#191: Blue Remains (2001)

 

Directors: Hisaya Takabayashi and Toshifumi Takizawa

Screenplay: Hisaya Takebayashi, Masatoshi Kimura and Toshifumi Takizawa

Voice Cast: Kazue Fukiishi as Amamiku; Kazuya Ichijou as Reyju; Masane Tsukayama as Glptofane Sex; Hiroko Suzuki as Adenine Unum; Houchu Ohtsuka as Cytosine Tria; Junko Sakuma as Yuri; Kappei Yamaguchi as Mireo; Masashi Sugawara as Ryu; Norio Wakatsuki as Irigaru; Rica Matsumoto as Sari; Takehito Koyasu as Malloz; Tesshō Genda as Thymine Duo; Tomoko Kaneda as Amamiku (child); Yoshiko Sakakibara as Mayzamik

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

Early into the DVD era in Britain, a now defunct label, Art Magic's sub label Eastern Cult Cinema, released three very early attempts at three dimensional animation, that wordiness aware that computers were assisting anime production from the late 90s onwards anyway. They were A.LI.C.E. (1999), the first theatrical film in this form, crude but fascinating as a forgotten historical footnote; Malice@Doll (2001), an OVA worthy for rediscovery as a dark work whose only real issue is its art style, even if the production worked around the restrictions; and Blue Remains, a post-apocalyptic nautical film with an environmental message.

Here, humanity has blown itself up with nuclear bombs, which has always been the way, all watched on from a spaceship helmed by a married pair of ecological scientists with their infant daughter Amamiku. Heading back down to Earth, tragically the couples' bodies are too irradiated to go through with their goal, to plant special seeds which can reawakening the ecosystem, so they place Amamiku in cryogenic sleep with them, and the ship's computer for comfort and guidance, to carry out the goal when they are gone. At the age of fourteen, but ninety plus years later, she has to carry on with the goal to help the Earth.

The film has, from then on, to struggle with the form of its then-new animation style. The film, when Amamiku wakes up, is effectively a sci-fi submarine tale, having to work around its limitations by being almost entirely set underwater or in small environments like submarine cockpits. Amamiku finds herself between those, human and otherwise, wishing to help her in restoring the Earth's vibrancy with the seeds, and an entity known as Glptofane Sex, who believes the absolute law of life should means killing off the rest of humanity to save the planet, against all the philosophical arguments and pleas of his lookalike brethren otherwise.

The film, openly, is a lot of action scenes, of Glptofane's forces of ball-like drones (with buzz saw tummies) and a giant biomechanical squid he is housed in, trying to get Amamiku and the few humans left asked to assist her goal. The film's look is equivalent of a Playstation One era cut scene for a lower budgeted game, but I will not be mean at the film for this, more that much of Blue Remains without the style of another animated format to bring a greater energy feels stiff as a result. That it is a lot of action and dynamic scenes instead of world building neither helps, especially because of the limits of the computer animation which prevent the action from being that dynamic, of 3D animated futuristic submarines floating in a void of dark blue with little background detail baring some ruined underwater buildings and an occasional aquatic life form.

The production does feel it is straining at a budget, where even the lead voice actress Kazue Fukiishi as Amamiku, in her only ever role, plays the character with a curious reflection in lines readings you normally do not get. If we go back to those three films mentioned in the first paragraph together, Malice@Doll out of the three was the most interesting of the trio; it is still strange, struggles against its form, especially as by that point Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) despite being a box office disaster effectively killed off these early productions at the same time, but it was able to get to something profound with being a surreal and disturbing work with a style and interesting Chiaki J. Konaka screenplay. Blue Remains in contrast is pretty conventional, not elaborate in terms of depth or ideas. Environmental concerns, and villains wanting to commit genocide for environmental preservation, is common in the medium, even if it is fascinating to see the villain's own argue against him and this tale being the lone figure that is misguided. Even that, whilst barely fleshed out, no one is safe barring a couple of figures from death is interesting too.

In fact, the one aspect of Blue Remains which is rewarding is the touches of eccentricity and invention it does have. The villain, and those trying to convince him against his idea, are literally brains with eyes and nervous systems attached, a grotesque aesthetic choice which stands out more because the film looks as crude as it does, fitting a more horror based narrative and the one aspect of this production likely to catch people's attention if you ever come across it (even an old DVD copy). More touches like this, like the submarines having fins to "swim" through layers of the water, or a dolphin which is actually meant to be a robot, are more interesting aspects that could have been ran with. When the film gets more New Age in tone, it is more worthwhile as it comes more to the foreground with the supernatural involved with those seeds Amamiku protects. It is not a spoiler to say a giant life giving tree, with human foetuses growing from it for new life, is part of the conclusion, because that in itself is an abrupt tangent for the film to get to considering its average tone. The end credits, set over real footage of the barrier reefs, is a cheesy and heavy handed environmental song about the life force of the sea and needing to protect it, whose earnestness is misguided but in itself cannot help but be charming. More like this, and Blue Remains would have won me over. Even if it fought against its archaic format, a more overtly surreal or inventive aesthetic, like an old weird video game from this era, would have gained it a cult audience if anything.

#181: Submarine 707R (2003)

 

Director: Shoichi Masuo

Screenplay: Hiroshi Ohnogi

Based on the manga by Satoru Ozawa

Voice Cast: Akira Ishida as Goro Kusaka; Ben Hiura as Youhei Hayami; Daisuke Sakaguchi as Senta Umino; Hideo Ishikawa as Ichiro Suzuki; Hiroshi Yanaka as Hayato Nango; Kensho Ono as Kenji Minahaya; Unshō Ishizuka as Admiral Red

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

Adapted from a manga first started in 1963, and adapted once already for a 1997 one-shot OVA, Submarine 707R is another title from the transition of Manga Entertainment into the early 2000s, where there would still be OVAs over the decade but eventually television shows alongside theatrical features would dominate their catalogue. Released by Geneon USA in the United States, that company (an off-shot of NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan) would fold in 2007, with the added fascination that this is also an Aniplex title. Aniplex are more known in the States, and are more controversial from the 2010s onwards for distributing their titles for physical media under prices closer to the Japanese market, which means very expensive and limited print runs, managing (unlike Bandai Visual in the 2000s) to actually succeed. This is almost quaint to look back on, with this two part OVA, before they were ever that company and merely one of the producers of such titles as Submarine 707R, perverse to consider.

Submarine 707R is what is says on the tin, about submarines, all that entails with eluding attacks from other submarines and ships above water, all with the danger that if the lead vessel is destroyed, the crew cannot escape the bottom of the ocean. The one touch which you may not gather even if you read the synopsis is that this is effectively set in an unknown future, a war between the world above the ocean on land, united despite frictions, and the USR (the Undersea Silence Revolution), an underwater civilisation where members like Admirable Red in his submarine attack boats and ships above to stop the surface civilisation exploiting the ocean. A lot of anime has had villains fighting, even wishing to destroy humanity, to protect the Earth's ecosystem, always a fascinating conundrum. That we see Red's family - his wife, three daughters and one infant son - shows an alternative to someone who can be seen as a cartoonish figure here otherwise, and enticing lead in for moral complexity.

Contrasting him is Captain Yōhei Hayami, captain of the 707, originally an older diesel ship not held in high regard until, whilst being taken to a conference for all nations, appears when everyone is being attacked with ease by Red, Hayami sacrificing his vessel to protect others after most were decimated beforehand. With the first episode dealing with a lot of the narrative prologue, the 707 is resurrected as a new ship immediately afterwards. As a straightforward plot progression, that Hayami is to clash with Captain Red once again, this adds a nice touch as he contrasts as a portly man who yet, alongside a talented crew, has an incredible mind for tactics.

Here I must confess that I accidentally put on the second episode on first, before stopping a quarter of its length in and watching Episode 1. As an accident, this emphasised the disappointments with the OVAs greatly. Watching Episode 2 blind, before realising the mistake, I have a more enticing work in front of me of a science fiction world, set in media res revealed to actually by the underwater civilisation of the USR, with a dominant number of female characters, including three older women commanding battleships for the surface. The show suggests an atmospheric and distinct nautical story, barring one odd creative choice, especially in a work you could show to kids, of a female staff member having a pronounced bounce in her bust moving in her seat in a scene, which is crass to point out if not so abruptly and deliberately animated by a potentially bored animator.

In reality, the OVA proves to be far less interesting than this, starting off with the true leads being a submarine ran entirely by men, including a trio of male teenagers, who never really stand out. The exception is Hayami himself, as a commander who does not use brawn but his mind, but even then you do not get much with him. Odder is that, whilst it is good we get to see his home life with his wife and daughter, there is an uncomfortable and pointless interest in his child daughter as a moe character, including an end credits for the first OVA, all in spite of not being a real character of note at all.  

In the first OVA, the pair effectively making up a feature length narrative, a lot of plot happens, including the destruction of the original 707, but the show never really hits a high gear. Considering the villain is effectively an eco-terrorist, or gets into the whole issue of the entire ocean becoming its own sovereignty, the anime does not really provide enough time to flesh this out. The first episode does tell a lot, all mentioned in the synopsis, but also a bit of jingoism. That, when all other nations boost of their new ships and squabble over who commands as they are all being obliterated, a little Japanese submarine that could wins. It is cheese, never good regardless of the country which does it, but thankfully less of a concern after that when it is about one ship, for all the surface nations, with a good captain against another submarine in a game of whit. It is perplexing though that, devoting the second episode entirely to that conflict, it manages to last over forty minutes and yet feels like nothing happened which is the ultimate flat note in spite of the promise.

The production also feels its age. Post the 2000s, this was created when digital animation took over. The notable thing for me is the clear use of digital models such as for the submarine, which would become common place into the decades after, but look noticeably separate from the normal animation in appearance with jarring effect. It is a work that, barring one scene in between its credit sequences, does not really stand out in imagination. That one scene, when I accidentally watched the first quarter of Episode 2, is Captain Red's wife on a giant industrial elevator with orchestral music playing, leading to her with her children in a domed room as outside is seemingly in Arctic tundra, completely masked in white snow. Even if the digital models for the elevator look aged, it all had an appropriate atmosphere which you do not find elsewhere. Everything else is pretty basic, and the irony is that the one really elaborate aspect of the production aesthetically, the best of the entire OVA, is the opening credits. Set to calm jazz, we see blueprints of the titular submarine being built and animation that is designed to look like sketch works as the submarine is created. That opening was directed by Hideaki Anno, of Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), with Submarine 707R being directed by Shoichi Masuo, who worked on that series and Anno's own Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1990-1) series, as a Episode Director, so it makes sense for Anno to be involved.

But it says a lot that the opening credits are the one thing I pick out but cannot elaborate further from. Submarine 707R is a case of an anime which, with all the potential there, is just average. Simple as that, and it is not worth elaborating on.