Dead Leaves

Title: Dead Leaves Anime: Dead Leaves is a 55 minute OAV that was created by Imaitoonz (who also did work on the 3D mechanical designs on Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann), was produced by Production IG (known for their work on Azumanga Daioh and the Ghost in the Shell series), and directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi (who also directed Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and FLCL). It was released in Japan on January 17th, 2004, and was licensed Stateside by Manga Entertainment, who released it on September 28th, 2004. Story: Retro, a guy with a TV screen for a head, and Pandy, a girl with a panda-esque mutation markover her eye, wake up naked on Earth with no idea of who they are or how they got there. They promptly decide to go on a crime spree to get food, clothes, and transportation in Tokyo, and are promptly captured and sentenced to time on the lunar prison known as Dead Leaves. Little do they know what awaits them there. There is but one thing you need to know abotu this OAV: It is cracktastic. No other word for it. Utterly cracktastic. And when you look at the director's previous works, it's not all that surprising. There is no real overarching plot and character development is minimal. The OAV moves along very quickly from sequence to sequence, sprinkled liberally with sex and mayhem and violence and insanity. It's a hell of an OAV to watch, and definitely worth it, in my opinion. Just don't expect much in this department, and just let the crazy wash over you. WARNING: Very crude (one character has a drill for a dick), sexual acts/references, over the top violence, and some nudity. Art: The art on this is absolutely insane. And I love it. The entire OAV is animated smoothly, which makes the freneticness of the entire thing that much more awesome to watch. There are very sharp contrasts in this, along with striking color choices, which I absolutely love. The character designs also score major points for originality; all the designs are just as crazy as Retro, Pandy, and drill-dick guy's. Music: Nothing that stood out too much here. Voice Actors: I watched this dubbed, which is pretty unusual for me. The VA work on this was excellent, and I'm amazed at their ability to keep up with the speed of the lines that was required. Dub: Not covered here, as I don't have much to compare it to. Length: Seeing as I am convinced this is crack in a pure, distilled form, this was about all that I could take; any longer, and my brain would have exploded, any shorter, and it wouldn't have made a bit of sense. Overall: Cracktastic. Definitely worth a watch, if you can stand a lack of sense, and crudeness. Story: 7/10 Art: 9/10 Music: 7/10 Voice Actors: 9/10 Length: 8/10 Overall: 40/50; 80% (B)

No words can begin to describe how ridiculously epic this anime is, this is just a film on another level. The film is just in-your-face action on the top end of the awesome scale. Dead Leaves is an anime that will have you stuck to your seat the entire time, the sheer amount of action in the film is like an adrenaline rush that takes you there so fast it’s like being on a rollercoaster ride. Sure there are moments where the film gives you moments to breathe to explore the story and characters, but once that point is over you are on the movein a flash. In terms of art design the film has a highly stylized look that is fabulous to look at, it’s very sharp full of bright block colours that help the animation stand out greatly and when the animation moves hold on to your seat because this film just moves like a crazy carnival ride. The animation is completely consistent and never lets up and there are points when so many things are happening at once while the screen moves from place to place you may up incapacitated. The sound in the film is very nice, the choice of music is very upbeat and helps amplify the chaotic action and while it’s not really memorable in any kind of way it works for the film itself. The characters in this film are cool, Retro is just a madman who knows how take care of things in a crazy fashion and the fact that he's voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi just adds to the character too. Panda is hot chick who is packing heat when the action starts, she seems to be calm in every situation she's in and is almost the opposite of Retro outside of the battlefield. The villain of the film isn't half bad and the supporting characters are really funny bunch of people. To be honest I totally loved Dead Leaves, I thought it was great, while the story wasn't ever going to be really engaging it had a unique concept behind it and was good for what it was. I recommend this highly for anyone looking for a little epicness in their lives. And lastly if there are any people who have watched Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann should give this a go for sure.

Dead leaves was made by the same people as Furi Kuri~ which if you saw that series should give you a hint of how messed up this movie isXD Because its just a movie~ they kind just threw out any attempt to make a comprehend able story~ and instead just threw action/Sex/And freaky Mutants in a blender and created this movie. Don't try to make sense of it~ just turn your brain off and bask in the craziness of the movie. Story: There's a story some where, but its not really the focus of the movie, and half of it makes no sense at all; not eventhe main characters them self seem that interested in whats going on~ as long as they can have sex and shoot everything=D The plot is more action oriented, with occasional lolz. Its very fast paced, so much so that there's no point trying to figure out whats going on. Art: The animation... is original at least. It has a very "post modern" look. Most of the characters themselves aren't even "human" looking. The animation style kind of feels like a comic book in color scheme and the use of shading and shapes. I can't really say much else about it, but some of the character animations look gross or disturbing lookingX_x Sound: Nothing stuck out in my mind~ it kept with the feeling of the movie, but wasn't a masterpiece. Characters: Only two of the characters are really delved into, and even then not very much. They like to have sex and kill stuff, and have amnesia~ thats all you really need to know. And the girl tends to be slightly more intelligent. There are a few more characters... like a fellow inmate at their prison that has a drill thats supposed to be his... ... ... and a female villain thats 1/2 naked that wants revenge against the female protagonist. Enjoyment: Besides the feeling of loosing braincells by the end of the series I really did enjoy the movie. The pace never really left you bored, and the fighting scenes were just so gory and raunchy its hard not to like themXD Be warned it is rated R for Nudity~ and lots of sexual innuendos. But it is definatly a fun watch.

As a preface, Hiroyuki Imaishi's works seem to be a mixed bag for me. While I've greatly enjoyed what I have seen so far of his latter work, Gurren Lagann, Dead Leaves seems to be more reminiscent of his earlier piece, the infamous FLCL. Unfortunately, for me FLCL was a bit too eccentric to get into. Art: The surrealist, stylized artwork was certainly the highlight of the show. Not only is the animation crisp, bright and visually inventive, it's also chaotic and frenzied (almost to the point of headache-inducing). I viewed the show over a television broadcast and the intermittent advertisements may havesaved my eyeballs from exploding. Scenes are often littered with a frame-by-frame comic book / manga layout which generally works well in the show's frantic environment. My only real complaint is the crude and bizarre character designs evoked comparisons to a Ren and Stimpy cartoon (of which I was not a fan). Sound: I can't recall any of the soundtrack sticking out as noteworthy, but it was not particularly distracting or obnoxious either. The dub was serviceable. Amanda Lee admirably captured Pandy's melancholic sarcasm. The other lead, Retro, was a bit more inconsistent but for the most part channeled Retro's dementia effectively. Characters / Story: The two leads are mildly amusing characters just don't expect any development. Plot exposition occurs in rapid-fire succession, such as the sequence detailing Pandy and Retro's journey to the lunar prison. And let's face it, expecting much character growth or plot in a 50 minute OAV would be asinine. While the literal "Does any of this really matter?" approach to story doesn't really hinder the show as it allows the insanity to flow uninterrupted, it's hard to view it as a plus either. Enjoyment: It was able to hold my attention, but not much else. There is a lot of hyper-stylized violence and gore which did not appeal to me, nor did the hardly subtle gross-out humor. Overall, I felt the show lacked the focus and scope of Gurren Lagann. While Lagann clearly (reverently) satirizes the Super Robot genre popular in the 70's and 80's, I was often confused as to goal of Dead Leaves. Was it insane just for the sake of being insane? Was the bizarre, minimalist plot and devoid character development supposed to be a jab at the convoluted plots found in the philosophical / psychological-scifi genre (Evangelion, RahXephon)? I can't really put a finger on it and it left me feeling rather ambivalent towards the show. On the other hand, if you enjoyed FLCL's zaniness and wanted an even less subtle take on the penile-drill innuendo found in Gurren Lagann (yes, apparently it is possible), then this show would come highly recommended.

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