Pandy and Retro awaken naked on Earth with no recollection of their past. They embark on a devastating crime spree in search of food, clothing and transportation, but are captured by authorities and sent to the infamous lunar penitentiary named Dead Leaves. While incarcerated, they quickly discover that Dead Leaves is also a top-secret cloning facility, occupied by villainous guards and deformed genetic experiments. Ultra-manic chaos and hyper-violent bedlam ensue as they organize a prison break with the aid of their fellow mutant inmates.
~~~Watching Dead Leaves was an experience of incredulity, to say the least. I simply couldn't believe how much fun I was having. How can something be so thoroughly entertaining? Don't get me wrong, I had fun with tons of Imaishi things before, but this is so dense. It's fifty minutes of sheer creativity, carelessness, and self-indulgence of the best type. It literally gives no fuck about anything whatsoever, from minute one to the very end, and well, I FUCKING LOVE IT!~~~ ~~~Beautiful hand drawn animation, with lots of explosions, firing, bullets, bones crushing, flesh ripped, organs exposed, semen LOL, you got my point! All that surrounded by creative designs for locations, monsters, machines, people of all sort, in a setting brimming with variety. The design for the main female is my favorite ever, so simple yet effective, typical from Imaishi. He knows how to draw simple contrasting colors and forms while maintaining a whole idea of style that makes use of every single element. If you take away her red eye, blue eye, grey hair color, non separated lips in thick bright red, it's not Pandy anymore. And that is a single character. If you turn off the subtitles and just watch it for the visuals like I did once, boy, you'll find some creepy/hilarious shit lying somewhere in the background or in some lost frame. Remember that scene in episode 4 of FLCL where Naota grabs Mamimi's panties in three frames and no one noticed? Good luck with that.~~~ ~~~Essentially, this is what animation is all about. Giving form to things that only exist inside the animator's head. Fruits of imagination, a reality subservient to our desire to see it flourish through art in as many ways as there are stars in the sky. Bound to no morality, abiding by no law, Dead Leaves is freedom at its finest, pure expression of Imaishi's perverted and wacky mind aiming towards maximum joy. And boy, did I enjoy this! This is just a love letter to myself and all of you who happen to be reading it, either to check out what someone has to say on the film or to decide whether or not to watch it. It intends to reveal how pleasant it is to find something so uniquely based on style, so carefree, so expressive, and ultimately beautiful, with cool ass imagery to no observable end.~~~ ~~~Yuasa and Imaishi are the two most carefree and expressive directors I've found yet in anime and both have made their names out of doing things in their way. That is, pouring every ounce of personality and desire into their works. Imaishi is particularly perverted, always adding in some sexual irreverence, often transcending the normal and going batshit insane, causing discomfort that might lead people to despise his style or love it even more. I'm obviously the latter, fascinated by how naturally he finds ways of implementing all sorts of socially undesirable subjects in his works. And in Dead Leaves, you can expect everything. Exaggerated violence, exaggerated sex, exaggerated causes, effects, and outcomes. A storyline that equals to having no idea where to go but being so excited with the idea of going somewhere that you just skyrocket to any possible direction, exploring any possible alley of imagination. ~~~ ~~~I'm getting too poetic for my own good. What can I say? It's super duper fun, I rewatched it right after finishing it cause why the hell not? It's common to find people complaining about Imaishi's lack of purpose in lots of his works and how he doesn't give a flying fuck about anything whatsoever while animating, and that particularly surprises me. It surprises me that some people wish to limit art, pigeonholing it to degrees where something as genuine and imaginative as a fifty minutes film about going nuts raised to the tenth power isn't rewarded with a warm welcoming hug, but rather, a cold dismissive shrug that negates creativity. I hope you approach this work optimistically and leave with a smile on your face, go watch it son!~~~
One could describe Dead Leaves in so many words. Crazy, over the top, wacky, crude, insane, bizarre, crazy, energetic, confusing, relentless, manic, vulgar, mindless, and loud. All of these words describe Dead Leaves perfectly. But it would leave little to be desired if that was the only way I described it. So let's jump into it. The plot follows two people awaken naked on Earth, a man with a TV for a head called Retro and a woman called Pandy, named for her panda patched eyes, with no recollection their past. Not even having the clothes on their backs, out two main characters embark on a crime spree in search of food, clothes, and transportation, and are soon captured by the authorities and are sent to the infamous lunar penitentiary called Dead Leaves. While they try to escape the penitentiary with the aid of their fellow inmates, they soon find out that it has a few secrets along the way. From the outset, It's really easy to tell that Dead Leaves is from Production I.G., and especially from director and key animator Hiroyuki Imaishi, being a stepping stone from his previous work, such as being a key animator on an episode of FLCL, along with the ending credits of Paradise Kiss, to what his animation style and presentation would become later with Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt and Kill la Kill. Dead Leaves is where Hiroyuki's style becomes defined, but not quite as polished as his later works. The animation moves by at a lightening speed, leaving little room for slow moments outside of it's initial opening scene. So much of this is blink-and-you'll-miss-it animation that it'll take a second or even third watching with you skipping frame by frame to be able to see all of the background characters and events. Since it's so short and so fast paced, it doesn't leave much room for character development or a lot of plot, but that isn't really the point of this OVA. It wants to go fast, and that's what it does. It doesn't care if can't or won't keep up with it, it just wants to move from scene to scene to scene without trying to put too much focus on the wacky antics that are going on. It stars out crazy from out the outset, and it keeps up it's fast pace, all while it gets progressively weirder and weirder the further it goes on. While it doesn't leave much for character development, it does tell a relatively cohesive story with what time it has. There is some mild open plot threads, but it doesn't leave much to interpretation. It's not trying to have depth or meaning. It just wants to be entertaining for the sake of being entertaining. The music is also pretty good, good enough that at some point I might throw it in my rotation of music I put in the background when I'm doing something like playing a fast paced video game or going out on a run. There isn't much I'll spoil here because it's so short and it's something you really have to see yourself just to take everything in. Dead Leaves might be a love it or hate it anime aimed at a fairly niche audience, and is not something I would call amazing in any sense of the word, but it gets what it's trying to get across incredibly well and the audience it's aimed at would absolutely love what Dead Leaves is. A crazy, over the top, wacky, crude, insane, bizarre, crazy, energetic, confusing, relentless, manic, vulgar, mindless, and loud short film.
As a biiig fan of Imaishi, Dead Leaves is (as of writing this) the anime I've seen more times than any other and in the running for my favorite movie overall. It feels like a perfect distillation of everything I love about his style and what places him among my favorite anime staff. It is driven by its striking aesthetics and simple themes first and foremost. People often say it has bad writing/narrative, but I think that's missing the point and missing what makes this film uniquely special. To be clear, this movie is made for non-stop frenetic chaos. The moments it steps away from the insane action or other wild spectacle to deliver narrative elements are as dense and brief as they possibly can be, to the point where it can become difficult to follow the cryptic backstory of the characters and world from the mix of sensory overload and limited information. This is done intentionally, as evidenced by the fact that Retro, one of the two protagonists, perpetually reacts to these moments in such a way as to almost explicitly say to the audience, "It doesn't matter if you didn't get that, just forget about it and have a good time." The result of this is 45 minutes of constant engagement, flavored with themes of rebellion against authority and care-free enjoyment of life. The core of Retro and Pandy's adventure is an abandonment of the bigger picture for the sake of protecting and reveling in the here and now. What better realization of those ideas could there be than a narrative that both avoids traditional structure to place emphasis on experiential engagement, and is focused on characters who can't remember their pasts and ultimately decide that doing so isn't worth worrying about? One of the other things I particularly enjoy about this movie is how unapologetic it is about letting its crassness and perversion seep into every corner of its world. Simple-minded gags about farts, dicks, and jizz are this film's bread and butter, continuing the theme of rebellion against a society that likes to pose maturity as something removed from our base pleasures. As these elements are themselves tools utilized in the film as a means of fighting against oppressors, there is a beautiful unity between the _content_ of its themes and the _context_ of its role in the media-sphere. Of course, if you don't resonate with the themes or aesthetics of Dead Leaves, this probably is not the film for you. If you're on the fence, just look up some screenshots - it's so upfront with its intentions that you'll know where you stand immediately. Personally, everything about it is right up my alley, and it appeals to me more than any of Imaishi's other works.
Wow oh WOW this movie is boolin. I had this movie in my planned to watch list for about a month before I watched it. And if you look on the page almost half of all users that have interacted with the movie have it as a plan to watch. And I'd hate for this movie to be that one thing in your planned to watch list that you never get to, cuz you don't wanna miss out on this. It was made by the guy who made Gurren Lagann and I believe he had a hand with fooly cooly. Aight intro done lets get to da praise. Firstly the Art style is SOOOOO textured it's insane. It's got a certain style where you'll love it or hate it. I personally love it. There's always something happening on screen that'll captivate you. The character design is also amazing. Our two protagonists are funny as all hell and the supporting cast is full of funny faces, like the guy with the penis drill. It's hard to believe that something of this high visual quality was made 17 years ago. I'd go far enough to say that it's my favorite anime art style. The story takes a backseat, you really get your kicks from the mayhem on the screen, but the story is still of quality. Two people wake up with amnesia and get arrested. This is mostly a story about their jailbreak. It's a pretty fun premise, but at the end of the day, it's only a canvas for the art and character design. The music bops HARD. It's electronic and often blaring. It's loud, pumps you up, and fits in perfectly with the chaos that is ensuing. The humor is pretty fabulous too. It's pretty crude so I wouldn't recommend watching in front of parents and or toddlers. But it's pretty funny if you turn your brain off. The setting of the story is a jail on the moon and it's full of character. I won't spoil too much but the way they detain prisoners and the way they break out of the jail cell was pretty funny. Our main characters are a guy with a tv head named Retro, and a girl with weird spots on her eyes named Pandy. They play off each other very well and are very loveable main characters. The antagonists are shown to be big and threatening and an obstacle for our main characters. Theyre definitely fun to watch and their designs are pretty cool. Aight end time This 50-minute masterpiece is so slept on it might as well be a mattress. The art style is of the most amazing things I've ever seen and stands out, even in anime. This movie amazes me with every turn and it would be a shame if you missed out on it. Every part of this short movie is entertaining and has gained a VERY high spot on my top ten list. Id says its a must watch movie. With its clear inspirations from 90 cartoons and flair it's just an event you cant miss. This is a clear 10/10 and I think its highly likely that it'll be a 10/10 for you too