busterbeam

Referenced and revered by such modern animators as Seiya Numata (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roNIB248mco) and Hiroyuki Imaishi (Dead Leaves, Gurren Lagann, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt), Birth is considered by some to be master animator Yoshinori Kanada's magnum opus. This might initially come off as a little weird... considering it was directed by the relatively unknown Shinya Sadamitsu. Mere minutes in, however, the reason for this becomes apparent: Birth is, quite unashamedly, a total animators' OVA. With Kanada (creator of his very own unique, frantic and cartoony animation style back in the 70s that still influences many young animators to this day) at the helm, the animators arethe real stars that make this silly little OVA work. I guess it's time to point out once and for all that THIS IS NOT A MOVIE YOU SHOULD WATCH FOR THE STORY AND WRITING. The script has a few funny lines from the characters, and Bao's introduction is an enjoyable little skit, but the visuals are clearly the main event here. If you find the idea of watching a cartoon to appreciate its visual creativity alone unappealing, trust me; this is not your cup of tea by any means. Assuming you're into fast-paced, cartoony animation and can get past the not-obscenely-high-budget production which results in a somewhat messy, unpolished look during a handful of less important scenes, this OVA is a great visual treat with a lot of nonsensical and silly yet brilliantly joyful action. At its best it's like looking at the drawings of a ten year old kid who's grown up on a steady stream of sugar, Looney Tunes and 70s anime, only the kid is actually a very skilled animator. Some of my gripes would have to be the sound direction (sometimes a sound will come too early and a characters' mouth will start moving BEFORE the lines come out which can be pretty grating) and the fact that the second half of the movie honestly drags for a bit too long. There are some talky bits where the art & animation quality take a serious hit which the movie really could have done without, and most of these are during the final chase scene (which, by the way, could have used a slightly better choice for a 'final boss' enemy). Lastly, despite its overall cartoony, Kanada-style look, this is still an 80s anime made by 80s animators and occasionally some odd glimpses of a more standard, less cartoony anime style will randomly pop up in the middle of otherwise loose and undetailed scenes and you will wonder if you've just accidentally switched channels to an episode of a different show. But these are all minor gripes with a film that generally succeeds at being precisely what it intends to be: a fun, visually creative ride. All in all, this is an OVA you should definitely watch if you enjoy fast paced cartoony action and can deal with some minor yet undeniable flaws. It's not for everyone, and it certainly shows its age, but I feel that even in this day and age it's a very impressive and enjoyable example of auteur animation. A more cynical viewer might expect something so old and rough around the edges to come off as a decrepit relic of the past compared to the modern works that its influence led to... but despite all odds, it still manages to give the young whippersnappers a run for their money and stands as not merely an interesting old-school example of Kanada-style animation, but also as a genuinely enjoyable experience.

Tyumace

In the late 80’s, at the peak of the Japanese bubble economy, money was being thrown around almost arbitrarily, and as a result a large amount of incredible looking OVA’s were being funded, regardless of whether they were any good or had the potential to sell. This, besides cementing the time period as the most visually interesting time period in anime history, would be the downfall of the anime industry and directly lead into the sluggish(though certainly not irredeemable) early 90’s. The mid 80’s however were slightly different. Yes, a large amount of OVA’s were flooding the market, but most of them were porn. Andif they were not they were often summary films, side story or sequel episodes to tv anime or short 24 minute films. Just before, thanks to porn, the OVA market exploded, however, a small handful of OVA’s largely defined what OVA’s in the future could and would look like. Among these were Dallos, which was a high budget space drama, several short films like Rain Boy, directed by Osamu Tezuka, several porn OVA’s like lolita anime and cream lemon, which were more noteworthy for their out there visuals, than for their sex scenes, and, most interestingly in my opinion, Birth, the first feature length direct to video Japanese animated film. Birth wasn’t a very big success, neither in Japan, nor in the west(though I heard it got two dubs for whatever reason), and this was for a good reason: it wasn’t very good. It wasn’t very uncommon in the 80’s for an OVA to have amazing visuals, but to be terribly written and Birth is a perfect example of that. Immediately upon starting the film you are greeted by boring shots of space, followed by boring landscapes of some boring desert planet. The first minute of the film seems dead set on convincing you the setting is not interesting in the slightest and you’re immediately put off. After this you’re somewhat pulled back into the film by this weird yellow goo ball eating a plant and being chased by another, bigger goo ball, this one being blue and holding a Triton. The high usage of background animation is immediately striking and there is this awesome shot of the blue goo ball running into a rock and the rock breaking into a million pieces. Next the yellow goo ball gets saved by a girl in a weird outfit and pacing falls flat again, and so does the films attempt at comedy, as this boring scene is mostly meant to be comedic. This is then again followed by some awesome shots of the girl flying around accompanied by some mind blowing background animation, just before the pacing comes to a halt again. The film for it’s entire run keeps switching between these awesome traveling and destruction shots, with fantastic animation, and more boring moments, where the completely uninteresting plot is being developed or equally uninteresting characters take the spotlight. The biggest problem, however, is that the boring moments become longer and longer throughout the film and the really cool looking moments don’t. The most common complaint given against Birth, is that the plot is hard to follow. Though I don’t disagree with this complaint, I personally don’t really think that’s too important. This is clearly the type of film that is just trying to be fun and I don’t think that a good plot is necessary to achieve this. The problem, however, is that the film is almost never fun. It’s almost always boring. Though a good plot could probably have helped, I don’t think it’s the main reason for why so much of the film is boring. Rather, I think the characters are the main issue. The main character is a hot girl and exists solely for the purpose of being the hot girl you can put on the cover art for the video tape. She’s completely cliched and generic. Besides her there is the guy who swings a sword, some old space boy who is just a cliched old man who likes hot girls and some other guy who works with him in his space ship. Never in the entire story do these characters bounce off of each other in a funny or endearing manner and never do these characters do anything interesting or do they have their emotions explored. Anytime the films focuses on these characters and they’re not chasing or being chased the film falls completely flat. The actual plot of the film focuses on MC girl being chased by In-organics, weird green aliens that are implied to be wiping out all organic life in the universe, but are more portrayed as generic, dumb punks. Their only purpose is to ensue chase scenes(and god bless them) and fighting scenes. That brings me to the MC boy who finds some cool sword that the In-organics are trying to find and that makes him really powerful. He takes the In-organics down in some laughably poorly choreographed fight scenes, in one of which there is a small cut away in the middle of the boy’s attack in between which the boy and the big Inorganic he fights are suddenly in different positions and the boy cuts the beast in a way that he couldn’t possible have without the cut. It’s extremely disappointing that this film, which has some stellar animation, did not manage to have stellar fights scenes. The plot continues with all the characters going to some big city and fighting some big organics and it’s all terribly unexciting. I’ve been implying that the only good aspect of the film is the animation, and this is not entirely true. I also love the score, which is filled with tons of cool 80’s beats and really helps with giving the film that cool 80 aesthetic, which so many people nowadays seem to crave and have nostalgia for. Sadly the other aspect of the sound, the sound design is fairly lacking and it’s not uncommon for a ton of stuff to be happening on screen whilst only half of it is being heard and as a result these scenes feel like you’re watching something that is so old it has become unwatchable(which is not something I often feel, as someone who watches quite a bit of old anime). It doesn’t help either that these types of scenes are generally already the boring ones and take you completely out of the film. Ultimately I can’t say I regret watching this film, as it did give me some nice eye candy, but it’s certainly not good. I only recommend this film if you’re really into old 80’s action films and you can appreciate some good background animation. Otherwise I recommend you go watch something else. For example, go check out the film Magnetic Rose, a must watch film and the first of three shorter films that make up Memories. Have a good time!