Origin: Spirits of the Past

kiriska★ 8

Like some bastard child of Akira and Princess Mononoke, Origin is one of the strangest movies I've seen in a while... STORY - Origin's (I'm going with the English title because it's easier) central theme is the age old man versus nature. What I found particularly interesting though, is the semi-lack of advanced technology and the steampunk-like environment of the movie's present day, even if the conflict was initially caused by the usual advanced bio-experimentation we're all used to. Further intriguing is the fact that the audience is not automatically expected to side with nature in this movie (as is usually the case); because the peopleof the post-apocalyptic world are essentially dependent on the mercy of the quasi-intelligent forest, it seems almost as if nature is oppressing humanity. The main idea might still be that humans and nature should strive to co-exist peacefully, but Origin certainly breaks out of mold for this one. It's also worth noting that technology gives way to something like fantasy in this movie, thus straying out of genre lines. The powers that are granted to Agito are fantastical, and yet remniscent of those given to Tetsuo in Akira (that's so strange), except that they came from a "natural" source -- it's just that nature's been mutated by technology. Makes for a strange roundabout, but interesting, yes? CHARACTER - Admittedly, I wasn't too ataken with any of the characters in Origin, but I'm more inclined to attribute that to my tendancy to be critical of characters in general rather than the idea that the characters were bad, because they really weren't. They just weren't phenomenal. Agito was an good character with steady development throughout the movie that allowed him to mature into a hero. He had questions, doubts, and uncertainties, but the dedication and ambition to overcome them all. My only real quip is the general goodness of his character and the spotlessness of his morality -- it's just way too easy to make characters like that. Toola was a more interesting character because of that; since she was from the past where technology reigned supreme, she had to struggle with deciding whether she wanted to preserve the status quo or return to what she was familiar with. Conflict is good. It was also refreshing to see that there wasn't just one character who happened to survive the major disaster. When Toola was first discovered, alone in suspended animation, I was groaning. Japan seems to really like putting girls in boxes, just waiting to be discovered. It was great then, to see that Shunack had been discovered in a similar manner. Of course, the fact that both of these survivors happened to have been important in the past (or at least, had a relation to someone important in the past) is conviniently coincidental, but some realistic sacrifices always have to be made for the sake of story, hm? ARTSTYLE & ANIMATION - Origin was a really visually pleasing movie filled with superbly detailed backgrounds and smooth animated sequences. I was especially impressed with how the forest and forest creatures were handled -- details in how water was rendered and how things moved was just awesome. The machinery and pieces of technology also looked great, contrasting well with the more modest environment. Once again, I find that the beauty of the artwork and animation of a movie is one of its strongest points. MUSIC - Nothing amazing, but still good. You know, the average goodness. VOICE ACTING - I saw this movie dubbed (because the person I saw it with didn't feel like reading subtitles at the time). It was pretty good, as seems to have been the case for most movie dubs in the last few years. Toola's voice was a bit annoying, but many young, female characters seem to be that way, whether in Japanese or English. OVERALL - I enjoyed Origin. It surprised me in many ways, which is always a refreshing thing. The story explored a popular theme in an interesting new way, and though the characters could have been a bit more dynamic, they played their parts well enough. And the animation is just gorgeous. If you're a fan of the technology/humanity versus nature stuff, I would definitely check this out.

lolitoads★ 3

Having heard great things about Origin from various sources, I jumped at the chance to purchase the DVD cheaply on Amazon. When it arrived, I was excited, the blurb on the case leading me to remember the hype when it was first released; 'dreamily beautiful,' 'breath-taking,' 'almost painfully beautiful,' one couldn't blame me for expecting a lot from the film, and I couldn't help but expect a lot, with Neo's feature on the film in mind which compared the film to Ghost in the Shell: Innocence! Now, I'm not an enviromentalist by any means, so I do admit I was skeptical when Iread a lot about the film being heavily involved in such themes, but what the Hell, I thought, a great film will always be great even if I don't agree with its agenda; the Battleship Potemkin was voted the greatest film of all time and it was a propaganda piece for the USSR! The problem with Origin, however, is that it is NOT a good film. Ignoring my own frustration at the plot's subservience to nature over man (I'll leave this out of the review, but honestly, place a human figure in place of 'the forest' and you have a tyrannical regime that limits resources to retain obedience), the story is disjointed and poorly paced. Rather than the characters developing at all, they are mere mannequins forced into various situations, insanely scaled to advance the plot with no little hint of deus ex machina. Relationships blossom without so much as a word or meaningful conversation between characters, and the viewer is left wondering why, and did they miss something? In trying to pretend its artistic and intellectual value, Origin has missed out on coherence, instead feeling like a rushed project cobbled together from a collapsed series (indeed the story might be better served within such a setting). This might all be partly forgiven had the film measured up on another count, but the visuals in Origin were nowhwere near as spectactular as I had been lead to believe. The CGI, which in films such as Innoncence fitted perfectly with the subject matter, clashed horribly with the organic design, and the characters were poorly designed, with expressions and shadow seemingly omitted. Most offensively, smoke stacks (of which there were undue amounts in the film) were represented as completely static for the most part, even in lingering shots. This I might expect from a series, but in a feature? The only element which Origin managed to pin down was the music, which worked well in the admittedly brilliant opening sequence (one feels the critics watched this part of the film and nothing else when writing their reviews). Overall, however, I'm just glad I bought the film cheaply, because if this is the best modern anime has to offer, I'm not convinced. A coherent plot, less static art and adult character design are demanded, especially if a film is expected to live up to comparisons with Miyazaki and Oshii.