I wouldn't. Watanabe has struggled with long form storytelling of late, and can't write a decent thriller to save his life. Villeneuve is a thriller director at the top of his game now. Why would anyone want to swap the two?
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Blade Runner Black Out 2022 (short anime by Shinichiro Watanabe) is out
- Thread starter Radogol
- Start date
I wouldn't. Watanabe has struggled with long form storytelling of late, and can't write a decent thriller to save his life. Villeneuve is a thriller director at the top of his game now. Why would anyone want to swap the two?
tonysidaway
Member
I don't watch anime so the Black Out animation probably went over my head somewhat. I gather there was a successful plot by Nexus 8 androids ("replicants" as they are called in the films) to destroy all Tyrell Corp's records, allowing them to evade their hunters. To my untrained eyes it was mostly a sequence of pretty pictures and bizarrely violent fights, though. Great use of the cameo by Edward James Olmos, of course. The off-planet sandbox subplot was well signalled, giving a powerful motive to the androids.
The two live action films are conventionally scripted and therefore much easier to follow. The impoverished freelance genetic engineer in the second film looked oddly familiar, but I only realised it was David Bautista when I saw his name mentioned in discussion on this thread. Then I had to go and look at the extended trailer for the sequel and saw him there, too.
At the end of one of the trailers I watched, there's what sounds like a clip from the original much-maligned 1982 narrative exposition by Deckard. The voice is young, not like Harrison Ford's current voice.
At the point where the Ryan Gosling character is confronted by an armed Deckard in the trailers, there's an oddly stationary quadruped in the background, seen only in silhouette. It could be an unusually quiet dog, but I found myself speculating that maybe Deckard has got back the eponymous electric sheep of the novel.
In the novel, humans keep live animals as a kind of sacrament of the religion of Mercerism, but Deckard's live sheep has died about a year before the novel starts and so he makes do with an electric robot sheep which mimics life just well enough to fool his neighbours.
The two live action films are conventionally scripted and therefore much easier to follow. The impoverished freelance genetic engineer in the second film looked oddly familiar, but I only realised it was David Bautista when I saw his name mentioned in discussion on this thread. Then I had to go and look at the extended trailer for the sequel and saw him there, too.
At the end of one of the trailers I watched, there's what sounds like a clip from the original much-maligned 1982 narrative exposition by Deckard. The voice is young, not like Harrison Ford's current voice.
At the point where the Ryan Gosling character is confronted by an armed Deckard in the trailers, there's an oddly stationary quadruped in the background, seen only in silhouette. It could be an unusually quiet dog, but I found myself speculating that maybe Deckard has got back the eponymous electric sheep of the novel.
In the novel, humans keep live animals as a kind of sacrament of the religion of Mercerism, but Deckard's live sheep has died about a year before the novel starts and so he makes do with an electric robot sheep which mimics life just well enough to fool his neighbours.
tonysidaway
Member
It's not particularly deep, but there are philosophical themes lurking in the background. Electric Sheep and one or two other later Philip K Dick novels (Ubik, certainly) show him trying to adapt his relatively old fashioned pulpish writing style to such themes, perhaps as a response to a broader literary movement within SF in the sixties and seventies.
Bautista's character in the "2048: Nowhere to Run" short hands a copy of Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory to a young acquaintance, and tells her it's about an outlaw priest who is trying to understand the meaning of being human. That's inaccurate, but it's clear that he's really talking about himself. Hampton Fancher had to compress or omit a lot of the backstory in developing the original Blade Runner from the novel, but both can be fairly summarised as an exploration of the meaning of being human. He may now have space in this sequel to explore that theme some more.
eyeball_kid
Member
Well that's why I said "almost". Villeneuve's film sounds like it's going to be fantastic. But I would love to see Watanabe's take on it based on this piece. Even an hour long companion to the film. I can't speak to your criticism as I haven't seen his recent work.
D
Deleted member 80556
Unconfirmed Member
That was freaking fantastic.
Can't believe it featured Gaff. I can't wait for the movie next week! Oh man, a Villeneuve Blade Runner movie is coming out next week. Holy shit.
Can't believe it featured Gaff. I can't wait for the movie next week! Oh man, a Villeneuve Blade Runner movie is coming out next week. Holy shit.
I would love a longer short from Watanabe too, I'm less confident with something full length though. It's possible he could make it work, but I wouldn't take it as a replacement for a Villeneuve film.
hosannainexcelsis
Member
UnemployedVillain
Member
I'm assuming by "of late" you mean Terror in Resonance? I, personally, wouldn't knock him for faltering once. I liked Kids on the Slope and Space Dandy...was good at what it tried to do (even though I admittedly was hoping for something more serious)
Kids on the Slope for really good for half of it. He really struggled with the landing in the last bit. It was a poorly balanced narrative package for the episode count they had. Terror in Resonance was just a let down in general all round. Space Dandy is exactly what I'm talking about though - he shows that he can bring great talent together and make really cool individual short stories when not having to worry about balancing a larger long form narrative.
Personally I don't think this has much to do with Watanabe faltering so much as him no longer having reliable good writing partners. If he finds a good one again, it could be pretty amazing. Until then, stick to shorter stuff imo!
I feel like Watanabe could have made a decent enough movie out of this. Alas.
Net_Wrecker
Member
The animation on the assault towards the end is incredible. I could see this fleshed out into a full length tragic story that could give the flashbacks and ending more weight, but for what it is I liked it. Watanabe can still direct the hell out of a sequence..
PleaseDontBanMe
Banned
I loved the animation and artstyle in this.
Can anyone recommend some anime films or shows with similar aesthetics?
Can anyone recommend some anime films or shows with similar aesthetics?
^
The scene on the highway in particular felt reminiscent of the Cowboy Bebop film.
Daffy Duck
Member
That was fantastic.
Hype levels rising. I need to re-watch the first film again.
Hype levels rising. I need to re-watch the first film again.
Oh wow that's neat as hell
In regards to shows that are the closest thing overall from both the director (Shinichiro Watanabe) and the character designer/animation director (Shukou Murase), Cowboy Bebop and Ergo Proxy respectively. The movie for Cowboy Bebop is canonical to the series (set between episodes 22 and 23), so you would want to see that eventually as well.
fierrotlepou
Member
Watanabe just needs to make a Cowboy Bebop 2.