It
started as a hobby and grew into a 24-chapter 720-minute epic. But
is it anime, or is it something else? The content of this 4-DVD set
started life as an online comic created in Flash, and by the time it
was completed, the creators had been working full-time for 3 years
on the project. For this DVD release, not only have the graphics
been updated, professional voice actors have been called in to
voiceover the characters, the sound has been completely remixed into
5.1 format, and the result is unique.
As a flash-based web comic, Broken Saints won a number of awards,
and I would have to say that it deserved its kudos. There are few
mass entertainment examples with the thematic depths of this story.
Philosophy, Religion, Politics, and Spirituality are explored in
this complex tale of faith, conspiracies, and Armageddon in a
high-tech world. There is enough depth in this show that you could
watch it a dozen times and get new things out of it every time, and
that's incredibly rare in any form of mass media. But it's not very
animated; the visuals are mostly still images, with animation used
to segue between scenes. So is it anime?
Another way in which the unique origins of this ...(fumbling for a
suitable term here)... presentation... enable it to go beyond the
usual restrictions is in the length of the chapters. Like the
chapters in a novel, or a piece of string, these can be as long as
they need to be. They start off reasonably short in length, and in
general grow longer as the interwoven threads of the plot
surrounding the four central characters begin to splice together.
Many of the chapters contain two or three acts, and the final
chapter is a massive 83 minutes in length, consisting of 5 acts plus
a prologue and epilogue. This can take some getting used to, and
means that you will almost certainly never see this series on your
television screen; it's simply not scheduling-friendly enough. Is
this the first example of a new concept - the made-for-DVD series?
Or just a unique aberration?
One of the penalties of starting out cutting-edge in any technology
on a project with this long a life-span is that the technology, and
the appreciation of what you can do with it, advance while your
story progresses. That means that either you upgrade with the
technology, remaining at the forefront of what your technology can
do, or you aim for consistency by staying with the same (ageing)
tools and techniques. In other words, either your early episodes
look dated or your whole storyline does. But by re-doing significant
quantities of the work when compiling the project into the DVD
format - in this case, extensively redoing the artwork in the first
several chapters - this project brings to light a third answer, and
one that means that there is something new for those who were fans
of the original internet presentation.
Speaking of the sound, that deserves a special mention as well. This
is a blend of original score and sound effects and classical pieces
from composers such as Mozart, and (as with the use of Flash), used
cutting edge digital compositing techniques. These methods have
since become mainstream tools - the Lord Of The Rings trilogy
handled its sound in a similar way - but there is an adventurousness
here that the more refined product lacks. The downside is that there
is also a sense of rawness of technique at times. Again, with so
much of the sound redone for this DVD presentation, the results are
a blend of sophistication and innovation. So important to the
finished product is the soundscape that the creators at one point in
the extras package quote a George Lucas comment that movies are "50%
vision and 50% sound" before commenting that in the case of Broken
Saints the ratios are more like 30 - 70.
It wasn't all good. The menu takes what seems like FOREVER to
present you with options; the pre-menu presentation feels like it
takes minutes. I was actually beginning to wonder if the menu system
on the DVD was broken, it took so long. I've deducted a point from
extras just for the sheer annoyance it caused. The storyline is very
complex and deeply woven, which means that the plot seems to drag a
little in the first half-dozen episodes while characters and setting
are being established. That cost the feature a point. There was a
strong temptation to skip ahead to a later chapter to facilitate
this review (or in the case of the general audience, to get past the
slow stuff); resist this temptation for all you're worth. Each
chapter builds on what has gone before, and you'll lose a lot of the
impact and depth of what comes later if you succumb. This is not a
straightforward action-adventure flick or commonplace TV series
where you can hop in after the first ad break and not miss much;
this is deeper and requires a little more investment in time and
attention from the viewer if you are to get the most out of it.
In general, if you're the type of viewer who likes plots with a bit
of substance, or who wants a series that is cool in a completely
different way to anything else out there and isn't afraid of a few
hard-to-digest complex questions, then this package is an excellent
choice. Fans of 24, Alias, X-files, Lost, or Jericho who also watch
anime should be queuing up to buy copies if they don't have them
already. If you prefer Slayers or the Powderpuff Girls, this may be
over your head - or deeper than your interest. In which case you
should borrow a copy from a friend and see just how far your mind
will stretch if given the chance. Oh, one final word of warning -
you should not let children watch episode 19.
