The movie contains explicit violence, sexual themes, abuse, mild nudity and extreme blood. Reader/Viewer’s discretion is advised. The following review also contains heavy spoilers.
Time and time again, people continue to criticize Hollywood scathingly for capitalizing on a good film and making cash-grab movies in the form of sequels.
The Exorcist, Saw, Mad Max, Star Wars, Marvel movies, Planet of the Apes, DC comics sequels, Terminator, The Matrix, Back to the Future, Die Hard, Alien, Predator, Final Destination, John Wick, Kill Bill
Ichi The Killer: Episode 0 (2002)
We can form opinions on why we liked some sequels more than others, but often we are left with the disillusion and the truth that the sequels will never attain the essence of the first movie, unless the sequels have been carefully thought out.
The difference between a bad and a good sequel seems to lie in three factors: one, the first movie didn’t have enough world building; two, both movies seem to have only one goal, one story and one purpose and three, the style and tone of the sequels rules over adding nonsensical twists.
The Dark Knight, John Wick 2, Back to the Future 2, Terminator 2, Mad Max Fury Road and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Manga: Ichi The Killer
Film sequels that act as prequels tend to be bad in general. From this long list name at least 15 western prequel films that are good. There are 127 film prequels in that list. Fifteen movies would represent the 19.2% of great film prequels in the West. Can we even consider that 19.2% is a good percentage to even say that prequels are good? Generally speaking, they are not.
This begs the question, why are prequels so bad? Well, I do not have the exact answer but I can base the answer on my own observations. Prequels have to remove some characters we have come to love, no new information is shared, we already know the outcome and normally, stylistic choices change because they are directed by people who just want to make revenue based on the success of a franchise.
I am sure you didn’t even know this existed and I do not blame you. I didn’t know it existed until I started to check which movies I wanted to cover.
Ichi The Killer: Episode Zero
The situation surrounding the making of this movie is unknown. What we can find is a trail and a tale of bad decisions, bad planning and awful results.
Was one of the few works that got made as a live action movie, as an animation and had a Manga at the same time.
We know that the Manga was released in 1998, it was controversial, it was crude and it was acclaimed. What you may not know is that the original story, the Manga who started it all, the birth of Ichi, the killer, was a one volume Manga released in 1993 and the name of the Manga is simply titled as “Ichi.”
Jual Komik Ichi The Killer 0 Prequel (hideo Yamamoto) English
For the sake of everyone’s sanity I am going to refer the original Manga in which the prequel is based on as
. There are two extra chapters that are different in tone which we are going to refer as “The Birth”. We will name Takashi Miike’s film as
Was a one volume story (conformed by 11 chapters and 2 extra chapters) about a kid who was bullied even though he had an innate talent for martial arts. He hated fighting and always chickened out from his own fights. Through the help of his classmates from the dojo, he overcomes his wimpy attitude and becomes someone who can express himself through fighting.
Ichi The Killer
Now, there are two problems with this prequel: the first problem is the same fact that this was released in 1993 by
In a time in which not even Hideo Yamamoto knew which direction to take the story in and this introduces problem number two,
Contrasts each other in their content and sometimes, it completely contradicts it when it comes to Ichi’s character (taking in consideration the epilogue, that contradicts the whole body of work, but I am digressing).
Ichi The Killer: Episode 0 (video 2002)
I want to stop a little in the second issue to let you know that this highlights the fact that Yamamoto was just making things up as he went along with flow.
, it becomes evident that the main character from both releases are two different people. It is until chapter four that we see a few sparks of what Ichi would become in the future and even then, the story is not that different from a generic high school martial art Shounen Manga with more than average violence (only chapters 1-11, though).
Starts by not having any direction or point to it. It is the same old bullied kid who needs to learn how to stand up for himself, something Shounen Manga are known for. In the mental health point of view, the Ichi, of
Ichi 1: Origin (2003)
, is stable; he is a normal kid from the early 2000s trying to make it out of High School alive (we’ve all been there).
His bullying rarely gets physical and his classmates seem to only bully him by words that hurt his ego. “Words hurt more than punches” seem to apply as a general rule and it would make sense that Ichi’s mental state starts declining because of it. Sometimes people around him call him “lame” which makes him feel down and “Ichi the Bitch” is the trigger to his cry-fighting style.
As one body of work, we can analyze Ichi’s character as someone who did not become what he was because he was bullied but because he was born with a mental dysfunction; something that the epilogue in
Ichi The Killer & Ichi Origin
When we see Ichi’s actions during and after his triggering. More specifically after; Ichi doesn’t get too affected nor has any type of remorse after he kills. Instead, he knows he is a good fighter and is content that he has found something he can do.
“But we still see him being triggered that is what’s important in Ichi’s life. Not all psychopaths are killers, plus he was always alone and no one to help him” you say. Well, yes, in
He still is traumatized because he also got bullied as a kid, however, Ichi’s bullying, in high school, doesn’t look that bad considering he had people who he could rely on, specifically Dai (his childhood friend). Just to clarify, the fact that he was bullied was bad, but he always had an almost happy-go-lucky attitude about it and Dai was one of his pillars when it came to moral support.
Quick Manga Reviews 9
It is this happy-go-lucky attitude that makes Ichi go through a revelation by chapter eleventh: “I am not a bullied kid anymore”, as the author closes the first arc of Ichi’s life. Shounen Manga endings at their best.
In the end, the eleven chapters play like high school kids fighting to see who is the best, literally. It is an ego measurement and while it does have some kind of criticism towards the violence in schools,
Doesn’t take many risks about it. The ending gives us an idea that Ichi has accepted that he is not a bullied kid anymore and that he can stand up for himself.
Uk Anime Network
Now, we can speculate that it was Dai the one who betrayed him in the aftermath… however, there is no indication that any of this is true, since
Doesn’t give us any hints to something so specific like this ever existed; if anything, due to the memory manipulation we can conclude that the “betrayal” was only inside Ichi’s head.
Yamamoto has a tremendous shift in the content and style which is huge, enormous and a big departure from the eleven chapters. The content becomes gruesome, crude, dark, unfiltered and almost the prefect prelude for
Miike Takashi's Ichi The Killer Will Get A Remastered And Revived Re Release
Due to the seasonal tone of each release, Ichi’s story has blank periods in which anyone could expand on and has elements that were never brought up again. We don’t know about his parents or the relationship he has with them, where does his fascination for SM comes from since Ichi’s violent acts is his way of revenge. We also see a woman from
, who is never brought up again and the old man’s plot of “making an army of killers” was only a thing mentioned in
(chapters 1-11) was never a great product. It was an ok product at best. There was potential for the Manga to be better and it molded itself with
Anime: #44: Ichi The Killer: Episode Zero (2002)
Is the proof). The story of the prequel it’s so generic that it could’ve been confused with YuYu Hakusho for all we know.
Remember when we talked about the fact that Yamamato, Sato and Miike’s intentions were to criticize the glorification of violence and that giving a longer focus on Ichi could actually make us sympathize with him which was not the idea?
Oh, how hard they tried. Yes, how far they got and in the end we could conclude that it didn’t even matter.
Ichi (yamamoto Hideo)
To get to the point, I am just going to babble about the timeline of releases which gives us hints about how and why
Was released in September that year, there are 40 chapters comprised in 10 volumes. It was
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