Review: Virgin Punk – Clockwork Girl

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

After her life at an orphanage is destroyed by a couple bounty hunters, Ubu Kamigori takes up the job herself, only for one of the bounty hunters, a pedophile creep named Mr. Elegance, to show up ten years later, shoot her, and put her brain in a robot body designed on a fourteen year old version of herself, forcing her to work for him.

OUR TAKE

If you were into anime in the late 90’s or early 2000’s, you likely were at some point exposed to the work of Yasuomi Umetsu. Maybe you saw a few clips of his original works like Mezzo Forte or Kite, the latter even getting adapted into a live action film (with a 0% RT Score, so…maybe not best to brag about that). And even if you haven’t seen those, you may have seen his prolific work as a key animator on numerous popular shows like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex or Madoka Magica. The point is, this guy is an industry veteran in every sense of the word, so when word came of him once again heading an original story, there was plenty of reason to get hyped. Virgin Punk is a new series of films starting with this first installment, Clockwork Girl, being the way to show this old dog has some new tricks. Unfortunately, what it ends up showing instead is that he may be behind the times, as while Clockwork Girl showcases astounding animation, its story and characters feel very much pulled from a seedy OVA from the back rows of Suncoast you might find one night during the Clinton Administration.

Simply put, I don’t know how this sort of story would get off the ground if it didn’t have someone who’s been in the industry for years helming it. As cool as it is to see cute girls bouncing around and shooting and slicing guys heads off, you also can’t really get away from the fact that this is about an adult woman being shot and kidnapped so she can be placed in a teenage body so she can be under the thumb of a pedophile. And that would be bad enough if this were a movie with a feature length, but it is a scant thirty five minutes with about an hour special features and interviews. Add that to the fact that it was released as a Fathom Event, meaning even more expensive ticket prices, and this was just a botched sale from the get go. I would say that Umetsu should have just finished the series and released it as a single film, but based on how it started, I don’t even think I want that. MAYBE I’ll watch the next one if it’s released online for free, but that’s my bar.