“Mangaka Marina” is a series of novels that were published from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s. The series has never been translated into English as far as I know, and the books are currently out of print. The book the story comes from was published just a few months before the movie’s release, so I presume the goal of this movie was to increase book sales and give fans of the series a chance to see and hear their favorite characters on screen.
The movie starts out assuming that you already know about the characters and their relations with each other. Since this is based on such an obscure novel (and not even the first one in the series, at that), the majority of viewers will be confused. Who are these people? Why are they friends? How do they know each other?
The main characters are the titular Marina, a third-rate mangaka who looks and acts like a 10-year-old but is apparently an adult; Kazuya, a half-Japanese guy whom Marina likes; Charles, a super-intelligent French guy; Kaoru, a crossdressing woman; Bijomaru, your typical traditional Japanese guy; and some guy named Kirk.
The gist of the plot is this: Kaoru invites them all to a birthday party at her mansion, and tells them to bring their “present” of “what the meaning of love is.” The party is interrupted by a dragon that crashes through the window and grabs Marina. The others grab onto the dragon and are whisked away to medieval England, where Marina has been tasked with helping Arthur pull out Excalibur to become the rightful King of England. Why Marina? Who knows. She even has a hard time remembering what the dragon asked her to do as its dying wish. After lots of mishaps, the gang figures out the necessary conditions for obtaining the sword, but some of the most stereotypical and one-dimensional villains ever plan to get in their way.
The movie stuffs too much plot into its 48-minute runtime. It goes from beat to beat quickly, without giving much explanation as to what is going on or why. Also, some of the scenes don’t make much sense. For instance, when Marina chokes on her dinner, she’s immediately offered medicine to swallow. How can she swallow if she’s choking? And later, she uses a cloth as a makeshift balloon to glide through the air, and walks through a desert in England. Some romantic subtext, with overused dialogue, is shoved in between Marina and a number of other characters, particularly Arthur and Kazuya. What these guys see in her is beyond me. The “comedy” in this movie is also cringeworthy. There’s a nonsensical “twist” with the villain near the end that comes out of nowhere, and the ending itself is underwhelming.
Regarding the technical aspects of “Camelot,” characters (with the exception of Marina) are drawn in a typical shoujo style, with big eyes and upside-down triangle-shaped heads. The background art is unremarkable. The animation is decent; movement throughout the whole movie is fairly fluid, although some characters move strangely sometimes (like the dragons). The music is okay. Both the opening and ending are pleasant to listen to, particularly the opening, which is set to real-life pictures of Tokyo with Marina superimposed on them. The soundtrack isn’t memorable, but it’s not bad, either. “Camelot” has a strong voice cast, but the actors’ performances don’t stand out.
There isn’t too much potentially objectionable content in this. There’s a scene where Marina calls some wolves “perverts” for trying to bite off her shorts, and there are some minor scenes with blood, violence and death. There’s also a shower scene with the crossdressing girl near the beginning, but nothing is really shown.
Overall, unless you’re a fan of the novels, which you probably aren’t, I don’t recommend watching “Camelot.” It doesn’t have enough to offer that would make it particularly appealing to anyone else.
