After my relatively short “going on strike” mode due to my apartment losing its internet connection for an entire week, plus a week of “vacation” before that, I’m back for another anime review. This time however, is about a short independently made anime movie, named Cencoroll.

Introduction

A little background info on the anime itself, Cencoroll is an animated science fiction film nearly singlehandedly written, designed, directed and animated by its creator, manga author Atsuya Uki. Getting it’s world premier earlier than its Japanese debut, it made an appearance at Canada’s Fantasia International Film Festival on the 28th of July this year. After its Japan debut in Tokyo and Osaka on 22nd of August, it premiered in the United States at the New York Anime Festival on the 25th of September. Later, a DVD  release of the film was produced by Aniplex on October 8th, which is what I’m writing about today.

Cencoroll is based on a One Shot manga, titled Amon Game, which is obviously written and illustrated by the same author as the movie. The manga apparently won the Grand Prix Award in Kodansha’s Afternoon Shiki manga competition in 2005. A year later, Anime Innovation Tokyo began to sponsor anime produced by the indie scene and small studios, and Cencoroll was the first project to receive their sponsor. The following year, the author, Atsuya Uki, released a short film which was distributed over the internet. Due to the reception it received, he decided to do a whole 30-minute film nearly all by himself.

Love & Roll by Supercell

Cencoroll Ending Theme: Love & Roll by Supercell

However, before I move on to the main review, I would like to highlight the ending theme a little. In my opinion, this one of the best indie ending themes I’ve ever heard, despite the fact it’s not really related to the theme of the anime (Rather vague but there is a connection, I think). For some reason, the tune and its lyrics just sticks to my head (for now), but the best part was, I didn’t realize that this song was part of Supercell’s debut single, Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari, which was Bakemonogatari’s Ending Theme. For a debut single, I would really give it a 9 out 10 (Only if your preference of music is like mine :p )

Review

Back to the anime itself, the male protagonist, Tetsu, who is voiced by Hiro Shimono, appears at the start of the anime, looking all high and mighty on some “couch”. Your first impression would most probably be that this is one stuck-up guy. Late you realise, its not just any ordinary “couch” he’s sitting on. Just change your angle a little and…

Isnt it cute?

Meet Cenco, the a type of Cencoroll owned by Tetsu. What is a Cencoroll? Well, the only description given is large, mostly white amorphus creatures. Cenco here is special in a sense that he really adept at shapeshifting into many kinds of different yet useful things to blend into the surroundings. Tetsu controls it by telepathy, which is represented by sparks coming out of a moving ahoge.

Here is the female protagonist, Yuki, who is voiced by everyone’s current favourite moe seiyuu, Kana Hanazawa. Both of them met behind a storage room, where Yuki notices that Tetsu’s bike was moving. See the eye at the seat of the bike? Yup, that’s Cenco. Convenient, isn’t it? Not only it can change into a bike, but it can also change into a cute, innocent looking, panda-like toy. Besides that, Tetsu is also known to transform it into a car to be driven around. Cool right?

While they we’re taking a break from their drive, the main antagonist appears, along with his own Cencoroll. Known as Shu, who is voiced by Ryohei Kimura, his main objective is to assimilate Cenco so that his own Cencoroll can have morphing powers too. By the way, that relatively small Cencoroll you see with him is only one of the two that he owns, which he uses as a mode of transport. Theres a third Cencoroll in this film, which is really huge and sits atop a building, which also belongs to him. This huge Cencoroll also happens to be a target for Tetsu and Cenco as their next prey. So what happens when our heroes faces this new threat?

Behold...the Gigantic Stapler?

Obviously he will fight back, by morphing Cenco into a huge stapler, which wasn’t really successful, because Yuki got in the way. Because of that, Tetsu ordered Cenco to grab Yuki, morph into a car, and they drove off. Their escape was success though, since earlier, Cenco changed into a pair of scissors and cut off one of the enemy’s leg. However, later on, Yuki felt guilty, and decided to walk back alone, even though Tetsu offered her a ride back. And of course, when you feel guilt…it had to rain…so guess who our female friend here ran into?

Fail Antagonist is Fail

Well I guess that was obvious, however here is where I’m disappointed in Shu. He cornered a cute girl in the middle of the rain with no one around…he could have used a “better” method to threaten her (You know what I mean :) ). He told her to tell Tetsu to meet him on the next day on the top of a certain building, which she did later on. However, on the following day, she got captured, again, by the same person, who this time decides to use her as a hostage. As Tetsu takes the bait, Shu “snipes” him from a far, dealing heavy damage to Cenco in the process.

Here Comes a Big One

Later he commanded the big Cencoroll to attack and assimilate Cenco’s powers, throwing Tetsu aside, who is now rendered useless because for some reason, Cenco ate up one of his hands. Fortunately, Yuki is still inside Cenco, and she already gained control over it, causing her to sprout her own ahoge. After assimilating Cenco, Shu decided to test his new power by morphing his big Cencoroll, which sadly did not last long. This was thanks to Yuki, who, without noticing it, morphed the Cencoroll into something else…

Now its a Giant...Pudding?

Thats right…a freakishly giant puding. Tetsu then communicated with Yuki, through telepathy I guess, to let him into the…pudding. Shu then realized that Yuki was inside the pudding, controlling it along the way, and he decided to break in. After that, Tetsu was also tossed inside, although he ended up in a differently place, where he found Cenco. After rescuing it, he went to the place where Yuki and Shu were fighting over the control of the…pudding. During all these events, the local military force appeared, and decided that the pudding is the enemy, hence they started to open fire at it. After getting hit, the huge Cencoroll died, causing Shu to not notice that Tetsu had appeared together with Cenco right beside Yuki.Using whatver is left of Cenco, Yuki ordered it to morph into a bat, and whacked Shu on the head, causing him to lose consciousness. After all this, Yuki asks Cenco to get them out of there, which was the right decision, because soon after that, the military continued their attack until it was destroyed pretty badly.

Finally, Yuki “handed” Cenco back to Tetsu, by morphing it into his arm to replace it. So now Tetsu can morph his arm as a part of his body, and the two avoided the military and ran off. Apparently that’s the end of the film. However, after the awesome Ending Theme, they show Shu survive the blast and was rescued by his other Cencoroll, setting up a possible sequel.

My Thoughts

Uh…what? Thats all I can say. Besides marveling at the fact this was all done by one person, I’m rendered speechless by it, as in, just watch it for yourself, and maybe you’ll understand why. Also did I mention that Cenco was adorable?

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