Kai Doh Maru
Set over a 1,000 years ago in fuedal Japan's Heian era, this is the tale of Kintoki, a young girl who narrowly escapes being murdered along with her parents in a struggle for succession with her uncle.
Set over a 1,000 years ago in fuedal Japan's Heian era, this is the tale of Kintoki, a young girl who narrowly escapes being murdered along with her parents in a struggle for succession with her uncle. Kintoki escapes into the mountains and is called Kai Doh Maru by the villagers living there. Still pursued by her uncle, she is rescued by Raiko, captain of the 'Four Knights', and defenders of Kyo and is raised as a boy among them.
Five years later at seventeen, Kintoki is skilled in the art of war and has taken her place as one of the Four Knights but also, now a young woman, she finds that she has developed feelings for Raiko. Meanwhile, an epidemic is spreading in Kyo and is causing much dissent among the people and bandits are ravaging the land. Leading the opposing faction is Kintoki's cousin and childhood friend Ohni Hime, who is quite mad and in love with Kintoki while also blaming her for her father's murderous actions. Ohni Hime, along with her also disturbed companion Ibaragi Doji, has also discovered some of the dark arts and seeks to destroy Kyo…
Review
Kai Doh Maru is yet another attempt at recreating a piece of Japanese mythology as anime and like a great many of these, it falls short of telling the whole story and a lot of asumptions are made as to the audience's knowledge of preceding events. For example, no obvious explanation is given for Kintoki's nickname of Kai Doh Maru or Kaidohmaru as it appears in several places. In much the same fashion as one of Production I.G. and IG Plus's previous productions, Blood: The Last Vampire, what we get appears to be an episode from a larger tale that has no beginning and no obvious end.
The picture is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and, digitally produced, is free of dirt, damage and grain and is very good. However, the image is very stylised but deliberately so as the team created a unique colour scheme to reflect the artwork of the period, focusing as it did on the seasons, virtues and elements of the earth as they related to the spirits of nature. The result is a very soft and muted watercolour palette of pastels, almost washed out looking, where the only exception is the bright red of blood in the action scenes. The 3D backgrounds are very well detailed and dressed, even down to seasonal variations in the surrounding vegetation. The animation is okay but pretty minimalist, again probably deliberately so to help with the mood of the story.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is excellent and is loaded with ambient surround effects such as crickets chirping and bird song throughout. The battle scenes and the burning of the town are also quite well handled with good use of the surround channels. On top of that, the dialogue is exceptionally clear. This is an excellent soundtrack!
The box describes the running time at approximately 80 minutes but the main feature only runs for 46 minutes and about six of those are titles and credits so one can't help feeling short changed and somewhat misled by the studio here. Also, if it wasn't for the Character Profiles included in the extras, much of the storyline would have been difficult to pick up.
The story is more oriented towards the political intrigue of the times rather than an action-fest and as such is a somewhat slow moving affair. The lack of any background story also means that the characters are under-developed as far as we viewers are concerned so, if you're looking for a decent plot with a rich mix of well-developed characters and some serious action scenes, then this isn't really going to do it for you. That said, as an experiment in pushing the boundaries of sound and visuals used in anime it is worth watching bit only just.
Extras
Round Table Discussion With Creators - An eight and a half minute, reasonably interesting piece featuring a discussion with director Kanji Wakabayashi, character designer Sho-u Tajima and animation director Kyouji Asano. They discuss how the project began, how they got involved, Tajima's designs, their favourite characters and their first impressions of the finished film. In addition we get an idea of what animation means to Tajima and a bit of back-slapping all round.
Character Boards - A series of 36, click-through character design drawings, presumably from the pen of Sho-u Tajima.
Character Profiles - Here we get some of the history of nine of the main characters - Kintoki, Tsuna, Suetaki, Sadamitsu, Raiko, Ohni Hime, Ibaragi Doji, Fuji and Yamabuki. Each comes with a some artwork models and you can also view some of their best scenes from here. Without this material, you'd never figure out the intricacies of the story. If, once you've watched the main feature, you're a bit confused, some of this may help ...or maybe not.
CG Models - 3D computer walkthroughs of several scenes and objects used in the movie - Seimiei's House, Michinaga's House, Ministry Of Security, Deserted Temple, Shuten Doh, Oxcarts and Statues Of The Four Knights. All but the last is followed by a page of comments from the designer involved.
Original Trailer - A short, 30-second promotional trailer. Makes it look much more exciting than it really is.
Manga Previews - 13 and a half minutes of standard Manga promotional previews.
Overall
Kai Doh Maru is an excellent piece of anime but that's all it is. The graphics, animation and sound are excellent and really can't be faulted and the artists and animators have produced exactly what they intended - a stylish and lavish piece of work but it's seriously lacking in substance. As such it's a good showcase of what the team can do but only that.
The extra features, more than usual for a Manga title, add some more value and help explain the story in a bit more depth but don't really make up for the short running time. Anime fans will like it for its style but it'd be a hard sell to anyone else.
This page has been read:
4977
times