Kana Hanazawa as Hadaly Lilith (I squealed when I found out
Lilith was going to be in this. Like what?!?)
Plot
Shisha No
Teikoku is set in the 19th century. Humans have discovered how to
bring back the dead to “Frankenstein” corpses. These corpses are a vital part in
the agricultural development, they work as labourers and even go fighting in
war.
We are
greeted by a Sherlock Holmes’ character, John Watson, who by the start of the
movie is still not acquainted with the famous detective. John starts off by
himself in his office with body of his friend on an experiment chair. He
succeeds in turning him into a moving corpse but his friend, Friday, is still
not considered to be alive as he lacks an important part, the soul.
The movie
features many classical literature such as Sherlock Holmes, Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein, Dostoyevsky’s The Brother Karamazov and Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s
The Future Eve (a personal favourite of mine.) There are also appearances of
influential people such as Thomas Edison and British Army officer, Colonel
Burnaby.
Review
The movie
is action packed and the plot is very interesting with a moderate pace. If you
like zombie movies then I think you might like this. It’s not your typical
zombie movie and definitely unique in its respective genre.
Art-wise,
it is beautifully drawn and the producers definitely put a lot of effort into
making the movie as attractive as it can possibly get. For example; the
background and landscapes are very well done and the way the characters’ eyes
shine brings characteristic and life and how dull the eyes of the corpses’ are
that also defines another characteristic of death and numbness.
Because it
is an animation, of course it has to have voice actors. I was quite pleased
with the cast for the movie. Hosoya-san is
a very talented voice actor, along with Hanazawa-san.
Hosoya also
plays Haruto Kirishima in Kimi no Iru Machi and Nezumi from No.6.
Hanazawa is
best known as Tsukimi from Kuragehime and Shiemi from Ao no Exorcist.
As far as I
know it has only been released in Japanese. I don’t know of any English dub
projects for Shisha No Teikoku.
I would recommend
this to those who liked Attack On Titan, just because the two are from the same
studio (Wit Studio.) Any zombie fanatics out there should definitely hop on
this adventure too! And if you like something that will boggle your mind then,
yes this anime is for you.
Rating:
7.5/10 I was very satisfied after I watched it but I wanted to know more
especially with that ending. I might just pick up the novel.
