![[ANIME REVIEWS]](images/section_anime.gif)
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— by Peter Cahill
I have never played the ART OF FIGHTING arcade game, and I
feared that lack of familiarity would keep me from appreciating the
anime based on those characters. Unfortunately, the film managed to
do that all by itself. There have been many TV shows and OVAs based
on popular games (BATTLE ARENA
TOSHINDEN is also reviewed in this issue), just as there are
many games based on movies, and some of them have been pretty good.
But watching this one, you get the feeling it was made not because
there was any story to tell or some great animation to show, but
because "everyone else is doing it and we don't want to be left
out!"
The
story has some funny moments, but it is mostly trite. The only
thing that saves it from total predictability is that the plot occasionally
becomes totally implausible. No one in this flick knows how to use a gun;
the bad guys simply let the heroes walk up to them and kick the firearms
away. If the fights are supposed to be hand-to-hand, fine: don't give the
bad guys guns! Mr. Big's gem-in-the-eye-socket was too much. Very
Bond-nemesis, but too much. And for continuity's sake, if you're going to
have a bunch of thugs shoot out a door with automatic weapons fire, please
have at least one of them carrying an automatic weapon (instead of just
pistols) when they burst through the door!
The
animation is not much better. For the most part it is stiff,
blocky, and uninspired. There are only three real fights in this show
and they look like scenes from
G-FORCE.
This is definitely television animation, and not very high quality.
Moving objects tend to deform, especially the helicopter--at one point
I thought it was going to turn into some sort of Transformer robot.
The original copyright lists this as a TV show, so it cannot be
expected to be as good as an OVA. But considering its animation
quality and the story, this show never should have been made.
The
English dubbing is problematic. For the most part it is stiff,
blocky, and uninspired. (Starting to get the picture?) The script itself
is passable, not too unnatural, and the voice acting is actually good.
But the American obsession with precise lip-synching to foreign films forces
these actors to read these passable lines in such unnatural and stilted
rhythms that the whole thing comes off terribly. And that is sad, because if
the dub were better, this show would only be unremarkable instead of
downright bad. We have seen some very good movies with excellent dubbing, but
one like this makes us worry about mainstream anime's future.
The
soundtrack is mostly light jazz. It's not great. In fact, it's
kind of cheesy. But that more or less fits the rest of the tape.
In
all, I have to give this a grade of C-. Not a D or F, it didn't do
anything too wrong. But neither did it do anything
completely right. With a title like ART OF FIGHTING, this
should have had some more actual fighting. Or at least some decent
art. Not only will the average viewer not like this, but fans of the
game will be sorely disappointed by this show with so few and poor
fights.
"More matter, with less art." as Gertrude would say.
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