Review for Bleach The Movie 2: The Diamond Dust Rebellion (Review)
Friday, 27th August 2010, 18:21

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Extras
Unlike the first film that got a barebones release, Manga have supplied a decent portion of extra features to go with Diamond Dust Rebellion.

Making Bleach The Movie 2 is a collection of featurettes that offer interviews with the Director and Character Designer, the film's composer Shiro Sagisu, and the rock group that provide the theme song, Sambomaster. There is also a look behind the scenes at the animators and the background artists. You can select each of these five featurettes separately, or you can use the convenient Play All option, which gives you 37 minutes worth of making of all in one go.

The Production Art Gallery gives you 35 images taken from the film's storyboard to click through.

The Original Japanese Promos last 5 minutes, and well worth watching is the little Kon story, as the little lascivious teddy bear doesn't make an appearance in the film.

Finally there are trailers for the Bleach Series, Bleach The Movie: Memories of Nobody, and this Bleach the Movie 2: Diamond Dust Rebellion.

Conclusion
If you're going to remake a movie, don't remake Sylvester Stallone's Judge Dredd. As the plot of Diamond Dust Rebellion unfolded, my jaw dropped at the audacity of remaking one of the major comic book travesties of the last ten years or so. But, to the credit of Bleach's creators, they did do their best in distilling something watchable from that turgid mess. The Diamond Dust Rebellion is infinitely better than Judge Dredd. It's still not as good as Memories of Nobody though. Thankfully though, and unlike their Naruto counterparts, the creators of the second Bleach film actually look to give us something that is different from the series, and different from the movie that preceded it. If you haven't seen Judge Dredd, then Diamond Dust Rebellion is downright original.

It's a character based story first and foremost, and unlike some TV to film anime adaptations, it isn't a film that tries to cram everyone in with teeny tiny cameos. If you come to this film expecting lots of Ichigo and Rukia, and plenty of Orihime and Chad, then you may be disappointed. The majority of the film takes place in the Soul Society, and it's really an opportunity to tell the story of a character that doesn't often take centre stage. Toshiro Hitsugaya is one of the Soul Society Shinigami captains, and not a major protagonist in the series. Conversely, it does mean that the creators can build a feature length story around him, and develop his character without significantly impinging on the series. Hitsugaya goes on quite the emotional rollercoaster when a piece of the past that he considered dead and buried comes back to haunt him.

It turns out that he has something in common with Ichigo. After the death of his mother, Ichigo turned inward and decided that he had to deal with his feelings himself, and instead wound up bottling up that grief and rage. Following his traumatic past when he first became a Soul Reaper, Hitsugaya has done the same; only he hasn't had a family to help him past that. The guilt, rage and grief that he has kept bottled has had no outlet up to now, until the advent of the masked thief who carries the same sword as him. Hitsugaya recognises the thief, and believes that this is a situation that only he can resolve. He winds up becoming an outcast and an exile from the Soul Society as he pursues his obsession. Those who know him best are certain of his innocence, while when Ichigo encounters him in the real world, he recognises the look of despair and desperation in his eyes, and realises what he is going through.

The Diamond Dust Rebellion is quite a deliberate, melancholy film for the first two-thirds, focussing more on character than visual pyrotechnics. There's not a lot of humour to it, but as the story unfolds, it becomes quite an engaging watch. The wintertime setting certainly helps in the feel of the film, and its somewhat darker, reflective outlook, focussing more on the characters begins to mark it as something outside the usual shonen movie adaptations, much like the first Bleach film did. Unfortunately, the final act undoes all that by introducing the whopping great monster foe, threatening the existence of the Soul Society, requiring the entire army of Soul Reapers to have at it with their swords-a-swinging and their Bankai-a-blinging.

The Diamond Dust Rebellion promised to be something special, but in the end delivers something quite average. On top of that, it's a remake of Judge Dredd. You'd probably expect me to slate it at this point, but on the whole it was quite an enjoyable film, well worth an investment of ninety minutes. And when all is said and done, filler it may be, but it is neat, undiluted Bleach, much better than the tedium that is the series.

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