This Week in Anime

The Amazing Action Anime of Director Sunghoo Park

Nick
That's really wonderful, Steve. I'm happy for you. By the way, I'm just asking, no reason, but how familiar are you with the John Wick tetralogy?

Alright, maybe we should at least tell people what we're talking about before comparing its homework to Chad Stahelski's. In case you missed it among the unending deluge of anime, this is Ninja Kamui, the latest Toonami co-pro that, like many of its predecessors, wants to bring back the era of 90s anime.

I'm pretty sure that font just shows up on your computer after you watch Ninja Scroll.

Park himself is a pretty unique creator. While he doesn't have the stylistic eccentricities of some other directors we've spotlighted, he's a name I've been following and happy to see for a while now. So, while I'm not thrilled by this show's first episode or premise, I am rooting for the folks behind it. I'll also be busy wiping all the blood off my TV screen cus got damn.

Oh, I can absolutely see it, and even after ten years separated from that show, I can think of exactly which cut he handled. I said Park doesn't have the stylistic obsessions of some other directors, but one thing is certain: the man loves motorcycles.

You know what they say: when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like it can be solved with extremely dynamic violence!

It rules. It's the kind of approach that's hard to sum up in words - and even harder to screencap - but you can tell when he's behind a particular sequence. The movement has a timing and energy that almost feels like you're on a rollercoaster. It's at its roughest and most unrestrained in his directorial debut, Garo -Vanishing Line-. Even from that show's first episode, there's something special to every action scene.

It's my favorite of anything in Park's oeuvre, and a lot of it comes down to how hard it goes in on everything. It's got the action-horror vibes of the Garo tokusatsu franchise, but it isn't afraid to be a big, doofy cartoon starring a guy literally named Sword, who's a total meathead. And I don't just mean that because he eats steaks that look like this:

Sword only cares about three things: eating like he's out to put the Man vs. Food guy to shame, fighting the nightstalking horrors that threaten humanity, and anime tiddy. We should all aspire to that kind of inner peace.

I especially recommend the last few episodes since even during the struggles of a two-cour TV production; it features some wild style shifts that have stuck with me ever since. Obviously, that's not all down to Park, but it shows that he's open to letting other artists and animators do their thing within the shows he helms.

Those connections are also part of why he could establish his own studio. Plus, with all the stuff going on behind the scenes at MAPPA, who could blame him for getting out while the getting's good, even if that meant leaving behind the most successful series he's directed so far?

It makes sense, but it also has a sense of loss. One of the nice parts about Vanishing Line's action was that it was often very light on exposition. Most special powers either got explained beforehand or were visually straightforward enough to understand without help. JJK loves explaining every goddamn detail of its power system, and for me, that consistently drained the energy out of sequences that were otherwise rad as hell.

Park's approach to action is at its best when too many narrative ties do not restrain it. It works to punctuate and facilitate the plot through spectacle rather than deliver it. It's why everyone remembers this climactic bit of Yuji and Nobara's fight in episode 24, but not the multiple inner monologues that precede it.

I don't know. Maybe it's the contrarian in me recoiling from just how oversaturated JJK got after its first season, but I found the anime-original fights way more dynamic than the more faithful stuff. There's a whole fight in JJK 0 that they added in for the movie, and it's classic Park insanity with none of the fat.

The fact that he has four separate credits for the first episode would certainly suggest it. However, that's not quite a promise of quality. He was also heavily involved in The God of High School, and that show's story was bad enough to drag down the action.

I have very few thoughts on the story, but from an action perspective, it's a perfect example of how, sometimes, less is more. At the start, the fighting is all hand-to-hand combat, perfectly fitting Park's approach. The first episode has a fantastic montage of dudes beating the stuffing out of each other, and it's infectiously fun.

Yet by the show's end, they've introduced superpowers and way larger stakes, and the action scenes are positively boring despite being just as dynamic and ambitious. There's just too much abstraction getting in the way of the impact.

That's why I'm still interested in Ninja Kamui after its first episode. The story and characters are pretty stock, and the sheer dourness of it all is a bummer, but it's more than happy to let its bloodshed speak for itself. Which mostly entails a lot of screaming.

If you have seen any revenge thriller in the last 40 years, you know what to expect before even hitting play. It almost circles back to being brilliant with how blatantly they tell you that this guy's wife and kid will get turned into chunky marinara to motivate him.

Let's be real here. The first John Wick movie didn't have an amazing story either (though it's still more unique than this so far). Yet it worked because it was the right story to deliver what the movie was interested in: some of the best choreographed and coolest action sequences in modern Hollywood filmmaking. Ninja Kamui's not yet on that level, but it delivers some incredibly satisfying cuts.

It's definitely in a good position for it. Toonami's co-productions have been trying very hard to bring that kind of 90s ultraviolence back into vogue, and for all its faults, this premiere feels like the strongest attempt so far. If it doesn't deliver, I guess I'll go back to praying for a Vanishing Line sequel movie.