Texhnolyze – Inhumane & Beautiful (Animé TV, Set One)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C     Episodes: B-

 

 

In another future where people live underground and try to maim each other in the dark, near future, Texhnolyze adds the twist that people have to cut off each others limbs to survive each other.  I never bought that totally, but the idea of Bionic arms and legs as replacements was a twist that would have helped the narrative had it been placed in the storyline better.

 

However, the earliest of these initial four shows tend to be very stylish and silent.  That is when the show is at its best, creating a feel that the other Animé series we have covered do not.  This is still one of the smarter and more mature we have looked at so far, despite the reservations.

 

And, yes, they threw in yet another female character with psychic powers.  In this case, it is Ran, who can see the future.  The city is overrun by gangsters, but there is an elite in power who have their own ideas.  We have seen this set up often, but Texhnolyze offers one of the more interesting renderings of the formula.  The episodes are:

 

Rogue 01) Stranger

Rogue 02) Forfeiture

Rogue 03) Texnophile

Rogue 04) Synapse

 

Towards the end of the fourth show, it becomes more typical of the genre, but it is a shame it could not have kept the quite visual narrative going.  Nevertheless, Texhnolyze is one of the most interesting offerings in the increasingly crowded Animé field and that is not easy.  The Geneon DVD launch of this series should be most interesting.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is not bad, but has strange resolving problems in the more stylized darker scenes.  I liked these shots, but it is possible that DVD’s MPEG-2 with this DVD’s NTSC requirements for Region 1 interfered as much as those factors did for the otherwise impressive transfer Fox did for The Hughes Brothers’ underrated From Hell (see my review in the July 2002 issue of American Cinematographer Magazine for more details).  Geneon is putting out high quality DVDs technically as much as anyone, so their history backs up this observation and hypothesis.

 

The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic surrounds is available in English and always slightly better and more detailed native Japanese languages.  Sound design is often stylized on these animated shows, but this one is more so than usual.  There are also English subtitles.  Extras include trailers to other Geneon DVD releases, a very brief outtakes clip, about 12 minutes of interview with the co-creators of the show, Yoshitoshi Abe and Yashyuki Ueda.  That is not a bunch of extras, but it is a start.  The DVD is also available for a limited time with a nice 3-D Lenticular (the picture that shows depth when you move it back and forth and has ridges across it) onset cover over the regular cover that collector’s will particularly want.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo