Dead Leaves

Dead Leaves was a really, really weird yet awesome movie that made little sense visually but in actuality made total sense story-wise. I know that that’s a confusing statement, so while I’ll try to elaborate on that, I recommend watching Dead Leaves to fully comprehend what I’m getting at.

First off, Dead Leaves is a concept piece and it’s a well-done concept piece at that. It’s a strange graphical mélange of Andrew Martin and Jamie Hewlett’s Tank Girl with western-style animation, a la Heavy Metal, with a lil’ bit o’ Jhonen Vasquez’s Johnny the Homicidal Maniac thrown in for grins.

The character designs reminded me big time of the Tank Girl comic and the spastic way the movie played was reminiscent of the original Heavy Metal. The ultra senseless gratuitous violence that makes you laugh because it’s so unnecessary put me in the mind of JTHM. Mix that all together and you get the visuals for Dead Leaves.

The story opens with the two main characters naked and amnesiac in the middle of the desert. After realizing they’re freezing their asses off in the middle of nowhere, Retro and Pandy decide to go on a crime spree to steal clothes, food, and transportation and wind up in Dead Leaves – a forsaken prison on what’s left of the moon. But the prison isn’t just a prison and Pandy and Retro have a bad feeling that they’ve been here before.

The character design was…interesting. Gotta love a guy with a TV for a head and hey, the walking cock and balls was a nice touch. The colors were so intense and vivid, I thought for sure I was going to have a seizure every time they strobed. Yet it all made for good watching if you’re in the right state of mind (you do need to be in the right state of mind). Otherwise you’ll be asking yourself “What the f#@& is going on?” every five minutes. Even the creators of Dead Leaves recommend having a few stiff drinks before watching it .

I really liked Dead Leaves and highly recommend it to people who are in a rut in their anime watching and need something new. It will definitely shock you out of your anime routine in one way or another.

3 out of a possible 4 Kasugai