Dead Laves is a short film widely available on DVD, it happens to come from the very reputable Production I.G., who worked on End of Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, and FLCL. The film follows two amnesiac convicts engaging in some random criminality and a delirious jailbreak. That sounds like the makings of a minor gem. In practise I found it dull beyond belief. When I say that I mean that watching Dead Leaves is like going to see a very odd sort of stand up comedian. He does a one line joke to warm up. And then another one-liner. And then just carries on with them, one after the other without rest or respite. For about 45 minutes.

Nobody should come to this expecting the meditiative sci-fi of GITS or the touching peculiarities of FLCL, this is pure paranoid action. Imaishi Hiroyuki directed, he also did Gurren Lagann, so the set piece battles are invariably fluid and stylish. Dead Leaves bears his kinetic stamp, but without the heart or the brain. That’s not why I’d say it’s actually bad. It’s bad because it’s scripted in a way which makes action boring. To be precise, it’s an action film devoid of pacing or emotional involvement. It’s an overlong and ultra-trendy video nasty on a sky high budget.

When the lunatics take over the asylum you aren’t left with an enigma or an insight into a new perspective. Lunatics are not so helpful. You’re left with shit on the walls and puke on the carpet. You’re left with a crooked version of a normal plot, devoid of the glue needed to make meaning. Left with chases and showdowns and throwaway metaphors over and over again. This would be fun for about the duration of an anime episode, which means that this is twice as long as necessary.

So what’s good about Dead Leaves? It certainly looks like nothing else, so if you’re looking for a new style it might satisfy. Most importantly there’s a man who has a sizeable golden drill for a penis – from there on it’s all downhill.

By starting off at maximum insanity levels the film has nowhere to go. For most of the ride the animation is pretty stunning, and I’ve rarely seen such competent production of the high-octane acrobatic gunfight. I can see how this could capture attention, I like some violence in my entertainment and have a strong stomach for the extreme. What put me off wasn’t the nihilism or brutality, it was the aesthetics and the emptiness of the experience.

Visual excitement is the sole draw, because the style is as adventurous as it is harsh on the optic nerves. Now a short film like Kigeki might offer a carefully weighed fraction of this kind of pleasing energy, alongside a simple but effective structure and an aesthetic grace, making for watchable and involving action. Dead Leaves strips away the content and shows us that boiled-down visual excitement has its limits.

The closest thing to a provoked thought came through some absurd (intentional) repetition in some of the many many gunfights. Was this a commentary on film violence? I guess it is a film with an awareness of its own gratuity, displayed in a mocking way. But that awareness doesn’t lead anywhere. And demonstrating awareness doesn’t change the fact that the procession of thrills is compromised by the repetitive feel. By the time we get to the later fights nothing has developed, all we get is extra casualties.

While Production I.G.’s work on FLCL is a series which revealed its qualities progressively on repeat viewings I really can’t imagine rewatching this, largely on account of the phenomenal ugliness. Angular and vivid in a way which hurt my eyes, it was a chore to make it through the final anticlimatic repetitions. In any case, with only fights and dick jokes on offer, I don’t see how even fans of Dead Leaves could extract much additional value from detailed familiarity.

This isn’t just action minus pacing, empathy, or restraint. It’s action which has forgotten where it came from. Dead Leaves ignores what made great action scenes fun, spiralling off into its own self-replicating dimension. That doesn’t mean any witty postmodern commentary or meta-genre aims. Just self-indulgence.

Now I feel obliged to note that when watching this film I was completely sober. Here one must ask how drunkenness could have helped. I imagine Dead Leaves is made for a type who would happily watch a film edited down to just the explosions. Even at my most inebriated, I’m not that person. I am at times more than happy to retreat into essentially stupid action films and series, I can see the value in their silly generic patterns – I can’t see much value in this.

Next time you pass a drunk/stoned gutterbound old geezer, poke him, then listen to his virulent ramblings. Maybe you’ll like that, it’ll be unique, disturbing, gruesome. But for a big budget animation, it’d be nice if the authors tried to find a fucking point. Or, lacking that, provide structuring to keep our attention.

Above all, Dead Leaves feels like a waste. Those fight scenes, those moments of grotesque innovation and outrageous animated madness, are like a slap in the face to every film or show that has suffered from cheap production or substandard direction. They could have been visceral highlights if placed within the framework of a competent narrative. As it is they’re just pointless re-enaction laden with a buttugly aesthetic. Dead Leaves takes a sack of money and a bunch of good animation workers, and puts them to work on something tedious, repetitive, and glaringly unappealing.