Also, I thought Paprika started off great and had some of the most shocking imagery I’ve seen in a long time (the hand rape, holy shit), but after about 30 minutes it fell into all the tropes of anime that I can’t stand: uncomfortable nudity, pseudo philosophy, and just testing the limits of what they can draw over making something actually revealing.

I liked it… but not that much.

Paprika doesn’t comment on the pedophilic nature of anime; it completely ascents to it. First, Paprika is always seen as the stronger character over Chiba: in the beginning, because Chiba is a cold and hard woman then at the end because she is unreasonable and foolish because of love. If the film had revealed Chiba’s initial iciness to be a strength OR portrayed her opening up warmly at the end as a positive, we’d have a film where real woman > fantasy conception, but we’re given the exact opposite.

I’d argue the film even discourages us seeing Chiba as the more beautiful half of the equation as the only character who sees her that way is a villain and a rapist. Part of the reason that scene so shocks and disorients the audience is that Osanai pulls off Chiba’s strong facade to reveal her weakness. And in my opinion equates her “tasteful” nudity with as something reprehensible, a form of failure… We’re meant to feel sad that her body is revealed, and I always thought that was one of the weakest and most shameful parts of anime: the championing of a naive purity over grounded, female, sexual strength.

As far as philosophy goes, I’m mostly talking about the chairman’s rhetoric. I think it’s politically irresponsible. He vaguely recalls an idea of fascistic America but only in the most juvenile sense. And if he’s fascistic America, our sympathies are placed with the “terrorists” somewhat. For they are the ones who champion “freedom” over “order.”

Formally, weren’t you a bit bored by the parade by the end of the film? How many times did we really need to see that? Considering the film’s advertising and premise hangs its success or failure on the inventiveness and craziness of its imagery, I was surprised at how repetitive it got, resting on its laurels. I mean, what a shock, the villain has tentacles. For a film desperately trying to push the formal, the aesthetics got to be pretty staid by the film’s final act.

Finally, no non-animated film would get by without mockery concerning Detective Kogawa’s backstory, yet in anime, extremely poor writing like this gets the benefit of the doubt, and I’m not really sure why. Not only was the backstory extremely trite, but the filmmakers revealed it in painfully obvious ways. His past was extremely blatant far ahead of the “official” reveal.

I will say this. I thought the scene where Chiba reveals her deep affection for Tokita was extremely touching, and I was pissed that nearly everyone in the audience laughed. I’m assuming though that they were laughing because a beautiful woman could never love an immature fatty. Although my appreciation even of that scene is tainted by smatterings of wish fulfillment. Even the gentle cross cutting and perfect delivery of the lines doesn’t keep me from realizing that the scene represents many anime fanboys’ dream.

I’m sure this makes it sound like I hated it; I didn’t. But I was expecting a lot more.

These are the must see movies I’ve seen that could count for a top ten of 2007 I think.

1) The Host
2) Black Snake Moan
3) Brand Upon the Brain
4) Fay Grim
5) Hot Fuzz

I placed Into Great Silence as a release from last year.

I haven’t seen anything bad yet, I also enjoyed the following but was not overly enthralled with (in rough order)

Day Night Day Night
I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone
Year of the Dog
Paprika

Reuben