Lady Death: Motion Picture [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

LADY DEATH THE MOVIE is terrible! Among its good points is the fact that the story is faithful, for the most part, to Lady deaths first mini-series THE RECKONING, with some changes. The voice acting is decent, but the animation is horrible. For a movie that has been in prodution soooooo long i must say i was expecting a LOT better. Other reviewers have rated this anime movie 4 and 5 stars, GHOST IN THE SHELL, SPIRITED AWAY, VAMPIRE HUNTER D, if you compare these high quality anime movies to LADY DEATH, she just can't compete. EP

Well, I can honestly say that this is the first time that I experienced a film that had literally no meat or potatoes in it. The entire film felt like it was just the salad with no main course. The story line was fallible and laughable, the characters were one-dimensional, the realism was out the window, and the animation was done by four-year olds. Does that cover it? I have never been more embarrassed for a concept in my entire life. I have never read the comics or seen the other programs with this character, but from the looks of the other reviews I am not off base with my observation.

To begin, the story moved too quickly. For someone new to this character and situations, I needed more built into creating the reasons instead of finding the solution. I have seen other Anime (if you could call this one an Anime) that do great things with their characters because they take the time to develop them. There was nothing set aside for Lady Death. In a few short scenes, we see her train with Cremator and instantly become this aggressive she-beast of Hell. This was hard for me to swallow, considering moments before she was introduced as this weak and feeble woman controlled by her father. Suddenly, she is immersed with hatred and can do battle with an existence that has been around for millions of years. This was absurd. The presentation of Lady Death was poor, to say the least. I felt as if she was nothing more than an animated character instead of a desperate woman with revenge on the mind. For me, it just didn't work. She was nothing more than eye-candy for prepubescent boys wanting to ogle the mass quantities of skin that she suddenly grew on her chest when training with Cremator. Oh, I felt sick just watching her. The same goes for the character of Cremator. Who was this random person? The explanation they gave wasn't enough, and instead I was left with more incoherent babbling than actual development. It is a very sad day in Hell when we forgo characters to show more violence and action, especially in an animated feature.

Next, there was Lucifer himself. Let me just say that I think I could do battle with the King of Hell and survive. He was weak, his voice was laughable, and he just didn't represent the image that I had in my mind. It was as if Disney was in control and wanted to make him semi-PC. He lacked the darkness and corrupt nature that Lucifer embodies. He was not the ruler of Hell, but instead just a lackey that had a bigger place to live. Speaking of living or dying, how can you die again in Hell? That was a concept that definitely needed more explanation. Most of the characters were worrying about dying, when they didn't even consider the option that they were already dead. That is how they got to Hell. I think it was this level of thinking that ruined the film for me. I didn't quite capture the notion that your soul was still in a solid body in Hell, but that could just be me ... or maybe it was because there was NO DEVELOPMENT in this story. There was nothing built, just preparing.

The battle sequences were hysterically bad. The animation in this cartoon felt like it was made in the early 90s. There was nothing impressive about the way that this film was drawn. Why are we, America, so behind on animation? It is huge in Asia, and it is creeping in hardcore here because we keep making films like Lady Death that do not challenge or use any part of imagination. We are cheap, and this film shows it.

Overall, this film was bad. The animation coupled with the horrendous voice work was cheap. I had head somewhere that this film as in production for a long time, which is hard to understand because I think I could have made this film on my credit card. The production was horrendous as well as the story. Nothing was developed, leaving huge gaping plot holes that nearly everyone fell into. The strength of the characters was missing, and nothing was explained. I wasted my time with this one and would like to warn others so that when Death does come, you don't find yourself in my state and regretting the fact that you wasted 80 minutes on this piece of garbage.

BLAH!

Grade: * out of *****

I have to admit that I hadn't read the comic book version of "Lady Death". I rented this out of sheer curiosity when I saw it on the website of my online dvd rental service. The premise of the film sounded intriguing. A young girl Hope is the daughter of a mercenary named Matthias who isn't what he appears to be. When villagers make accusations against Matthias for a fiery incident at his castle, Hope is punished for her father's crimes by the townsfolk and is burned at the stake. When Hope is reunited with her father in the underworld, she finds out his real identity as Lucifer. She quickly rejects her father's offer to rule the underworld and conquer the world together. Her rejection automatically sends her to Lucifer's former comrade Cremator. Under Cremator's tutelage, Hope slowly transforms into Lady Death both physically and emotionally. Lady Death is determined to bring down her father once and for all.

I personally liked this movie. It isn't perfect. I have seen better animation from other anime films. The animation just seemed dated and didn't lack the vibrant colors or the amazing visuals that films like "Ghost in the Shell" or any of Hayao Miyazaki films possesses. The dialogue was terribly cheesy and unintentionally hilarious. I bet a chimpanzee could have written better dialogue than the humans that came up with this script. Despite the unimpressive animation, thin plot, and unintentionally funny dialogue, I still found this film rather entertaining. I guess I can chalk it up as a guilty pleasure for this reviewer.