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Bump of Chicken - Ningyougeki Guild: A Puppet Production DVD Review

"Guild" is one of my favorite songs from Bump of Chicken's Yggrasil album; it's right up there with The Beatles' "Hard Day's Night" for hammering home the drudgery of work and life. When I heard that Bump had the "story" animated for a special video I was ecstatic, even more so when I found out that it would be stop motion animated with puppets like a Tim Burton movie. All the elements for a great visual and aural experience were in place; great band, great song, animated puppets, and a story by Fujiwara Moto, the man responsible for all of Bump's deep, thought-provoking lyrics. So, how come this thing stinks like moldy bread?

First a word about the work itself, Guild is the story of a father (Manners) and his young daughter (Belkana) who live in a mining town and eke out a meager existence on what he makes down in the mines during the day. When he discovers that his daughter is musically gifted, Manners decides to buy her a piano. The only way he can afford to do this is by taking on the hardest job down in the deepest, darkest mine ironically nicknamed "HEAVEN." Because HEAVEN is so far away from the surface, working there will rob Belkana of her father for years on end. Since Belkana appears to be about 6 or 7 years old when this thing starts, and has no mother, it's odd that her father thought she needed a piano more than a loving parent, but that's just nitpicking. For the three of you that plan on buying this at some point and who will ignore my advice, I won't spoil the end. Suffice to say that it's a tearjerker.

According to the DVD, Guild has a running time of 24 minutes. Don't be fooled. The story portions of the DVD account for 10 minutes tops. The other 14 minutes are divided between opening titles, ending titles and nearly 10 minutes of Bump of Chicken themselves pretending to be characters in the story, goofing around, hitting on the underage protagonist, and filling in plot holes. There's a few chuckle worthy moments like when one of them mentions the giant mosquitoes down in the mines, but this isn't something you'll ever want to watch again. That goes for pretty much the whole thing. The animation is charming and cute like a Christmas special, and the story has some emotional weight but things move at a snail's pace. To boil it down for you: Not much happens and it's over. The booklet that comes with the DVD that has a full shooting script, conceptual drawings and a list of characters and their traits is far more interesting than the movie itself. Characters that appear for a total of 5 seconds are more fully fleshed out in the liner notes than in the film, including the cat who appears briefly on a rooftop.

This is only for diehard Bump fans and even then that's stretching it. Admire the craftsmanship but curse the execution. It's like an animated bedtime prayer. Does that sound good to you?

- Brian "boo" Stewart