Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. In order to fully understand today’s review you have to know about the man behind the series I’m about to talk about and that man is Hideki Kamiya. Hideki Kamiya is hands down one of the best video game directors and writers out there. He got his start at Capcom working on Resident Evil as a system planner and then becoming the director of the second Resident Evil game. Because of that game’s success he was asked to write the story for Resident Evil 3 which resulted into what we know today as the Devil May Cry series one of the best series to come out on the PS2. After that, he moved on to find Clover Studio with a number of other workers at Capcom and went on to direct and write creative and fun-loving games like Viewtiful Joe and Okami one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played. Yep, everything seemed to be going well for Hideki that is until 2006 when Capcom shut down Clover Studio and fired Hideki along with the other members of Clover Studio. Why the hell would they fire someone like him!? Well it’s because the games from Clover Studio really didn’t sell all that well. The games weren’t bad they got overall good reviews but they didn’t sell as many copies as Capcom hoped they would and to be fair it was Capcom’s fault. They did a terrible job promoting these games. I mean it, there was no marketing advertisement put into any of these games. Hell, I didn’t even hear about Okami until someone at Gamestop recommended the game for me and that was around the time the game came out for the Wii which was 2008 two years after the studio shut down. Rather than take the blame themselves and make efforts to promote their games better Capcom pushed the blame on Clover Studio and shut it down firing everyone in the studio. Rather than lay down like a sleepy dog Hideki and a few of the other workers of Clover Studio went on to find Seeds, Inc. now known today as Platinum Games where he created and wrote a wonderful fun game known as Bayonetta. Released in 2009 and published by Sega, Bayonetta is often seen as the successor of Devil May Cry. It focuses on a witch named Bayonetta who goes around killing angels with guns, swords, magic, and even her hair all in an attempt to remember her past and who she really is. It was over the top, violent, brutal, crazy, sexy, sadistic and I loved every minute of it. The gameplay is awesome, fast-pace fighting with a number of weapons and moves at your disposal with multiple ways to kill your enemies in over the top ways, great music, an interesting story, a fun cast of characters that keep you laughing and a great female lead. Bayonetta was just amazing, she was smart, beautiful, sexy, strong and had all the qualities that made for a great female lead that you could get behind. The game received a tremendous amount of praise from reviewers scoring a 40/40 from the reviewers on Famitsu (very popular video game magazine in Japan), best boss fights by Gamespot, best debut by Giant Bomb and being crowned Game of the Year by IGN UK in 2010. With all this praise and fan following of the game everyone was wondering when the sequel was gonna come out and I’m proud to say that Bayonetta is set to return this summer but I am sad to say only on the Wii U. So in order to celebrate her return, today we’re gonna take look at the Bayonetta film Bloody Fate. That’s right they actually made a film off the first game. Debuting in November of 2013 under the production of studio Gonzo (Rosario + Vampire. I thought these guys closed down) and getting a DVD/Blue Ray release in February 2014, Bloody Fate serves as a re-introduction to the series for those who’ve played the game and an introduction for those who haven’t played the game as in attempt to help build up excitement for the second game’s release. Let’s get ready to fly to moon and take out angels along the way. This is Bayonetta Bloody Fate.
The film starts by giving us a little backstory about the Umbra witches and Lunen Mages and how they kept a balance between demons and angels keeping the world safe. That is until a witch and a mage violated the treaty set up between the two factions and did the dirty tango, the horizontal bop, the vertical drop, and the pony ride all in one night *growl*. This resulted in the baby Bayonetta being born into the world and war breaking out between the two factions with the mages trying to kill her because she holds what’s known as the Left Eye and her father has the Right Eye (and the mother has the eye of the tiger). It’s said that when these two eyes come together they will bring Jubileus the Creator of the world back into the world who will come to destroy the current world and create a new one. The father was banished and sealed away, the mother was imprisoned, and Bayonetta was taken in by the Umbra witches where they trained her, raised her, and sealed her away for her own safety while the war between the two factions began resulting in both sides destroying each other (in a war that makes the final battle in the Lord of the Rings movie look like a kindergartener’s school play). It’s 500 years later and the world has gone back to normal and a man by the name of Luka voiced by Daisuke Namikawa (Isana from K), a freelance photographer is investigating the recent suicides happening in churches (it was the Kool-Aid). He sneaks into a church where we see the star of our film Bayonetta voiced by Atsuko Tanaka (Nikaido from The World God Only Knows) dressed as a nun sending her prayers up to heavens which summons angels (which look nothing like what the good Bible has taught us) and she attacks them (she’s a witch what do you expect). She holds her own against them using her bear fist and when her weapon provider Rodin voiced by Tesshō Genda (Younger Toguro from Yu Yu Hakusho) throws her her guns it becomes a dance party for her. After taking care of the small fry a giant angel shows up to fight her where she easily defeats it by having her hair eat the damn the thing (oh hey it’s like that one girl from Skullgirl only cooler and more over the top). After all the angel killing (which begs the question what happens to them after Bayonetta kills them, do they become fallen angels or something) she goes to meet Luka who she likes to call Cheshire (and I like to call her Lollipop) which pisses him off (hey the sexy lady gave you a nickname that means she has an interest in you). We quickly find out that Luka has been following Bayonetta for quite some time determined to expose her for the killer that she is because when Bayonetta was awaken from her seal she killed his father (she kills everything that’s how she shows her love).
After chatting with him a bit and destroying his camera (hey this ain’t a free show Luka) she goes to Rodin’s bar Hell’s Gate for a drink (hey, check this out. Whadya buyin? *laugh* Heard that in a game once. God, I love this quote). While in the bar we meet Enzo your typical scum of the earth guy trying to make a quick buck voiced by Wataru Takagi (Obito from Naruto) who gives Bayonetta the lowdown on a guy name Balder the leader of the Church of Ragna which pretty much rules the world through religion and technology (yet despite all of this he has horrible fashion sense. Look at what this guy is wearing, //operationrainfall.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Balder.png, I see all the offering money from the Church of Ragna went into that outfit. Where did he get his fashion tips from? Seymour from FF10?). After seeing him on the news where he delivers a message to Bayonetta telling her to come to him (no, come to me instead) she finishes up her drink and takes off to go meet him believing he holds the key to her lost memories (and thus corruption in the church begins). As she’s on a train heading for Vigrid where Balder is she gets attacked by another witch named Jeanne voiced by Mie Sonozaki who seems to know a lot about Bayonetta’s past (ohh~ sounds like to me Bayonetta went through a phase growing up. Not that I blame her, surrounded by female witches and everything it’s only natural). The two have a good fight on the train and in the mountains where her guns get severely damage and she starts to remember a little about her past through the fight before Jeanne retreats even though she had the upper hand in the fight (Jeanne: I’ll let you go because of that wonderful night in Paris but only this one time). She goes back to get her guns repaired and takes a sword as a substitute weapon, finger bangs a motorcycle (I can’t believe I just wrote that. I can’t believe someone actually thought this up) and continues on her journey until she gets transported to a mountainside where she fights some angels killing the boss angel with a chainsaw (well if there’s one thing this film has taught me it’s that the chainsaw is more over the top than the sword) and rescues a young girl by the name of Cereza voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro (Fujiko from The Woman Called Fujiko Mine. What is up with this woman and her characters? Okay, you go from an idol singer, to a hot sadistic zombie killing swordswoman, to a hot female thief, and now you’re an innocent child. How does that happen? Usually a VA has a flow of characters that are identical to each other so they’re easy to spot in animes. Miyuki on other hand, I can’t get a beat on her). Anyway, Cereza is totally convinced that Bayonetta is her mother (really!? What lucky S.O.B was able to tap that sweet ass? Also, her body came out well after giving birth) which Bayonetta denies but Cereza doesn’t listen (wow it’s usually the man denying these claims of parenthood instead of the lady). Not wanting to leave her in a dangerous place Bayonetta takes Cereza with her and we get a sexy bath scene because deep down we all wanted this in the game.
The next day Bayonetta leaves Cereza in the hands of Luka (since he seems to be the most responsible of the two) and she continues on her journey via motorcycle on the bridge which serves as one of the best stages in the game where an angel car shows to attack her and she destroys with her hair (oh~ this was disappointing, in the game you had to fight against a ton of angel cars and angels for that matter. It was over the top, silly, ridiculous, and downright awesome I can’t believe they played down this scene). After fighting the car angel she faces another angel in the form of a titan beating him easily (the woman is like Dante only with boobs and instead of fighting demons she fights angels. These two characters should really get together I think they would make a nice couple) and takes on a dragon angel (just how many kinds of angels does Heaven have?) where she uses twin bazookas to destroy him (gather my dragonballs and I shall grant you one wish) and she hops in the helicopter Luka is piloting to take her to Vigrid. As they reach the island they get shot down by Jeanne who wants another fight with Bayonetta but another giant angel with an upside down head for a body and two dragon heads (okay, its official, I am way~ to sober for this film somebody get me a case of beer) who tell her to stop hindering Bayonetta’s path (look who’s talking you weird alien angel, you’ve been trying to kill her throughout the entire film! Give Jeanne credit she at least let her go when she had the upper hand). After the angel delivers his message Rodin shows up to deliver Bayonetta’s new guns and with these new and more powerful guns Bayonetta is able to beat Jeanne and remember her past. It turns out that the two were best friends with Jeanne wanting to be the strongest witch out there so that she could protect the witches’ greatest treasure the Left Eye which is in the position of Bayonetta making her seen as an outcast among the ranks. Tragedy strikes when the angels showed up to capture Bayonetta and destroying the other witches in the process except for Jeanne who sealed Bayonetta away and kept her hidden from the world for 500 years (wow, she ages gracefully). After the fight lightning strikes Jeanne forcing Bayonetta to jump to safety where she’s reunited with Luka and Cereza and go to meet Balden who we find out is really Bayonetta’s father (meh, saw it coming) and that Cereza is actually Bayonetta from the past bought to the future by Balden to show her how evil the world was (and that plan failed greatly). He sends Cereza back to the past (bye, I look forward to hitting on you when you turn 18). After that Balder throws Luka out the window revealing that it was really angels who killed his father and not Bayonetta (well on the bright side he spent his years chasing a very sexy lady) but he grapples on to a ledge saving his life. Balder begins the resurrection of Jubelius where he and Bayonetta combine with its body and begin to create a new world that is until Jeanne shows up (still alive bitches) and frees Bayonetta from Jubelius and they combine their powers to take down Balder by using their combined powers to summon Sheba (monster Sheba monster Sheba) and fight Balder throughout the galaxy destroying God knows how many moons until they tie him down and blow the bastard up saving the world. We end the film with a year passing and everybody wondering where Bayonetta is and we see that she’s still alive and out hunting angels with Jeanne. The end.
Final Thoughts
So that was Bloody Fate and it’s not bad. There’s really not a whole lot to say about the movie, it accomplishes what it sets out to do. It retells the story of the first game staying true to it while providing its own take on the game. There are a few disappointments like they downplay the motorcycle scene and they toss out the missile riding scene which was another cool scene from the game but the scenes that they do show are well-done and match up with the fighting style of the game. The characters are pretty much the same as they are from the games so if you liked them in the game you’ll like them in the anime and for those of you who haven’t played the game I think you’ll like these characters. The animation is good, I think the team behind the Devil May Cry anime did the animation for this movie it looks very similar. Bayonetta looks very sexy in the movie like even way sexier than she did in the game. The music is also good, it’s pretty much the same music from the game so you won’t be disappointed there.
Final Score
The final score for Bayonetta: Bloody Fate is a 6/10. The movie is alright and while not as good as the actual game it holds itself as a good alternative in case some people don’t have time to play the game. If you’re a huge fan of the Devil May Cry games I recommend checking this game out or watching the movie. The first game was a hit and I’m sure the second game will be a hit as well. Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj and I hope they make an Okami movie or anime in the future because that would be awesome.
*All images, videos, and music do not belong to me and belong to their respected owners*
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