Ao Oni The Animation (Movie)

Monsters only appear if you believe them - Nakano, best boy (2017-2017)

Story (10/10)

The movie story is very original, much better than the game as it only relies on shock value. This movie has no plot holes and has excellent foreshadowing to boot.

Art (6/10)

I did not like the CG used in this, it reminded me of SIMS. It was ok but it could have been hand drawn instead.

... Sound (8/10)

The music was not that good. It was nice for a horror game anime. It was forgettable at best.

Characters (10/10)

Instead of the GOAT cast of Takeshi and co, we have Manabe and co who are much better and feel more real. I actually cared about them this time, well fleshed out as well.

Enjoyment (10/10)

I hated spamming the control button in the game just to exit the door. The anime is better in that regard.

I would recommend this show as I loved it. Contender for best animu of 2017!

I hesitated to watch the Ao Oni Movie after watching the comedy shorts. I enjoyed the shorts and was afraid this movie would kill any respect for Ao Oni that I had, but after watching, I can say that I don't know how to feel.

Story: The most interesting part of this movie is it's story. Plenty of twists to keep you paying attention- that is, if you can pay attention after the first thirty minutes of the movie which is primarily mind-numbing exposition. The second half of the movie, however, made everything feel worth it. All of the plot that's presented to the viewer in ... the first act gets wrapped up without much question in the final act. 8/10

Art/Animation: This is by the worst aspect of the Ao Oni movie. Half the time it looks like I'm watching a bunch of PSX cutscenes while the other half of the time it feels like I'm watching a Garry's Mod animation made in 2013. It's obvious by the way the human characters move that this movie was made to be animated in 2D, a lot of the problems with the animation style are caused by the CG graphics. The way the characters move would look perfectly fine in 2D, but because they're 3D models, their disjointed movements cause almost everything they do to look awkward. The characters look fine from far away shots, but getting too close to them kills almost any amount of immersion I was feeling. The silver lining of the animation style is the Ao Oni itself. I have a feeling that if the rest of the movie were 2D and it was ONLY the Ao Oni's that were CG animated, they would be a lot more frightening. As is, the best scenes in the movie visually are the scenes in which the Ao Oni is mauling someone. Everything else is just visual garbage. 3/10

Sound: I appreciate the fact that they still use the violin sting to signify danger, and I liked the song that played over the credits, but there's not much outstanding sound work to mention. There's one part of the movie in which the main characters are listening to old tapes, but the voice on the tapes is not distorted at all which seemed to me like an oversight. Nothing overly offensive though. 5/10

Characters: The characters are extremely hit-or-miss. It was really disappointing that the moment the movie began to capture my interest, the two only characters with strong personalities were completely absent. What makes matters worse is that the characters that stuck around are majorly boring and lifeless. I'll give a mention to Mifuyu Hatano, who sticks around for the majority of the movie and is actually pretty interesting. The rest of the characters are pretty bland, so this score will mostly go to the few characters that I actually enjoyed. 6/10

Enjoyment: When I finished the movie and got to the credits, I was left with a good time overall. The ending really made the movie something special. It's concept is actually quite unique as far as monster movies go. However, the abhorrent animation and boring first act make it a challenge to sit through at times, but if you're patient, then the Ao Oni movie may be an alright watch. 6/10

Many fans would love to see a good horror-movie based on the game 'Ao Oni' but instead they get this...

Sadly, it has very little to do with the game. It has the monster, the chase music, and they talk about 'Ao Oni' being a video-game. That's basically all it has in common with the source material. The plot isn't terrible but the execution is very poor. The pacing is slow and awkward. Every scene feels like it was slowed down. The characters aren't likeable or interesting. They had plenty of time to make them likeable before the threat comes into play but nope. The characters ... are very forgettable.

It's 3D animated and looks very cheap. It's very choppy making it unpleasant to look at. Most of the time it has an average of about seven frames per second. In most 3D animation software, tweening is very easy and automatic. They must have decided to render it out with a lower frame-rate to make it appear more like traditional 2D animation. The animation itself is awkward and looks very unnatural. The characters move like robots. With this kind of animation and choppiness, you would fail a 3D animation course.

The music isn't good except for the music during the end-credits which is actually alright. Overall, it's awkward, cheap-looking, and boring. I don't recommend this to anyone. If you're an Ao Oni fan and you're really curious, then maybe watch it.