Back at the tail-end of October I attended the Sci-Fi London festival’s Oktoberfest special for, what else, their anime all-nighter. Five movies (well, four movies and one OAV series), nine hours, Red Bull and sweaty otaku 
On the face of it, the line-up was exceptional. All movies I’ve wanted to see for a very long time and one which I’m a huge fan of, so I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, many turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, though I discovered one gem.
Sky Crawlers: The new Mamoru Oshii film was a ponderous affair, set in an alternate reality stuck in 1940s Americana. Teens that never grow old fight in a mysterious neverending war that seem designed to provide a permanent conflict that keeps the rest of the world peaceful. Or something. As with most Production IG/Oshii affairs it was beautifully animated with some wonderfully nostalgic character and mecha designs reminiscent of steampunk anime like Last Exile. It didn’t particularly grab me though, and I’m quite glad this was the first film shown. While it did pose some interesting existential questions, I think they would have been lost on me had this been on at 4am
Eve no Jikan: Hands down the best thing on the night and possibly the best anime I have seen all year. This was a superbly crafted, insightful and moving exploration of robotics and artificial intelligence, along the lines of Asimov. And it was very funny. Made up of six 15 minute episodes, the OAV series follows a high school boy who discovers his family’s house android has been spending time at a mysterious cafe, Eve no Jikan (Time of Eve). I cannot recommend this highly enough. Every episode is so beautifully animated, with wonderful characters and some fantastic details, both in the jokes and its references. But its the subtlety of how it makes its points and explores what are really quite complex issues in a light-hearted otaku way.
King of Thorn: Started off with an intriguing concept — a select few are chosen for cryogenic preservation in the face of a devastating world epidemic only to wake up in a nightmarish future — but 2/3 of the way through revealed a ‘magical’ explanation that just had me screaming “WTF??”. Seriously, what was wrong with sticking to just the sci-fi??? Ruined.
Eureka 7: Pocketful of Rainbows: Just bloody awful. This was the movie I was looking forward to most, as I have a soft spot for the flawed but enjoyable Eureka 7 series. This retelling of the story, however, got on my tits to the n-th degree. I don’t know where to start. Was it the recasting of Gekkostate as a bunch of misguided terrorists, the poor characterisation or the sidelining of Dominic/Anemone that irritated me the most? No, it was probably the RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF ROMANTIC CHEESE accompanied by overplaying of what I’d always thought of as a wonderfully touching score. Just don’t.
Evangelion 1.0: You are [Not] Alone: I’d already seen this, but on the big screen it really rocks. The Renewal of Evangelion movies are just awesome and a real visual treat. Even second time round (and for a movie that essentially retells exactly the same story I’ve seen a dozen times in the TV anime) it feels exhilarating. Made me excited to see Eva 2.0 again.
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