King of Thorn

When watching the trailer for this anime film I had big expectations about what I was going to see. Here you have a sci-fi/thriller with killer virus threatening society, survivors trying to stay alive and mysterious monsters inhabiting the area of the last set of people. It sounds good doesn't it? Science fiction happens to be one of my favourite genres of films and on paper his anime adaptation has the potential to be great, however this is one of those films that have a good idea but the way it is executed leaves a lot to be desired. The first part of the film feelsgood, the characters are unique and feel likeable and the way everything unfolds again feel just right. But as the film progresses and the true nature of the story comes out one feels starts to think differently about the film and by the end you'll feel like you were robbed. My main issue with the film was the story and the art. As I stated the film starts out fine but becomes tedious because of the speed of the film and focus on unnecessary people and there will be moments where you don't know where the film is going because of the pacing. In terms of the art the characters look good and the painted background look nicely detailed and suits the locations; however there is one fatal mistake that becomes blatantly obvious in certain parts of the film and that lies in the animation. At certain points the film tends to jump into the area of 3D animation with character models that look like they are cel-shaded and the movement looks terrible. The times when it switches are easily noticeable and just look bad. The music isn't too memorable nor is it a soundtrack worthy of brilliance, it's decent enough as it adjusts to each situation and works on a whole. The characters in the films start of okay but then feel like they just be killed off because their credibility falls over time. The little boy provides humour in some places and while Kasumi feel like a likeable lass because of her shyness and care for her sister Shizuku, but through her memories and the way she acts I found her just to be a worrywart and lost interest after quite some time. In terms of how you'll enjoy the film is entirely down to your preferences really, fans of complex sci-fi films and maybe disappointed with end result purely because the film doesn't fully give you the experience that you felt that would. The feeling of loneliness, claustrophobia, isolation and danger is done well for the most part eventually it just feels tedious then exciting and thought provoking. Overall the film is something that can be watched but just doesn't feel like it gives out what it planned to. It had all the right ideas and feels good for the first part but progresses questionably and leaves you feeling robbed at the end like you were expecting more.

So my opinions is based on the anime only: Overall, I felt robbed of 2 hours. If you do not mind having some sort of twisted development that leads kinda away from what seems like an obvious plot, then you can watch it. I HATE HOLES in logic, even if its ANIME FANTASY LOGIC, I enjoy tightly constructed story lines. The art was decent, good enough action scenes, but the main character, honestly I sometimes question why almost half the anime world is made of main characters like this one. (weak, self righteous, adds nothing immediately to crew but somehow manages to survive past more capablecharacters) I also was more interested in HOW humanity would have cured the disease or WHO plotted it to be a bio terrorism weapon, not like oh let me show one character who seems to be in charge of this whole scheme, have that person monologue and then choose not to continue with life... to sum it up, if you have no idea what this is about, like me, do not expect anything because the beginning makes the story seem worth it and exciting, but it just trails into something where the end product didn't justify the time it took to watch it. The ending made me feel like the creators got tired or sick of their own story and found mediocre ways to finish it that didn't even suffice...... i gave high scores for the art, the sound, and some characters, but story and plot development and character development is most important to me, and this story lacked that... its strongest element is the suspense that later proves less than satisfying, and the action/art. With so much good anime out, this falls short of its stack. Like buying a Popsicle or ice cream bar and after finishing it, you kinda are more angry with eating a below average food while wishing you spent the calories and money on something else..... maybe the manga is much better as everyone else is saying, but after watching this, I don't want to spend time reading the manga even if it is better than the anime, because how much can it possibly deviate from the manga? Not enough for me to waste time to watch it -_- . Sorry King of Thorns! cool title and could have had potential.

I must admit, at the start of this movie I was very excited. The plot held mystery and intrigue in spades and I very much wanted to see where the story led. It only took about 30 minutes for all of my hopes to slowly dissipate as... everything went wrong, slowly but surely. Amid a story with so much potential, the film kept adding twists and turns and plot in the most befuddling ways possible, turning it into a jumbled mess near the end that was comparable to watching a train wreck in slow motion. The animation was, to be fair, certainly good enough. Nothingjawdropping, nothing eye-wateringly bad (except for certain CG parts near the end). What was unacceptable to me, though, was the absolutely awful cast of characters. In the English dub, the small child character was grating to the point of insanity, and many other characters barely served any function at all besides to artificially add tension to a scene with throw-away lines that establish vague identities and not much else. In summation: this movie is a fever dream that I am glad I woke up from. Do not watch.

This is an absolute abomination of the author's original work. Wow . . . I mean, just, wow. Don't get me wrong, my rating has nothing to do with the animation, or even the plot, since it is a good plot, but it's just NOT "King of Thorn." They should have either done A) justice to the original manga or B) made a totally different movie with different characters. Don't ravage such a fantastic story as "King of Thorn," just don't DO it! It felt like, mmmm, like I started in the author's world, and then halfway through mad scriptwriters took over and threw in everystupid plot twist they could possibly imagine, all while stealing ideas from Studio Ghibli. The manga series has a discernible thread that actually makes sense. Fear plays a huge role in the way Medusa works, and Alice is a crucial, note CRUCIAL, character. Not to mention the actual VILLAIN, who has been totally IGNORED in the anime! I mean, seriously, half of this movie is "King of Thorn" and the other half is junk! Oh, and the ending, how I HATE the ending! Ok, yes, I'm a romantic and I think Marco and Kasumi are cute together. He's really a great guy despite those terrifying tats and I LOVE him. I especially love, and spoilers here, that he lived through the manga! Somehow the scriptwriters thought, what, that having Marco live was too cliched? That having an actual villain for them to beat would never work? That, perhaps, doing the manga JUSTICE by having a twelve episode anime SERIES was too much to hope for. Argh, the frustration is killing me! The only thing I like, and like is such a strong word, is having Marco and Kasumi animated. Wow, after two hours and all I like is those two characters are actually moving off the manga page, that tells me volumes of how CRAPPY this movie really IS! Maybe someday we'll get lucky and they'll make it again, only RIGHT this time.