“Shinjuku†is a comic that pits together two giants in the industry: Christopher “mink†Morrison and legendary artist Yoshitaka Amano. Just listing Amano is enough to make any manga freak go out and by it. Twistory Studios has released a movie that it airs in episodes on YouTube and it’s not as entertaining as one might expect.
“Shinjuku†is about Daniel Legend, a bounty hunter who receives a letter from his long lost sister saying that she’s in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. What follows is Legend going against the Yakuza and supernatural beings.
The movie looks like a motion comic with the “Aeon Flux†style artwork that Robert Valley is known for. It looks nice, but the movie would’ve looked a lot better if it actually looked like a cartoon rather than a motion comic. Valley has the talent to pull it off as evidenced in not only “Aeon Flux†but in the movies he does for the band Gorillaz.
The narration by Danielle Vasinova (“To Hell with a Bullet, White Trash Noirâ€) gives the comic a noir feel that fits in well with the animation and the story. The downside to this is that it feels like someone is reading the comic to the viewer instead of watching a cartoon. It would’ve been much better if there was more showing with actors acting out the scene instead of a narrator constantly telling the story.
“Shinjuku: The Film†sounds like a great idea but the execution leaves much to be desired. One thing it does well is it makes people want to check out the comic if only to get a much better grasp of the story and to see if it lives up to its expectations.
Watch the Episode for Yourself Below:
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