Easily one of the most
cheerful transgressive films you’re apt to see, VIOLENCE VOYAGER works because
you can’t tell the extent to which that cheerfulness is ironic: it mimics the
earnestness of so much anime and manga—let’s
be friends!, let’s go on an adventure!, let’s stop the bad guy before it’s too
late!—that you find yourself riveted despite yourself. And that's long after any respectable
moviegoer has reflected, with equal parts awe and dismay, “Wait, what exactly
am I watching?”
Even when the movie is
over, you may not be able to answer that question, not in any definitive way.
Writer-director Ujicha has executed a near-perfect blend of form and function,
with the deliberately primitive animation matching the deliberately naïve plot,
characters, and settings. Ostensibly about kids who make the mistake of visiting
a sketchy theme park, VIOLENCE VOYAGER recapitulates that premise on the macro level except now
you’re the youngster looking for diversion who happens to wander into a world
of depraved horror. Be warned.
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