MALICE@DOLL

DESCRIPTION

CAST

REVIEWS

• 

  lamialuv

  87/100
  Malice Doll: The Best Most Uncomfortable Anime Ever Created.

  ___Turn back before it's too late___ So, you are interested in Malice@doll? Is there any way I can stop you? __Preface__

  Anyway this is some CRAZY stuff, and I have no idea why you are here, this is like the edges of like anime obscurity. Honestly, you have gone so far into obscurity that you HAVE to watch this.

  There is no turning back now, you are far too gone if you are considering Malice@doll.

  Before you watch this, I want you take many things in mind.

  1. This is from the same writer of Serial Experiments Lain, Texhnolyze, Armitage III, and Ghost Hound, Chiaki J. Konaka.
  2. Chiaki is a Cthulhu mythos writer, so most of the stuff he writes is extremely deep in Lovecraftian horror.
  3. This film is HIGHLY experimental, I would go on to say that this is the level of an indie film. So, when you go into this don't pay attention to quality of the animation and what not. (It is actually really cool though...)
  4. I want you to look at this with 20/20 vision, throw out any concepts of "stereotypical film making" out of your head. This is Chiaki, any work he is involved is is always extremely strange feeling, and uncomfortable.
  5. Have fun and just throw concepts of anything out the window.

  __Review (spoiler area)__

  Story (7/10):

  So you may have watched this and are thinking...What is the story? Well here's my answer: there is not much of any story or plot here, and I think it's done on purpose. First and foremost, we have NOTHING explained, the viewer is just thrown into this unknown world with unknown characters. Now, we can make theories all day but I'll save that for later.

  These sex robots have no masters to give them purpose anymore, and they spend everyday as Malice says, "I go out for my daily walk searching for clientele." The robots have nothing, no humans to give them purpose. They simply walk through an abandoned horrific feeling strip of buildings with only their job keeping them there. They rot, and have to visit a repair robot a few times a (week?).

  Then, we are introduced into this plot of aliens and stuff. We have a little tentacle porn scene, but it symbolizes much more than an anime girl getting her insides joggled by a big monster. The monster gives her a human body, or in other words, she is born into a body with a consciousness. Then after this she spreads her infection, or "kiss" to everyone. The only thing these dolls are able to do is provide sex, so Malice's only way she knows how to express her love is through a kiss. She spreads her "love", which turns the other dolls into human-like alien monsters. We get some more tentacle action after this, but we are introduced to another idea that is basically just skimped over.

  So, tall Japanese lady doll is captured and continually being pleasured by a big alien monster. But what is strange, is that it's implied that Joe Admin killed the alien monster. For what reason?

  

  Think about this, she finds herself captured for a reason. Joe admin is implied to have killed it, for a reason. She exclaims that she doesn't know why he tries so hard to help the dolls. So what is the meaning? These dolls are more like helpless children, caught in one large torture chamber. Only to rot, die away, and be captured by weird aliens. They don't know the meaning of sexual intercourse, they only do it to do it, and this girl is introduced to this through her new human body. The meaning?

  Isn't it just like life? We are all helpless children caught in one large torture chamber, and the dolls are more human than robot in how they act. I think Chiaki's idea was to communicate not only this, but the other obvious large theme of the story. Which is, change. Should we change who we are? Is life simply better, slowly rotting and dying? Or is life better to live with pain, quick death and the feeling of being human? Robot, or human, choose.

  Animation (9/10)

  I went into this thinking I would hate the animation, but for some reason I ended up love it. With the really well done voice acting, and those grotesque nintendo DS full cgi graphics it's just, gross, ugly, imperfect and uncomfortable. I think this is an animation that has aged in a good way, it looks MUCH more scary now than it probably did many years ago. I'll share some of my favorite screenshots.

  

  Voice Acting (10/10)

  Probably the best part of this whole thing.

  Conclusion:
  
  I really have no idea what happened, but all I know is that I am scarred forever. I don't think i can get some of the grotesque imagery of this animation out of my head. I am really not sure what the overall idea is here though. My theory is that the humans were wiped out by aliens and the aliens have taken over the whole surface, and only the robots live deep down in the caves, and Malice happened to stumble upon an alien. Or maybe it was a failed human creation experiment, I am not sure.

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• 

  jayvee

  90/100
  Trauma, love, sex work and belonging. What it means to find your purpose when confronted with everlasting change.

  Preface

  ---

  If you're here I assume one of two things happened; you either fell down the Chiaki Konaka rabbit hole or went down the "Recommendations" path. My case was a mix of both since I started looking for Konaka's stuff and remembered seeing Malice@doll somewhere, which prompted me to look more into it. Before the actual review starts, I want to preface it by saying you WILL be uncomfortable watching it, it is not something you can really just prop up and watch whenever. This piece of media is not for everyone, but I want you to know that if it IS for you and it hits you, it feels like one of the most unique things you'll get to experience. I don't have a scoring system so that is really arbitrary; whatever it receives is what I think it should receive and that's that. Furthermore, this is my first review, so do tell me your opinion about it. Finally, here are my somewhat disjointed thoughts on Malice@doll:

  ---

  Story
  This section contains spoilers for most of the story, but it's worth reading have you watched it or not; you'll understand why.

  It's not too difficult to grasp the general sense of what has happened in Malice's world, but the show doesn't really spells things out to the viewer past the "The humans are gone and this is it" idea; Malice's strong fort comes not necessarily from its narrative but through the ideas it conveys through it.

  

  The main character, Malice Doll is shown to be a sexual android, now having her very existence and functionality put into question with the disappearance of her human masters. This is one of the main ideas the show puts forth; with the humans gone, all Malice really does is wander through the same places, meet with the same dolls and robots, and continue to live a meaningless life. Until while in one of those walks trying to find the repair robot since she was broken, she encounters something which transforms her into a human; at which point Malice, doing "The only thing she can do" and thinking she is helping, transmits this "disease" to all other beings in her world. Seeing what she has done and understanding the reality she has created, she goes back to what transformed her into a human, gets absorbed back into it and becomes an angel of pure light.

  

  Now, with the general story grasped what I want to talk the most about are the themes it presents, because it's easy to imagine there can be many different interpretations for it, not only because it's written by Konaka, but because of how the story itself is presented. Sure, you can theorize what may even be real in shows like Lain, but in my opinion Malice@doll uses so much symbolism or vague abstractions in place of a straight forward story that it's really hard to think about the "story" in the same sense that you'd do otherwise.

  Malice is a tragic character from the get go; we get to learn about how she unknowingly loathes her very condition. Her masters are gone, she has naught to serve; her very reason for existence is put into question, with her unbecoming through the human transformation materializing the past trauma she's suffered but was unable to understand because of her lack of "real" feelings or her inability to grasp just how these same things could have been affecting her without her knowledge. Malice, the human, is nothing more than "the voice on the back of the head" for Malice the android; they're both sides of the same coin, but the true challenge arises when human Malice has to understand her own condition and come to terms with her place in the world. This is her quest to find herself, but above all find and understand love; being an android up until this point had inhibited her from having an actual reason to live, only repeating the same routine be there humans, be there not.

  This really robotic (duh)-like function is what brings Malice to think what she is doing is right; for it is the only thing she knows, it's the only thing she must do, and in that delusion of well being augmented by the rampant trauma she herself suffered makes her think it's the right decision to continue. Her body has changed, yet her actions have not; she hasn't adapted or evolved with it, and that's what brings calamity to her world. Being the one to destroy everyone in her life, the only one to truly accept her love out of his own love for her is Joe. Joe is a really interesting case, since unlike Heather who blindly trusted human Malice from the very beginning, Joe was skeptical; after all, there couldn't be a doll this warm. This Malice wasn't Malice doll right? After all, she looked like a human, like the very god that created them.

  

  Now to help this make a bit more sense within the real world, the most direct clue as to how connected to reality these allegories are is the fact that Malice is a sex worker. Think of all of this within that context; once Malice gets a reality check her suppressed trauma hits her all at once. Joe, the one person to truly love her by the end is skeptical of her very nature. Malice, repeating the same pattern of actions she had until now only unknowingly made things worse for the ones she connected with the most. Now, I can understand why with this in mind one might think the story is a veiled critique of sex work itself, but I believe it to be a bit more nuanced than that. It's very foundation is based on understanding Malice and what she has gone through; going by this idea, the story is incredibly sympathetic with the struggles that come in this line of work. Be it the trauma that is shown mostly through Malice, the blissful ignorance shown by Heather, and the difficulty to adapt once things change for someone in this situation; Malice not being accepted because of who she is now, having even Joe doubt her, and all of that besides the clear mental scars something like this can leave.

  ---

  Animation and aesthetics

  

  I love this with my whole heart. It seems like Malice managed to combine these very specific generally appealing aspects of visual design I absolutely love and combine them with a rustpunk aesthetic really reminiscent from other shows I grew up with; not only on this aspect, but the general atmosphere and animation too. When it comes to something like Malice@doll I believe it to be incredibly reductive to dismiss it because of the animation itself when it's done this well. This is incredibly impressive especially because of when it was made, and the subtle details and choices when it comes to the animation and direction, more specifically relating to the characters themselves are truly amazing and impressively immersive.

  

  ---

  Sound
  It's a real pity that I still haven't managed to find the OST because it's really good. It ranges from haunting to angelical and I wish I could find them. The voice acting is about equally as impressing; I was saddened to see Yuki Yamada doesn't have that many roles besides this one, because I truly believe she did a fantastic job with Malice

  ---

  Conclusion
  This is a really "hard watch" for the average person imo, and I can't imagine most people even giving it a try, but the ones that do might find something truly special that can really easily become incredibly nostalgic to them. Would I normally recommend this? No, but if you like this kind of stuff PLEASE do watch this, it's a one of a kind experience

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