This month has certainly been interesting. Steel Panther dominated July, not to mention a Sabaton review on the 4th, not to mention a quick post about the tragic Kyoto Animation fire. Not wanting to end things on a sad note, I figured I’d raise my middle finger to sadness, and get back to reviewing anime. It’s been a little bit since I actually did, since it was March when I did my last actual anime review (Excluding any of my HMO Classics posts). Picking out a title was difficult, but not impossible. After thinking about it a little, I went for something that might not seem like it would related to Hair Metal directly. So get on a little extra hairspray, put on your cyberpunk coat, and take a look at what would finally be the last movie that Osamu Tezuka would technically create, Metropolis. Let’s begin.
Story/Setup ***
From the back of the case:
“In the industrial, tri-level world of Metropolis, Duke Red is a powerful leader with plans to unveil a highly advanced robot named Tima. But Duke Red's violent son Rock distrusts robots and intends to find and destroy Tima. Lost in the confusing labyrinth beneath Metropolis, Tima is beginning a friendship with the young nephew of a Japanese detective. But when Duke Red separates the two innocents, Tima's life and the fate of the universe is dangerously at stake.”
2 things. First, this movie is a tribute to the 1920s black and white original. How much it borrows (or copies if you’re cynical) from that movie isn’t really known, as it really doesn’t feel in any way like the original. Second, while the story does appear to be ambitious, in reality it’s actually rather weak. It tries to go places, but it doesn’t really do much. It’s a shame, as the original version of the film was pretty ambitious with it’s story & characters (More on that in a moment), while Osamu’s take on it was weak at best. I say weak, because Metropolis was released years after he died, and it’s possible that the studio used what little he had written up.
Animation
If there’s one key thing going for Metropolis, it would be the animation. Even if you’re not heavily familiar with Osamu Tezuka’s work, you at least know some of his quirks. The faces of the characters are always a clear sign that you’re watching something created by Mr. Tezuka (Or at least something inspired by him), as well as a great attention to detail in everything. Given the inspiration, Metropolis is a great mix between high technology & old world, and has a bit of cyberpunk behind it. Nothing is ever rigid, nor is there any fading when it comes to the colors. This definitely is one of the reasons why you should watch the whole movie. Just for the artwork alone!
Voice Acting
As with the animation, the voice acting for Metropolis is fantastic! Though I don’t recognize any of the actors who speak in this movie, everybody does a great job with the roles they were given. Even character & individuals who’re only given just a few second sound nice. Also, while this doesn’t deal with the voice acting specifically, the soundtrack for Metropolis is great. Though I’m obviously a Metalhead through and through, I do appreciate the usage of New-Orleans style Jazz & original music composed by Toshiyuki Honda. There’s even the Ray Charles classic I Can't Stop Loving You being played during the climax, though sadly it’s not included on the physical soundtrack.
Characters ***
Like I said earlier, the characters of this movie aren’t the strongest around. They aren’t as bad as the cast of say Crimson Wolf (See here), but they’re not well made either. Nobody is necessarily flat in any way, but everybody comes across as incredibly basic. Whether there wasn’t enough material written up by the time Osamu Tezuka died, or the studio didn’t know how to use the material available properly, I’m not sure.
Availability & Pricing
Metropolis is actually pretty available to purchase despite it’s age. The original 2002 edition can be found on Amazon, and while there’s only 15 new copies, they start out at nearly 16 dollars in price. However, there’s the far more recent Blu-Ray release in a Steelbook edition. Complete with a bunch of special features, the 35 dollar price (Currently on sale at 20 dollars) but be a little too much for Otaku with a budget, yet at the same time is worth it if you have the cash.
Overall Impression & Rating
Metropolis is definitely one of Osamu Tezuka’s best!......if you prefer more “Spectacle” type anime. Sure, it might not have the biggest amount of depth with it’s story & characters, but the visuals are incredible, the voice acting is top notch, and overall is a beautiful movie. For hardcore Tezuka fans this is definitely something to see out, but for everybody else it’ll be more of a curiosity than anything else.
Metropolis gets a 7 out of 10.
Well ladies & gentlemen, this concludes part 2 of Hair Metal Hysteria. July was certainly an interesting month for this festival, what with Steel Panther & this film. However, August isn’t that far away, and thus part 3 is coming. I won’t spoil things, but suffice it to say.......it’s gonna be fun. See you all real soon!
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Note: the movie also deviates from the manga that Tezuka wrote, and that is a whole kettle of fish in & of itself. Characters in this movie are either changed just a little, or changed drastically from that of the comic. I never read the manga, and there’s only a blurb about it in the Metropolis article on Wikipedia.
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