Mardock Scramble - GONZO's 15th Anniversary Series

[MrProphet]

Well, there is no independant thread for this anime, and I don't feel like discussing this in random GONZO threads, so why not make a new one?

For those unaware...

Mardock Scramble is a new anime being made by the GONZO Digimation. It is their 15th anniversary project. For the record, their 10th anniversary project was Last Exile (which was unbelievable good).

Another good thing Mardock Scramble shares with Last Exile is the famous illustrator and designer Renji "Range" Murata, who once again does the character designs for the show.

What else do we know about it?

Director: Yasufumi Soejima (previously done some various 3DCG work on Le Comte de Monte-Cristo and Last Exile).

Story: Tou Ubukata (who is actually the original author of "Mardock Scramble", as the anime is based on his novel of the same name)

Animation director: Junichi Takaoka (previously done various work on BGC 2040, Parakiss, Slayers, etc.)

Mahiro Maeda once again does the mecha design, so YAY!

The format: Currently unknown (TV? OVA? Feature film?)
The date: Currently unknown (most likely - 2007, since GONZO was found in 1992)
The website: http://mardock.jp/
The promo: http://mardock.jp/special.html

Actually, the promo is the reason why I decided to start this thread, as it came out just today. And it looks exceedingly good in my opinion. Highly professional and reeks of quality work, despite being short and uneventful.

There seems to be a girl, and that girl seems to be holding a gun, but that does not necessarily mean it's a dreaded "girls with guns" genre that GONZO is so infamous for these days. So, suspend your disbelief and pessimism for a second there.

Why not give GONZO a chance? They didn't screw up Last Exile, why not give 'em a break once in 5 years, eh? 8)

[Guido]

I think GONZO was founded in 1993, since Last Exile aired in 2003 as the 10th Anniversary Series, henceforth, Mardock Scramble won't air until 2008.

[MrProphet]

According to GONZO's own record (http://www.gonzo.co.jp/studio/02gaiyou.html), the studio began its life on 1992年9月11日. So, there...

If Mardock Scramble is an OVA series, then it will take them several years to roll it out anyway, so they can start this year and procede onwards toward the actual anniversary.

[Sonhex]

Found these images of the covers to the three books on my travels...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/sonhex/md01.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/sonhex/md02.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/sonhex/md03.jpg

And some blurb about the story leeched from anime-days.com:

The history proceeds in a future distance where technology experienced a significant development before being prone to imposing restrictions. Indeed, a large war made rock the world in chaos.

In the city of Mardock, on the steps leading to the Paradise, one follows the destiny of a young woman who will see her world rocking after one of prohibited technologies is revealed. It soon will become the prey of given hunters...

Anyway I'm intrigued, despite the temptation to call this another Gonzo 'girl with guns' anime...

[MrProphet]

Thanks for the images, they look very interesting.

I wonder how she would look "Murata-fied". Hopefully, not too pedo, because I hate it when Murata goes completely pedo on his girl-characters. I think his "bishoujo" look is much better.

[MrProphet]

More info here on Mardock Scramble. Some of the seiyuus have been revealed.

Megumi Hayashibara as Ballot
George Nakata as Boiled
Goda Hozumi as Doctor

Great news! With Hayashibara coming out of the retirement and Nakata being one of my favourite voice-actors.

Also, the website got the face-life: http://mardock.jp/

The not so good news is that according to several sources, the anime will be fully 3DCG. :confused:

[wao]

I don't particularly like all of Murata's girl-pedo characters, my biggest complaint is that after some time they all look way too similar... but a full-3DCG anime?! NOOOOOOO.

...NOOOOOOOO. Shit. But it's possible since the person who seems like the leader of Gonzo's CG team, Yasufumi Soejima, is directing this so... Oh well.

Good luck to them then...

[Sunabouzu]

i talked with murahama and murata 9 days ago (believe it or not but its true^^)

and everything they showed were the promo -.-
they say that they wont leave the normal animation to make only full
full 3DCG-anime but after they were the first to make a hybrid anime (last exile and yukikaze for example) they want to be the first to make a full 3DCG-anime

[MrProphet]

they want to be the first to make a full 3DCG-anime

And Appleseed wasn't one?

[Sunabouzu]

appleseed wasn't one... not full 3DCG

[MrProphet]

It wasn't? How so?

Could you define your understanding of "full 3DCG"?

[Sunabouzu]

there were still parts in appleseed hat were made like the normal average anime...i have the limited edition DVD so i will watch i again sometimes an tell you some szenes to show what i mean

[MrProphet]

I also have it and I don't remember any regular hand-drawn scenes. Maybe I am mistaken, but then post up images. Or just tell us when those scene occur, so I can double-check.

[Sunabouzu]

i just remember something...isn't it that most of the stuff in appleseed is more like cell shading than 3DCG?

[MrProphet]

Cell-shading is just one of the 3DCG techniques, AFAIR.

If GONZO is going with some other method to make computer-rendered animation look photo-realistic, then that's all right, but that wouldn't make it "the first fully 3DCG" anime.

And even if we discount Appleseed (although I see no reason why), Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children certainly qualify as "fully 3DCG".

[jonli]

I think gonzo meant full 3D CG anime SERIES.

[Sunabouzu]

that could be possible^^
my memorie is not that good and i just sayed what i remembered -.-

[kari-no-sugata]

Hmm... I can't say I've enjoyed any "CG anime" to date. But, I liked Last Exile a lot, so I'm willing to give Gonzo the benefit of the doubt.

Looking at the promo, it's hard to say much. I got a vague feeling the visual style they're going for would be closer to a "visual novel" than normal cell shading.

I did a google image search, and one place said the thing was an OVA series. However, since the original is a novel, unless the compress the original story a heck of a lot, then either it'd have to be a long OVA series or a TV series.

[jonli]

I cant say i enjoy 3D CG Anime either. Im completely fine with pixar and stuff, those are awesome. But when its like "Appleseed" and "Freedom", i really hate how the characters move especially how their mouth moves. It just looks awkward....

[MrProphet]

The website has confirmed the casting of Hayashibara et al.

Another thing that we know is that Mardock Scramble will be a 3 part OVA.

Still no word on the release date.

[eggplant]

Gonzo announced today the cancellation of the Mardock Scramble OVA due to reasons not stated.

Announcement:
http://mardock.jp/
http://www.gonzo.co.jp/news/061221.html

I'm speculating this has something to do with GDH's (Gonzo's holding company) announcement of incurring losses of 1.6 billion yen for the March 2007 fiscal year.

President Murahama was speaking so enthusiastically of Mardock Scramble at the Gonzo Festa in September, saying Gonzo is taking the "no holds barred" approach. How ironic it is that no one will have a hold of this forever.

I can imagine Ubukata Tow's disappointment at this news, as he took initiative in the production meetings just as he did with Le Chevalier D'Eon.

[MrProphet]

That's sad. I was looking forward to it. Oh, well...

[Sonhex]

Sad news indeed. It looked to have all the makings of a classy piece of work with Ubukata Tow and Range Murata on-board. Wonder what, if anything, they have planned for next years 15th anniversary?

[gianna]

:/.....
I was looking forward to this for so many months

Do you think they're saying -canceled- now but is it possible that the project could be started again sometime in the future

[JediNight]

That would depend on the wording they use I think. I suck at kanji so I won't attempt to read the release, but there are a couple different ways to say something like this. From "we don't have money right now so it's stopped" to "never ever going to happen" depending on the kanji used.

[wao]

Well, from my limited experience with the word "中止", I get the impression while it technically means that it's been stopped but doesn't cancel out it coming back alivel ater, usually it seems that when they say 中止 they mean it's stopped for good.

He does say ご期待に添えず (not following/realising [the fans and staff's] expectations) which makes me think it isn't going to get revived any time soon. But I could be completely and absolutely wrong, for sure...

I do suppose the financial success or lack of it for Gonzo is affecting it... and here they were touting it as a one-two Tow Ubukata thing, what with Chevalier D'Eon first and then Mardock Scramble. It would be quite interesting if Gonzo tried to push for the heavy reliance on cheap Korean studios (like they have been doing with so many of their works so far...) but this time the producers - or even Ubukata himself? Who knows - finally said no. I'd rather they not produce it at all than it end up like Speed Grapher, tbh.

[orion]

This is what ANS posted.



1-5-07 (8:11PM EST)---- Rumors Foretold Mardock Scramble Cancellation
Prior to Gonzo's official announcement in late December, rumors had already hit the Japanese web, speculating production on the Mardock Scramble OVA project may be headed for the rocks. D-Rights Yahoo Blog (http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/d_rightsjp/archive/2006/12/13) was among the earlybirds making a brief mention of the possibility in a December 13th entry. Unconfirmed rumors elsewhere indicate a sponsor may have pulled out of the project leaving inadequate funding for the completion. An interview in the July edition of SF Fantasy Magazine (http://ime.nu/www.sf-fantasy.com/magazine/interview/050701.shtml) indicated production was considerably advanced. Many Japanese observers have mentioned for an anime work of this scale to be cancelled at this stage of development is truly unprecedented and may be even an industry first.

Makes you wonder what the sponsor was afraid of?

Do you think that someone else will pick up the title and animate it? It's a shame that an award winner (the novel) got treated like this.