“Invasion: Anime” exists as a great little tutorial for those wondering just what this ever-growing anime craze is all about. This documentary gives a nice history run down of the Japanese animated film, as well as exposes the fan base that flock to anime related conventions all over the world. This will be scary to some, funny to others…maybe even inspiring.
For those who enjoy anime, “Invasion: Anime” will serve as a nice eye opener, offering up information that fans may not have known about from industry professionals and folks that actually study anime. I know that for myself, I learned a little bit here and there about the Japanese animation I’ve been fascinated with since I was a little kid.
As for those that are into anime way more than is healthy, “Invasion: Anime” may come off as redundant. These people know more about anime than an 80-minute documentary could ever reveal. In fact, they may even find something to argue about with some of the points made in the film. When this choir is preached to, they preach back.
As informative as this documentary can be for some, it’s still mostly just made up of interview footage, making these 80 minutes feel something like 120. Yes, the filmmakers have done their best to spice things up by cutting and blending the interview footage with anime clips and funky graphics in a way that there’s always something moving around on the screen other than somebody’s flapping lips. But I think that the anime obssessed culture is so crazy and outgoing that more interesting things could’ve been done with this film rather than just having someone sit there, telling you what anime means to them or whatever. Look at something like “Trekkies” – entertaining all the way through as well as informative…for better or worse.
“Invasion: Anime” is a cool little doc that could’ve definitely stood for a little more punch. A mention of Carl Macek would’ve been cool, too.
