Dear Internet,
"Parasite
Dolls" is a three episode series that comes from an already popular
franchise. Specifically, it is the latest
and last animated piece of the "Bubblegum Crisis" universe with
emphasis on the AD Police section.
Considering that nothing short of a spinoff non-canonical light novel
has come forth in the last ten years, it can be safe to assume that nothing is
going to be done with the series anytime soon.
That does not mean that the franchise went down the drain due to quality
or lack of sales, but what do I know.
This is the first time that I have come close to this series. Thankfully, "Parasite Dolls" is a
series that can be viewed independently of everything else in the series. There need be no prior information concerning
the "Bubblegum Crisis" universe to understand the episodes.
The episodes
follow Buzz Nikvest and the other agents of the Branch department of the AD
Police. Branch is a secret part of the
AD Police who is able to operate without much of the red tape that the AD
Police has to cut through. Primarily, Branch
deals with rogue Boomers, an intelligent android that is able to mimic human
behavior despite not experiencing emotions themselves. While the Boomers are generally programmed to
protect and aid the human population, there exists a growing problem where
Boomers have been found to be going wild and killing humans. In the three episodes, Buzz and Branch tackle
three specific cases. The first has to
do with a series of malfunctioning Boomers that all go wild at the same each
week. The second is the case of a mysterious
Boomer that is killing other Boomers that specialize in prostitution. The third episode is Branch's final
case. Within these three segments, "Parasite
Dolls" creates a cyberpunk adventure that is both brutal and thought
provoking.
The
narrative of "Parasite Dolls" is fast paced for nearly the entire length. From the gunfights to the police work, the
show does not spend much time sitting around.
On top of the action, the amount of information that gets handed to the
viewer in both verbal and image format is quick and precise. The information that is thrown at the viewer may
be a bit much for some, but the best part of quick narrative is that it also
knows how to be subtle. Instead of
handing everything explicitly to the audience, the show forces the viewer to think
and come to the realization instead of requiring an explicit explanation. Take the end of the first episode for
example. We learn about Buzz's wife who
had died years prior. However, we had
seen a woman living in his home preparing a meal at the start of the
episode. In the last scene, we are able
to figure out what had occurred off screen and what was the truth because we see
the aftermath. I would not like to say
exactly what happens because it was such a smack to the forehead that I do not
want to ruin the surprise.
The art
of the show has deep roots in late 80's and early 90's anime. This era contained some of the most violent shows
and had some of the most visually disturbing imagery of just about any other
era. Take my review of
"Genocyber" for example.
Numerous people were killed on screen and off to the point that an
entire ship was more blood and flesh than metal. "Parasite Dolls" has its fare share
of death and destruction. The show knows
how to use this imagery to its advantage instead of only suing it for shock
value. So not get me wrong, it uses the
imagery for shock value, but it uses to illustrate a point. While most of the broken bodies in the show
are robotic, instead of making them inhuman on the inside to highlight their
robotic nature, the show makes them appear as human as possible under the skin
while remembering that they are metallic based.
When a Boomer is shot or torn apart, a humanoid skeleton is underneath
with a metal piece for each bone. When
they are shot, black oil spouts out in place of blood. If they are split in two, internal organs made
from plastic spill out. The show knows
it can get away with more violence if it is towards non-humans but that does
not mean that it has to make the audience unsympathetic to the androids. The Boomers are characters despite not being
humans. With this in mind, the show
knows how to make the audience care about the non-human characters. It is a difficult tightrope walk that the
show does. If it depicts too much
violence without taking time to portray the androids as character, there is no
emotional bond between the character and the audience. If the show takes too much time to foster
that bond and leave out the violence, it halts the story and action to a
standstill.
The
show's title is of course a reference to the Boomers and is the show's central
theme. It poses a few futuristic
questions as to what makes a being human, like all cyberpunk stories do. Instead of trying to argue that the Boomers
are becoming human or that they are equivalents to human, the show firmly
positions them as androids. When they
begin to think that they are human that usually signals that their demise is imminent. If anything, "Parasite Dolls" is
more of a showcase of the continual fall of man. Remember: the show is about a police force,
so they still deal with the criminal who is human. Some of those criminals are barely human if
you consider their crimes. The only
consolation that the viewer has is that the madmen of the story are still
fictional as long as the technologies presented remain fictitious as well.
I was
able to watch "Parasite Dolls" with the original Japanese audio. It
sadly pointed out some aspects within the original that I find annoying. There is a strange fascination that the
Japanese have with the English language.
They interject it into their songs and daily vernacular. The former only shows their ignorance of the
language while the latter at least stems from borrowing technical words from
the word's natural origin. The opening
song intermingles Japanese language lyrics with English interjections and
phrases. As a natural English speaker,
these grammatical incorrect phrases grate against my ears because they barely
make sense within the context of the song.
They feel more like buzzwords than the meaningful lyrics that the
composer wanted them to be. Within the
show, a few English words are used, but at least they are borrowed words where
there is no Japanese word to fit in.
However, a few English interjections do occur when a character
shouts. These feel more in line with the
poor English lyrics as well.
 |
| You have to feel bad for the poor guys that ended up as the "Normal" policemen. |
"Parasite
Dolls" is a good series, although, a bit short, which is a letdown. The show does such a good job of world
building and constructing a cast of characters that I wish there had been more
stories. More time would have been nice,
but at the same time that might have distilled the narrative too much. It tackles a number of topics, many of which
I have not covered. While the show does
not do a poor job of it, I also feel that it at times feel a bit generic. The animation is spot on, being both detailed
and smooth. It is worth a watch, but I
am hesitant to say that it has great lasting appeal.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
P.S. Next is "Epic Mickey".
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