The moment I clapped eyes on its highly evocative promo art, I knew I’d love Kemonozume. It just looks so damn cool, completely in another league to the typical “doll face” anime style; here characters look and move like real people, the fluidity of movement and facial expression oddly fascinating. Forget following the narrative- simply watching Kemonozume in full flow is enough of an immersive experience, the animation is wonderful. Like Noein, where the sheer visceral speed of the moving characters somewhat deforms their cliche anime “beauty”, Kemonozume plays with some raw but undeniably vivid art to evoke a thick, gritty atmosphere, sparkling with gems of fleeting beauty amidst an other wise grimy, street-wise setting.
I’ve said a lot about the art of Kemonozume because it is that important. The story is interesting if a little predictable- a male demon hunter falls in love with his beautiful “prey” and they have passionate forbidden sex (yes, actual sex in modern anime, who would have thought it?!)- tragedy surely awaits them. I hope I’m not the only one to notice how similar the premise is to Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s erotic horror Wicked City. Masaaki Yuasa’s colourful, hyperactive and quirky directing style elevates Kemonozume above mere gothic territory and offers up some truly (monkey loving) zany moments, offsetting the grim horror with important touches of light (offbeat) humour.
Though its unique style won’t be for everyone, Kemonozume is an experimental horrific delight that completely shuns the contemporary anime style in favour of delicious gut-munching innovation.
Kemonozume – 1 – Delicious gut-munching innovation
3 responses to “Kemonozume – 1 – Delicious gut-munching innovation”
-
Don’t really see that much of a similarity between Kemonozume and Wicked City asides from subgenre – erotic horror – and a shared plot device – humans and demons – or two. Kemonozume looks like it could very well be yet another rehash of the Romeo and Juliet type of storyline.
The animation didn’t really do much for me. Thought it was more sloppy than anything else. -
I’ll be calling the Wicked City comparison again if the two leads end up having a kid. That would be the clincher for me.
The animation is supposed to be sloppy though, it’s just the style chosen to convey the story. -
Oh, if this is ‘sloppy’, gimme more! Sloppy seconds! I agree so strongly about the art quality.
An unlikely pairing – anyone seen Windy Tales? Sweet slice-of-life with magic subplot, but a drawing style that’s very similar to Kemonozume’s – just sweeter & simpler. I’ll happily take gnarly & visceral for the change, though –
Leave a Reply