Dead Leaves (2004)

To me, this movie is perfection.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

I thought I had seen it all, then I saw Dead Leaves. Preface:From the mind of Hiroyuki Imaishi (director of FLCL and Gurren Lagann) comes this cracktastic adventure of the bizarre and insane. Get ready for a 45m long wild ride on ludicrous speed. It goes full plaid. Story: 8Retro- a guy with a TV for a head, and Pandy- a woman with an enormous red eye wake up in the middle of nowhere with no recollection as to how they got there, or what the heck they were doing in the first place. Their inhibitions flung to the wind, they take up arms and go buck wild on the city, only to be rounded up and sent to the prison Dead Leaves, which is located on the half munched-off remainder of the moon. Hilarity, violence, and madness ensue.Art: 10Everything about this OVA screams Hiroyuki Imaishi. I loved seeing his unique art style on display- Everything in this looked like the bumper slides from Gurren Lagann for reference, and I thought it was awesome. Crisply animated, and so so so many quick cuts, flashing lights, and fast, fluidly moving action pieces. Vibrant colors, and those glorious stars. Sound: 8I watched this in sub, and the voice acting was appropriately outrageous and manic. The energetic music pumped along to the explosions, gunfire, and general mayhem going on screen. Great stuff. Characters: 8Okay, so, Pandy the Red-eyed leading lady, and Retro, the deranged TV head team up to figure out just exactly what the heck is going on, along with a skeevy doctor that looks like Zoidberg, but swap the tentacles for bad teeth, some dudes with some not-so-subtle reproductive organ parts for heads, and Mr. Chinko Drill, who has an enormous golden drill for a penis. That's right, a drill, and he's not afraid to use it.They all play their parts with equal bits psychosis and thirst for violence, and it couldn't be much more entertaining to watch.Enjoyment: 9 What a rush. Nonstop, quick cut, over the top, sheer craziness from start to finish. It never lets up. Blink, and you might as well be watching something else- it goes FAST. Story on hyperdrive, action on lightspeed- I had to rewind several times after trying to find my jaw to put it back on. The absurd situations, the crude jokes, loved all of it. Couldn't stop laughing the whole time.Overall: 8.8 (rounding this one up, because it was too much fun) - 9In typical, addictive Imaishi style, it is extremely irreverent, edgy, and a bit crass, but when combined with his incredible art, a tasty soundtrack, and more gonzo than you've seen since Inferno Cop, and we have a formula for success. Note: I see this as a sort of spiritual predecessor to Gurren Lagann. The art style definitely was inspired by this, and no-one can deny the introduction of the awesomeness of Spiral Power that we have Dead Leaves to thank for

This is a movie about visuals.. and absurd, over the top fun. An enjoyable ~60 minutes for your mind to take a rest. Let the mind take a break, seat it comfortably and allow the colorful animation splash a bucket of weird Japanese imagination to your face. I must say that this movie is best viewed without the subtitles. When I first was watching it without them I decided to turn the subtitles on so I could follow the story, but right after that I missed half of the anime's lively visuals. So if you really are interested in getting the full experience and don't know Japanese I would recommend to watch this one twice, once to get the story, and second time to actually enjoy the amazing animation.

This is a kind of rather wacky and out of control, kind of like FLCL and SuperJail. I will not have you watch this without a warning, this show is really over the top, packed with sex, poop, gore, and pretty much any type of joke around. Those who take offense to any of this or are young children should leave the room, as I will probably be talking about stuff like that in this review. Are they gone? Alright, back to the review.This show is, hard to actually review as it's that type of humor that you either get it or you don't. Its not something you can actually explain well or have a large discussion about because then it loses its humor. We all know (or at least any Otaku out there who watches anime can tell you) how strange and odd Japan is. Frankly, I believe it's partly because of how strict their country was on honor, morals, and codes of conduct. Those who did not have these standards had to hid or be killed. With that little bit of history, I can see why they have something like this. It's out of control including many scenes of sex and gore. Many different… should I really call them 'fetishes' are pronounced in here like tubes up the ass and all manner of gross images I can never unsee.The story has an interesting storyline, and YES, it does have one. They actually didn't just throw crap into it and try to make a show off of something that doesn't have consistency. It follows two main characters, Pandy and Retro as they call themselves, who one day wake up without any idea who they are or what they are doing naked near a futuristic Tokyo. They start on a crime spree and it takes no time for them to be caught and sent to the moon prison where they find that they and so many others are rejected clones. They try to free themselves and that's as far as I can go without spoiling anything more. If I read into it, and I have to review such a thing, I would consider this more of the dangers of mass cloning and those trying to figure out their place in life. I can only guess that because there is very little to work with. We got a bunch of rejected clones fighting to have their own life.The animation, lets face it, its god awful, not looking like the banner or cover at all. But yet, I have to say this is one of those shows that I really didn't care much. Similar to Panty and Stocking, it has its own interesting spin, although creepy. All the shadows are done in black, leaving rather jagged edges to even more jagged characters. Sometimes it's hard to pick out what are backgrounds and what's a character because the bodies elongate and squash depending on the scene, sometimes filling the whole screen to the point that they look more like a strange deformed background. It doesn't help that everything is a mass of oddly shaped colors pieced together like a puzzle. A lot of times when Pandy is pregnant, her belly changes shape, growing and shrinking from scene to scene.The aliens are actually rather creative, including an alien that has a dick that's a drill (Although I really freaken don't want to know more about him!).The English voices are actually pretty good, being dubbed to each character. Jaxon Lee and Amanda Winn-Lee do pretty good jobs as Retro and Pandy, playing off each others personalities as well as keep the characters interesting. Pandy is almost always in monotone, while Retro seems not able to hold himself back and has a tone of energy (think sort of like Naruto from Naruto and Haruko from FLCL had a kid). The music is pretty fast paced and retro sounding, almost like some old action adventure game, but with a lot of techno after tones that make it more sci-fi feeling.It's not something I would really watch again, but it was interesting none the less.

I saw this one night on a whim. I had no idea what this was going to be. On animidnight I catch the occasional anime and this was something different. This is Dead Leaves.This totally blew away my expectations!! We start with our two heroes who for some reason are sitting alone naked and have amnesia. After a small introduction to our heroes, the mayhem begins. The animation alone is the first thing I noticed and it's so stunningly original and fun to look at and fits the story well. The characters our heroes meet along the way are far too funny and silly. This is also packed with some memorable one liners as well. The action is aggressive, funny, original(there's that word again), and extremely violent. Our heroes are very likable(especially Retro), and totally own the screen. Also watch for lots of crude and vulgar humor and language. This is not for kids at all. One of the many characters is Chinco Doll, a mutant with a drill. Once we meet him, let the crude begin. I'll just leave it at that. The voice acting is fantastic, the story is pretty good too. After all of this, why give this a nine and not a ten? Because this is only 45 minutes long. After this ended, I wanted more. 45 minutes does this no justice.The Last Word: Fantastic. This is an original work of art. I can watch this over and over and this will not get old. From the humor to the action, Dead Leaves delivers all. Only drawback, too short. Dead Leaves will leave you wanting more.