Sin: The Movie

Original Title: Sin: The Movie
Romanized: N/A
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

John Blade, torn by the death of his best friend and his father's wheeling and dealings, leads a police group called HARDCORPS. When mutants begin to appear throughout the city, John Blade is thrown into a mystery involving his own past. Along with the president of SinTEK, Elexis Sinclaire and a lonely young girl named Elyse Steward, they may hold the key the world's safety or destruction.

Quick Review

Rating: 2 / 5
Reviewer: Legion
Review Date: 2002-04-15

Sin: The movie needed to be just that: a movie, as opposed to a one-hour feature. I know that if forty minutes to an hour was added on and proper direction and pacing were used, along with less-choppy animation, Sin would be solidly recommended. As is, despite its interesting pedigree, the characterization is thin, the background underdeveloped, and the ending rushed. The visuals are tainted by hurried action sequences and ill-fitting attempts to use CG hardware along with the cel art. The English and Japanese versions have different scripts, and it's not a translation issue, as the English version is arguably the original. It's also somewhat better; the Japanese language version features some big name actors, but is looser and just not as satisfying on the whole. At least orchestral score is good.

If you are part of Sin's cult following, I'd say that Sin is worth buying (the creators of the game seem to love it after all). If you're a big fan of video game-based anime, Sin is worth a look. If you don't fall into either of those categories and are just an anime fan, you may want to wave Sin off.

US DVD Review

This DVD is solid. The video, while not perfect, is well represented in several areas. During the scenes that have choppy animation, the video doesn't look too hot, but that's not a fault of the DVD transfer. The audio is clear in both languages and comes with two subtitle tracks. One is a closed-caption for the dub (surprising, coming from ADV) labeled as v.1 subtitles. The second subtitle track contains a literal translation for the Japanese track (the one that has the different script) labeled as v.2 subtitles. The extras contain a theatrical trailer, ADV previews (which play at the beginning of the disc annoyingly enough), conceptual art and a "making-of" feature that lasts 20 minutes. This helps give insight on the creation of Sin from the director, cast members and creators of the Sin PC game. Interesting stuff.

Content Guide

Rated 16 and up for lots of graphic violence. I wouldn't be surprised if they blindfolded Elyse's English voice actress during recording sessions.

Violence: 4 - Scenes of several HARDCORPS officers torn to pieces.

Nudity: 2 - Nothing is actually seen, but it gets close.

Sex/Mature Themes: 3 - Once scene.

Language: 3 - Strong, but not overly so.

Notes and Trivia

Sin is based on a 1998 first person shooter game for Windows, SiN, by US-based Ritual Entertainment. ADV used it as the basis for their first (but not last) effort in producing anime. In this case, while the foundation and funding came from ADV and the SiN concept, the actual production was mostly handled by Japanese company Phoenix Entertainment, and most of the production staff (director, animation staff, music) was Japanese.

SiN (the game) has recently had something of a rebirth through Valve's Steam online distribution system, as a bonus with the updated SiN Episodes.

The soundtrack of the anime rendition is also available from ADV.

Availability

Produced and released in the US by ADV on bilingual DVD. Was previously also available in English on VHS.

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