literaturenerd

Overview: Time to review another obscure OVA! This time we're looking at The Cockpit. This 1993 OVA had EVERYTHING going for it, but still somehow managed to wind up terrible. It was written by Leiji Matsumoto, who also did the character designs. The director was Yoshiaki Kawajiri, who directed such classics as Ninja Scroll and Vampire Hunter D. This was also made by Madhouse on an impressive budget. The plot is WW2 from the eyes of Axis fighter pilots. So I went into this expecting something like Das Boot. Many of the Axis soldiers will be humanized and realistic, while also being staunchly anti-war and pointingout all the atrocities on all sides. Nope! Well maybe it will be like "Blonde Knight of Germany" the biography of ace pilot Erich Hartmann. It will focus on just one figure on the axis side and lionize him while still not turning into Nazi propaganda. Nope! This is split into 3 episodes and they're all kind of mess. Episode 1: A German ace pilot (who happens to look like Harlock), is given a very important mission. He must defend a secret German bomber plane that's carrying an atomic bomb and heading towards London. To add some melodrama, his girlfriend is a nuclear physicist and was the one who designed the bomb. To add even more drama, she is being forced to ride on the plane carrying the bomb so she can witness its destructive power! Remember when America forced Robert Oppenheimer to ride on the Enola Gay and witness the atomic bombings? I sure fucking don't! The physicist girl begs German Harlock to shoot the plane down. He must not let Hitler use atomic weapons to exterminate the people of the UK, US, and USSR. "Any country that would use atomic weapons is a country that has forever lost its soul!" Yes Matsumoto! We get it! Nuking people is bad! German Harlock shoots down the plane and we get this gem of a quote. "I may be remembered as a coward and a traitor, but Germany's honor has been spared. Germany refused to sell its soul". Yep, if any country ended WW2 with its reputation intact and its national honor unsullied it was Germany. (J Jonah laughing clip) Episode 2: We get to hear the tale of a noble Kamikaze pilot and his co-pilot the blob person...who looks like the Schmoo. The main pilot is a selfless and noble character who simply wishes to defend his country by any means necessary. This means piloting the man guided missile known as the Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka into an American aircraft carrier. Throughout the episode, Americans are astonished by the speed and technological marvel of the Ohka. These Yanks are just shitting their pants at how awesome the thing is. Our hero pilots the Ohka into a capital class Aircraft carrier and just annihilates it, killing thousands of American soldiers in 1 glorious blow. Here's the problem with this. The Ohka was a complete failure and an utter piece of shit. Americans laughed their asses off at it. In fact, the whole tactic of Kamikaze in the Pacific was an utter failure. Japan lost 2,800 planes and pilots to kill a mere 4,900 American soldiers. No American carrier or capital ship was EVER sunk by a Kamikaze, certainly not a fucking Ohka. The Germans killed almost ten times that many Americans just using land mines. This anime is like watching a German war film that is 1/10th anti-war and 9/10ths celebrating how fucking AMAZING the Panzer ViII Maus was. Americans see it and just defecate in fear before 1 Maus kills 100,000 American pig dogs. The fact that it had 1/5th the horsepower required for its weight and was so inefficient just made it SO cool! How about a Russian film that spends all its time celebrating how AMAZING the LaGG-3 was? From a historical viewpoint I just fucking hate this anime so much! Episode 3: Some Japanese soldiers are the only 2 left on an island and must decide what to do. They make the logical choice and charge American machine guns in order to go out in a blaze of glory. Oh and Matsumoto decided to draw the 2 Japanese characters as monkeys for some reason. Maybe it was supposed to symbolize something, but it looks like he saw some of those old racist Loony Toons drawings of Japanese and said "Hold muh beer!" Art and Sound: The art for the most part is spectacular, especially the first episode. The soundtrack by Kaoru Wada is at least acceptable and does its job. This is a fairly well made film in terms of production values, which just makes it all the more sad. Overall: I really wanted to like this movie. I generally enjoy Matsumoto. I love Kawajiri as a director. Hell, I own Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D, and Cyber City Oedo on DVD. I love old school Studio Madhouse from the late 80s and early 90s. This anime though was just balls. The ludicrous historical inaccuracy, chest thumping patriotism, needless anti-Americanism, and Axis propaganda bullshit was all just too much. If you want to watch an Axis propaganda film, just go watch Triumph of the Will from 1935. Watch Olympia from 1938. Don't watch this piece of dog shit.

romansiii

The Cockpit Review There are no spoilers in this review I just completed the three part OVA The Cockpit. An anime about three different theoretically possible World War 2 scenarios. Story The story for each episode is independent from each other and is focused on the characters feelings of war and what they do to hold their own sense of honor during one of the most bloody wars in History. It's interesting to watch these as an Australian as the story focuses on Axis Power soldiers. One German fighter pilot, one Japanese Ohka pilot and two Japanese infantry soldiers. It's interesting to see a perspectivewhich I never could comprehend on my own. I really like the story. It's amazing how much the writer put into each episode without making it feel rushed. Tech I'm not sure what the quality of animation was like at the time this was created, being 1991. But the lowest points of the anime is the tech side. I think the only reason it is because of it's age. But it's art does something better than allot more modern anime does and that is nose, face and profile shots. The Japanese characters tended to have their faces drawn weird for some reason but the other characters art style was something I really liked. I would like to see a rebuild of this with a modern quality but still have the same style for the characters. Overall though the sound, art, est where primitive and that's just a reflection of the time. Characters I think I have really said what I wanted in the story section so I'll be brief. The characterization was great. I liked all the characters allot. Conclusion I really liked this. It's relevant to my interests and is well executed. There is room for improvement but I was glad to have seen this. I'd say it should be an anime everyone see's at least once. At least for those who have an interest in history. I'm surprised at how good this turned out.