Usually, on Erectile Herbaduckins, we enjoy showing you the inner truths of works many will overlook because of their stupid goddamn faces. While that will always be our dedication, I have chosen today to discuss a work I enjoy in a somewhat different fashion. Please enjoy, haberdashers.
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| AND THE SCARS REMIND MEEEE THAT THE PAST IS REAL! |
I've long been a fan of Chiaki J. Konaka, which isn't even remotely an unusual opinion to have because, newsflash, he's a really fucking good writer. But I've only really seen two of his works: The Big O and Digimon Tamers. Both of which approach similar subject matter at completely different angles with completely different characters. The sophistication of both really impress me. From his personal notes on the development of Digimon Tamers, it seems like he's a writer who truly respects his source materials. He didn't think little of the Digimon franchise (and certainly, his script for Digimon Adventure 02 seems to suggest he finds it fitting for his personal loves) despite it being what it is and put all of his passion and thought into it. This isn't a half asser. He is truly one of the Great Animation Writers, and it was about time I indulged works that feature more of his scripts.
UNFORTUNATELY, BECAUSE THE INTERNET IS A GIGANTIC FAGGOT, ULTRA Q: DARK GALAXY ISN'T SUBTITLED AND NOBODY CARES ABOUT TOKUSATSU UNLESS IT'S SUPER SENTAI OR KAMEN RIDER.
Malice@Doll will have to do. And it most certainly does.
A tangent, but I promise it's related. Sexuality has always been something of interest to me. Though a terrible writer who wrote about terrible people, I couldn't help but feel completely enamored by the Marquis de Sade's work. (Mostly) unrepentant libertines indulging their basest, darkest desires who also felt the need to pass this knowledge onto others. The Marquis adapts much better than he reads, and this theme and these stories have been brought to film numerous times. They are a delight, though very much questionable in morality. I discovered my first Marquis stories in a college bookstore in my teens while on a trip related to the vocational work I was taking on becoming a teacher: the intense exploration of the depths of sexuality combined with the thematic importance of education hit me at just the right time and I've been endeared ever since.
I bring this up because, really, whenever a story explores the darker side of sexuality I can't help but always think back to de Sade and his various pantheon of characters. My favorite being Eugenie, who exists in two separate stories to my knowledge: Philosophy in the Bedroom and Eugenie de Franval. She is, always, the student. The neophyte who is wide eyed, eager to learn. Who isn't jaded and is promised to never be. Eugenie is one of the most thematically powerful characters in all of literature, and thus it's no surprise she is among my favorites. The wide eyed student who is eager to learn everything and who is promised to never, ever feel the cold sting of cynicism that comes with knowledge. The things we know (combined with the knowledge of the infinity that we don't know) is merely Eugenie's aphrodisiac. Ultimately, at his best, de Sade wrote about the most horrible, darkest acts man and woman could possibly perform on themselves and each other...but only so they can reach the idyllic pinnacle of existence. Where the very act of living replaces all the needless dry intellectualism they all possess (constantly, Jesus Christ). We debate like Socrates, but really just want to indulge like sodomites. Won't you join us?
Eugenie has two distinct fates, however. In Philosophy of the Bedroom, she becomes empowered by libertinage and when her mother seeks to return her from this horrible place and her horrible mentors, she is assaulted and all of her orifices are sewn together as Eugenie laughs and embraces her newfound place in the world. In Eugenie de Franval, however, she dies of immense guilt over the murder of her mother and her (consensual) relationship with her father Franval. Two sides of the same coin, really. A film adaptation of the latter story, Eugenie de Sade, opts for an odd combination of the two. Eugenie is one of my favorite characters, and she is the student who walks into the real world and both succeeds and fails.
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| She also sits like this all the time. |
Unintentionally or not, Malice is Eugenie.
Malice@Doll is a desolate world where all the humans have long since vanished, and all that remain are machines. The movie focuses on the dolls, specifically. The dolls are android sex workers, gorgeous women who feel no pleasure nor any pain but are designed to give pleasure to those who seek it. With no clients, the dolls are essentially sentenced to an autonomy maintained and inspected by their leader Joe Administrator, a robot who makes sure everything is in control in his zone. Every day, Malice walks out of her home (maintained by her friend the cleaning bot) and takes a pleasant stroll. One day, she notices malfunctions and Joe Administrator points her in the direction of someone who can offer repairs. This thing does not repair her, however, and instead unleashes its strange organic, Great Old One-esque appendages and penetrates her...
...and she wakes up human. So warm! Skin so soft! Malice feels beautiful, and when confronted by Joe Administrator she is appalled, suddenly, by the services provided by the dolls. She briefly describes her function as "to console", but Joe Administrator's description of the acts are so blunt and cold. So precise. She is a Doll, she swears! But...not like that.
Malice is rejected by the other dolls, save for Heather who always loved her singing. Seeing Malice sad, she kisses her and prepares to console her. But Malice's new organic body is oddly contagious, and Heather suffers initial pain as her body makes the change. She is new, organic, beautiful...a lovely woman with grotesque, bloody, demonic shrivels that are barely arms. But she feels so lovely, and IS so lovely...
The story chronicles Malice and Heather's quest to spread this wonderful feeling to their entire home. The story weaves and waltzes through the various perspectives, often crafting sympathy from unpredictable angles. Right after Malice and Heather embrace the euphoria of life, we're treated to a scene where one of the Dolls that originally rejected the human Malice sees our protagonists like this:
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| In the Marquis's day, this was anal sex. |
Dark. Shrouded. The Other.
The film shows the transformation of the Dolls into organics (who are often partially inhuman), while also showing Malice converting the various (all conveniently male) helper bots into organics as well. The result is truly a de Sadean euphoria: as various inhuman beings all cling to and grasp at life and all of its possible feelings and pleasures (and pains). Things spiral, however, and soon Malice must find out how to repair all of this with the help of the last remaining robot: Joe Administrator.
I'm not going to spoil the ending, except that it's cliche on the surface but makes perfect sense when given thought. Malice@Doll is a very thoughtful film, whose somewhat primitive CGI and somewhat hokey acting (at least in the English dub, which is what I watched) can't help but actually give it a charm it may not have otherwise possessed. It is very fanciful, with dialog and vocal inflections that suggest a fairy tale. And that's truly what it is: Malice jumps down the rabbit hole (or is forcibly penetrated by it, whatever) and we enter this strange world of bizarre organics with urges and needs and new ways to experience life for the very first time. It doesn't settle onto one character to sympathize with, nor is it something that puts the blame on any particular character. Everyone suddenly feels alive, and our Eugenie is wide eyed and learns all about this first hand. Experience is the best teacher.
It's pretty fucking good, you guys.
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