Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Video Backlog: “We Are Perfume – World Tour 3rd Document”

Publisher: Wrasse Records (UK)
Format: Region Free Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles
Length: 120 minutes
Production Date: 2015
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

I am not exactly a fan of Japanese pop music. Most of it isn’t great, especially the idol stuff. If I listen to Japanese music it’ll be most likely eX-Girl or the Pillows. But a couple of years ago on a Sunday morning, I got sick of “Insiders” and started flicking around until I came across SBS’ “Pop Asia” program. Though the show had a very heavy emphasis on Korean pop, there were a few Japanese music videos. On came Perfume’s “Spring of Life” video. While it certainly wasn’t an instant love affair with the group, I saw enough of the trio’s fun and inventive video clips over the next few months to become a little bit obsessed with them. I eventually bought all of their albums and most of their singles on my last trip to Japan.

Why on earth would I love this little group consisting of three young women; Ayano Omoto (nicknamed “Nocchi”), Yuka Kashino (“Kashiyuka”) and Ayaka Nishiwaki (“A-chan”)? I suppose the key thing which got me was their music, written, performed and produced by Yasutaka Nakata of the Japanese dance music duo Capsule and also the writer and producer of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s records. Unlike the majority of idol music, Perfume is far more like dance music, albeit with a pop sheen. It really sounds nothing like other J-Pop I’ve heard. The complexity and intricacy of songs such “Spice” really impressed me and tracks like “Edge” weren't usually something you'd associate with a pop group. The positive outlook of most of the lyrics got me as well (for example from their highest selling single “Love the World”; “Have a nice day/Be in a good mood yeh/In all the world/Love the World”). I was also intrigued by their sophisticated and mature image, which isn’t really seen in idol groups. They are marketed at far more general audience rather than the bog standard male idol otaku; they wear modified designer dresses as their stage outfits, put on increasingly elaborate live shows involving projected computer graphics and don’t do photobooks filled with bikini shots unlike their peers.

This documentary film revolves around Perfume’s third world tour in October and November 2014 taking in Taipei, Singapore, Los Angeles, London and New York. This tour is special as it’s the first time they will perform in the United States. However the film begins four months after the tour where the group put on a stunning and technically complex performance at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin Texas which wows the media, which is pretty hard considering the hundreds of bands who jostle for attention on the 24 hour a day schedule during the duration of the festival. The documentary curiously downplays what they have just achieved. We then rewind back to rehearsals for the tour in October 2014. There they discuss the set list and costume changes with Mikiko, their dance choreographer and artistic guide. She has worked with group since 2005 and since than taken on a much larger role within the group of advising what artistic directions Perfume should take.

Before they start their world tour in Taipei, the documentary takes an all too brief look (less than 30 seconds really) at the beginnings of the group in Hiroshima in 2000. It’s the biggest misstep of the documentary. The film is meant to show the world that Perfume have made it to the world stage but oddly omits their massive struggle to even become popular within their home country. Unusually they formed at Actors School Hiroshima as 9 year olds, released a local single a few years later in 2002 and then had the good fortune to get the young and upcoming Yasutaka Nakata as their producer from their second single in 2003 which certainly made them stand out sonically. They moved to Tokyo soon after and struggled to get any attention or sales of their records, even resorting to handing out flyers on the streets of Akihabara themselves. Somehow they got the attention of major Japanese label Tokuma Communications who signed them in 2005. After three mediocre selling singles for the label, they were ready to drop them. However they decided to give them one more shot with the single “Polyrhythm”. It became the theme song of a recycling campaign by government broadcaster NHK and due to the exposure became a top ten hit. Every subsequent single for the group went top five on the charts and all five of their studio albums have gone to number one on the charts. They have sold more than three million singles and albums in Japan. Not only that, they have gained a large following outside Asia purely by word of mouth and with no promotion by their management or label or with their music being available outside of Asia. Sure Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Babymetal may be (almost) household names in the west unlike Perfume, but both those artists had backing by major western labels. Perfume did not and continues to have little to no promotion form their current record label, Universal, in the west. And you could suggest that both Pamyu and Babymetal are novelty acts, which Perfume definitely isn’t.

The documentary follows the group from Taipei to Singapore. But this section flies past very quickly and is all over by the 40th minute mark of the film. The most interesting thing about this section of the film is the mature aged Australian couple A-chan singles out at the group’s Singapore show. While a lot of the early material sort of makes the documentary seem like a glorified home video (mostly on small HD cameras), it does come to life once they hit Los Angeles. Certainly it does follow the same pattern as the earlier material with backstage and onstage footage, Perfume interacting with fans and acting like complete tourists at every city they visit. However the last three shows up the emotional content with some very genuine affectionate and emotional interviews with local fans and A-chan getting extremely nervy before her first US show. It all becomes a bit too much when a LED display malfunctions temporarily and Mikiko tearfully expresses her frustration post performance which makes A-chan and Nocchi’s eyes well up.

While Perfume’s journey and performances to the US are a key part of the film, the fans are also an equally important part. The interaction between the three girls and their fans, be it on the street, in concert or at fan club “meet and greets” before shows seem genuinely honest and heartfelt. That and the vox pops with fans can be really beautiful and touching at times. It’s also amazing to note the diversity of the fanbase with wide range of ages a fair number of women in the audience and perhaps unsurprisingly a sizable number of gay men. There’s also a bit of humour as the trio and Mikiko are in hysterics as they do a post mortem on their London show where in one song Nocchi forgets her choreography and manages to put the other’s performances out of whack culminating in Nocchi freezing on stage momentarily. The climax of the film is New York where the trio are stunned by Times Square and perform an emotionally charged final show.

Apart from not mentioning their rise to fame in the documentary, there are a couple problems I have with the film. The interviews with the members seem really divorced from the rest of the content. It seems they were done sometime after the tour. I would have preferred those interviews to be done on the tour than after or perhaps over archival footage. There is also some narration which I felt wasn’t really needed, but luckily it is used sparingly. Let’s face it though; this film is for fans, not for the general public. However I still believe that it would have even found a wider audience had even more emotional punch if their full backstory was told. I also thought that the film makers were being a bit coy or modest about what Perfume had achieved. Not many Japanese artists have done what they have.

For fans of the group, the film won’t probably tell them anything new about Perfume. As expected A-chan (the unofficial leader of the group) is the most dominant member but also easily the most cheerful and emotional. However the other two always manage to speak their mind. Certainly their onstage personas seem to match their offstage ones. While this may stink of them putting on a performance for the documentary makers, you have to remember that the three of them have been together in the group since they were 9 years old. In one of the interviews A-chan states that the only thing she knows is Perfume and could never see them breaking up. I sort of felt a pang of sadness when I heard that.

This set is the only version available in English. I know their management company, Amuse, held one off screenings with English subtitles in the US and UK, however only UK indie record company Wrasse Records has released a physical copy of the film. No one in the US seems to be interested in releasing the film, not even Perfume’s parent US label, Universal. However I doubt a major label like Universal would have taken the care to issue a two blu-ray, one CD set like this. The set comes in a really nice tri-fold digipak with the film disc, a bonus disc with additional behind the scenes footage from Perfume’s SXSW performance, additional interviews with Perfume and the theatrical trailer. The CD is a four track soundtrack with new pieces performed and written by Yasutaka Nakata. The set mimics the special edition released in Japan sans the movie commentary track by Perfume’s staff.

This is a film that is difficult to recommend to people who aren’t fans. I find it really baffling that they didn’t tell Perfume’s amazing backstory, however I guess they assumed Japanese fans would be overly familiar with it. I think it could have done with some tighter editing and less repetition regarding Perfume’s pre-show rituals (showing it once is enough). While a film that was shot on a smallish budget, I do think some of the filming could have been better, especially the stuff shot in low light where the limitations of the cameras are rather apparent. The SXSW performance makes for a great opening, but literally has nothing to do with the tour. But the film really kicks into high gear at that start of the American tour. It’s a fun emotional journey and really not hard to feel Perfume’s joy at what they’ve achieved. The lack of proper distribution and the content probably isn’t going to win them any new fans in the west, but I doubt that was the intention. Regardless it's a fairly well made film that fans will probably adore. 7 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Four movies, one OVA, eight TV series. In addition I am also waiting for second parts of for three TV series and one OVA to be released before viewing them.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Video Backlog: “Gundam ZZ”

Publisher: Sunrise/Right Stuf (USA)
Format: Region A Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles
Length: 47 episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 1986 - 1987
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Following directly on from the events of the final episode of “Zeta Gundam”, this series begins with the aftermath of the final battle against the Titans and Axis. The Argama and its crew are rather beat up and head to the nearest colony, Shangri-La at Side 1, in an effort to repair the ship and heal the crew. The colony is rather run down and poor and has large junk heaps down one end. Local teen Judau Ashta is forced to salvage scrap metal in order to pay large utility bills forced upon him and his younger sister. Often he works with a group of other teens into order to collect debris from battlefields outside the colony for money. However today he is only working with one of member of the group, Iino Abbav, in order to cut down on sharing money for the scrap metal he sells. The pair have just found an escape pod in excellent condition. However as they retrieve it and haul it inside the colony, the head of their salvage group, Beecha Oleg, spots it and wants in on the share of spoils. Judau relents and the group decide to check inside the pod. To their astonishment they discover that a Titan mobile suit pilot, Yazan Gable, is inside and still alive, having survived the final battle in the climatic last episode of “Zeta Gundam”.

At this point Yazan has nothing to lose and manages to convince the group of teens to steal the Zeta Gundam and attack AEUG members in the Argama battleship. However Judau argues that they should steal the Gundam in order to sell it. Kamile is still in a catatonic state and an ambulance is called to take him to hospital for treatment. As Fa Yuiry places Kamile in the back of the ambulance, Judau and Yazan take her hostage. The two children living on the battleship, Shinta and Qum, realise what is happening and attempt to alert the Argama's captain, Bright Noa, who ignores them. In the back of the ambulance, Judau touches Kamile’s hand by accident hand the pair share a Newtype experience awaking Judau’s powers. Using a stolen delivery truck filled with vegetables, the group infiltrate the port and in a ham-fisted manner try to steal the Zeta Gundam. After scuffles between the AEUG members and the ragtag bunch of teen scrap-dealers, Judau manages to somehow mauver the Zeta Gundam into the colony near it's junk-lots where Yazan fights him in a construction mobile suit. Eventually Judan manages to beat Yazan, mostly due the overwhelming power of the Zeta Gundam. Bright then manages to force the Zeta Gundam to the ground. However Judau manages to escape before Bright and his crew capture them.

Meanwhile Neo Zeon commander Mashymre Cello sends a suitcase full of gold bullion to the colony in order to bribe the government of Shangri-La to let his ship, the Endra, dock. Totally smitten with his commander in chief, Haman Karn, Mashymre plans to steal the Zeta Gundam and present it as a gift to her, much to the bemusement of his crew. Luckily one the colony’s executive warns Bright about Mashymre's plans and tells him that he can guide the Argama through the colony to escape. In the midst of this Judau and his group including Judau’s sister, Leina, make another attempt to steal the Zeta Gundam. Eventually caught, Judau somehow manages to convince Bright that he can be of use to him and later manages to defeat Mashymre’s mobile suit using the Zeta Gundam. After a number of battles inside the colony and due to the fact he has a depleted crew, eventually Bright decides to take on Judau and his friends as mobile suit pilots and fellow crewmen. The Argama leaves Shangri-La in order to rendezvous with the La Vie en Rose in order to take on a new AEUG weapon, Gundam ZZ (Double Zeta).

To be utterly honest, outside of the original TV series, its compilation movies and the concluding “Char’s Counterattack” film, I find it really hard to get into the core part of Yoshiyuki Tomino’s Universal Century Gundam series. I found “Zeta Gundam” to be utterly pretentious. I do not understand the cult like status afforded to it by fans. Even in western fandom going back to the late 1980’s, it had this sense of being the ultimate robot show attached to it. The major problem I had with it was the lack of any real explanation of the events between the final episode of the original “Gundam” TV series and first episode of “Zeta Gundam”. Even the booklet which came with Bandai Entertainment’s 2004 DVD box set (which also came with bonus pencil sharpeners for some reason) didn’t really help all that much to fill in the gaps. I admit that the ideas and concepts in the show are quite interesting, but as with a lot of Yoshiyuki Tomino’s work, it’s done in really ham-fisted way with frustrating dialogue, bizarre character names and no attempt to explain anything to the audience.

Having heard that “Gundam ZZ” was much lighter in tone, I thought that this might be a better series. I was wrong. The tonal shift is quite bizarre. “Zeta Gundam” is quite grim in the end and bleak. Then all of a sudden we go into “Gundam ZZ” and it’s quite goofy. Bright Noa seems to have given up totally in terms of disciplining his crew apart from the rare instances he throws someone in the brig. Later he almost has an affair with La Vie en Rose officer Emary Ounce who is smitten with him. The Neo Zeons come off worse with various nutcases like the hilariously ostentatious Mashymre Cello and the bizarre breasty mobile suit pilot Chara Soon who seems to be sexuality excited by piloting mobile suits. We also have Glemy Toto, a commander who is smitten with AEUG recruit and pilot Roux Louka, but soon turns attentions towards Judau’s sister, Leina, after mistaking her for Roux and saving her in the midst of battle. For a good part of the series he seem hell bent on debuting her in Neo Zeon society goes about turning her into a “lady”.

Worse is the fact that mid-way through the series “Gundam ZZ” takes another turn, back to the heavy drama of it's preceding series. However by now we’ve had some really odd plot lines, the disappearance and re-emergence of several key characters and general confusion all-round. I really found it hard to take any of it seriously anymore. Add in the fact that a key character seems really unperturbed (even apathetic) about the death of two characters really close to him. At least when that happened in the two previous series, people got depressed. Actually the flippant nature of people’s death, especially in the first half of the TV series, is really odd after the way deaths were presented in the original “Gundam” series and “Zeta Gundam”.

However there is a lot to like in this show. A fair wack of the humour in the show hits it's mark. In particular I liked Mashymre Cello’s antics. Most of the mobile suit battles are very well choreographed and mecha designs are excellent too. I also thought for the most part the teenagers in the show were better written and far more realistically portrayed than the previous two Gundam series. They certainly act like dickheads a lot of the time (just like real teens). But I did get frustrated by how many times one the teen pilots would just run off with one of the Gundams (without consequence). And the recycling of ideas such as the lead character coming into contact and befriending the enemy’s enhanced Newtype pilot who alternates between childlike behaviour (usually wanting to be the lead's sibling) and homicidal bloodlust.

I think what won me over in the end was the flashes of great story telling (especially the last dozen or so episodes), some of the characters and the battles. Quite a fair chunk of it annoyed me. There are too many dead ends, story fragments which up and vanish without trace, the disappearance of characters for no real reason and the deaths of characters for no real advancement of the plot. And of course the baffling character motivations. Anime fans can defend it all they like, but it’s just poor writing in the end. Then you have Tomino getting rid of characters from “Zeta Gundam” just so he can install newer and (in my opinion) far less interesting and less developed ones. OK I’ve been really negative about this series. The flashes of brilliance were enough for me to give this show a 6 out of 10. I should really give it half a point less, but I’m feeling generous.

Remaining Backlog: Four movies, one OVA, eight TV series. In addition I am also waiting for second parts of for three TV series and one OVA to be released before viewing them.