BLACKFOX

BLACKFOX

MOVIE

MOVIE
Dubbed
SOURCE
ORIGINAL
RELEASE
October 5, 2019
LENGTH
90 min

DESCRIPTION

Living in a ninja residence tucked away in a corner of a futuristic city is Rikka, the eldest daughter of a Ninja clan, who looks up to her father—a researcher—very much.
Carrying on with her life normally, Rikka's home came suddenly under attack one day. Driven into a corner, what would she do to overcome this crisis?
Rip darkness to pieces and become "BLACK"!

(Source: Official website)

CAST

Rikka Isurugi
Ayaka Nanase
Mia
Haruka Tomatsu
Melissa
You Taichi
Oboro
Keiji Fujiwara
Hyoe Isurugi
Eizou Tsuda
Madara
Aki Toyosaki
Kasumi
Kousuke Toriumi
Allen Isurugi
Hiroshi Tsuchida
Brad Ingram
Hiroki Touchi
Harold
Rikiya Koyama
Lauren
Nobuo Tobita

REVIEWS

HannahElsayne
72/100
A fantastic movie for casual viewers, while more experienced viewers might find the cliche familiar plot boring.
The review will have __6 Sections__:
- Animation
- Audio
- Characters
- Story
- Enjoyment
- Spoiler Dedicated Section
Each section aside from the Spoiler Dedicated Section will get rated from 0 to 100 and the overall rating will be the average of those 5 scores.
This will be the format for all my reviews.

Some Links Before We Start
Trailer

Synopsis

After Isurugi Rikka's family is murdered for her father's research, to get her revenge Rikka abandons her name to become a ninja just like her ancestors. But when she meets another troubled girl named Mia, Rikka finds that revenge can be a very difficult choice.
Can Rikka keep her vow for revenge when she finds new truths? Or will her newfound friends be more important after all?

Animation

BLACKFOX is animated beautifully by Studio 3Hz, the animation is bright and colourful. The fight scenes are very fluid and at the same time, you always know exactly what's going on with the characters. I am personally not familiar with any of Studio 3Hz's previous work, but the animation quality of BLACKFOX tempts me to go and watch some of their other series.

There is a CGI robot in part of the film, which especially feels clunky and doesn't move properly in the environment. I believe BLACKFOX would have benefited as a whole to not use any moving/lifelike CGI such as what's in the anime. It would have looked so much better to be traditionally animated. Although it probably saved them a lot of money since BLACKFOX was intended to be a series, and only transitioned late in development to be a film. If there were any other CGI elements in the movie, I didn't spot them so...

The Animation is on par with many famous series and while it may not rival some of the more famous animated series (such as several works by Ufotable or Kyoto Animation for example) but it definitely stands its ground against most series.

87 / 100

Audio

The audio was nothing special. But in that, the use of music was, for lack of a better word, correct. By that I mean the music was designed to draw out specific emotions in specific scenes/situations, and it did just that. Not so good that it would merit high praise (like Made In Abyss for example) but it was always on point with the mood. It may not seem like much, but music quality in anime lately has declined generally (with exceptions of course).

The voice acting was done very well, Ayake Nanase who voices Isurugi Rikka the main character, does an exceptional job of bringing her character to life. Every line has some kind of feeling in it, however subtle. Although I was much more impressed with the voice of Mia, Haruka Tomatsu. Her voice portrays Mia's complicated emotional state perfectly, especially towards the climax.

Overall, the voice acting was exceedingly good, while the music was simply there, good enough to not be noticed, but not amazing enough to be noticed (if that makes sense >.< ).

74 / 100

Characters

The characters were mostly ok. Rikka, Mia, and the AMD Series Robots were excellent and believable characters, however, I found that Professor Lauren's madness was not very developed. The focus in BLACKFOX's characters was mostly in the relationship and interaction between Rikka and her friends Mia, Oboro, Kasumi, and Madara.

In particular, the relationship and emotions between Rikka and her murdered family, Isurugi Allen and Isurugi Hyoe. While Rikka loved her father and grandfather, it shows that she develops a great respect for her grandfather Hyoe, attempting to follow in his footsteps and become a ninja. Whereas inversely she had an immense amount of love for her father Allen. Somehow Studio 3Hz manage to put a large amount of precedent for Rikka's personality and the reason behind her actions in the first 15 minutes alone and then setting up her development throughout the movie in the next 10 minutes.

Aside from Lauren who felt slightly incomplete as a character, almost all the characters are great. They are introduced into the story in a good way and then develop through their interactions with Rikka. Slightly higher character development and better design than I had expected considering the genre and plot.

78 / 100

Story

The plot is very "cookie-cutter". In that I mean it's a very commonly used plot and doesn't have any large differences from anime of similar genres. For more casual viewers, the plot is fairly decent. But more seasoned anime viewers will pick out the easy to predict plot and might even be bored by it.

I think that Studio 3Hz's focus was heavily on character development rather than the story. I believe that the story is built around the character's development. If you can look past the fact that the story is cliche, it is well-executed and everything feels like it's progressing the story, even if only by small amounts.

There isn't much to say about the story, if you've seen an anime of a similar genre, then you are probably very familiar with the plot already and should just focus on the characters and animation.

54 / 100

Enjoyment

I am personally a semi-casual anime viewer. I watch anime in waves of binging and then I get bored and wait a couple of weeks before finding new series. Seasonal anime is usually the only thing I watch (and not many because I don't like most of them) except for now and then when I go and find a classic to watch for the culture.

Because of this, I didn't notice the bland, predictable plot and I quite enjoyed the movie. The movie does have small bits of comedy sprinkled here and there to make the film feel more lively. But I think if you like deconstructing anime, and especially if you enjoy riveting stories, then BLACKFOX is maybe not for you.

I would definitely recommend this to casual viewers or anyone looking for some anime to pass the time without watching trash.

70 / 100

FINAL SCORE

72 / 100

Thanks for reading my review. If you want, have a short look at my list (which I'm currently updating) and suggest something for me to review next! I would very much appreciate feedback as I would like to get better at reviewing anime. Thanks for reading this far xoxo (* ^ ω ^) beyond this point is the Spoiler Dedicated Section so read that either if you want my complaints about BLACKFOX >.< or if you've already seen it.

Spoiler Dedicated Section

Firstly, the hologram projection and suit towards the end of the film that Rikka finds. Like how is it still sitting on the bench after the raid? Maybe I missed something but I doubt the assaulters would have left it there.

Secondly, the suit design itself. It looks great right up until butt jets... Why? Why are there butt jets? not really a complaint but it sticks out to me so yeah why butt jets...

Thirdly, I wish there was more information about Lauren's research. They sort of just go "hey supernatural powers because... science". Even a couple lines of dialogue to vaguely explain away why no one else has discovered this technology or why no one knows about it. Surely Lauren would have had to report his research to GRADSHEIM right?

other than that my only other complaint is the battle drone... why CGI? It doesn't look right in the setting, with that style of animation. And also, when Rikka is fighting Mia at GRADSHEIM, how is it she manages to dodge what appears to be lightning. And while it's believable that this mysterious power moves slowly, why is it then when she lost control due to the collar, almost none of that power was aimed at Rikka even though I can only assume the collar was trying to get Mia to kill Rikka.

the end and stuff xoxo
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seanny
70/100
A one-off action romp that evokes the OVAs of old, and a portrait of urban America through anime eyes.

It opens with a gradeschooler sword-sparring in grandpa’s trapdoor-laden ninja house. An explosion blows a hole in the clay-tiled roof, revealing the skyline of the fictional American city of “Brad”, and perfectly sets expectations for the level of anime pulp one can expect from Blackfox by studio “3Hz”. Though created largely by different people, the vibe is similar to their previous Princess Principal TV series. Being a tightly packed 90-minute actioneer, Blackfox also evokes pulp action OVAs from decades past and sidesteps the pitfalls of a longer format. For a certain generation of otaku, there’s nostalgic fun to be found in this action romp.

A suspect hangs from a city rooftop as the ninja-clad avenger squeezes him for the location of the villain’s secret hideout. She then zips away by grappling hook into the dark night. If there wasn’t already an anime called Ninja Batman…

Blackfox, in its gleeful cribbing of pop culture, lives or dies by its kitsch value. But it's the type of kitsch that transcends its unoriginality through clean, charismatic execution. The action kicks with an intelligible choreography that is rare in the effects-crazed webgen age. The heroes are charming without being overbearing. The villain, however, is deliciously over-the-top. It never oversells its tropes with long-winded explainers — it knows exactly what each is worth, and it shows more than tells.

Why anime originals get made is often a mystery. Blackfox, simultaneously debuting in Japanese theaters and to western viewers via Crunchyroll, seems like a tailor-made export product. Anime girls, ninjas, robots, superpowers… What more could a hypothetical westerner want? Perhaps the amusement of a portrait of America through the eyes of anime?

Stepping off the plane after two weeks of touring major Japanese cities, impeccably clean jungles of concrete, I saw urban America through such eyes myself. The thoroughly hand-painted backgrounds of Blackfox capture my reverse culture-shock in visceral detail. Grime cakes every surface. Weeds punch through the cracks of concrete. No coat of paint is left unchipped; no wallpaper untorn.

But the dilapidated hellhole in which I apparently live has some perks: the grassy front lawns and sidewalks of suburbia, the tall ceilings, the spacious kitchens equipped with gas-powered stovetops, the navigable regularity of a street grid, and the coherent urban architecture that follows. One cannot help but continually pause the frame to take in its uncanny world of cutesy anime girls adorned in modern Japanese fashions living in a cartoon of urban America, adding yet another layer of kitsch. And like the best anime films, Blackfox is carried by its production design, though in a somewhat unintended fashion.

Though Blackfox is far from a great anime, it’s the perfect length at 90 minutes. Its cliché, paper-thin premise would not reliably support any extension and that’s just fine. Sometimes a spell of ninja action is just the thing for a lazy afternoon.

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ItIsIDio
50/100
A superhero origin story made for an audience that hasn't seen a superhero origin story
This movie wasn't made for us. No, I don't mean this movie wasn't made for me. No, I don't mean this movie wasn't made specifically for you. What I mean is that the people that are likely to watch this movie and find information about it through this site, are not the people likely to enjoy this movie. Black Fox is a superhero origin story, about a girl that has been trained to be a ninja and has access to a lot of technological gadgets, whose appeal as a person is her kind nature. A budget teenage girl Batman if you will. I do think that the movie did accomplish to imitate the exact same process other western movies have used, but not actually succeed in what those movies had

Now let me ask, have you ever seen a movie about a superhero origin story, that has had huge success in the western media? Your answer, if yes, is probably: yeah, I watched [insert random Marvel movie]. Well, this movie is a japanese attempt to cash in on that marketing strategy, by making a movie that employs the exact same style and structure. Given what I said, you probably know what to expect already if you were familiar with those, but even then, you might still be like: "Yeah, but it is Japan, this movie is still going to be anime as fuck, right?" Actually, that's what I would have expected too, but the answer is actually no. The only thing that is particularly anime about this, is that they are girls of high school age doing things they should not be physically capable. There's one part in the climax of the final fight that you might assume is anime as fuck, but honestly, that actually is how most final fights in Marvel movies are resolved too, so at best I'd call it overlap. It is genuinely faithful to that formula, and I'm sure it is just an attempt to see if it has any success outside the west, or it could be that someone enjoyed that formula so much they just wanted to test it out.

Now for those of you unfamiliar and not knowing what to expect, superhero origin stories are so frequent that they pretty much have a template they always follow. And Black Fox is no exception to this. They are often very predictable, and the template itself is not actually what sells the movie, it's just a tool to make the movie be sufficiently competent and present the character to both an audience that is familiar with them and one that is unfamiliar with them at the same time. If you go watch a superhero movie, you often already know entirely what it is about, since you are familiar with DC and Marvel. Black Fox however is something entirely unfamiliar to the audience, and the only way it relates to the viewer is whether or not they are aware of such content. It uses the structure and techniques of such movies but do they actually work in its favor?

My answer is that the only way it would work is if you were unfamiliar with that structure. The way Black Fox is structured imitates pretty much every movie of its type I am familiar with, to the point I could predict every single story beat as soon as it was set up. So, if familiar with these types of movies, you will see absolutely nothing new. It has no degree of subtlety and it continuously moves forward, by first presenting a setup (which can be as small as a tease) and next presenting its payoff. The thing is that makes the movie even more predictable since every single story beat presented on screen, is either there to set up something later down the line, be it a twist or to raise the impact a scene will have, 5 minutes later. It feels like every single thing presented is not presented to tell a story but rather to serve the structure used in the prior movies, like a template for success. The structure for such movies doesn’t simply work because the structure itself is a failsafe way to present a superhero origin, but rather they are a template to adapt one superhero origin people already have knowledge of and interest in.

To an audience that is unfamiliar with said structure, they may have some success but their actual reasons they sell in the western media are: brand recognition, (since it is something people are familiar with, the movie will pull its already existing fanbase, as well as their friends that are not familiar with that character) acting, (actors are capable of breathing even further life into the characters, and making them even more appealing based on their performance) solid source material, (in most cases, the template can work because the character has an already defined identity that is appealing to its audience, and they don't have to put much thought into presenting the story since the source material has already done so, and the story will already have plenty of bones and meat, allegedly) and accessibility. (comic books are not the most accessible media to consume, as most of the hero origins were released prior to content being digitized, and as a result they often end up rereleased with some modifications or redone from zero, to familiarize the audience. Movies are more accessible to a wider audience and they are easier to preserve and spread, since their content is digital, not physical. So, if anyone was genuinely interested in the concept of the comics, but they didn't have accessibility to the source material, now they have an easier way to access the content)

Black Fox has no brand recognition or source material, it is an original concept after all, it doesn't rely on acting, since its visual are carried across through animation and voice acting doesn't require the voice actor to project as much personality as a normal actor. They definitely do and can even do it better than the visuals in some cases, don't get me wrong, but they are not entirely relied on for that purpose usually, which is no exception here. But well, it might have plenty of accessibility and novelty to a japanese audience. That's why I said this movie was not made for us. We are likely going to have plenty of familiarity, be it direct or indirect, with pretty much everything Black Fox attempts to achieve as a movie and as a story. But since it is a superhero origin story in its most basic form, it might have success in japan, presenting more westernized story structures and concepts and see if they appeal to their audience, to people that wouldn't otherwise engage with them, in the medium they are familiar with.

As a result, I do think Black Fox is a test, to see if this story structure can be successful to a japanese audience. The movie pretty much put its entire focus on following this standard structure (beware that this might spoil you, there's no concrete plot details, just the average structure of such movies): Present the hero's life prior to starting their journey (in order to show who they are and how they are different from the average person) -> Define their motivations and future goal (Happens through one of the following three: a tragic event that redefines their life, a mission that is given to them because they are the only one who can accomplish it or an accidental event that grants them the ability to do exactly what they always wished for. In some cases, there is a certain degree of overlap and it is going to be a combination of those.) -> Have them prepare for their journey (This is either done through them training, or them undertaking their journey while not entirely prepared, with their actions acting as an experience that will prepare them for the future) -> Have them engage the antagonist but not be able to win straight up (This is to create tension and present in what ways the antagonist is a foil to them) -> Give them a moment of respite to reflect on their loss (used to reflect on what differentiates them from the antagonist and some self-reflection for their character arc) -> Reignite the conflict with even bigger stakes -> Have the character complete their character arc and learning from their past mistakes, helping them resolve the conflict -> Conclude with the foil being rejected and the hero identity finally being assumed -> Tease the sequel.

The biggest problem with Black Fox for someone familiar with the structure, is that it feels exactly like this:

Japan: Can I copy your homework?
America: Yes, just change it up a bit so it doesn't look obvious that it was copied.
Japan: Black Fox

Japan managed to copy the homework correctly, on a subject they don't really have a solid grasp of. As a result, its hero, doesn't feel heroic or like a genuinely good person. There's not really any point where the heroine here acts either heroically or outside their own self-interest. It hardly feels like someone conquering their demons to do good in the world, but more like a character wanting to do what is their self-interest, but what's morally good denying them of their desire, and them having to adjust. The main character is supposed to have as her appeal in her kindness, but they are not kind, they are just a brat. She's neither a compassionate or good person and she has operated entirely in their own self-interest the entire time. She hasn't done anything outright good, just things that aren't morally reprehensible, yet the story does praise them for their kindness. She can also appear quite weak-willed at times, since she sometimes does not fully pursue their goal or respects what she says and due to that appears undecisive. Truth be told, the qualities that would make her a hero are absent, but I guess that is somewhat acceptable, since she hasn't really been acknowledged as such. The only reason I take issue with these traits, is because the movie acts as if they are her virtues, but they are at best traits that are currently a work in progress and at worst non-existent.

The movie has every single thing executed correctly, it has the structure, the beats, the concept, the visuals, perhaps even the audience. But it lacks the substance. The appeal that has made the stories that were adapted attract the interest of various people around the world. It may have some passion and enjoyment of everything that has been made with this structure, but it is not its own thing.

As a result, I find it hard to recommend to someone familiar with this type of movie, since there is absolutely nothing new for you to see, and I also have a hard time to recommend it to someone unfamiliar, since there are so many better alternatives that use the very same structure and also present a character that has both charisma and is very admirable. Black Fox doesn't manage to capitalize on any of the qualities using the structure it has appealing, but it is an interesting enough experiment to watch. I'd recommend showing this show to an unsuspecting audience unfamiliar with this style of movie, if it's more accessible to them than a western superhero movie, and to gauge their reaction. Because that's who this movie was made for. And if continuously invested in, the success of the western superhero blockbusters can be replicated in anime form. Even though it might not be an interesting watch, it might the start for the pursuit of an interesting result. So, if you want to watch this movie as an informative way to observe their strategy, I fully support that, because that part of the movie is genuinely interesting, and that's what made me talk at length about it. I wish it had more substance to discuss the actual things it tried, but the only thing I could observe how hard it tries to imitate what it wishes it would've been. And by pursuing every single technical detail about it, it manages to entirely miss the point. That these movies are meant to present the best qualities humanity has to offer and demonstrate them. And that it doesn't.
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