Amon Saga

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03/23/2018 This was my official first Anime (technically Speed Racer is Anime (Mach GoGoGo)) which I saw in Japan in 1989. It hooked me and I have been an Otaku ever since. It isn't as refined as some other releases in 1986 (e.g. Castle in the Sky) but it is entertaining for sure. The Valhiss fortress on the back of a giant tortoise was cool for sure. See more 05/18/2010 1980's anime is sure a different beast than today's variety! A little bit of Conan, Return of the Jedi, and a sprinkle of Vampire Hunter D (Yoshitaka Amano did design both this and Hunter D after all!). Entertaining enough and to see the incredible wandering tortoise with a city on its back is a sight to behold! See more 11/05/2004 [IMG]http://img83.exs.cx/img83/8620/amonsaga1hi.jpg[/IMG] [u]Amon Saga[/u] (1986, Shunji Oga) -[color=red] [65][/color] [u]Amon Saga[/u] is a pure celebration of medieval romance genre. There are characters, there is a story, there is plot; but [u]Amon Saga[/u] is not about its characters, its story, or its plot. [u]Amon Saga[/u] is about medieval romance. It loves medieval romance. It is so in love with medieval romance it is willing to break its own conventions at the end just to squeeze more adventure out. The film is also an anime, of course, and celebrates this aspect as well, mixing medieval romance with anime conventions. I admit I fully expected to hate this movie. It didn't sound like something I would enjoy. It sounded like an unimaginative, shallow, poorly made 80s anime. But to my surprise, it was anything but. It isn't great, but I enjoyed it a fair bit. It's an undeniably entertaining celebration of genre. I couldn't help but smile and have fun. [u]Amon Saga[/u] tells the tale of Amon, who is on a quest to do something, but we aren't sure what when we first meet him. But the movie doesn't care why Amon is on a quest. It only cares that he [i]is[/i] on a quest. Even the title of the film is a giveaway that it's not going to be about Amon; it's going to be about Amon's quest. This film lives for adventure, and we get plenty of it. Amon gets in a bar fight which is soon interrupted by the arrival of Vahliss, an evil warlord who seeks to conquer Granmall by seeking the hidden location of the Valley of Gold. Whoever controls the gold of Granmall controls Granmall. Vahliss is recruiting men for his army. Right away, we know we're getting into a film that celebrates the romantic and fantastical. All the inhabitants of the village stop to gaze in wonder as Vahliss approaches the village. He is riding a giant turtle. His castle is on the turtle's back. An entire city has been built on the shell of a giant turtle, who dwarfs the village in size. The villagers' jaws drop in awe. So do ours. From here things get rolling. There's a lot of action. Amon fights monsters and all sorts of creatures. There doesn't have to be a reason. He's on a quest, so he needs to fight something. And the film delivers everything in style. There's a damsel in distress, of course. She's a princess who has been kidnapped by Vahliss. She loves Amon the moment she sees him. He loves her the moment he sees her. He's going to rescue her. Because that's what guys on quests do. Amon befriends a group of ragtag punks. They're here for adventure, too. Amon has a strange friend who shows up to help when he needs him. We don't know who he is or why he helps, but it doesn't matter. Amon's on a quest, there's some cool guy who helps, and that's it. [u]Amon Saga[/u] crafts a world where everyone is either going to be conquering the world and kidnapping princesses, or saving the world and rescuing princesses, for no motive at all. The adventure isn't a means to an end, it's the end itself. [u]Amon Saga[/u] is brimming with style. The film is far too short for its own good, which is disappointing, but considering the limited resources the filmmakers probably had, you just have to accept it and roll with it. The animation is actually pretty good, though admittedly crude in many places. But it's always enjoyable, and the action is riveting. The character designs are excellent, and why shouldn't they be? They were done by Yoshitaka Amano. But I have to return to the style. It's just great. Theres' plenty of great imagery on display, including a fantastic shot of a woman dying and her son being reflected in her blood (the son, we discover, is Amon, and Vahliss killed his mother). The environments look great, from the dark, twisted city on the turtle's shell to the beautiful, serene, almost painting like scenery of forests. The use of colors is exemplary. The film tosses in still images to capture moments in time, be it the awe of Vahliss' turtle city marching through a river, or a moment of love captured between Amon and the princess. The musical score in the film is pretty good, though there are a couple cues that just don't work, including a ridiculous piece that plays as the princess is bathing in a lake, and gets attatcked by a serpent. There really isn't much more to say about the film. It isn't anything remarkable, but it's just a whole lot of fun. It's a celebration of a genre, and an entertaining one at that. [u]Amon Saga[/u] is a film where characters will spew off ancient tales of love and glory, and warriors will fight with their swords just as much as they will write poetry. At the end, Amon doesn't even settle down and get with the princess. The poem that opens the film and is repeated later on is our reminder that Amon can't, because even though that's how a medieval romance should end, [u]Amon Saga[/u] loves adventure too much to let it end. The characters have to set off again, because there's more adventure, more villains, more princesses to rescue and fall in love with. Anyways, at least this film is better than [u]Vampire Hunter D[/u], which Amano also worked on (the character who recites the aforementined poem even looks like D). [u]Vampire Hunter D[/u] is a widely beloved anime, but why have I never heard of [u]Amon Saga[/u] before? [u]Vampire Hunter D[/u] is a terrible film, and [u]Amon Saga[/u] quite easily has better animation, better style, better storytelling, better action, better music, and so on. If [u]Vampire Hunter D[/u] can achieve such status, [u]Amon Saga[/u] deserves so much more. See more Read all reviews

Amon Saga

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