Anime Review: Violence Voyager

Violence Voyager

Writer/Director: Ujicha

Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi

Available on digital streaming platforms Oct. 21

“Gekimation” (a portmanteau of “gekiga” and “animation”) is a style of animation in which cardboard cutouts are filmed in live-action to simulate motion. Not only that, but this animation style also employs real-world elements such as actual fluids and real fire in place of animated or drawn versions of each. It’s a strange but intriguing art form and works just about perfectly with Violence Voyager‘s strange but intriguing premise.

Violence Voyager follows the story of American foreigner Bobby and his classmate and friend Akkun as they decide to travel up a mountain to visit their old friend in the neighboring town. Along the way, they come across the rundown-but-operating amusement park eponymously named “Violence Voyager” where they play a role-playing alien shooter simulation. But things are not as quaint as they appear, and the boys soon find themselves in a nightmarish scenario with their lives on the line.

Ujicha has become known for gekimation and his grotesque brand of storytelling since his previous film The Burning Buddha Man, and Violence Voyager follows that trend. The movie has a strange feeling to it even from the beginning, with the detailed-but-abnormal looking characters (especially Akkun and his forehead) and the very light score played throughout the movie. The whole experience has a very B-movie feel to it but in the best way possible. While I think the beginning third of the film is a little slow, once the action ramps up and the sci-fi elements really get rolling Violence Voyager becomes a thrill ride you don’t want to get off. There’s blood, vomit, gore, and even the death of some children, and while these elements in themselves don’t immediately turn me off I feel it’s worth mentioning in case it could for someone else.

The story, as I’ve said, takes a while before it really kicks off, and it doesn’t help that the characters are pretty flat and uninteresting. Bobby, our main character, is the most interesting simply for the fact that he’s the only one who consistently takes action against each conflict presented to him  throughout the film. The villains we get have a fairly unoriginal but interesting backstory that explains their actions enough for the audience to get on board. Still, when the action really gets going the whole story gels, and by the end of the movie I was forgiving the story for a lot of things. There are a lot of plot elements that are left unexplained, with some of the sci-fi concepts left completely up to the viewer to interpret, and that might upset some viewers. For me, I was so invested in the rest of the storytelling and the overall atmosphere of the film that it didn’t bother me at all.

While the original Japanese version aired in 2018, the English dub (the version I’m reviewing) will be releasing later this month. The English cast is full of VA veterans, with performances from Debi Derryberry (Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius), Cedric Williams (Toradora), Saki Fujita (Attack on Titan), and Shigeo Takahashi (Nichijou). Even despite the cast, I did have some pretty major issues with the overall quality of the voice-acting and production. While the gekimation itself is beautifully bizarre and really does enhance the story being told in my opinion, some of the voice-acting came across rather lifeless. In some scenes that needed dramatic tension, the voice-acting just didn’t seem to convey the emotion the characters should be experiencing. And I noticed on multiple occasions vocal overlap that was very jarring and would make conversations awkward.

Despite these negatives, I found the overall experience of Violence Voyager to be unique, intriguing, and worth the watch. The creativity behind the project is evident in each scene, and even though the gekimation may be off-putting to some at an initial glance I think if you give the film a chance you may grow to appreciate the craft and art direction of the entire project.