Video Backlog: "Kaiba"

Publisher: Siren Visual (Australia)
Format: Region 4 DVD, PAL, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles
Length: 12 Episodes x 23 minutes
Production Date: 2008
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

This is another recent and odd release from Siren. As with about half of their anime releases, this one hasn’t had an English language release anywhere else on home video. It’s also a rather left of centre show. Directed by Masaaki Yuasa of “Mind Game”, “The Tatami Galaxy” and “Welcome to the Space Show” fame, the basic story idea seems to be similar to “Ghost in the Shell”, in that memories can be data and that you can literally swap bodies. The story is set on a planet where the rich live above a city of the poor. They take and trade their bodies and can remove bad memories and insert new ones. Though body theft is illegal, it still happens. The story begins with a young man who wakes up with no memories discovering he has a hole in his chest, a strange symbol on his abdomen and a necklace with a picture of a girl inside. After being chased down by a strange creature which seemingly eats people and their memories, he befriends a young man named Popo who gives him the temporary name “Warp” and smuggles him aboard a ship leaving the planet.

Warp then has a number of adventures on a number of planets before the plot relating to the mysterious One Mind Society rears its head. OK, I am going to go against the grain here in my views on this show. All most all the reviews of this show have been all positive. I just didn’t get the show. There are some really great concepts and ideas in the show as well as the design and animation which are literally nothing like anything else on TV. The problem for me is how the show was structured. The first half of the show introduces “Warp” and a few of the main characters rather quickly, but then goes off on some rather pointless adventure story. Sure, I get that it’s meant to show what the world of Kaiba is like and how society treats people. But the show is was just too abstract, obtuse and surreal for my tastes. I really do like surreal material, but not as it is presented in this show. The first half isn’t much fun at all. Warp ends up in several bodies with a horny security guard after him. He meets several innocent strangers who end up being abused by a society a system where life is cheap. The 1950’s styled designs and cuteness coupled with the horrible world they inhabit made for rather depressing viewing.

The second half is much, much better with the introduction of the One Mind Society who opposes the technology that allows people to transfer memories into other bodies and therefore virtually become immortal. This section was quite good with a lot of plot relating to the history of the main characters and the organisation which opposes the memory chips and theft of the poor’s bodies for the rich. Still I had a number of problems with this part of the show. The big one was to do with the death of certain characters and their revival later on in the show. It didn’t quite make a lot of sense, especially when the body has been completely destroyed. The planet/memory eating plant was also a bit too much for me. Couldn’t suspend disbelief for that one.

In the end I really respect what has been done with the show. With many TV series looking like they’ve spat out of a factory and having passed through several otaku focus groups, this show is really something different. Pity that the narrative is really hard to follow at times and that it is really hard to identify or sympathise with any of the characters, especially when the main character changes his body and sex many times during the first few episodes. The surrealism is almost to the point of Dadaism, and mixed in with the cuteness of the design style and horror and grotesqueness of some of the situations, I was really put off by the show especially in the first half. I dig surrealism and avant-garde stuff like Terry Gilliam or Alejandro Jodorowsky’s films. However I had really bad reaction to this show. You can have something that is surreal with a coherent narrative and isn’t depressing. This show doesn’t do that. I found it to be a very frustrating experience. I can only give this one 5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 24 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).