keying in on the main character (Watson) bringing back his valuable research to light called Friday. It is hinted later on about why Friday is valuable and what exactly is the point of the story of Dr. Watson! Sci-Fi is huge in this very aspect because of the journey that Dr. Watson was 'fated' to have since the very beginning of his research and experiments. The journey is built off of Frankenstein's story and I believe was inputted into finding the theories of life through The Empire of Corpses (corpses and souls). Basically, the story is filled with one man's theory and his journey to set things straight (a journey of truth). Flashbacks in the story jumps around a lot and takes its time so that might be a reason why some parts of the story were hard to keep up with. At times, "what the hell is going on?!" because it is like watching one of those very old video tape shows that go on without sounds but only sound effects.

Art
RATE: 9
The Empire of Corpses deserves a nine in art because it is a beautiful animation and why I have sufficed in re-watching more than ten times. Movements and scenes are vivid to me. The colors that are used is monochromatic at most and produces a strong stench of reality. Why do I say strong stench? Well, the show has blood, definitely. And if you ever get that feeling that you see or smell something in the air that so much is happening. Aha, more likely a feeling but the touch of reality is what gets me going. Not really slice-of-life but the art touches a lot with of how the scenes are to be interpreted. Even in the background, there are many things going on. All what more else I can say about the art is that it is terror, emphasis, and hope. That is what I saw throughout watching.

Sound
RATE: 8
Sounds went well with the story because I felt it was befitting due to the sadness and terrors of death and adventure.

Character
RATE: 7
The characters were a surprise and seem to have no point yet, its an anime, so it has to be somewhere. But between that somewhere, the characters seems to be poorly brought up because of lack in understanding what goes on quick enough in the story. The design of the characters seem fairly well though too, I would say Friday is my favorite because he is a key point of understanding the show. Rewatching makes me feel for Friday because the movie is truly beautiful (if you are philosophical enough to understand). The characters themselves hold a lot of questions.

Enjoyment
RATE: 6
Eh. It was only finely fair. This is because of trying to understand so much, it kind of killed the enjoyment and yet it is great to rewatch and decipher what the empire of corpses is trying to say. The Empire of Corpses seemed slow at first but the interesting characters were able to bring in heat of war and scientific research. I liked that. And yet, just a 6.

Overall
RATE: 10
Personally, now, the movie seems outstanding because watching the show open minded, it provides a lot of opportunities to really think and admire of what is going on and how the connections between characters unfold. Also, watch the ending credits! It has more good info that some people tend to skip. Every piece of the show is valuable towards understanding it.

Absolute unique story!!!!! and sadly underrated anime it was based on fantasy therefore I don't understand why some are criticizing it for not being realistic and philosophical whereas it gives the chance to audience to think outside of the box and despite the fact that not all of the parts have a legit explanation, it still has a mysterious cozy winter vibe which takes you into that world and because of that its a pity that people have dropped its score and we don't see this style of art anymore :(
the sense of fashion of all the characters are very iconic and memorable.
The emotional ... side of the story is as well very heartwarming
Characters and background scenes are designed very beautifully and specially ahead of the time that this anime was released!
I truly recommend and wish it had been adapted into an anime series , so that we could get to enjoy it longer!
Also it had some historical references which is a bonus to the story.
Overall it was truly magical

I don't normally write reviews, but I wanted to throw in a positive one for this anime. Seems like it's pretty heavily underrated here and I'm not sure why. The story is a basic one: MC seeks to bring his boyfriend back from the dead and goes on a road trip with companions in pursuit of his goal. He gets caught up in the political and philosophical struggle of other groups attempting to obtain the 'bring-people-back-from-the-dead' technology for themselves. Pretty standard stuff; not sure why people are tripping up on it. Except for the ending, which I'll mention below.

General:
The-- I'll call it a movie; ... I think it was originally released as an OVA, but it fits the movie format better-- was way above my expectations. I watched it because I thought it might be bland fujo-bait with light BL elements, and while the light BL elements are there, it is absolutely not bland. I was blown away by the art direction, animation, choreography of the fight scenes, world-building, and sheer scope of the story. The fact that its set in the 1800s is gravy to fans of literature from the era. It's gorgeous to watch. There's animation in every scene, fluid and beautiful. The score is standard but it fits the material, and there's even a pipe organ moment that will get you pumped, which caught me by complete surprise.

Nitpicks:
-The name-dropping when it comes to real life and fictional characters from that era is silly, but I didn't find it that distracting. There have been plenty of books, comics, even tabletop games that throw those characters into a shared continuity, and usually it's done worse.
-Eyebrows guy's character design was distractingly ridiculous.
-The zombie screetching got annoying.

BL:
I mentioned the BL elements are what drew my initial attention. They're so toned down it's hard to recommend this on that basis, however. It is established that the MC has an intense connection with the young man he's trying to bring back. The characters don't mince words about it. However, there's no typical BL blushy-ness or awkward cutesy moments. There's also a beautiful and intriguing female lead who comes into play a bit later in the story. If BL isn't your thing, you'll still enjoy this for its quality, and if you need a sexy woman to look at, you won't be disappointed. If you are a BL fan, you'll want more flashbacks to cement their relationship and give you the hit of m/m romance you're looking for.

Ending:
The major issue is that the ending, though dramatic and very cool, is convoluted and confusing. Its imagery overtakes its logic. Mileage may vary on this, and it's why I rated it a nine instead of a ten. I think that's where people are getting lost. However, for me, if one hour and fifty minutes of something has me captivated, and the ending doesn't completely shit the bed, which this one didn't, I can walk away happy. Sometimes, especially in a visual medium, a story ends up making sense emotionally even though it doesn't make sense logically. That's what you have here. If that's poison to you, stay far away, but if you don't mind it, this is an incredible piece of art.

TLDR Version: Great animation with a very interesting first half but stale final act (with things just happening for no reason) makes this movie at a, "yeah watch it if you have time."

First, the animation in this movie is very good. 3D models almost blend in the scene. The effects and movements are smooth. Nothing is wrong with this movie animation and sound wise. The story is what really matters. The movie has 3 acts. Act 1 takes up nearly half, while act 2 takes around 20 minutes and act 3 takes 1 hour. Acts 1 and 2 are the best parts of the movies ... and you can enjoy the story in these parts without being confused all that much (at least I was.) Act 3 is the main problem. If I can show a graph on how confused and how many questions it'll be from 0 to 100. Things just seem to happen for the sake of happening. Heroes and allies suddenly turn evil. Magical items and ideas are pulled out of nowhere. Things that should kill our character apparently don't?

(CENSORED SPOILERS) Example: Character A fights character B. A and B form crystals on their body. We see the crystals making A bleed. A blows up a propane can in a closed room and we see the flames burning his outline. Some time later A shows up all well and good not even breaking a sweat. The same example can be said about another character in Act 2 who literally gets an entire blade though his stomach! And pull it out! Blood is EVERWHERE! Nope dead. It seems like this movie really did not want its characters to die, which is very weird because at the end of act 1 a character we got to know very well gets killed. It was almost like the writers got cold feet and decided to throw on plot armor on all characters. I went from, "No! Not him too! I like him so much! I wonder how the others will react?" To, "he'll be back."

Should you watch this anime? Yes but this anime isn’t perfect.

Shisha no Teikoku Here is a Japanese animated film that addresses a purely philosophical theme, the anime tells the story of a world where "Frankensteins" - human corpses who are reconverted with a false soul in order to use them as workers to improve industrial development and which this century also addresses questions such as: what happens after death? Does man remain in eternal sleep? or does man have a soul? if yes, then is the soul related to man? If the soul is linked to man, does it remain in eternal sleep or does it leave the body after death? Basically, anime addresses questions ... about being human. then the protagonist who has doubts since the death of his colleague then sets out in search of the truth in order to find out more to bring his colleague back to life, I recommend this animated film which you might like