This is Sinatra speaking; you should listen to the girl.

So while we're on the subject of 70's exploitation movies, I'm going to talk to you about a Japanese (but English-language) CG anime movie that emulates them. It's called Catblue Dynamite, and suffice to say it's a five-star work of utter genius that you ought to watch right this very second. But if you stick around for a minute, I'll tell you some more anyway.

You know how Black Lagoon is basically a summer explosion-movie but with various moe archetypes, maids and such, added in? Catblue Dynamite adds only one moe element to its established formula: that old otaku standby, the catgirl. Catblue can speak to the dead, has a theme song, and hold (and reload) a gun with her tail. She may be small, we are told, but she's worth more than Pam Grier. Now I dunno about all that, but she's pretty badass.

You shouldn't really think about what's going on in this movie, but Catblue and her sidekick are helping out some cocaine mules who are being chased around by some scary dudes (and one scary chick who kinda looks like Raoh), over a rare copy of Frank Sinatra's Stranger In The Night. Ten minutes don't pass before there's a shootout in a disco; I won't spoil that scene any further. It's an action movie, after all.

The recent Appleseed tried "all-CG cel-shaded anime action movie" too, but it was overambitious, and as such, all it gave us were some pretty fun fight scenes surrounded by a weak movie. Catblue Dynamite aspires only to be a single episode of a weekly 70's TV show (episode 5, it says, but the others don't actually exist), and it's absolutely perfect at this. The fights are smooth and satisfying in a way that CG typically isn't. Even compared to the typical action movie, they're really well-done.

One interesting point for us anime fans to consider is that the dialogue is spoken in English with Japanese subtitles. This isn't Engrish or anything, it's a real and competent English script; lip-synched and everything. The voice work ranges from sharp and funny to a little stilted at times, but I can't say it doesn't suit the work or the characters: Catblue is too tough to have a typical Japanese catgirl voice, nya, and the influence comes much more from American 70's b-grade cinema than Japanese anime. So if you're into that kinda thing (I am), you're probably into this kinda thing. If you're not, you should try it. I promise you'll have fun.

Considering the language issue, it's kind of peculiar that nobody's lined this up for US release yet: the copy I have is a rip of a streaming video that runs on a free website that nobody outside of Japan can actually sign up for. Go figure. If somebody gets it I'm buying.

Update 10/1/08: Please don't support Crunchyroll. Read this for a good reason why.

Comments

[Steve Harrison]

Well, I'm probably just going to show off my ignorance, but this whole thing sounds like a studio fishing for those lovely, lovely AmeriDollars. Like maybe it's an elaborate demo reel. Kinda sorta like Blood was, ya know?

Because everything from what you've mentioned just *screams* "Look! Look! we know American pop culture! We won't screw up!" to me, which of course isn't the point, it's when you get a fairly clueless American production staff (not like the director, I mean the suits in the office. You know the type) trying to micromanage a Japanese studio...

But ya know, as a single product on its own? Sounds decent. Boy, I hope they got clearance for the Sinatra stuff however. Wouldn't that be a huge US anime company boob-up? "Oh, well, we licensed the movie, but due to rights issues we can't use the actual song or even mention it..." Somehow I doubt inserting the name of...ohhh, what would be the really wrong direction...Nickleback...yeah...there ya go... oh, maybe it just doesn't matter, right? :)

[astrange]

TWELVE-MONTH LATER CORRECTION COMMENT!

Romanov Higa (http://romanov-film.com/ANIME/index.htm, http://wedge-hd.com/anime_info/cat_e.html) never does the same thing twice, so this can't be a demo reel. It's just this weird thing.

[Lee Hollman]

I just caught Catblue Dynamite at this year's New York Anime Festival, and I'm itching for any information on a US release or where I can get a copy of this series! Please help!

[Sub]

NYAF also ran Catblue last year: sadly, it doesn't look like the rights holders are any closer to doing a US release. Your only option right now is to check the big anime torrent sites, which shouldn't be too hard to find.