First Squad is set during the opening days of World War II on the Eastern Front. Its main cast are a
group of Soviet teenagers with extraordinary abilities; the teenagers have been drafted to form a
special unit to fight the invading German army. They are opposed by a Schutzstaffel (SS) officer who
is attempting to raise from the dead a supernatural army of crusaders from the 12th-century Order of
the Sacred Cross and enlist them in the Nazi cause.
(Source: Anime News Network)
Every now and again, there is an anime project done in conjunction with a country outside of Japan. With First Squad, the project was done in conjunction with Japanese animation studio Studio 4C and a Russian company Molot Entertainment. Molot Entertainment doesn’t seem to have done much else besides First Squad besides another animated film called Ivan about a post-apocalyptic world filled with magical creatures such as dragons From what I can find, the company seems to be focused on helping promote independent projects. First Squad itself seems to have an interesting history by itself. Starting out as a music video in 2005 by both Studio 4C and Molot Entertainment, with the song for the music video done by MC Ligalize. It even won an award at the MTV Russian Music Awards for best hip-hop video in 2006. By 2007, the Russian studio behind the music video announced that they were working on a film adaptation of the music video. 2 years later, First Squad: Moment of Truth was released to the public. Apparently, is was well received enough in it’s home country of Russia that it even went on to win an award by the Kommersant newspaper’s prize. There was even a graphic novel adaptation the year after First Squad’s release. So with the surprisingly interesting history of First Squad out of the way, let’s have a closer look at it. Set during World War II on the Eastern Front, a group of Nazi mystics plan to resurrect Baron von Wolff and his Teutonic Knights during the “Moment of Truth”, a moment that has appeared throughout various points in time that will determine the outcome of any significant conflict. To prevent this, Division Six of the Soviet Military intelligence has enlisted a group of young people with special abilities to fight the invading German armies and prevent the Nazi’s from reaching their goal. The story follows a young clairvoyant girl named Nadya, who survived a deadly air raid attack only to be left shell-shocked. While recovering from her concussion, she soon discovers that she has a new ability, the ability to foresee said “Moments of Truth”. Soon, she is taken into Division Six, and is trained along with the rest of the rest of the squad to prevent the Moment of Truth from being used by the Nazis to win the war. Unfortunately the whole movie is a bit of a mixed bad. While the premise is great, the rest of the movie is a bit underwhelming. The fact that this movie is only an hour long is the thing that unfortunately drags this whole thing down. I’m going to assume that the team behind First Squad not having a bigger budget, not having enough time, or not having both is the reason that the length of this movie is so short. I don’t know how much better it would have been having an extra 15 minutes, but I feel like the whole thing would have definitely felt a lot smoother. As a side effect of the length of this movie, the characters don’t always get the character development they need. Nadya pretty much gets most of it because she’s the main character, but the rest of the characters only get the most minor of character development, something that could have been solved with a longer length. The few action scenes that this movie gets are just OK, nothing to write home about. There is actually two versions of First Squad. A “Theatrical” cut and a “Director’s” cut.The only difference between both versions is every now an again in the “Director’s” cut there are a brief interviews done with veterans, historians, and other live actors in between the rest of the movie. These are basically just here to not only try and lengthen the movie with the meager budget they had, but these are more of a mixed bag than anything. Some of them don’t really add anything, such as the one interview that simply explains what sedatives are. Maybe it’s to give it some authenticity, but considering that the whole thing flows much better without them, I can’t really recommend the “Director’s” cut unless you found something about the original interesting enough to warrant something more. First Squad: Moment of Truth might be a rocky in terms of quality, but I don’t really hate it. It’s not something you should immediately go out and see, but it’s worth checking out if you some free time and it looks interesting to you.
This movie is special in its way. The narrator makes it seems like it's a kind of "documentary" that takes place during the '40s, in the middle of the USSR during WWII, Nadya, an orphan and only survivor of her squad, is taken by force to a base to fight the evil forces of the Third Reich. The film develops in mini sequences that can be seen through her memories or the present itself, it is difficult to tell the difference tho. Well, there we are already lost. Indeed, the movie in itself is not badly animated, the quality of the animation is good with the help, in particular, of the weapons and vehicles (note the shaking effect of the image that reminds me of some Mononoke/Laputa fighting scenes (the nostalgia..), very successful), and the gloomy atmosphere is maintained throughout the film. Every character is original although, cause of the lack of time for an animated film, NO ONE has character-development during the painful 73min. The scenario is very dense and pretty much random, none of these elements are linked to each other, the narration is tortuous and lacks fluidity, some effects fall flat though (the final blow, in particular, and the scene of the pitiful undead on horseback !). But in general, it is like a mixture of disastrous genres, the work evokes, as I said previously in the review, the Second World War, the Nazis, the Templars of the Middle Ages, the supernatural, the zombie realm, the world of the dead everything mixed up. This movie made me think of others: a bit of "saving Private Ryan" and "Lotr", plus a touch of "Matrix", all with an anime sauce that doesn't make any sense because it is badly developed. Indeed, some aspects remain unresolved. Apart from nebulous memories about Nadya's parents, one wonders what will become of the first squad, executed, back in the world of the living, and then... a mystery. Do they return to the afterlife? What influence do they have on their environment? Are they mere ghosts or are they able to interact with objects? So many questions remain unanswered. In general, not to mention the dubbing.., the hideous soundtrack(except the AMV that brings back some soviet memories of mine) but still impossible to follow, animation to be deplored, or a non-existent soundtrack... Film to avoid. I could only see the Russian version of the film cause of the fact that the Blu-ray version (unlike the DVD) does not have a Japanese track. On the other hand, the Russian language is an excellent alternative to dive into the heart of the action, but in general, it is unlikely to be immersive...Maybe you can watch it, maybe you'll enjoy it, but I advise you to pass the way if you're looking for a serious movie