Harmagedon: Genma Taisen (1986) * * A movie review by Serdar Yegulalp Copyright 1998 by Serdar Yegulalp
CAPSULE: Mediocre movie-length anime that aims for more than it can achieve. Keith Emerson's score is a gigantic defecit.
HARMAGEDON, or GENMA TAISEN (The Genma War) as it was originally named in Japan, has become a staple object of ridicule among anime fans. They deride the movie for its lethargic pacing, its cliched characters, its landlocked plotting, and especially its execreable musical score. Seen from the outside, it's not all that bad -- but it's not all that good, either. It promises far more than it can ever deliver.
Stripped naked, the premise is pretty good. A monstrous entity named Genma is making its way across the universe, devouring everything in its path (pace "The Nothing" from THE NEVERENDING STORY). A cyborg soldier named Vega, who tangled with the monster before and failed, has been preserved inside an asteroid headed for Earth. There, he seeks out as many humans as he can find who are psionically active. He's going to need them, because Genma is headed for Earth, and has proved so far unstoppable.
He finds two key characters: Luna, a Transylvanian princess, and Joh, a young Japanese man who lives in emotional isolation but has a wellspring of emotion for his sister. Luna and Vega work together to activate Joh's powers, but aren't prepared for the emotional anguish that comes out of him at the same time. They have to battle both Genma's force and Joh's emotional irrationality at the same time.
Parts of the story are very well done indeed. The whole subplot about Joh is done with great care and feeling -- it almost feels like it came from a different movie. But the rest of the story, with its turgid plot-twists and lockstep revelations, doesn't quite live up to it. The single biggest problem with the movie is the music -- by Keith Emerson, no less! -- which is by turns superfluous, distracting, dated, emotionally inappropriate, and just plain cheesy. The right music can make a movie that much more interesting; this music makes the movie nearly unwatchable. We also get far more of the movie spelled out for us in speeches and lectures -- painfully, laborously -- than we do demonstrated. Another big strike against it.
It's all a shame, because this story had terrific potential. There are some top-notch credits here: the character designs were produced by Katsushiro Otomo (of AKIRA fame). I understand that it was adapted (with some license) from a manga series with the same premises. Given how badly this kind of thing has been botched before, I'm compelled to find what I missed.
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