Bleach: Fade to Black - Kimi no Na o Yobu

[cassiesheepgirl]

Bleach: Fade to Black - Kimi no Na o Yobu


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So, I had originally thought about making this a user review, but after a little nudge by a certain someone *cough*sothis*cough*, and since my Kanamemo review seems to have stalled again T_T, I expanded it into this.


Story: 5/10

Ahh, Bleach. I don’t know how it does it, but despite filling my heart with absolute rage at its terrible fillers, I inevitably find myself anticipating each new movie in the same way that Kon desperately awaits his next glimpse of Orihime’s ridiculously massive rack.

So, what calamity has befallen Soul Society this time?

In Bleach: Fade to Black – I Call Your Name, two mysterious intruders break in to the twelfth squad’s laboratory and escape with Kurotsuchi’s latest invention, but not before partially wiping some of his memories and obliterating a third of Seireitei. Meanwhile, the two nameless antagonists kidnap Rukia and erase her memories – thus obliterating everyone else’s knowledge of her. While Ichigo initially suffers from this amnesia, he soon remembers her and embarks on a quest to travel to Soul Society, find out what is happening, rescue Rukia, and restore the status quo.

Sadly, Fade to Black suffers from one of the same pitfalls as the series. It starts out with an interesting premise that then fizzles away. In this case, I found the whole concept of erasing all recollections of one particular person, thus wiping out her existence, intriguing, not because of the actual memory loss but because of its repercussions. The idea that, if Rukia hadn’t existed, none of the shinigami would have met Ichigo is captivating, though I must admit that the saccharine explanations about everybody’s memories being linked through their strong bonds had me reaching for the sick bag on occasion.

While it all starts out well, Fade to Black soon takes its appealing foundation and mixes it with the antagonists’ lacklustre motive, before eventually descending into a series of uninspired shounen battles. By the time I got to the appearance of a bizarre tentacled blob creature, which reminds me of a cross between Dr Zoidberg from Futurama and a Pac-Man ghost, I was rapidly losing interest.

Also, in true Bleach fashion, Fade to Black likes to dig its own little plot holes. For instance, if Ichigo never meets Rukia, he’d never encounter Kon; so could someone please explain to me how, when he suffers from ‘Rukia-amnesia’ Ichigo isn’t completely freaked out by him? I’m pretty certain that if one of my stuffed animals started talking to me I’d be running to check myself into the nearest psychiatric ward!


Animation: 7.5/10

After witnessing some rather dismal animation in the series, Fade to Black’s impressive visuals come as a refreshing change. The majority of the film’s colour palette remains fairly muted. Grey cloud-covered skies help establish the ominous tone of the film, while the striking nighttime settings illuminated by moonlight heighten the dramatic nature of many scenes.

The film boasts smooth movement throughout, and the fight sequences display good animation as each character leaps, dodges and dives across the screen. Renji’s zanpakutou moves in a remarkable whip-like manner, while still managing to retain its obvious weight. The end result injects such realism, that it feels like it could be an actual weapon rather than a fantastical fabrication. Overall, Fade to Black provides a pleasing ocular experience.



Sound: 6.5/10

I find it difficult to judge the sound in Fade To Black, since I’ve heard it all before in every other incarnation of the Bleach franchise. The film works on the philosophy of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Thus, I perceived the exact same score that appears during the series each and every week. While Shiro Sagisu’s soundtrack works well with the tone of Bleach’s storytelling, it would be nice to occasionally hear something a bit different.


Characters: 7/10

By now, fans of the Bleach franchise are already familiar with the regular cast and their backgrounds; therefore one would hope that any new characters would be the most interesting, right? Wrong. Fade to Black’s two new ‘movie-only’ antagonists failed to hold my attention, and instead feel flat and rather annoying. Call me a hard-hearted wench, but while obvious that I was supposed to sympathise with them and their upsetting past, these two nameless enemies – hereafter referred to as ‘cry baby 1’ and ‘cry baby 2’ – simply felt like whiny, spoiled brats. Instead of actually caring about their plight, and reasons behind their actions, I tried to use my (non-existent) psychic powers to get them off-screen, and return to someone more compelling.

The best part of Fade to Black’s characterisation emerged from the chaos of Soul Society’s situation. The effects of removing certain memories from the cast range from a decline in confidence, to self-doubt, and even loss of hope. As such, with some characters behaving in an unexpected manner, I was taken out of my comfort zone. For me, watching Kurotsuchi’s complete breakdown towards the beginning was the highlight of the film. Seeing one of the most composed, sinister, and predatory of Bleach’s protagonists mutating into a terrified victim, wildly swinging his zanpakutou around, was truly enthralling.


Overall: 6.2/10

What Fade to Black does best is demonstrate the side effects of the enforced memory loss that crybabies 1 and 2 inflict on the protagonists. Regrettably, this doesn’t last long, and instead of developing this a little more, the movie retreats to a safer and more comfortable arena. While not a particularly bad film, Fade to Black doesn’t manage to specially impress either. As a standard shounen movie, it’s relatively good, and certainly better than some of the fillers that make it into the main series.

[ThePatches]

A charming little review. Watch a little for repetition. The only real gripes I had were some tense issues in the final paragraph and the animation section:

Originally Posted by cassiesheepgirl

Animation: 7.5/10

Having witnessed some rather dismal animation in the series, Fade to Black’s decent visual offering <-- a bland description hidden behind fancy language. You can do better than this. came as a refreshing change. The majority of the film’s colour palette remains fairly muted. Grey cloud-covered skies help establish the ominous tone of the film, while nighttime scenes illuminated in the moonlight set a more dramatic precedence. <-- A little flat, maybe? Are you trying to say, "The nighttime scenes, illuminated by the moon heightened the drama of many key scenes in the anime."?

The film boasts fairly smooth movement throughout, and the fight sequences display good animation. <-- "good animation" doesn't describe a whole lot. Either cut the line or choose some more specific language here. In particular I found the unique motion of Renji’s zanpakutou, Zabimaru, impressive and realistic with its whip-like nature, yet still managing to retain a sense of weight. <-- This sentence reads like a run-on, even though I don't think it is. I'd start by taking yourself out of it (tenses), and then head toward, "Renji's zanpakutou moves in an impressively whip-like manner while retaining its obvious weight. The end product injects some striking realism into the fanciful vistas dominated by flashy kido and the Getsuga Tensho." Overall, Fade to Black provides a pleasing ocular experience.

Now, I think you understand why I wrote a personal review for Taishou Yakyuu Musume. ;) I think the animation section fell a little because you had a few things to say beyond, "Eh. It's Bleach" a la the sound section, but not enough that fluff didn't creep in.

Overall, though, I like the light and easy tone of the review. You just need to tighten some screws.

[cassiesheepgirl]

Thanks for the feedback. I've had a fiddle with the animation section a bit, and altered a couple of other bits. There are not enough words for memory/memories. >_<