Let this writer preface this review with the statement that she hates anime. She does not care for the genre, she does not enjoy the dialogue and she does not care for the reoccurring story lines in every film. However, knowing this prejudice upon reading this article, readers can be happy that she was pleasantly complacent in how beautiful the film played out. It was not as difficult to watch as I thought that it was going to be. That and nothing says in your face awesome like blu-ray. In this film, the fourth installment of loved anime favorite Bleach: Hell Verse, blu-ray is fully employed in bringing a very intense and aesthetically gorgeous film to viewers at home. With a “complex” story of vengeance for an attack on unrequited love, this film is one of the more beautiful anime films that this writer has seen.
This film adaptation is directed by Noriyuki Abe who is also responsible for Yû yû hakusho and Bleach: Memories of Nobody. He is aided by writers Natsuko Takahashi, Ookubo Masahiro, and original Bleach manga writer Tite Kubo to lead the way for the new chapter of our beloved substitute soul searcher, Ichigo Kurosaki (voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch) and his friends as they battle the ultimate forces of evil, those trying to escape from hell.
When a disturbance in Karakura Town, Ichigo Kurosaki’s home, rattles the residents and Ichigo’s friends, they are faced with a new foe of eternal and evil proportions. Sinners from hell reek havoc in attempts to find Ichigo to take him back to hell for one purpose, his hollow form is the key to their freedom. They convince him to take the trip to the gates by committing the most heinous crime that they could conjure… kidnapping his sister. Riddled with revenge Ichigo, accompanied by his friends enter the gates of hell with a sinner sherpa who they encounter along the way. With a slough of twists and turns through out the plot matched with a lot of campy dialogue, it’s safe to say that this film was catered and made for die hard anime fans.
I’ll go back to my previous statement in saying that I hate anime. It’s all very redundant. I feel like I’ve seen the same plot line in every single film that I witness. The only difference in films is character names and art styles. One of the redeeming factors of this film was that there was a mixed art genre of classic 2D art and a beautiful mix of CGI. I say redeeming lightly, if executed properly it would have been amazing, however it fell quite short. The mix added for an awesome image spread across my television screen spit out by my PS3. Yet, without the proper equipment I’m sure it looks terrible. Less the mixed art, the rest of the film was gorgeous. There was a lot of thought put into the art. If I dare say that the artist had stuck with merely a 2D effect, it would have been perfect.
All of these facts are null in hindsight of the biggest atrocity of this film… the dialogue. The dialogue was just like every other anime film I’ve seen, tacky unnecessary and could have been written better by my 14 year old sister. The premise had great potential, I had high hopes for the story line within the first 20 minutes, and it was all shot to shit the second the lack of witty banter between characters began.
Besides the dialogue, I did not like the lack of originality dealing with the interface and inner workings of this interpretations “Hell”. Chains holding hells residents to it’s domain was a blatant rip off of every Spawn comic that has ever hit shelves. Todd McFarlane should sue. And the display of the gates of hell looked like something off of a bad metal album. Which was a huge focus on the film. Oh! and let’s not forget the crazy multidimensional cube maze that was obviously inspired, and by inspired I mean stolen, from ideas of Tron. Ten points for originality in this film guys. I can see why the fan base that this films targets would like it. I just couldn’t watch it without getting angry. If you want to look at something relatively pretty for 90 minutes, go ahead and pick it up. Just make sure you bring some booze, you’re going to need it.