Malice@Doll

The Japanese, to us Westerners at least, seem to have a very strange attitude towards sexual subject. They ban the showing of pubic hair, yet you can buy child themed pornography and highly sexual cartoons anywhere. Malice@Doll is another in a long line of sexual themed anime.

Set in the distant future, Malice@Doll tells the story of Malice, a cyborg prostitute who walks the streets alone. Humans have long since vanished, yet the machines still carry out their duties. Whilst trying to find the engineer to repair her oil leaking joints, Malice discovers a large, tentacle waving (you knew it was coming!), machine like monster. It attacks and rapes Malice violently, causing her to shut down.

Malice awakens after her attack, only to discover that the monster's semen has changed her into a real girl. She excitedly runs about, rejoicing in her new body, wanting to show everyone of her friends her new persona. But the other machines reject her. They do not recognise her, and she's outcast from the very society she once belonged to. However, an old friend of Malice is sympathetic to her, and tries to comfort her with a kiss. This kiss transforms the robot into a David Cronenberg style monster - half organic matter, half machine. This disease spreads around the population like wildfire, infecting all who come into close contact with a carrier. So Malice sets off to find the monster which started this chain of events.

To try and explain this work is extremely hard. It really doesn't make a great deal of sense, and seems to me to be the type of animation that Andy Warhol would produce if he was still alive. It's clearly a Japanese take on the Pinocchio story though. These prostitute robots are referred to as 'Dolls', and each is merely a puppet for the humans to use for whatever sexual desires they possess. It also seems to be a comment on the very nature of prostitution - they're merely perceived as toys which men buy and play with. They go into auto-pilot to escape they true nature of their chosen profession, closing their eyes to the very world around them. The brief sex scenes shown here are both brutal and disturbing. The Dolls are extremely child-like, so there's a huge notion of paedophilia here, and the sex is rough, often involving extreme bondage and violent beatings.

The animation distracted me from the viewing experience though. It's a mix of cell drawing and computer animation, which can look very impressive when done well. The problem here is that the director and writer wanted to go for a stop-animation look to the anime. It ends up looking like a badly rendered cut-scene from a cheap PC game. If it was animated in the style of, say, Ghost in the Shell or Akira, then I'd probably have enjoyed this more. As it stands, it was far too distracting.

It's a bizarre little film - interesting to watch at times, but mostly irritating with its jerky animation. I think there are a lot of cultural references here which don't translate well, although after researching the film, it seems as if our Japanese brothers weren't that keen on the film either. Its art house animation, and really only for the serious Manga enthusiast.

The DVD presentation is luke warm to say the least. We're given a full-screen transfer which does seem to be a pan and scan job. Colours and details are lacking, and there's ghosting on the edges which appear to be the result of a VHS transfer. Compression artefracts are kept to a minimum, but they can be seen at times. Sound is typical stereo, and pretty uneventful as well.

Extras wise, Artsmagic seem to be trying to redeem themselves. We're given concept designs for the main characters in the film. These only highlight what a gem this film could have looked if they'd stuck to the usual animation style. Then we have an interview with director Keitaro Motonaga and Velvet Underground looking wannabe, writer Chiaki J. Konaka, conducted by Yukie Yamada, the voice of Malice. The two talk quite pretentiously about the film, but they're obviously very enthusiastic about their work. What did make me laugh was that their reasons for using the animation style they did were that they're inspired by animation such as Pingu and Bagpuss! Hmmmm…. Intense psycho-sexual drama…. Big pink cat and a demented penguin…

Next we have artwork for other Artsmagic releases such as the Babycart series and the Zatoichi films, followed by trailers for other anime releases (Alice and Blue Reamins) as well as a trailer for the main feature.

It's not a film I'm in a hurry to watch again. Manga enthusiasts may lap up the different style it presents, but I found it highly irritating and quite a bore.

For ordering details visit the Artsmagic site by clicking here.

Review by Steve Smith