So far in the first five minutes there has been no dialogue. The first dialogue is to set up the plot. The mail character seems to be a young girl, named Saya. One cop says not to piss her off as she is the "only remaining original." Original what?
The next scene introduces a suicide and an American military base. There is a school on the military base and the main character Saya is provided with a uniform and she will attend the school. Her provided reasons for attending the school seem to be a cover for her real reason for being there. Saya is always observing her classmates around her.
She seems to latch on to two girls, one of which is looking pale and weak. When the girls go to the nurses office, the night of the Halloween party, Saya trails them, and when the sick girl sits up from the bed looking to attack the nurse, Saya attacks the girl instead. The girl turns into a Demon and Saya kills her. The other girl fights with Saya before running off into the school, Saya's sword breaks, and the nurse is traumatized. Saya runs leaving the base, grabs a sword from an antique store and returns to the base just in time to save the nurse from another Demon that showed up. The nurse asks Saya why she saves her and Saya givers her a gun. When Saya admits that the gun will not kill the demons, the nurse asks, what's the point then. Saya says it's so that she can kill herself before the demons get her.
Saya and the nurse end up in a hanger, where they fight the demon. The nurse gives up and goes to shot herself, but Saya tells her not to, telling her, The sword Saya grabbed turns out to be a fake, but Saya's partner provides her with a new sword. A third demon watches from the roof and takes off flying into the sky. The nurse faints, and Saya chases after the flying demon. Saya kills the flying demon.
When the nurse awakens, she finds that all evidence of the previous nights activities and Saya have disappeared. She wonders if Saya is still out there continuing to do what she has been doing.
..this whole sequence of events only lasts 45 minutes and then the movie, it just ends.
I suppose I would have been satisfied if there were more story, or set up, but the whole movie seemed to be simply an introduction. I was expecting so much more and went it ended, my friend and I both exclaimed exactly the same thing, "really, that's it!?".
The animation was pretty, the music was good, the voice acting was adequate, but sadly the story line was severely lacking! For me, plot and characters are my two favorite aspects of storytelling. The characters are a huge factor, and perhaps the only reason I wouldn't give the movie and entirely negative review.
I suppose I don't need to know more, but I certainly want to... who/what is Saya? It is not answered here. What is the group she is working for? Who is her partner? What will Saya do next? (And because we've focused on this in my writing group recently) What does Saya want?
In the live action movie version of the same story, the movie lasts for 1.5 hours so there is more time for story. And actually the live action movie has an decent, conclusive ending.
The live action movie follows a similar plot line as the anime movie, but also provides a motive for Saya to fight the demons and there is a character, such as the nurse, who can chronicle the events and provide and external opinion on Saya and her situation. I prefer it.
Really the anime movie is a short snippet of a much larger story.
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