Apocalypse Zero

Original Title: 覚悟のススメ
Romanized: Kakugo no Susume
Literal: Recommendation of Preparation

Plot Synopsis

A series of natural disasters has reduced the world to rubble, with the survivors doing whatever they must to survive in a world gone mad. But one young boy, Kakugo, gifted with amazing martial arts and a superpowered suit of armor by his late father, has been charged with making the world (or at least his school) a safer place. But his sister Harara has a matching set of skills and equipment, and she's also on a mission to bring peace to the world... by wiping out humanity!

Review

Rating: 0.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2004-10-23

Well, I'm really not sure what to make of Apocalypse Zero, but I'm sure about one thing: children, family pets, and most normal people just should not watch it--it can't be healthy (why Media Blasters didn't put it under their adult label isn't clear to me). For most people, that's all you really need to know about this disgusting and all-around disturbing piece of anime--I can't even describe some of it in a review readable by the general public. But, if you're really curious...

Story wise, Apocalypse Zero is essentially the same as both every other post apocalyptic splatterfest action movie and every high school hero story, all mashed into one nonsensical mess of a plot. It isn't paced badly and, although there isn't much overt humor, it's played so far over the top that it has a sort of campy appeal (hopefully it's supposed to be as silly as it seems), but that's about it. There's little logic or reason to any of it, and it ends rather abruptly. Not inconclusively, but there certainly could have been a lot more than there is.

Post Apocalyptic High School Splatterfest may be the category Apocalypse Zero fits in, but a better description is a cross between Fist of the North Star and the South Park movie, and if that sounds weird, you don't know the half of it. It's obvious from the beginning that there is something odd about this series; the first scene features a really skinny kid with a large head, wearing a Speedo, battling a multi-breasted radioactive bear beast. After some set up and meeting the post apocalyptic high school crowd (yes, there are still high schools with school uniforms in the ruins of Tokyo), the mayhem starts.

But where it could have been yet another blood-and-gore-fest (and there's plenty of that), Apocalypse Zero takes a slightly different tack: gross humor. The villains are the requisite giant bloodthirsty mutants (called "tactical evil" for some reason), but they're also very, very silly, and absolutely disgusting.

Case in point: the first monster is sort of like a cross between a stripper and Godzilla, drawn like an old American cartoon. Seriously. To describe her (or what she does to the innocent inhabitants of the city) in more detail would put this site way out of the family-friendly range, but suffice it to say that she looks like a very, very ugly woman the size of an apartment building who doesn't have anywhere near enough clothes on, and it's not a pretty sight. She's flanked on the other end of the series by an entirely naked mutant geezer, which is only slightly more pleasant to look at.

Anyway, once the action starts, so does the violence. Chunks and gore abound (a veritable horn of plenty of unraveled innards, and a high level of face removal), but Apocalypse Zero sets itself apart by featuring some of the more creative and gleefully disturbing violence I've seen. The mayhem isn't disturbing for its realism--it's all so preposterous and nonsensical that there is no danger of any of it being mistaken for "realistic" or "serious" violence--but it is so bizarre and perverse (that's where South Park comes to mind) that it's sort of like a childhood nightmare rendered in bright cartoon colors. The themes range from old fashioned exploding heads and squished schoolkids to "that's just wrong!" (Though I do have to give credit to Horia saying to a skeleton that happened to still be slightly alive "Hang in there... you'll be OK!") It's totally and rather embarrassingly ridiculous, but even so, it's not for those with weak stomachs.

The characters range from wildly psychotic (though creatively so--one of the villains was upset that the hero had damaged his individuality, whatever that's supposed to mean), to classic cold hero, to the usual range of high school supporting crowd including Horia, the spunky girlfriend with a heart of gold. The only two standouts are the villainess, who executes her malicious destructive skills with an appealing amount of relish (even if she's as two dimensional as the cel she's painted on), and Horia, mainly because of a lot of spunk and some almost touching kindness. The main hero almost develops into a properly conflicted anti-hero, but he pretty much just poses and looks grim and stoic (a daunting task, considering his opponents).

The visuals are another of Apocalypse Zero's unusual points; the animation isn't bad (especially for an older-style show), nor is the art (although the backgrounds are generic), but aside from the Guyver-esque super-armor (which actually look pretty cool) what mostly stands out are the oddball character designs. On one end, there are the gross villains, who look kind of like a deranged American comic strip artist's take on a monster clown (think R. Crumb). On the other, the human characters are certainly unique; their heads tend to be rather bulbous, and for lack of a better word have an almost gooey look to them--a little like an anime character looking into a fisheye lens. Not unattractive (I thought Horia was cute), but odd.

Rounding out the picture is the acting, which in the dub (can't speak for the original dialogue) isn't too bad; over the top (which is appropriate), and although some of the lines are positively stupid, they also don't seem out of place (it's possible, though I wouldn't even say likely, that some of the campy humor was added in the dub). Once again, I liked Horia, though Harara is probably the standout cast member--her voice drips evil and she spat out her lines in a way that works very well with the character. The huge monsters are cast and acted like Saturday morning cartoon villains, but that actually seems appropriate (good thing, too--they do more talking than anybody). The music isn't memorable at all, one way or the other.

Now, that's an accurate description of the parts of Apocalypse Zero, but the hard part comes in figuring out what to make of the whole. It is definitely intended as some sort of parody of post apocalyptic gore-fests and all those high school hero series--there's no way that you could end up with an idea this weird, and villains this silly, any other way. But whether you think it's some sort of deranged brilliance, gross and juvenile, or just flat out disturbing is going to depend a whole lot on your taste.

Personally, I have a pretty bizarre sense of humor, and while Apocalypse Zero put me off initially, I couldn't deny that after a while it did build up some of the most creatively perverse and just plain wrong things that I can think of. But, in all honesty, it is just so gross that I found it a bit hard to watch and so close to cartoony that it was a little embarrassing at the same time. I really can't say that I enjoyed it enough to recommend it to other people with my sense of humor, and I certainly wouldn't recommend it to almost anybody else, but I'll admit that there are a few people who just might enjoy it... but they're probably scary freaks. You know who you are.

Related Recommendations

Shows with a similar sense of weirdness are The Ultimate Teacher (not as gross, or as violent), The Abashiri Family (not as violent), Devilman (much more serious), and probably the Ping Pong Club.

US DVD Review

The DVD collects both VHS volume into one sick and twisted hybrid-audio digital disc, and throws in an art gallery to go along with it.

Content Guide

None of it is serious, but the gross-factor and graphic violence easily bump it into the mature audiences only category--do not let your children near this, period. The 16-up rating Anime Works gave it is too lenient, in my opinion.

Violence: 5 - Faces removed, spraying innards--you name it.

Nudity: 4 - A vast amount of generally unpleasant nudity; probably a 5, except most of the characters in the buff aren't even close to human.

Sex/Mature Themes: 4 - Hard to call, but definitely some unpleasant stuff and sexual content in the second volume.

Language: 3 - Not all that bad in comparison.

Notes and Trivia

Based on a comic series by Takayuki Yamaguchi. Media Blasters picked up the US rights to it in 2004. The original title, Kakugo no Susume, is likely some sort of pun on the hero's name, which can also mean "prepare yourself."

Availability

Available in the US from Media Blasters on one hybrid DVD or two 45 minute VHS volumes of two episodes each, subtitled or dubbed.

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