Strait Jacket

Yes it's violent. Yes it's gory. No, Strait Jacket is not groundbreaking anime, but if you require having your mind blown every time and being revolutionary is the standard by which you measure things, then you will find most anime (and things in general) very disappointing. I may be the lone voice of praise in an ocean of aspersion, but I really liked Strait Jacket. Maybe there wasn't enough comedy relief or cliche sweatdrops for some people's satisfaction. It's not the most original thing you'll ever see, but the things Strait Jacket does, it does well. There's action, violence (graphic), a blend of magic and science, fighting and explosions. It's not Hollywood level action, so the explosions/fighting are more limited and there are no car chase scenes, but still fairly entertaining. The voice acting was flawless, with an all-star cast, Freeman and many more, how could one complain. Like others, I went into it with very low expectations. To my surprise, I found the setting intriguing and the premise fascinating, so much so that I went from "kind of paying attention" to giving it my full attention. It was very action driven and the pacing was perfect. It still spared enough time to flesh out or develop the characters just enough to make them interesting. I suspect that perhaps it's not as character driven as some people would like, but I liked Strait Jacket for what it was. No different than someone who enjoys a good action flick. The plot was "incomplete," but unless you are too busy looking down your nose from your high horse, you should get the sense that it was meant to be that way. Like an appetizer before a full course meal, it gives you an idea of how rich the story could be if they could make it into a series.

Very hard to find anime that I found on here. Super happy

I really do like this movie. Its alot of fun. I will say I had some issues with getting it to work on my comp but that could just be user error.

In this title, the action is well-paced, English dub is acted like they took it seriously and the animation is above average. The CG blends well with the hand-drawn animation and all the characters are generally likeable( I especially liked the main character's sidekick. The story was good enough to keep my interest quite well, and when it ended I only wanted MORE! This is a one-shot movie, not a series. That's hard to come by these days in anime. If you like anime with a great story, awesome animation and plenty of action, you should definitely pick this one up! It could have stood to be about 10-15 minutes longer though. I'll rate it 8.5 out of 10.

Some might see this and think it’s a blatant Fullmetal Alchemist clone, but keeps a clear definition between alchemy and sorcery in this 3-episode OVA series. It has sometimes been screened in America as a single movie on places like Syfy during their old Ani-Monday block. Ichiro Sakakai wrote the light novel series that this was based on and his work regularly blends science and sorcery into a shared continuity. This story takes place in an alternate 1899, it’s about freelance tactical exorcist named Rayoette who wears a special type of garment to prevent himself turning into a monster from using too much magic, the result of which can themselves to become possessed. There’s an understaffed official bureau that deals with these monsters, so they have to hire outside help to deal with an outbreak of possessions. The other storyline involves the bureau officer Isaac and his rivalry with Rayoette causes him to go the distance in using sorcery, plus some fair political intrigue. The world this anime inhabits has a stylish gothic blend of magic and Victorian technology. The animation studio Feel did a superlative job bringing this story to life, and Manga Entertaiment's dub is also outstanding.

I got this a day before it said which is a plus. Loved this movie so I just had to buy it at this price. 5 stars because it's an awesome movie.

This was a terrific anime. I only hope that there is more to come. Very enjoyable. Heavy on the action and a bit bloody.

This was a Great anime. I just wish that there was more. I had a great time watching it. I loved it.

本体状況に関するもうすこし詳しい情報が欲しかった。

I enjoyed watching this but ultimately it is let down by the storyline which is just average at best. The premise is very interesting and makes it worth a look, the animation is great as are the characters, but the story isn't satisfying overall. I enjoyed it and would watch it again, but it won't leave a strong impression on you.

Ordered the wrong film thinking it was the Joan Crawford movie. Doh!₩

Whilst certainly not a masterpiece, this was superior weekend fare that i thoroughly enjoyed watching stuck on the sofa with a couple of beers. Plot wise its a bit manga-normal, tons of gore, cod philosphising and more than a touch of melodrama but the animation is of top quality and the action sequences are well staged. The 'Demon' characters in particluar are nicely grotesque and the 'StraitJackets' are pretty nifty looking. It's fair to say that the characters are very one note and difficult to give a monkeys about but for a braindead and enjoyable hour and twenty minutes you couldn't really ask for much more. All in all, its probably not worth the four stars I have given but i enjoyed it and that's what it's all about eh?

Strait Jacket is frankly bewildering to watch, and that's not just because of the poor writing. The fact is you can really tell they tried, and tried hard to make this good, the animation is very pretty, the characters are potentially very interesting and the premise is dark enough to allow for a very adult exploration of a wide variety of themes. What makes the experience so bewildering is that despite all this Strait Jacket flits between terrible and at best slightly below average in terms of overall quality. The story revolves around big nasty demons created as a result of mystical technology gone wrong and the armour-covered magical doom-miesters tasked with their destruction. Now, the idea of manly men decked out in medieval armour and carrying guns bigger than they are doesn't immediatly make me think of philosophical contemplation (something Strait Jacket does try it's hand at, and fails spectacularly to make it either interesting or engaging) but it does make me think of cool action scenes. Unfortunately the plentiful action set pieces in Strait Jacket are let down by several major flaws. Firstly, every time the sorcerists (the aforementioned manly doom-miesters) use one of their super-powerful gun spells they have to recite this long speech about challenging reason, most of which is made up mumblings and which ends in them shouting "Exist!" to make the doom ray du jour, well, exist. If one of these speeches had been featured at the beginning and after that we'd been spared them I could have written it off as a brief moment of stupidity but no, every freaking time they fight a demon we have to sit through yet another incantation speech at least once, often these speeches are focussed on with such pornographic obsession that by the ending fight I had the distinct impression I was part of some bizzarre endurance test. Secondly though, and most imporantly, the action sequences fail to engage because the audience just doesn't care enough about the characters. In fact it's hard to care at all about them. Character development clearly wasn't high on the list of priorities for the writers on Strait Jacket (presumably too preoccupied with all those incantation speeches), to the extent that one character is introduced as a 'niave girl' and we're expected to buy that she's niave, despite the fact that she's not, she actually seems quite competant. She's certainly clumsy, one dimensional and stunningly irritating, but not niave. It's possible of course that this specific gripe is the result of poor translation but given the otherwise high production standards I doubt it. The central anti-hero of the whole sorry affair is actually developed, not very much and not very surprisingly but this is only the beginning after all and he has the potential to become quite an interesting protagonist by the end. But with this one exception it seems the writers thought of some nice ideas for characters, wrote them down, screamed "Exist" at them for a bit then went about their day thinking up some interesting new mumbly bits for the middle of incantations. Part of me thinks I'm being unfair on Strait Jacket, after all it's only the first part of an OVA and as such this review might be akin to complaining that the party at the beginning of Lord of the Rings isn't epic enough. But on the other hand it is so very bad that I find it hard to see anything other than more disapointment coming from subsequent chapters. There's an awful lot of potential here, but it's almost completely untouched and what is developed is hardly inspiring. It could form the basis of an awesome remake in a couple of years but for now there are far better ways to spend 80 minutes of your life.