Mardock Scramble Film Trilogy
 

I can't find any other thread reporting on this so as I might as well start a new one.

Mardock Scramble (マルドゥック・スクランブル)

http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/z...s/mardock0.jpg

Official website: http://m-scramble.jp/

Mardock Scramble TAF 2010 Trailer Ver.1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnx11dWgMlo

Mardock Scramble TAF 2010 Trailer Ver.2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UEOc2izf2Y

Staff:
Original creator/storyboard: Tow Ubukata
Music Production: Starchild Records
Animation Production: GoHands
Director: Susumu Kudo (工藤進) [Kimi ga Aruji]
Animation Director: Jun Nakai [Princess Lover, Samurai Champloo]
Mechanical Art Director: Hiroshi Okubo [Outlaw Star, Angel Links]
CGI Director: Tetsuro Kodama
Character Designer: Shingo Suzuki (鈴木信吾) [Princess Lover]
Concept Design: Kouichi Kikuta [Gurren Lagann]
Music: Conisch [Kurogane no Linebarrels]
Distribution: Aniplex

Cast:
Megumi Hayashibara as Rune Balot
Norito Yashima as Eufcoque Penteano
Hiroki Touchi as Dr. Easter
Kazuya Nakai as Shell Septinos
Tsutomu Isobe as Dimsdale Boiled
Masahiko Tanaka as Welldone the Pussyhand
Norio Wakamoto as Medium the Fingernail
Mika Kanai as Rare the Hair
Kenta Miyake as Mince the Wink
Tomohiro Waki as Fresh the Pike

Plot:
Based on Tow Ubukata's sci-fi cyberpunk novels, the story is about a teenage prostitute named Rune Balot who is almost burned to death at the hands of her boss, a casino manager named Shell. A doctor named Easter and his mouse-shaped assistant Eufcoque rescue her and regenerates her body into a living weapon. Now with super-human abilities, Rune goes after Shell and the corrupt inspector Boiled for revenge.

Thanks to Sonhex for the images in the thread for the cancelled Gonzo adaptation.


Update 1: According to the official website and Moonphase's comments, it seems there may be a trilogy of movies for Mardock Scramble, as the website currently displays the subtitle "The First Compression 圧縮" (which is the name of the first book). Also there will be an announcement on the production of the movie during Tokyo Anime Fair 2010 on March 27th. A promotional video, and information on staff and cast will be revealed on that day. Ubukata will make an appearance along with the main cast to talk about the movie on stage.

Update 2: Details of staff has been revealed, plus Megumi Hayashibara is voicing Rune Balot. Mardock Scramble has been confirmed to be a trilogy of movies via ANN and Moonphase.

Update 3: Production conference at Tokyo Anime Fair 2010, Tow Ubukata, Megumi Hayashibara and Conisch come on stage to talk about the movies. Promotional video of the first movie is shown with two versions. Tow Ubukata is on board the production crew as script/storyboard director. Trailer (Ver.1) is now available on the official website.

A shounen manga adaptation of the light novel series Mardock Scramble is serialized in the shounen manga magazine Bessatsu Shounen Magazine.

The manga is drawn by Ooima Yoshitoki.

The first volume of the shounen manga will be released on March 17th, 2010.

Back from the dead, eh? Setting sounds interesting, still I would have prefered the light novel character designs over that new generic-looking one. *sigh*

Eh it looks good to me. Could have been worse they might have gone with a moe character design to her.

At last! As mentioned, an OVA series was in the works for the longest time, to commemorate Gonzo's 15th anniversary, but then was cancelled at the end of 2006. Now we may actually get a film or films. I've been waiting for this for four years, lol.

Nothing about this strikes me as anything special. Story has been done before before and the character looks like a ghotic.. Is the story telling really good or something I'm missing here... Is this the first movie from Starchild Records?

So, is this supposed to be the goth-loli answer to Gungrave or something?

The reason this is so anticipated is that the novel was written by Tow Ubukata, who is a well-known Japanese SF writer and writer for NewType. He wrote the novels for Soukyuu no Fafner and Chevalier D'Eon, and has won at least one SF award.

It may or may not be good, but it is nice to see a previously anticipated project finally come to fruition. They have certainly moe-ified the character design of the lead, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, in my book. Looks good to me.

It will all depend on the staff, studio, and cast, which will be announced Saturday 27 March. Since Ubukata has already done the script of one anime (Heroic Age), I wouldn't be surprised if he adapts his own novel this time.

According to ANN, Starchild has produced movies before: Fafner, Slayers, and Evangelion movies. It will be interesting to see who they get to produce the animation for them.

A revenge story ha? I will give a try!

I'm so there. The lead is channeling La Femme Nikita with that pose.

I don't find her moe at all. I hope she lives up to her lethal forebearers.

It would be interesting if Lambda Film (Shouji Murahama's new company) were on the project. However, given that Range Murata isn't involved, it might be a new crew altogether.

I so want Kite here :3

Interest for this is so low around here!

Anyways, according to ANN the production will be in charge of studio GoHands (Princess Lover, people from it also worked on S1 of Shugo Chara), and the series itself will consist of three movies. The known staff is as follows:

Director: Susumu Kudo (工藤進) [Kimi ga Aruji]
Character Designer: Shingo Suzuki (鈴木信吾) [Princess Lover]
Music: Conisch [Kurogane no Linebarrels]

Also the main character, Rune Ballot, will be played by Megumi Hayashibara.

Source: ANN

---

Really looking forward to it. Kimi ga Aruji is great so the director checks out. Plus, GoHands has proved to be able to provide fantastic animation in PriLover, and I suppose that since this project is a movie trilogy they won't run into budget issues or anything of that sort.

And, well, the BEST thing about it is that we're getting another Megumi main role! Get hype, guys.

I wholeheartedly agree with this.

Generic comment aside. The difference between the front page character, and her character bio in the character page is HUGE; the front page looks nice but her character bio looks seriously like crap (I can't even find a better word for this). Given that there aren't much image on the stuff so far there shouldn't be much to worry about yet but I just feel slightly cheated.

While I can't comment on the VA choice base on the character's personality, I would definitely watch this just because of Lina is one of my all time favorite anime character.

Mardock Scramble TAF 2010 Trailer Ver.1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnx11dWgMlo

Mardock Scramble TAF 2010 Trailer Ver.2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UEOc2izf2Y

Oh wow looks pretty good. Reminds me of anime that were made in the late 80's early 90's. Character designs in the trailer look pretty good to me as well with good animation.

Yup getting the 80s/early 90s sci-fi anime vibe as well. Atmosphere feels hard-boiled and gritty, and there's plenty of violence/nudity in the trailer. Feels more like it should have been released as an OAV instead of being shown in theatres due to the mature content. Btw, Tow Ubukata is charge of script/storyboard, so I guess this will be a very good adaptation of the book since it's the creator who will be supervising.

Really liked by what I saw in the trailer. Glad they went with those character designs over Murata's not to say he's designs are bad but the one's in the trailer have a more dark gritty look to them that fits in the dark sci-fi atmosphere very well.

Tits, asses and explosions.

You can't go wrong with these three, right?

Looking forward to it. I wasn't expecting it to look this serious, considering the two images they had on the website. Then again, the novels' covers should've made me realize how it was going to turn out.

Get hype!

The official website has also uploaded the trailer.
It's sure a nice trailer as expected from Gohands studio which's a young company but has talented and experimenced people (ex-members of Satelight studio). I'm looking forward to watching it.

That trailer is delicious!

I'm not as bothered by the character designs after seeing the trailer (even if I'm not completely sold with it either). I like the color palettes used, although I do hope it won't be as campy as it appears.

So we got a date along with full cast and staff list


Honestly, I don't care for much of anyone else besides Megumi except for Wakamoto (but his role looks rather minor so ...).

I only saw the trailer on the main page [Can't access Youtube], and it looks really nice. The mood they were giving off in the trailer seemed like Kara no Kyoukai's, with the lighting and all. I just hope it incorporates some daytime scenes were you can actually see bright colors like the main page, so it doesn't stay so dark throughout.

What does it mean to be campy?

Cast as follows:
Megumi Hayashibara as Rune Balot
Norito Yashima as Eufcoque Penteano
Hiroki Touchi as Dr. Easter
Kazuya Nakai as Shell Septinos
Tsutomu Isobe as Dimsdale Boiled
Masahiko Tanaka as Welldone the Pussyhand
Norio Wakamoto as Medium the Fingernail
Mika Kanai as Rare the Hair
Kenta Miyake as Mince the Wink
Tomohiro Waki as Fresh the Pike

According to the image provided by stuopidget, the release date for the first film is November 6th, 2010.

campy = "having deliberately artificial, vulgar, banal, or affectedly humorous qualities or style"

Megumi Hayashibara, the greatest seiyuu of all time, is still working?

"The official website for the Mardock Scramble anime film trilogy has announced on
Tuesday that creator Tow Ubukata will personally present the world premiere of the
first film at New York Comic Con on October 8. Mardock Scramble: The First
Compression, the first of three films based on Ubukata's science fiction novel series,
will not open in Japan until November 6."

See:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...t-ny-comic-con

new trailer:

Sold, I'm so freaking sold on that trailer it's not even funny. Definitely keeping my eye out for this since I'm a very big fan of sci-fi and it was sci-fi that got me into anime in the first place.

Than you have to check this out: http://m-scramble.jp/special/cut.html <- some cuts that didn't make it to the trailer.

PS: Some pieces of music and scenery in the trailer resemble Blade Runner, don't you think so?

That was actually the first thing that crossed my mind when watching the trailer. I'm getting blade runner vibes from the style and that's an automatic plus in my book.

I'll be keeping a close look on this as well. One month plus to go before the movie releases in Japanese theatres! And I agree as well, the environment in the anime gives off a Blade-Runner-esque feeling, as well as reminding me of Ghost in the Shell. Any cyberpunk themes in this or just purely sci-fi revenge?

Megumi-chan! :D

They all got pretty funky names, but Welldone the Pussyhand? Whut? I am repulsed and yet intrigued.

Funky FUNKY names! Dimsdale Boiled? All they're missing is Spiny Norman.

Whoa, I just did a google search and supposedly Viz will realease the novel in English next year.
http://www.amazon.com/Mardock-Scramb.../dp/1421537648

BTW: The best trailer by far is the one with Amazing Grace playing in the background. Couple that with a scene of Rune crieing is just gorgeous.

Yes .. I just saw it today .. shame on me being so late! Amazing Grace tend to just make anything better. Also QQ at nobody doing the manga, novel was wonderful T___T.

Chibis for the win!

Interview with Tow Ubukata:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/inte...ew-tow-ubukata

Cam't wait for this movie, and here's hoping for the BR release. :)

I remember 5 years ago when Gonzo looked like they would be doing this and Range Murata was going to do character designs. Probably a good thing Gonzo never proceeded with it.

This is something I'm hoping will deliver. It would be a refreshing change to see something like this work.