RecommendedWell-written
Imagine my surprise as I stumbled on The Dark Myth while browsing through Takashi Anno's resume, a director whose unique and eccentric directing skills fascinates me to no bound (he's responsible for Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou's first OVA, The Hakkenden pt.1, Spirit of Wonder: Shounen Kagaku Club, Youma, Miracle Girls, parts of Maison Ikokku, and some other obscure Magical Girls I just can't wait to watch, that is if I ever find the time...). Imagine my surprise, again, coming here and discovering the existence of The Dark Myth, aka one of the lowest average I've seen on this website, directed by one of my all-time favorite directors.Thank to y'all damn memers, I then decided I'd stay away from what seemed like a laughing stock of an anime. Then eventually, more than one year later, I finally gave it a shot. Unsurprisingly it was great. Just like most of Anno's work, it was somewhat clumsy, somewhat cheap (for God's sake, give that man a real budget already), but also somehow a fascinating piece of outsider art with strokes of genius.
I'll adress the elephant in the room: yes, the almost constant flow of verbious exposition is annoying. Well to be fair it's more than that; it is inescapable, it is suffocating. Probably even moreso in the horrible English dub I've watched. At times it is more or less justified, but mostly it happens without warning, a random dude opens his mouth and then you're in for a flow of poorly articulated, confusing lore about ancient legends. Exposition in this OVA is not conveyed through animated representations of what is contained in the legends; rather, we're either presented with drawings, abstract symbolism or the scene just continues normally as the character speaks. I get why most viewers would stop taking the show seriously as soon as they are confronted with that. Maybe the only reason I didn't embark on the hater bandwagon after the 5 first minutes is that I already had a strong motivation to watch it and suspend my disbelief, as they say. Ultimately I think not having animated legends is kinda cool, it keeps history as purely oral tradition, you'll never know or see what actually happens. It's not immediately visually entertaining, but it surely is interesting in the long run. But in any case, the show has much to offer beyond annoying exposition (and unpleasant chara-design) and I'll try to present some of its best features.
[The rest of this review is carelessly spoiling the plot]
Basically I'll just be praising Takashi Anno's style and the way it is used to convey the script of The Dark Myth. Overall this OVA has great directing. Anno's works are never perfect (minus YKK's 1st OVA); the chara-design is often awkward, some scenes are clearly clumsily animated, the narration is often confusing... It often makes for a weird first impression and the start of DM is no stranger to that rule. Anno has a very singular way of cutting scenes, making abrupt - sometimes seemingly random - transitions. It helps create confusion... as well as mystery. DM is about a random kid that slowly discovers he's the reincarnation of an old God, being the final piece in a very intricate and complicated puzzle. We're probably as annoyed as he is with the way all those characters come to him to blabber mythical nonsense. If we're suffocated by exposition, imagine how he must feel. I'd say it's appropriate. Amidst this flow of jabbering, we'll see those characters slowly lose their humanity and sanity. See for example that scene where Kakuchiko forces Takashi to give him the other half of the golden artifact that summons Susanoah-oh. Rocks start to fly around, killing some of Kakuchiko's clan members. The chief is distressed at first, but stops as soon as he sees the scriptures written on one of the stones that just killed his friend. He starts reading and getting into that good ol' exposition vortex, no more does he pay any attention to the body squashed by that piece of rock. It's somewhat hilarious, but also morbid and shiver-inducing. Just after that, monster-ghosts start genociding the clan, in a short and beautifully animated and designed fight scene (you can feel it's the same guy that directed the amazing opening scene of The Hakkenden). Horror and death flow at high speed, flesh becomes nothing more than soft pudding waiting to be blown apart by the mere touch of the ghosts - and all the while Takashi just stares silently at the statue of Susanoah-oh, unconcerned by the massacre.
Takashi Anno shows a great fascination - I'd even say a deep respect - for nature, natural phenomenon, and generally for everything that happens outside of human control. Sometimes he uses those to highlight emotions, plot elements, or whatever, and at other times it feels like nature appears on its own, at random - exactly how it should. Anno is one of the directors that understands and illustrates that the best. If you watched Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou you know what I'm talking about, but it appears in his other historical/horror OVAs like Hakkenden or Youma, in the soft-science OVA Shounen Kagaku Club and even in Miracle Girls. The easiest way to illustrate this is to pay attention to the way Anno uses lighting in general. A huge cloud that randomly obscures the characters as the speak; the soft light of street lamps caressing Takashi's sleeping body; the treasure hunter's flashlight that seems to cut through deep in the rocks; the way the sunset bends the shadows of Kakuchiko and his friend; the way Anno vividly cuts lightning shots... At times those evoke the sentiment that humans are merely third party protagonists at the mercy of natural phenomenons. It's not hard to see how those shots conveys atmosphere in a mystical setting such as this one. (It has to be noted that The Dark Myth has plenty of great dark shots, the coloring of night sceneries, caves and such, are great.)
Something as simple as human shadows being projected on round rocks (in the scene where Takashi and Takeuchi stand before the rock-like eggs) and the way its shapes and curves get deformed becomes an unsettling sight. Takashi's shape gets the most deformation while Takeuchi stays normal. This is not fantastical, it's just the way shadows naturally appear when projected on rocks, but this simple shot suggests the internal deformity of the now haunted Takashi, trapped in the claws of an obscure prophecy and already on the way to losing part of his humanity, developing snake-shaped marks on his body. Takeuchi on the other hand is the monolith that has lived several centuries thanks to rock hibernation (or something), he stays exactly as he was centuries ago, his mission remains the same as ever, his shadow appears intact, human-shaped as you'd expect.
Great effort are made in rendering such seemingly random elements. It is indeed a recurring quality in Anno's work, and it makes the world feel so much more tangible, despite the animation in The Dark Myth being mostly clunky. I'd say if you're trying to set atmosphere in a lovecraftian horror and mystery show, you'd better get attached to picturing small eerie elements rather than making epic gestures. The Dark Myth has been criticized for being too slow, but it's not that simple. Indeed it is slow-paced, but:
1. that's an efficient way of setting "atmosphere"
2. Takashi Anno won't let you rest for too long, as he's very prone to insert lightning-fast cuts amidst contemplative shots. And once you've experienced that you know you're never fully safe from surprise and horror, as it might hide in the most lowkey places. The slow shots become that much more ominous, aquiring a more "physical" quality to them, a weight that might slowly evolve into dread.
Anno is an experimental director, sometimes prone to let pure visual abstraction override more traditional narration, adding to the feel of mystery, wandering through a world we don't really know the rules of. One thing remarkable about those visual breakthroughs, is that they are scarcely presented with mannerism. They don't feel forced, epic, grandiose; most of the time these just... happen, naturally. And one of the way he does this is by using minimal sound effects, sometimes even mere silence. Take for example the strange walk of Hayato into the forest, following Takashi as he's entered into a trance. Hayato just disappears softly, then reappears further down the road, then does it again. With no reason other than to create a soft, non-emphasized strangeness. That's probably what makes them so powerful and puzzling, they don't feel detached from reality, rather they fit right in. They are just part of the world and the viewer can't just rationalize them, we just accept it. It is as unsettling as it is subtle.
It is quite the opposite though, with pure horror scenes, which are more ostentatiously highlighted with sound effects, screams, sudden gory shots, deformations animated with care. According to Anno's directing, horror should not be understated, but the subtle way of magic in nature should have a discreet glow. Making art is surely displaying your views about the world in your esthetics. As with all of the works I've seen of Takashi Anno, The Dark Myth expresses a strong sensibility on life, one that can be expressed on magical girls show as well as in lovecraftian horror, or in a contemplative post-apocalyptic countryside series (:eyes:). Ain't that a sign of genius?
I am surely not denying The Dark Myth's faults, the shots that just don't work because they're too cheap, nor will I deny some specific parts were hilarious, or that the plot was definitely too confusing even with all the f***** explanations. But I'd say the great parts overwhelmed the bad parts and I suggest you try to take it seriously, you might just be rewarded. And yeah, that goes without saying but you should try more of Takashi Anno's strange but intense filmography. He's one of the forgotten and this is nothing short of tragic.
NB: here's a small list of great scenes:
- Takashi going home to see his mother taken hostage; the lights, the shadows, the shot compositions are all beautiful
- Takashi traveling whilst in a trance and all we see is him wandering in white spaces, his silhouette being cutted by invisible environment; train doors, shapes of people and furniture, branches and grass... I've never seen anything like this in anime
- The bathing scene, introduced by an abstract underwater view of the naked lady, followed by the horrific transformation
- The Kikuchi clan gets beautifully decimated by ghosts (I adressed this one already)
- Kikuchiko getting killed by Takashi, then the latter gets engulfed in a ray of golden light and vanishes in front of Hayatou. There's a strange surreal feel to this scene, the colours as always are beautiful, the fountain never ceases to pour, indifferent to the drama
- The treasure hunter's car getting highjacked in a dimension made of black and white stripes, the car turns slowly, revealing Takashi as smoothly as if he'd been pulled out of a magician hat, the car gets crushed seemingly by pure darkness... great trippy scene
