Yasuomi Umetsu is like the Orson Welles of anime. Kite is marketed as a Yasuomi Umetsu “film” (actually it’s an OVA), and it really is his work, from top to bottom. The OVA does have action scenes though, which are very intense. What is important in Kite is the feeling of dread and nervousness. There is a melancholic atmosphere that just overwhelms each and every scene. The anime is a drama, not an action flick despite what others have said about it. The anime is very poetic, and not afraid to use pillow shots. Kite plays out like a Luc Besson film (an acknowledged inspiration for the director). It seems standard enough, perhaps a little darker then your usual anime, but the way this OVA is handled makes for all the difference. It will take a lot of courage for these two kids to leave this lifestyle. But it’s not like Akai and Kanie are going to just let these two run off into the world. Both of these young assassins owe everything they are to the corrupt detectives, but understand their lives will be incredibly short if they continue to work for Akai and Kanie. Sawa is eventually teamed up with another young assassin, a boy named Oburi, who seems to be in the same situation as Sawa. Sawa’s weapon of choice is a pistol that shoots exploding bullets. There are no truly innocent or untainted people in this OVA, just bad and worse people. You begin to at least understand them. They may be killing horrible human beings, but these two police officers are still incredibly vial. Akai and Kanie order Sawa to kill many molesters, corrupt government officials, and fat cats throughout the anime. You never sympathize with these people, but they are not unrealistic monsters. They have a weird life view, a terrible one, but one you start to understand. Akai and Kanie turn out to be true scum, some of the worst human beings imaginable, but they have some strange notion of morality and justice. Although these corrupt police detectives may be killing child molesters (and seem to have a disdain for them), they have no problem raping Sawa multiple times throughout the OVA. But the two detectives have another motive, they run a contract killing syndicate. There is a lot of money in removing from this earth scum that others want dead. The people they are killing are supposedly guilty of heinous crimes. They are trying to kill people who the law isn’t “getting to” for one reason or another. These two police officers, Akai and Kanie, raised her to become an assassin in order to do their dirty work. Akai and Kanie are corrupt police detectives who take the law into their own hands in order to kill child molesters and immoral corporate fat cats. The two detectives who were first on the scene took her in and raised her. This is not some bottom of the barrel over the top violence, there is real thought behind every single scene.įour years ago Sawa’s parents were brutally murdered. There is an elegance to Kite that few anime and live action movies have. This is an anime with a 60 minute running time that makes us care. When people die in this anime we don’t get excited, we get upset. We pity her for having such a horrible childhood. Instead we have a knot in our stomach the entire time, we worry if Sawa is going to be alright. But in The Last Stand we love to see Arnie run some bastards over (spoilers) with a freakin police SUV! We love to watch him spray a minigun at a bunch of killers (spoilers) and then say a witty line ! We get some sort of enjoyment from these crazy, ultraviolent action scenes! Kite has extreme violence and incredible action scenes, but we are never “having fun”. For example, no one ever roots for the young boy to be shot in Babel(at least I hope no one does). This type of violence is what I call empathy violence, as opposed to ultraviolence (where you enjoy the killings). One that does not enjoyably kill off its cast, but when someone dies or is hurt you feel their pain. But there is another kind of violence prevalent in anime, one that is not “fun” to watch. It’s creepy, it’s hateful, and it’s entirely entertaining. This is the type of anime that aims to make you enjoy watching the deaths of others. It is unrefined, crass, dirty, and enjoys killing people. Take for example the disgusting and gruesome Genocyber. Many of the shows I review are violent in a way that lacks class and sophistication, but are entirely awesome and gleeful.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |