First Squad - a World War 2 anime by Studio 4°C

[SageGaiGar]

It was alright. The 'documentary' parts kind of threw it off though. Live action/animation mix not the best things to combine usually.

[TigerII]

Originally Posted by LeoXiao

the eastern front, like in 1941/2.

Well, I know that lol. I meant is it the Kalinin Front Front, Leningrad Front, Crimean, etc.

[ElizLestrad]

I hope someone can release a version with the documentaries all cut out, cause I agree they really ruined the whole thing.

[LunaNeko]

While I appreciate how they found all those people to back them up, it REALLY messed up the whole flow of animation. It should have been some DVD special for those who care to know of all those historial backgrounds. There was barely any character development at all: evil hotties were there for a combined what - 10 minutes??? First Squad showed up and left without even saying goodbuy in the end? Really, man, after waiting for this for SO DAMN LONG this is what they give me? Ugh. I second for someone to release a version without all the interviews, because I can't even tell my friends to watch it and I've been advertizing this anime for over a year to them!

[orion]

I rather liked the juxtaposition of live-action vs animation. It followed the flow of the arguement of whether the whole incident was an hallucination of a shell-shocked girl suffering from a concussion who got massive doses of tranquilizers vs a real supernatural incident that could have changed the course of a war. If you remove the live-action segment than you lose the other part of the argument. Even the last animated shot still poses the argument as you have no remains of the supernatural battle to support that side. No living soldiers or that commander are present to question how did she get in front of the commander as he was about to yell "Charge!".

Sad that we never got to find out what happened to her parents. Also even darker that the girl suspecting that she may be manipulated by her own government as was hinted by showing her blindfolded, attached to/manipulated by strings in her own subconscious.

Sort like a Russian version of Blood the Last Vampire anime in which we only get a small snapshot of a bigger universe. Interesting that a katana wielding female is the sole survivor just like in Blood.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

It was interesting I'll say that. I thought it was odd with the live action and the animation mixed together, but I liked it after the second live segment it added to the story. It sorta reminded me of Band of Brothers.

My only disappointment is that the movie is stand alone? There is no series to back this up covering her past or future missions?

[ElizLestrad]

Well I read that the whole live action thing was scripted and fake and to me it just came off that way. I mean sure everyone knows Hitler and Himmler were greatly into the whole occult thing, but trying to act as though the event portrayed in the movie actually happened seemed awfully cheesy.

[orion]

So you're in the "girl was shell-shocked with concussion and hallucinating/psychotic" camp?

[konart]

Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs

It was interesting I'll say that. I thought it was odd with the live action and the animation mixed together, but I liked it after the second live segment it added to the story. It sorta reminded me of Band of Brothers.

My only disappointment is that the movie is stand alone? There is no series to back this up covering her past or future missions?

They're working on the second movie.

+ there is a manga(by Enka Sugihara) & a novel than will be released soon

Spoiler for manga & novel photos:

taken from here: http://valkorn.livejournal.com/707595.html

[LunaNeko]

Originally Posted by ElizLestrad

Well I read that the whole live action thing was scripted and fake and to me it just came off that way. I mean sure everyone knows Hitler and Himmler were greatly into the whole occult thing, but trying to act as though the event portrayed in the movie actually happened seemed awfully cheesy.

Yeah, it was like watching History Channel...you know how they have all those interviews and then story is backed up by actors, it was same thing, but war stories were animated in this case. I also felt it was fake, its like they were afraid that public will scorn them for making an anime about WWII, so they had all those people basically saying: Noooo, its not the bullshit story! We've got facts!!!!

[orion]

Originally Posted by LunaNeko

Yeah, it was like watching History Channel...you know how they have all those interviews and then story is backed up by actors, it was same thing, but war stories were animated in this case. I also felt it was fake, its like they were afraid that public will scorn them for making an anime about WWII, so they had all those people basically saying: Noooo, its not the bullshit story! We've got facts!!!!

But that was the point imo.

It's a "documentary" style title. You know like Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 was a "disaster" docudrama style anime.

Since the baron got away, they can go and pick another battle in the Russian territory to animate.

[ElizLestrad]

I don't think you can really lump Tokyo Magnitude 8 and First Squad in the same category. About the only documentary aspect (if you can even call it that) portrayed In T.M.8 was the fact that they did research.

However in TM8 you didn't have "talking heads" popping up every 2 minutes to interrupt any action or momentum the movie was building up with their unnecessary dribble. Like that guy whose face they blacked out like he was in some kinda danger who claimed that the Soviets actually built a machine that could allow people to communicate with the dead.....please. Not to mention they just conveniently happened to break in every time the movie was starting to get good again.

Though I suppose it could have been much worse. They could have gotten the infamous History Channel narrator who did all those boring civil war documentaries and such...*shudders* I guess I should learn my lesson and stick with authentic anime productions.


Orion:"So you're in the "girl was shell-shocked with concussion and hallucinating/psychotic" camp?"

Hardly, its obvious from the preview that this was a supernatural/castle wolfenstein type movie. I don't see how anyone can say there's any argument that the ghosts in the world of First Squad were real and that everything portrayed in the actual movie happened (within the movie's fictional world). To say that 'oh she was just hallucinating and nothing in the story happened' and that she was never a psychic etc is like trying to force the argument that an apples really an orange. Heck, the description of the movie clearly states that she psychic and that there are undead:

"Set during the opening days of World War II on the Eastern Front. Its main cast are a group of Soviet teenagers with extraordinary abilities; the teenagers have been drafted to form a special unit to fight the invading German army. They are opposed by a Schutzstaffel (SS) officer who is attempting to raise from the dead a supernatural army of crusaders from the 12th-century Order of the Sacred Cross and enlist them in the Nazi cause."

For them to turn it around and claim the whole story never happened and she was lying in a hospital bed the entire time would be the lamest of twists worthy only of a M. Night Shyamalan movie. Regardless, I don't think I'll be recommending this to anyone anytime soon.


Mr. Hat & Clogs:

Yes, it was sort of like Band of Brothers, except for one major difference. The people interviewed in BoB were the real soldiers that the story talked about. They were really their and were telling actual stories and reliving actual events through the series. They were not a group of random people pulled off a street corner to read a written script in some weak attempt to make a purely fictional story sound like an actual historic event that really happened. I googled "Baron Von Wolff" and got this:

"(born Jan. 24, 1679, Breslau, Silesia—died April 9, 1754, Halle, Prussia) German philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. He was educated at the universities of Breslau, Jena, and Leipzig and was a pupil of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. He wrote numerous works in theology, psychology, botany, and physics but is best known as a leading spokesman of German rationalism. His series of essays, all beginning under the title Rational Ideas, covered many subjects and expounded Leibniz's theories in popular form"

Absolutely nothing about being some masochistic crusader who butchered Russians.

Sputnik 3 wasn't some spiffy machine that could allow people to commune with the dead, it was a space satellite sent into space in 1958 from Baikonur.

I mean, anyone with half a brain could tell it was all fake. It would have been one thing yes, to have the documentary parts be realistic and more importantly believable, but such a thing just doesn't work in the kinda supernatural world in which First Squad takes place. First Squad isn't Ghost Hunters, it's Ghostbusters and it deserved to be treated as such.

[LunaNeko]

Originally Posted by ElizLestrad

I don't think you can really lump Tokyo Magnitude 8 and First Squad in the same category. About the only documentary aspect (if you can even call it that) portrayed In T.M.8 was the fact that they did research.

Agreed, TM8 had character development and believable drama - I personally bawled at the last episode - First Squad did nothing but irritated me with stupid "talking heads" It seems like they tried to cover all imperfections by making it a documentary. If they had one dude explain things in the begining and maybe another dude to sum things in the end - it would be watchable. Random BS interripting the flow every 2 mins was what trully ruined this movie for me.
Art was great though...and I really do hope they learn from this and hopefully do better in the sequel, if they do plan making one.

[SageGaiGar]

It would've worked better if they maintained an animation feel. If they interrupt with real life fake docu-style.. make the entire film live action.

It was just too much of a mess.

[RGB]

I guess "First Squad - The Moment Of Truth" could pass for a decent introduction episode to a TV series. It explained the basic premise, showed a few glimpses of the cast and threw in some hilarious techno-babble. As a movie it was oh-so underwhelming.

Originally Posted by SageGaiGar

It would've worked better if they maintained an animation feel. If they interrupt with real life fake docu-style.. make the entire film live action.

It was just too much of a mess.

Those live action scenes might have bludgeoned immersion into a bloody pulp, but I bet they did wonders for production costs. Hiring a dozen of Russian actors is after all a lot cheaper than getting Studio 4°C to animate the other half of the film.

Originally Posted by orion

Also even darker that the girl suspecting that she may be manipulated by her own government as was hinted by showing her blindfolded, attached to/manipulated by strings in her own subconscious.

I think that was just a memory of her performing for the troops at the beginning of the movie. That dark-ride was pretty theatrical. Nadya’s parents, German bombers and Soviet soldiers were all strung up on wires.

If nothing else, basic training montage provides ample quantities of symbolism.

Originally Posted by konart

Spoiler for manga & novel photos:

taken from here: http://valkorn.livejournal.com/707595.html

Well, that's an interesting way to open a book. Is this just a shameless plug or does that jeep shaped hole in the 4th wall come with a satisfying pay off?

[durack]

Originally Posted by TigerII

Has any reason be stated on why there is a such a large time gap between the festival and the release date in October?

I want to show a friend this. He doesn't watch war movies, so the only WWII things I think I can get him to watch is anime. He had that Western stereotypical view of the Red Army(Mass waves, not good soldiers, blah, blah) and I want to show him something that refutes that.

Why do you care?
The truth is, people usually have the attitude "my mind is made up, do not bother me with the facts." If someone wants to know something, they will seek the knowledge, if they don't want/don't care, you can't forcefully educate them, you'll just waste your time.

The German generals who wrote so many books in the 50s really ruined the image of the Soviets in the West with their stereotypical and racist views(Manstein's book comes to mind). Since the Western-Soviet relations deteriorated after WWII, the truth never really got to be told in the West until the fall of the Soviet Union.

IMHO, in US colleges/universities they usually do a good job teaching about WW2 or history in general (for the 0.001% of students who actually care about the stuff).

Heck, I had some Malaysian friends a few years ago and they didn't know anything about WW2 in Europe, they thought that Germany and the Soviet Union were ALLIES in WW2.
No, I am not joking.

[Zwei]

I liked it, even though it's in Russian? I kinda like the language.

I did find it kinda ridiculous though when they mentioned about making contact with the dead, I obviously don't believe that. I do believe it was some kind of hallucination though, maybe he was drugged.

[TigerII]

It was a fun little movie. Since I didn't take it seriously because of the supernatural elements, I just watched it as a fun film. I like the accuracy of the weapons and equipment as well. I wonder if any more films will be made. The thought of supernatural beings fighting it out in front of the Reichstag is intriguing.

Originally Posted by durack

Heck, I had some Malaysian friends a few years ago and they didn't know anything about WW2 in Europe, they thought that Germany and the Soviet Union were ALLIES in WW2.
No, I am not joking.

Wow, that is interesting. Maybe they know of the Soviet-German invasion of Poland and took the rest of the war as that?

[Celestial Kitsune]

First Squad Screenshots and some videos.

[Master Assassin]

... I hope people don't find me odd that I liked the commentary a la documentary style. Because I'm all in for it.

That said, perhaps I shall list First Squad as a documentary anime instead.

Heck, I had some Malaysian friends a few years ago and they didn't know anything about WW2 in Europe, they thought that Germany and the Soviet Union were ALLIES in WW2.
No, I am not joking.

For your information the older generation before me knows the real deal better, because before my time they used to study World History.

During my time though, suddenly it's all National History. Which was a little bit of a letdown because I liked World History more, and back when I was in high school not even the teachers find it fun to teach, but had to manage it somehow.

While these fellow countrymen of mine you just spoke of might do not know how Soviet Union were not allies with Germany during WWII, that doesn't apply to another handful bunch of us including me. Even if we didn't there's the Internet to help, of course.