Onigamiden

Going back in time is always a surprising turn of events. As if that wasn't enough, you also find out that you're the special hero that has to stop a conflict between two opposing factions!

That's pretty much what the main character goes through, and what the premise for Onigamiden is. Unfortunately, that's as interesting as the story gets. Jun Tendou, a middle school boy, is thrown back in time to the ancient Japan in the Heian period and finds out that he is the Savior- the only one who can control the legendary Orochi and turn the tides in a war between ... the Oni tribe and the humans.

With this set-up, a somewhat interesting yet predictable turn of events occurs, and the theme of "man versus nature" comes about. The question of who the hero should fight for is raised. It's a common theme to explore, sure, but that isn't the concern here. Rather, it's because of its execution that makes the issue largely one-sided. Due to the how the story presents itself, the main dilemma that Jun goes through is hardly given any thought and the decision that he's supposed to make becomes obvious (in other words, there are really no "gray areas" presented). Thus, it makes the majority of the plot all too standard.

Art and animation are obviously the focus of this movie. The scenery and traditional temples all look nice, and help depict the setting of an older Japan. Character designs might feel a bit different for some, but nothing too jarring. I personally got a Sky Crawlers feel from them, which isn't much of a surprise, as it's the work of the same character designer. Where the art and animation really shines, though, are the designs for the fantasy elements. The Oni tribe looks particularly demonic, and the CG effect that they have actually helps to create an evil aura for them. The spiritual beings, including the Orochi, all have fascinating designs which really bring out the setting of the movie. The action scenes are nicely animated and are another plus.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the sound, which suffers from inconsistency problems. Sometimes the soundtrack is good- it is fitting and gives the appropriate atmosphere to the movie's traditional setting. At other times, however, modern pop/rock is playing and basically feels anachronistic. This is mostly noticeable through the action scenes. At the very least, the voice roles are appropriate and not out of place. The one thing that's noteworthy about the sound is the ED, "Starlight." It's a rather catchy song that creates a rather emotional feeling.

Characters, for the most part, feel very static. None of their personalities particularly stand out. They exist and fulfill their respective roles. There might be some interesting developments shown for some of the characters, such as their past or motivations, but no one really changes by the movie's end, save for maybe Jun. He is pretty much the typical male lead who first lives an average life, until something extraordinary happens. Of course, he's confused about all this at first and questions the morality of the situation, eventually making the (obvious) decision to do what the hero is supposed to do.

Despite all its problems, Onigamiden was a somewhat entertaining watch. The action scenes were nice, as were the depictions of the various mythological beings in this movie. The premise, setting, and themes had a fair amount of potential, brought down by its lackluster story and characters. The pacing was fine, as no particular scene dragged on for too long. As a movie that targets a general audience, it does accomplish its job.

If you're looking for a title that has fantasy elements with some great action scenes here and there, then this is a movie that you might be interested in.

While the art on this movie is superb, the animation behind it did a great job bringing it to life, it is then that it is unfortunate the soundtrack could not accompany this epic movie, the music was wrongly chosen, whereas more traditional songs should have been played, modern music is what we are presented with, music that would find its place on a modern setting or a disney movie, which this movie isnt. A movie featuring traditional Japanese mythology should have traditional, more classical Japanese songs...
Another place where it faults is perhaps the week characters and average character design which looks clearly inferior to ... the remaining setting...
The plot is also less than ideal, it focus to much on Human weakness and how Man is easily overwhelmed when it obtains power beyond what it should wield and how it uses that power to shape the World to His image destroying all that stands in the way...

But faults aside, this is an enjoyable movie with an interesting setting, and perhaps a fantastic world to watch...

Onigamiden is a Pierrot film from 2011. That's right, this is the same studio that brought us The Sonic OVA, Hikaru no Go & The Choujo. We'll continue film festival week with a look at this. 

Story:

Our protagonist is an ordinary middle school boy. One day, he's chased by a shadowy oni and finds himself in a mysterious temple. This results in him being taken to the Heian period to help aid in the fight against the oni. But there's more to the situation than meets the eye and he's going to have to tread lightly. 

Let's start with the big issue with the film. Mainly, there are ... a lot of elements that don't add up. For example, it tries to make the oni sympathetic in the second half but the oni also very deliberately make themselves look like shadowy monsters and tried to murder our protagonist in cold blood when they could have tried, I don't know, talking to him. We also have a scene where our protagonist is about to be sent home, scarpers for no reason and then goes back to a ceremony that will send him home after a pointless interlude. Because that's good story telling. Having a hero who Runs away from something for no adequately explored reason only to return to it after a short scene. There's also the question of why we need a protagonist who's from the future and a middle school student. In the narrative this is basically glossed over as "he's the last part of this clan who has this special power" but that comes across as really contrived. 

I actually want to talk in detail about this while time travelling element. Because, honestly, it causes a lot of problems. Even without the contrived reasoning behind it, it just plays into the whole "chosen hero with a special power" cliché. And our protagonist doesn't help matters. He comes across as completely unprepared and as not even willing to try. Even Miaka from Fushigi Yuugi could kick this kid's ass and take his lunch money. At least she had some degree of determination. 

Characters:

The biggest problem here is with the protagonist himself, young Tendou Jun. He spends most of the film being a whiny sod because he just wants to go home and he can't figure out which side to believe. Even though the ordinary humans he talks to never dispute a single thing the oni have told him. No, seriously, it's not a case of side A & side B contradicting each other, it's more that Side A says X while side B says "yeah, so?"

The antagonist being a complete moron doesn't help the situation. This dude quite literally sets himself up for failure when he could have easily won simply by not messing with time travel. 

The rest of the cast are just boring one note characters. Some of whom we spend all of two minutes with and are supposed to care about for some reason. 

Art:

The artwork is pretty good. There are some nice mythical creature designs and some pretty solid action sequences. The animation is nicely polished. The only real issue is that some of the more large scale action sequences can be overly chaotic. 

Sound:

The acting is on the sub-par side. Most of the actors deliver their lines as though they're very bored and the performances sound more than a bit stilted. Ono Kensho & Ishihara Satomi in particular. The music does not fit the whole "fantastical past with magic" aesthetic. It's a lot of generic metal. Which isn't always balanced all that well. There are some scenes where it's far too loud and you can't hear the dialogue very well. 

Hoyay: 

The closest you get to ho-yay is Raikou's attached companions. And even then they don't spend enough time interacting with him to really say anything definitive. 

Areas of Improvement:

Lose the Time Travel Aspect. You could easily have the hero be from the remote countryside and not waste time with scenes of the modern age or with the majority of the exposition scenes designed to explain the situation to him. 
Give us a hero with a brain. It's fine to have a protagonist who questions a situation. In fact, that's great. The problem here is that he runs in circles and can't piece anything together without having some other character outright explain it to him. 
Give the sides more areas of contention. This is another aspect that's great, in theory. The idea of the sides in a conflict both having their own takes and the protagonist having to decide who to believe is a good one. But it's so inept here. "So, you think the oni are bad?" "I dunno. I'm fighting them because..." That's all we see for about twenty minutes. 

Final Thoughts:

This is easily the worst film I've looked at so far this week. The narrative is a mess. The characters are shoddy. The acting is, at best, sub-par and the music isn't suitable for the aesthetic. A lot of the ideas have potential but the execution just isn't there. That's why I'm giving it a 3/10.