Anime: Tenshi no Tamago

A esta vaina la consideran una especie de obra maestra ultra-profunda tan cargada de significado que se viola a GitS, Eden: It's an Endless World! y Serial Experiment Lain juntos. Bueno les diré que eso no solo es una gran mentira, sino que esta "magistral " película es una de las cosas más sobrevaloradas del mundo del anime y el manga.



Para empezar los "simbolismos" son la cosa más aleatoria que existe, están abiertos a cualquier explicación debido a que ni siquiera tienen una real. Puedes darles el significado de lo que sea, lo que significa que no tienen un valor simbólico real. Puedes decir que esto es una especie de alegoría al apocalipsis y que blah blah blah, que el muchacho con el bastón es el anticristo y que la niña es lo que queda de los humanos. Eso no explica por qué el mundo terminó así en primer lugar, o por qué el "anticristo" querría romper ese huevo, o de donde se supone que vienen él y ella, o que en su viaje por ese surreal casi onírico mundo aparezcan un montón de momentos que no aportan nada y dejan más preguntas, o por qué están ellos solos ahí y nadie más. Mi punto básicamente es que la película es completamente vacía, ya que la aleatoriedad de los eventos y sus vagas interpretaciones hacen que sea insustancial y carezca de un mensaje autentico, es que díganme, cual se supone que es el punto de todo esto? en el caso de que esa interpretación que dicen sea cierta entonces, cual es el punto? la respuesta es que ninguno. Si quisieron hacer simbología hecha bien, hubiesen hecho algo como, no sé, el topo que maneja alegorías budistas para tratar parte de sus temas sobre la felicidad y el hedonismo, ahí funcionan porque dichos simbolismos están relacionados con los susodichos tópicos y que si te pones a investigar sobre el budismo sabrás fácilmente su significado al no ser innecesariamente abstractos y ser fáciles de identificar.



Prosiguiendo con el contenido de la película, este es casi nulo, para durar una hora y diez minutos se pudo reducir a tan solo media hora y haría que no fuera una pérdida de tiempo. La mayoría del tiempo se va en la travesía del dúo protagonista a través del delirante mundo sin pies ni cabeza que los rodea y tan solo contemplando el entorno. No sé ustedes pero ver a un par de chicos de los que no se un carrizo por 70 minutos, con interacciones tan vagas en medio de puros sin sentidos es un gran somnífero. Al fin y al cabo carece de una historia real



Y ya que hable algo sobre los personajes no tengo nada que decir de ellos, carecen de objetivos más allá de que uno protege el huevo y otro quiere destruirlo (por alguna razón). No tienen personalidad, trasfondo ni desarrollo, son tan huecos como la misma película.



Sobre el huevo, que se supone que es? que contiene? que simboliza? por qué es tan importante?, son cosas que ya los demás puntos que expuse demuestran que es nada



Lo único rescatable es la ambientación y la música que al ser de Mamoru Oshii ya se sabe que son geniales, me gustaría aún más si es que no tuviera el sello del director de hacer que todo el entorno resulte alienante y opresivo ante el espectador promedio, cosa que solo añade al aburrimiento, pero de todos modos está muy trabajada en este sentido. El movimiento es fluido, los escenarios están muy detallados y tienen una vibra malrrollera que le queda espectacular por su estilo visual que denota soledad y decrepitud. Además de hacer muchos juegos con las sombras para aportar al carácter lúgubre presente de inicio a fin y que los simbolismos, si se les ve de forma superficial le da un aire místico y onírico, como si estuviésemos viendo algún sueño de carácter espiritual o algo por el estilo, cosa que la música al estar compuesta de coros bastante amenazantes y espectrales terminan por reforzar.



La review ha sido corta, pero es que no tenía nada que decir sobre semejante bodrio, es como esas pinturas compuestas de múltiples colores sin uniformidad, le puedes dar el significado que quieras, pero eventualmente si tienes cerebro notaras que no hay nada que interpretar y que solo le están dando características más profundas a una obra que ni las tiene. En conclusión es una película de mierda que solo puros pseudo-intelectuales y pretenciosos tendrían la osadía de considerar un 10/10. Si quieres una autentica experiencia surreal que te viole mentalmente pero que a la vez tenga coherencia mírate Lain, si solo quieres dormir o quieres presenciar una atmósfera bien construida y efectos especiales geniales, aquí lo tienes.

Mix gothic architecture, lonely quietude, the color blue, and japanese animation together, and what do you get?

Why, a gothloneybluese animated picture, of course!

Oh, and also Angel's Egg.

Now my bizarrometer may be a little biased, seeing as I've somehow avoided most of the strange anime out there for the majority of my life regardless of the fact that I really like this kind of stuff, but, wow, what a weird movie. To review this in only one sense would be completely boring to me, so I'm going to review it in a special manner; first, I'll review it based on the thoughts that came into my head when I first watched it, then I'll review it based on my thoughts after a second viewing. They're radically different, I swear.

First Viewing:
Angel's Egg, what a freaking bore!

The animation was horrid. It looked like it was drawn by a freaking five year old, and, to add to the stupidity, there was hardly any animation at all; most of the movie consisted of freaking pauses. The girl pauses while she looks at the window; she pauses before she gets water in her little container; she pauses before she takes a drink from said container. She pauses before she speaks to the man. The man pauses before he talks back to her; he pauses before he starts walking, he pauses and stares at her, he pauses when she tells him to do something; and so and and so forth, through the whole blasted thing. There were some pauses that had to last at least three minutes; you don't freeze at something for three minutes if you want to keep someone's attention, man!

The sound was okay, well, when there was any. It mostly consisted of a few eerie background noises, steps, and flowing and dropping water. It was very muddled and very stupid after a while. However, it must have been soothing in some manner because it made me fall asleep when I heard it. That's right; I fell asleep during this movie. It was that boring. The music was a big huge wad of whatev'. I couldn't tell it was happening when it was happening, so I guess it did it's job in some sense, according to the group of people that say that you shouldn't notice music when it's happening, the group that consists of everyone on the entire planet but me, but I didn't like it at all for that same reason. (try piecing that one together in your head, you!)

The plot was pointless, that is, if there even was a plot to begin with. I mean all the whole movie really consisted of as far as a story was a girl getting some water and putting it down in some building where, supposedly, Noa's Ark originally landed, and some guy ruining her day, or night in this case. Nothing happened; I repeat: not a single thing happened besides what I just mentioned, and the movie was over an hour long; it pissed me off to the nth degree. I mean why would I want to waste my time on some film where nothing happens at all? It's amazing how much of a waste of life this movie was.

Second Viewing:
This movie was kind of interesting. I liked the focus on the details in the backgrounds. The symbolism probably didn't mean anything, but that was what made it cool, the fact that it could be interpreted in a plethora of different ways.

The frequent pauses didn't give the movie dramatic effect or anything, but they did make me contemplate and carefully examine the frozen images, hoping to notice things that I wouldn't normally pay attention to. However, that plan must've gone completely fubar, for nothing sticks out in my memory that caught my attention when I did this, so I guess I must have wasted my time. I did try to examine very hard what the camera panned out to at the end of the film; it looked sort of like a seed, and that's all I got. Man, I'm pretty bad at this symbolism stuff.

My favorite part of the movie was the sound at the beginning that sounded sort of like a steaming teapot, but at a lower pitch. It happened right when the metal sun eye statue thing began to set if you want to check it out yourself.

Ummm, yeah. This didn't work out too well. Note to self: don't try to review something twice. Oh well, hopefully you got some form of sustenance from reading this, and if you didn't, hah, I wasted some minutes of your life. Have fun watching the anime that you love to watch; I'm gone.

It is difficult to gauge, let alone grade, the “plot” of this movie. What scraps of story are there seem to exist purely for the purpose of making the characters move around in order to show the whole setting to the viewers. There is a climax to the story, but no resolution per se. True to its kind, the movie leaves the audience to interpret the meaning of the events depicted, and how they relate to one another and the world where they take place; in fact, there seem to be several symbolic cycles entwined in the movie, merging and departing from one another at different points. Likewise, the characters are only interesting for their symbolic ambiguousness. Their actions and movements are sparse and indecisive, almost ethereal. Their speech is likewise very rare; for the most part, the characters ask questions rather than provide any sort of fact or opinion. There is no character development in Angel’s Egg, and no effort is made to introduce any (even though it can stand as a coming-of-age story). Instead, the characters are presented as blank frames where the viewers can attach their own relations and symbols.

The setting is very abstract. The bare trees, ruined buildings and general delapidation point to a post-apocalyptic setting, but it is difficult to confirm that. There are no cultural references that would help pinpoint the movie in time or space; all artificial structures have a generic design that makes them familiar but at the same time doesn’t tie them down to any particular era.

It is all very beautifully drawn, of course. The atmosphere is very dark, with all surfaces and structures displaying shadows and nooks so as to absorb as much light as possible. The long shadows and overcast sky make the setting at once expansive and claustrophobic. Another major design element is water, drawn in various states and vessels. The artists use water to great effect in order to distort the images refracted through it. The character designs discard any cartoonish notion of anime and instead embrace a more traditional sketch. The details of their design seem to be drawn in equal part from character archetypes and religious references. By and large, Angel’s Egg sets itself apart from any drawing conventions commonly used in anime.

I don’t know if professional voice actors were used in the movie; in any case they would not be necessary. Scarcely one word is uttered during the first half of the movie, and what dialogue does exist from there on consists mainly of repetitive questions. On the other hand, the music score is a major factor in the movie, with complex melodies and themes, almost creating allegories of its own.

Even though it was made decades ago, Angel’s Egg continues to be a very innovative work. Its inherent abstruction is bound to split the opinions of the viewers. Whether one loves it or hates it, it is a very good example of an alternative approach to anime (and animation in general) taken to an extreme.

What is Angels Egg? Is it a post apocalyptic movie? Is it a warning to the Japanese public about the evils of overfishing? Is it a Noah's Ark parable? The beautiful thing about existentialist films such as Angels Egg is that we can draw our own conclusions, and witness it as a reflection of our own values. At it's source this film separates anime fans from motion picture fans, or perhaps brings them together.

Angels Egg is very liquid. Many scenes are dominated by water, and how water distorts the world through reflection and refraction. The scenery is for the most part 19th century Gothic architecture; with some Salvador Dali inspired backgrounds thrown in for good measure. Character animations are ... unique, it's something you just have to see.

Speaking of characters, Angels Egg sports three. A young girl whose sole objects in life are: to drink water, to fill potbellied glass beakers with water, and to care for an egg. There is a young man whom carries around a cross, tells stories, and does a few other things. Finally we have the music, whom let's us know in surprisingly subtle ways what we are experiencing. The music of Angels Egg is classical, with a lot of choral movements.

As far as plot goes, it's an existentialist movie, enough said. The plot needs to be inferred through our responses to the images we are presented. So the plot will be different for everyone who sees it. The question to be asked is whether Angels Egg is genius, self indulgence, unintelligible, or all three at once? I'll leave the answer to that question up to the viewers themselves because at this time I do not know, which at least makes Angels Egg interesting. See for yourself.

This is one of the most difficult pieces of anime to watch. It aims totally for atmosphere and provoking feelings and not for a story or things making sense.

I have nothing against difficult or thought-provoking animes (I love Boogiepop for the brainfuck it is) but this goes one or two steps too far for me.

If nothing that happens does not make any sense whatsoever, does not even seem to convey anything greater than the sums of its scenes, I just cannot acknowledge the artistery or intelligence of its author(s). Without any common ground or development taking place I have no basis to enjoy it.

This is really one of those love or hate things. Either you can get carried away with this despite, no because of its flaws or you will not get it and dislike it.

Angel's Egg isn't the regular anime. It doesn't even looks like it has a story, and it probably doesn't have one at all either.

What I noticed is that this anime-movie is all about atmosphere, mystery and symbolics.

It's about a young girl carrying an egg (which is probably a symbol for heart/love) and she doesn't want anyone to see/hold it. Until she encounters a young man who's friendly to her, and accompagnies her on her journey, which don't seem to lead anywhere. Lost in a world which seem to be full of memories of lost ages, without anyone to talk to, or to share happiness (the whole movie has about 15 sentences of dialogue in total and looks like a dead world with the two of them as only survivors), they struggle to go forth, without a target.

If I would tell more, I would tell everything that happens in the entire movie, since there isn't much happening. It's all about atmosphere and symbolics, and that would be impossible to explain anyway, since I don't understand everything myself at all. I do think you could enjoy it without analyzing everything, but don't expect a good story.
Same with FuriKuri - if you try to understand the story, it's excellent. But if you just want to watch and enjoy, it's also worth it.
Just don't think it's comedy ;) It's a dark, lonely world.