![]() I could certainly reason from what was shown what had happened off-screen, and I have absolutely no desire to see it in more graphic fashion. The cuts made to the film do not alter the concept significantly, and they actually add some subtlety to the film. There has been plenty of discussion in the anime community about these cuts, but after reading about all of it both before and after watching Kite, it's a bunch of smoke and mirrors in my opinion. The original argument was that characters shown in some of edited scenes were underage by US standards, but some people have analyzed both versions and have found that most of the sequences could have stayed in the film. Part of the controversy over Kite is that several sexual sequences were edited from the film for the US release. The soundtrack is mostly offbeat jazz, which is also refreshing considering the abundance of J-pop soundtracks in anime. Although the show has certain limitations from originally being an OVA and having those cost restrictions, it looks top-notch. Umetsu's trademark characters look far more realistic than other characters in anime, and they attract my attention extremely well. Straying from discussing the nature of the film's core, the animation itself is great. One other problem is that revenge is an overused theme in anime (as I discussed in last week's review of Genesis Survivor Gaiarth), so it has little resonance. Ultimately, the story owes plenty to The Professional (aka Leon) and La Femme Nikita, but it has no time to reach the emotional levels those films did. It is also short: at 45 minutes, the story is so time-compressed that there is no time to process anything, and thus the characters-a truly tragic lot-don't have enough time to truly develop the dramatic weight they deserve. ![]() There are certainly lots of exciting sequences in the film that are enjoyable to watch, but as a whole the film is depressing, despite the fact that it is in constant motion. There are also those who will dislike how the story turns out.not to spoil anything, but this is not a nice world where these characters live. ![]() The whole film is filled with utter brutality, which is certainly realistic for the trade portrayed, but depending on your view could be merely gruesome or extremely appalling. There will be those who will hate it for its mind-numbing graphic violence: the assassins use bullets which explode inside their victims, which makes for some of the most sanguine sequences in an anime in recent memory. The story takes us through several jobs as Sawa decides if she can bring herself to claim vengeance on the man who ripped apart her family so many years ago. There's another teenage assassin, Oburi, on Akai's payroll, though, and he and Sawa start a friendship that they hope will last past their days as hired guns. He's no gentleman, however, and it's clear that the scars he has imposed on Sawa over the years run immeasurably deep. She receives her instructions from Akai, the man who took her in when she became an orphan. She is actually an assassin for hire, led into the profession years before when her parents were victims of a hit themselves. He's mistaken, however, as the young heroine Sawa makes her profession known in dramatic fashion. Kite begins with a girl accompanying a young, cocky television star into an elevator for what he expects will be a romantic liaison. It's unfortunate that such attention has come about from Kite, since it is ultimately inconsequential, an ultraviolent tale of sound and fury. Umetsu returned to directing with Kite, which has become just as controversial due to the cuts made in the film so it could be distributed to "general audiences" in the States. His creations are on display elsewhere in the gorgeous but woefully underwhelming Megazone 23 Part 2, as well as the "Yellow Star" segment of the extremely controversial hentai series Cool Devices. Unfortunately, most of the rest of his works look just as wonderful, but the stories behind that ultra-realistic design work just don't gel. That twenty minute short film combines his incredible look with a thought-provoking story about a man who can't deal with the repercussions of his creation: a beautiful yet naive female robot who seems just a little too human. His most famous work is the "Presence" segment in Robot Carnival. Although he shuffles between directing anime and providing character designs, his style is unmistakable. There is no one person in anime who both awes and frustrates me more than Yasuomi Umetsu.
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