I must admit I haven't seen the series, so I'll comment on this as a stand-alone production.
I understand that the characters are nicely developed in the anime series, but you shouldn't base a film on that assumption. The characters looked very interesting, but apart from Lord Van, Hitomi and to some extent Folken the characters are presented but not introduced. You have some gist of what they are about and a feeling that maybe if you watched the series you could connect between with the secondary characters.
Unfortunately the storyline itself is also rushed and the Hitomi/Volken/Van relationship has been totally blown and borders on being ridiculous. the emotions being thrown between these characters are unbelievable, even corny, and the jumpy script gives it no justice. Basically it felt like it wanted to be more intelligent than it actually was.
On the plus side is great animation and some very interesting scenes full of exquisite ideas.
I understand that the characters are nicely developed in the anime series, but you shouldn't base a film on that assumption. The characters looked very interesting, but apart from Lord Van, Hitomi and to some extent Folken the characters are presented but not introduced. You have some gist of what they are about and a feeling that maybe if you watched the series you could connect between with the secondary characters.
Unfortunately the storyline itself is also rushed and the Hitomi/Volken/Van relationship has been totally blown and borders on being ridiculous. the emotions being thrown between these characters are unbelievable, even corny, and the jumpy script gives it no justice. Basically it felt like it wanted to be more intelligent than it actually was.
On the plus side is great animation and some very interesting scenes full of exquisite ideas.