Straitjacket (mini-series).

It was quite a long break this time. No, I didn’t completely stop watching, but I cut it down as much as possible. And here, I couldn’t help but pass by such a title, especially since there were only three episodes. In the end, and what in the end, naturally, further and according to already established criteria.
So, let's start with the plot thread. It’s clear that you can’t put much into three episodes if you’re not Shinkai, because this comrade is subject to the shortest possible periods of time to visually present his ideas and thoughts. But Ushiro Shinji is a somewhat different opera director, especially since this is his first work. The idea, against the backdrop of everything that is coming out now, is actually not so bad, the other question is its implementation. Techno-magic, a world in which magic not only exists against the background of an industrialized and industrialized society, it plays a major role in the field of energy, medicine, etc. It’s time to remember Professor Jlna R.R. Tolkien, who roughly described exactly what “Straight Jacket” shows us with the word “magic.” This is the positive part of this OAV, the situation is worse with the characters, with the plot and, where would we be without them, the demons. There is no plot as such, just a story copied from a textbook for first-year screenwriters, so we won’t talk about it, just as we won’t remember that “Straitjacket” is a film adaptation of a certain light novel. It’s more interesting about the characters who are (forgive me here, no matter how much I love this word, no matter how disdainful I feel towards it and those who pronounce it, I am forced to say it myself), the brightest of cliches. This is a girl, naturally with glasses, who runs after the main cool characters. This is the coolest character, of course, with long hair, wearing round glasses, pathetic and silent. Is it worth continuing, about the autistic girl, about the blond bastard, etc.? I think no. Well, of course, these demons, completely stupid and bloodthirsty, and also extremely ugly, living in this animation only so that our hero could cut them up and dismember them in all sorts of pathetic ways, thereby demonstrating, once again, who is really cool here . That's all, actually.
With graphics, things are just as mixed. I didn't see any unusual designs, no picturesque backgrounds, absolutely nothing new at all. On the other hand, this manner of depicting people, which has now been forgotten, and which we could see in, now, the last century. It seems like a hack, but all the same, against the background of everything else, it can please the eye, standing out from the masses. Oddly enough, but that's all. No, you can, of course, start describing all the shortcomings with the technology, with the city, and start making angry reviews about the “shirts” themselves, but who needs all this? There are three episodes here and today there is a bold attempt to draw in a style that at one time was not very popular.
And, in conclusion, a few words about music. This is where we got creative, because we will hear the songs of the French group Kyo and a certain Sita, from the glorious Netherlands.
And here's the result. If you have time and if you are ready to look for ideas, turning a blind eye to everything else, then I recommend it. It won’t take much time, and you can steal a few ideas for yourself ^__^ In all other cases, it’s better to refrain. As a bonus, this one French music and the ending art, they are good.

Near future. In pursuit of new discoveries, scientists finally achieve a certain breakthrough - they subjugate magic. In an instant, magic turns out to be an assistant in all sectors of people’s life, and now you can’t do without it - you quickly get used to good things. But what more people uses magic, the faster he leads himself to become a “demon” - a monster that loses his mind and kills everyone in his path. Not everyone can cope with such creatures; one must have special training and a license. Such people are called "Battle Mages" or "Straitjackets". And at times wait for their arrival at the scene in view of permanent employment is not at all easy, and therefore the inspector of the Department of Magic, Nelin Simmons, in some situations has to resort to the help of those who break the law, for example, a battle mage without a license, who, however, found himself in right time in the right place.

"Straitjacket" is really not a masterpiece and there are reasons for this. At first glance, an interesting story that contains all the components of a great anime, actually turns out to be quite boring, despite the fact that a short time In three OVAs, the plot attempted to reveal the motives of behavior of all the main characters in the film. In reality, even this fact seems almost like a failure (almost because there were still some successes), since the images of the heroes are banal to the point of indecent, and the protagonist of the anime, who was supposed to attract attention, for some reason stubbornly pushed him away.

So, the main active warriors here are Rayot Steinberg (voiced by Miki Shinichiro) and Isaac Hammond (voiced by Sasanuma Akira), and if the first one is a violation of all the rules, then the second one is the embodiment of these rules in ideality. That's right, someone already noticed the intersection of this sample with the plot of “Chrono’s Crusade” is visible to the naked eye(a few more examples can be cited that “Shirt” relies on in the most arrogant way), but if “Crusade” is made in dramatic colors that confidently depict the mood of any viewer, then “Shirt” only makes attempts in this direction. Apart from Simmons, who is merely an unwitting observer (like the viewer himself), the destinies of Steinberg and Hammond are garish dramas, stuffed with standard set squeezing out tears And if at first you close your eyes to Steinberg (his self-flagellation and feigned indifference to everything were pretty exhausting) and become curious about Hammond’s strong personality, then by the end both of these heroes turn into clones of each other, which is even slightly stunning.

The presence in the plot of such a character as Capeltet is again a reference to the Crusade, only with a distortion of the image of Chrono and a new portion of pity on the part of the viewer. Yes and It’s not entirely clear who should be empathizing there, because a good half of the anime heroes are engaged in some kind of masochism, and at the same time they require understanding of them. To be honest, creating absolutely identical characters (silent, aloof, thoughtful and mysterious), and even working in pairs (Steinberg and Kapeltet) only makes everything worse.

Himself The plot is quite predictable. As it happens, a lot remained behind the scenes, and if history can forgive some things, then some moments cannot go unnoticed. But in general, monsters and the fight against them are just decoration designed to reveal general essence anime, and focus on two heroes Steinberg and Hammond (Simmons, sadly, was left out, even though the story began with her). Questions that arose as events unfolded, in fact, remained unanswered: for example, they explained to us where magic came from and why we can’t do without it now, but I can’t understand how the residents can tolerate this when it comes to, say, a school or a hospital (episodes shown in the anime)? Do parents really agree to send their children to study in an institution where, not today or tomorrow, a teacher can turn into a killer and tear to pieces the unfortunate schoolchildren in a matter of minutes? Moreover, as practice shows, battle magicians do not always manage to neutralize the monster in time It seems that the people in this world are just a flock of sheep.

Or maybe that's how it is.

As for the visual component, this is one of the things about which I have no complaints - I completely liked the art, and the same goes for the atmosphere. From the very first frames you understand that the plot is more than serious, so the gloom of the time shown is quite clear. Another plus is the work of a voice actor, but these talented actors rarely disappoint.

Of course, it’s worth seeing this creation, but I don’t recommend expecting something stunning from it. I wasn’t particularly impressed, although I probably don’t regret the time spent watching it.

… nothing special.