Bodysuit 23 #614

Edit: I made some art adjustments.

Visited some friends last night where we watched the first episode of Dear Brother and the film Arion.

Arion, while flawed, was an interesting watch. Its depictions of Greek gods being more or less human with a tiny bit of magic power (or none much at all) wasn't something I hadn't really seen before. Not that I go seeking for ancient Greek mythos stories all that much to begin with.

While it kept the concept of Zeus being ruler of land, Poseidon ruler of the sea, and Hades the ruler of the underworld, it felt more literal. Zeus was ruler of the land above, but he was this weak old man who relied on a lightning canon to show off his power. Hades ruled a literal underground kingdom, but could come up above whenever. Poseidon had a large naval fleet and commanded various monster creatures.

Instead of the flourishing looking ancient Greece, the world was mostly barren or dead. Mt. Olympus was dark and despairing, like an empire on the verge of collapse. 

The music was done by Joe Hisaishi of various Ghibli films fame. It honestly feels like it could sit right next to music from Nausicaa and Laputa without feeling out of place. Just listen to this. 

The issue with the film stems from cramming this entire epic into a sub 2 hour long movie. There's constant pacing issues where it feels like it's speed running the story, sometimes resorting to text on a screen to move the plot along. Sudden developments come out of nowhere, such as the army Arion somehow suddenly has at his command... somehow? Too many times it expects you to hand wave and simply accept things at face value. "Oh, so that happened? Okay."

Despite that, I enjoyed watching it. But I also enjoy works of art with grand ideas and fail to deliver on them.

Dear Brother on the other hand, well, just take a look.