Hana no Utame: Gothicmade
So I went to see this movie today. For those unfamiliar, Gothicmade is a 6 year labor of love by
Mamoru Nagano most famous for his manga work for
Five Star Stories but before that he was a character and mecha designer for Sunrise with credits for
Heavy Metal L-Gaim,
Mobile Suit Gundam Z and
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ. Now, the movie runs for only 70 minutes and the natural question is, why did it take 6 years to create a 70 minute movie. Well, it becomes clear when you look at the credits and find out that Mamoru Nagano is apparently some kind of crazed perfectionist. For one thing, the staff list is pretty short and the other thing is that Nagano's credits are basically
Original Idea, Script, Direction, Design, Storyboards and Animation. Yes, he tried to do it all by himself.
Ok, so before I start, I want to say that the shortness DOES affect (or did, in my case) enjoyment of the movie. When they say 70 minutes, they also include the 15 minutes or so of endroll credits and the ending EXPLANATION of what happened (I will get into this in a bit).
I will give my impressions in 2 parts.
Art/Animation/Music
Mamoru Nagano's character designs are definitely a throwback to the old days. His characters are long, spindly and have very sharp joints. Its hard for me to explain but compared to the designs we are used to nowadays, the oldness of the design shines through much in the same way that
Gundam Unicorn is a modern anime but the characters look like they're from the 70's/80's.
The world itself is very tribal-y. There are vast expanses of land with different formations (grassy, rocky, desert, etc). It reminds me quite a bit of
Lunar or
El Hazard.
Character animation is not really a strong point in this movie. I'd wager to say it was bad but it doesn't really matter because alot of the time, the characters are just standing there talking to each other anyway.
The mech design and mech animation is gorgeous. Nagano really knows how his shit and in the (very short) mech fight, you felt the sense of urgency and the weight of these hulking beasts. I gotta give props to the animators and the sound FX for the machines because unlike other mecha anime where it seems like the robots float, you get the impression that these are really huge pieces of metal and when they hit each other, stuff breaks and its really loud.
There are also some really nice pieces of music throughout the movie. I'm not good with telling types of music but there are some nice vocal songs for the important scenes as well as good enough bgm.
Story
So the story is basically about two people.
Berin, the latest in long line of songstresses chosen to rule over the planet. She's basically just a young girl who's had an enormous responsibility put on her shoulder quite randomly and who now has to leave everything she's ever known behind to go on a pilgrimage to the capital.
Toriharon, the 3rd prince of the Empire, he is a War Caster giving him some kind of special powers and the ability to pilot the giant mechs, Gothicmade.
The story is both basic and convoluted. Its basic in the sense that its basically just a character study between two people. Berin and Toriharon got thrown together by circumstances and the rest of the movie is basically about them getting to know each other and accepting each other for their strengths as well as their flaws. Just like
Lunar or
Final Fantasy X the story is about the journey of the songstress to get to the capital and the trials along the way.
Now, what makes it convoluted is that there's basically an entire space opera's worth of backstory in this thing. What look to be real important characters show up for like 5 seconds and get a short background and then dismissed never to be seen again. There's an intergalactic war going on and there are alot of major players that barely get any mention. I got the feeling sometimes that this movie is some kind of clipshow for a really long LOGH-like series with all the material they skipped through.
I also have to make a comment regarding the ending. The ending is basically Mamoru Nagano going "what the hell, I've been working on this for 6 years, I don't care anymore." There's a TEXT SCROLL explaining what happens after the last scene of the movie before the credits. No, seriously, they explain what happens.
Summary
Branduil, I want my money back.
:lol Well, I guess its a matter of perspective. If you approach it looking for a satisfying action movie, you're out of luck. If you approach it looking for a movie like Lunar or El Hazard, you'll be mildy disappointed. If you approach it taking into consideration that Nagano basically worked on this on his own for 6 years, you'll come away quite impressed.
The world design is gorgeous. The mechs are great. The story is laughably simple.
Verdict: Buy an artbook and youtube the one fight scene.
