jblock - 2015-08-19 18:02:36

Story: Amagane Rinne had an accident and died while hurrying to school. She suddenly arrived in an awkward school... in Hell, filled with demons. While she is struggling and wishing to go back to the world whence she came from, she makes friends with her demon schoolmates and develops an uncommon bond.

A very great concept with... not so great execution. And I'll try my best to explain why. Biggest problem with the story: The pacing, it's all over the place. The beginning pretty much rushes the whole story and jumps straight to the underworld and the crazy shenanigans that happen there. We don't get to know the main character or her life before she gets pulled in making it seem like we don't know much about her, well yea we feel sorry for her, but how can we connect to her or empathize with her if we don't know a whole lot about her?

Not to mention, this is also pretty damn mean spirited in the start of the film. Almost everyone and everything is so cruel to the poor girl, either for very stupid reasons or for no good reason whatsoever. And she has to put up with all their crap even in the half way point. When Rinne breaks down into tears, a lot of people there tell her to shut up! Even when the characters 'change' they're still mean and horribly unlikeable. The tone is either mean, bizarre, or boring.

The middle section is not as bad, but its still rushed and poorly handled. It's basically characters playing volleyball in order to get rule free wishes, and I never thought I would be bored by seeing monsters playing volleyball.

To be frank, I thought this movie was going to be an unpleasant mess and a chore to sit through, up until I saw the last third. While there are some really stupid twists in this movie (which I thought was kind of brilliant at first but thinking about it... its really dumb. Without giving much away, it has to do with Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel), the movie became much more entertaining, gripping, and intense. The characters start becoming less like tools and jerks for the most part and there are some genuine moments including a bittersweet ending.

Ok, the pacing in this DRAGS to no end and it feels a lot longer than it should, especially during the action scenes, which do look nice, feel exhaustingly long (just when you think it'll wrap up, it goes on for another 10 minutes), but I do feel that it was worth sitting through the terrible first two halves of this movie. (I wish the movie was a whole lot shorter though)

The last problem is the morals. Yes, this movie tries to give out a moral, by cramming it and forcing it down your throat every few minutes in the last act with clichéd and generic lines ('Believe in yourself', 'its not impossible, you can do anything', 'don't give up', that kind of stuff) which is really distracting. It tried, they're not bad morals, and I've seen worse, but it wasn't the best handled well...

Animation: The animation in this is a lot different from other anime I've seen. Instead of flash or CG for the character designs, its actually in hand drawn in pencil sketches, or if it wasn't, then it looks really impressive with how different it is. The majority of the monsters all have unique and different that makes them easy to tell it apart and they do look like legit monsters you'd find in a world like that (some though just look plain lazy).

There aren't a whole lot of background designs in this, but the few they have, they actually look pretty cool. Like with the characters, they're also done with hand drawn pencils; its very detailed and neat. The intensity of the last third may not have as much details (except for the third to last scenes) but the size and weight is massive.

The animation is super smooth and fluid when it comes to the action scenes, but even then, the lip syncing isn't too bad either, and there's a variety of different character emotions played also.

Sound: I don't remember much from the background music except for the last few scenes, and I know the voice acting is pretty over the top and silly, even for a show like this. Now granted, there are some emotions being addressed, but only for the main character and... another character but I won't say who due to major spoilers.

Characters: Rinne (whose name reminds me of Rinne No Lagrange) is a pretty likeable heroine despite the fact that we don't know much about her. She's fairly optimistic and determined, never letting anything try to bring her down no matter what. She cares for the people around her and loves to make friends. Though Rinne can get really pissed if you mess with them and push her buttons long enough and will get confused (just like us) on some scenarios and doesn't take it a full stride. I like leads like her that are flawed but still really likeable.

Unfortunately, with the exception of the true villain and his... confusing backstory, all the other characters either add to the mean spirited tone, have no purpose at all and do nothing of the sort, or are just not that interesting.

The only other character I really like is this monster girl named Stealer, and while the name is pretty dumb, she's pretty likeable. Though she doesn't talk all that much or show much emotion, you can still tell that she cares deeply for her new friend. And what happens to her at the end is... really sad :c

Enjoyment: In the beginning, I hated it. The middle was slightly better, but I was still bored out of my mind. It wasn't until the last act that I started to get invested in the story and world. I can see people enjoying this movie, but I don't think it was spectacular. No where as bad as the Madoka Magica movie, but I've seen better.

Overall: I can't in good faith recommend this unless you're really curious, don't care much for story and plot and would prefer to watch for the animation, or have nothing better to do and can tolerate the mean spirited feeling.

Pros: Fantastic animation and art direction, intense third act, likeable heroine, tries to be meaningful, bittersweet ending.

Cons: Way too mean spirited, annoying characters, over the top voice acting (and not in a good way), some parts are too silly to be taken seriously, beginning is super rushed, pacing is all over the place.

Also recommend: Little Witch Adademia (for a good movie centering on a non human school), Majocco Shimai No Yoyo To Nene (Pretty much this premise in reverse)

Thanks for reading my 92nd review~

boris.ankunding - 2013-05-22 09:19:55

The story is about Linne, a regular old schoolgirl who’s late for school and running with a piece of toast in her mouth. Then she’s hit by a truck and ends up in hell. Not exactly the best start to her day. She has to attend the Hell School for Prim and Proper Ladies, a variety of demon ladies with various gothic dresses or alternatively lavishly decorated pubic hair. Oh, and the principal is Elvis-sorry, I mean Helvis.The style of hell is very much that cartoony gothic you see in Tim Burton or, to bring a more anime example to the table, Soul Eater, and it’s a style I’m rather fond of. It works well in Hells because they know full well how ridiculous the story is and so ham it up to eleven. Unlike the very crisp and clean animation style of Soul Eater though, Hells goes for a very pencil sketchy look. It’s not something I’m normally a fan of, but Hells pulls it off perfectly. The style goes well with its bonkers hyperactivity and over-indulgence in exaggeration. Its boundless energy is catching, and the art style brings that across perfectly. If you’re watching this anime, you’re watching it for the art style, because that’s where the fun lies. Because you’re probably not going to watch it for the story…After 45 minutes of this nearly 2 hour movie, I was all ready to call it my anime of the year. The pacing is frantic but coherent and action scene blends in well with calmer scenes. The introduction to the new character’s in Linne’s classroom is hyper and crazy, but you then get a downer scene of her trying to cope with where she has ended up. This is followed by the fight scene with the literally heartless Stealer and the gatekeepers, which flows into plot development and character interaction scenes with the classmates and student council and so on. Each scene has a purpose and moves the relatively simple plot forward.Then I’m not quite sure what happened, but my guess is the lead writer was eaten by alligators and replaced by some hobo who had gotten through the first few pages of the bible. I don’t really want to spoil events, but suddenly in pops Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel, 3 of which are characters we’ve already been introduced to. There were no hints given earlier on in the story that they were supposed to be these biblical figures. It just randomly decided to attribute these characteristics to each person. Adam is a totally new character who randomly shows up halfway through the movie with absolutely no warning and becomes an important character. Then there’s Mario, whose purpose in the movie I don’t get at all. He’s just some dude who yells a lot. I’m not kidding when I say he probably gets the most screentime out of anyone in the second half of the movie, despite his actions having limited to no effect on the events of the story. If you removed him completely, it wouldn’t really change, except perhaps less shouting and an overall improvement of the quality of the movie.I’m not necessarily against the plot points in the second half of the movie, and part of me appreciates the audacity of the set pieces and dramatics. I even genuinely liked the ending, in all its cheesy sentimentalism. But a good hour of that movie could be cut down to about 10 minutes. It’s especially exasperating when the plot doesn’t appear to be advancing through all this yelling and self-doubt. The main theme of the movie is meant to be self-doubt, but that doesn’t mean you’ve got to hammer it into our heads over and over again. It’s incredibly frustrating because you can see how this movie could be amazing if it was just an hour long. For as much as I love that Madhouse are willing to give directors such creative freedom with absolutely no prospect for making their money back, there’s a reason you need a strict editor sometimes.I feel rather conflicted about writing negative stuff about Hells though, because it’s astonishing that it was even made in the first place. It bears many resemblances to Redline in this regard. Madhouse and their utter disregard for making a profit just so they can give directors free reign to experiment. Hells is certainly no Redline, but it’s born from the same kind of production environment. It’s the same place that saw directors like Satoshi Kon and Mamoru Hosada rise up. It will eventually drive Madhouse into the dirt, but for the sake of art I’d love to see them keep trying. Hells may not have worked, but there are flashes of genius here. I was about to say that I’d love to see what this director works on next, but we’ve already seen that. He was brought under the creative branches at JC Staff. That anime in question was Kill Me Baby.