Early Reins Review by Bobby LePire. Edited Courtney McAllister.

 

So, before I get into the sheer ineptitude on display throughout this full-blown Western anime, allow me to clarify a few things. I love anime. My second favorite film of all time is an anime- ‘Millennium Actress’, a truly spectacular, wonderously romantic visual feast. If handled with the proper skill, blending traditional hand-drawn elements (the characters and interiors of the train) with CGI (the train and some scenery- cliffs, etc.) can and have worked very well, but here, it’s just a toxic mix of styles that don’t lend to each other very well. However, this film is so rushed that it can’t be bothered to expand on its plot, or have character arcs.

 

Set shortly after the Civil War, all our main characters are on a westward bound train. Bandits soon take over, and it’s up to our leads to save war hero Colonel Spencer and protect the gold from falling in the wrongs hands.

 

That is all there really is to say about the plot. As one of a small handful of proper Western animes, I am more than happy to see the genre’s hallmarks, cliches, and stereotypes being trotted out in this form, but I wish it was reconfigured to combine with something new (a la the fantastic ‘Gun Frontier’) or was at least aware of how/ why the stereotypes worked to begin with. Bad guys are former Confederates? Check. Abandoned ghost town with requisite mine? Check. Uncoupling of the passenger cars to speed the train up? Check. The list of cliches and overdone plot points goes on and on.

 

However, the story isn’t the only place the film succumbs to such laziness. I am going to describe the occupations of our six main characters, and I guarantee (provided you are familiar with anime and its style) that you can visualize exactly how each of them are dressed!

• A doctor- A green slim dress that leaves her plenty of room to move! Very ‘Dr. Quinn’-esque.

• A ranch hand- freaking denim overalls, because of course!

• Rich, spoiled brat- lots of jewelry and a super frilly dress.

• Saloon Singer- corset top, heavy skirt.

• Mercenary/ Thief- black everything and an eyepatch!

• Sheriff- white buttoned shirt, tan leather vest, the whole nine yards.

 

Please bear in mind that all our main heroes are female; which is pretty cool in its own right, considering that the vast number of Westerns that do exist usually relegate females to love interests. It is quite refreshing to see one where not only are they doing all the ass kicking, but have no romance with anyone. However, none of the characters are fleshed out enough to be particularly enticing.

 

The Sheriff has a small arc involving her having never actually killed anyone before. However, this is resolved, in ohh, I don’t know, 45 seconds or so. She hesitates covering Mercenary’s back, which almost gets them both killed. Mercenary chastises Sheriff, and Sheriff immediately shoots the henchman on the engine car. I am serious! *SNAP* Just like that, she’s the killingest, sharpshootingiest, most rough and tumbleiest person on the whole damned train! Why even have this when it adds nothing to the film’s plot or characterizations?

 

This does lead to my favorite line, though. When saying their goodbyes, Mercenary tells Sheriff that she’s “...woken up a sleeping giant”, in regards to the impressive gunplay displayed by the previously apprehensive Sheriff.

 

Unfortunately, that’s also the only really solid bit of dialogue in the entire script. Most of the rest is either exposition or nonsensically stupid. Everything we learn about Colonel Spencer is told to us. We don’t see the bandits plan, as they are surprisingly easy to dispatch. We are told what their plan was after the fact. When faced with a sack full of gold coins and bars, Brat asks “What is this?”. Clearly it’s gold! When discussing their plan to stop the villains, our heroines state that they “have no way to stop the train from getting to the mine” because the tracks have already been switched. But, the lever to switch the tracks was not tampered with in any way, so there are quite a few options given to them. The inanity is best encapsulated in the following exchange:

 

“Reload my gun will you?” asks Ranch hand.

“What? Me?” responds the Saloon Singer.

 

Saloon Singer doesn’t reload the gun, nor does Ranch hand, so huh? It’s a pointless exchange that doesn’t make any sense. Screenwriter Masashi Komemura hasn’t the faintest idea how people talk to each other. At this point, I bet you’re wondering if I watched this subbed or dubbed? The answer is, both! The DVD has both options, and the dub isn’t awful. The spoken translation is representative in tone and spirit to the written word, and the voice actors are all trying. However, their attempts at accents, especially the poor sap voicing the Ranch hand, are atrocious! The sub is superior in that regard, and adds an interesting surrealist angle- hearing Japanese voices come out of Confederate soldiers is odd, to say the least. But the dialogue is still exposition heavy, and dumb. So yeah, I am going to recommend the dub in this instance, as it provides even more mockable elements.

 

Within all the bad dialogue and absurd plotting are some really cool action scenes. The bandits sneaking around the train taking out the guards is exciting stuff. The shootout with the bandits on horseback and our heroes in the train is tense and action packed. The inevitable train crash sequence is a highlight. There’s one action beat that is off putting, and more in line with the stupidity on display in other areas of the movie. The baddie that Sheriff dispatches on the engine car actually fires at her first. Based on the cinematography and blocking of the scene, he appears to be shooting at point blank range… and misses entirely! How in the hell did he miss? A blind mouse could fire and hit her at that range! Ugh!

 

The character designs are good. Each person is quickly identifiable, even at a glance, which helps them stand out during the quick edits and kinetic pacing of the action. The 2D elements pack in a decent amount of detail, and move fluidly. The digital painted backdrops look good on their own, but during panning or tracking shots they give everything an oddly smooth texture, which breaks the reality spell. The train is CGI, and blocky as hell. Given the 2003 release, the awfulness of the computer generated imagery is inexcusable and unforgivable. When a mainstream (but comparatively low budget) film, “Tarzan And The Lost City”, which is five years older than this here, has better looking CGI nowadays, something has gone horribly awry in the animation department. Luckily, the full train isn’t shown too often and most of the movie is traditional animation.

 

You may have noticed that I have withheld the names of our heroines, which was deliberate on my part. “Early Reins” runs a scant 45 minutes, but we don’t get our main characters’ names until 27 minutes in. That’s right, for over half the runtime, the audience has no clue who these people are! So, let’s introduce ‘em:

• Janet is the doctor.

• The ranch hand is Caroline.

• Alice is the name of the rich, spoiled brat.

• The saloon singer is Helen.

• The eye-patching wearing badass mercenary is Laura.

• Margaret is the sheriff.

 

Why we don’t find out their names earlier is a mystery to me.

 

The short runtime is also a problem, as a lot of the story issues could have been solved if this were of feature length. Seriously, nothing is given the chance to breathe or be explored, but if this were 70+ minutes long, that’d be precious time to get know our superficially interesting heroines and flesh them out. The bandits’ plan would have more time to be developed and make sense. A late in the game reveal could have actual consequences. But nope, super short and primarily focused on the action. It does move at a neck breaking speed. Because it’s one action beat after another, and few of them are repetitive, it’s never dull.

 

It’s nice to see an anime embracing the traditional Western tropes, too bad it can’t figure out anything new to do with them. It’s cool to see a traditional Western being led by an all female gang, too bad the characters are so thinly sketched a drop of rain has more depth to it than our heroes. It’s fun to see such cool action, with no two beats feeling similar, too bad it has no stakes thanks to a predictable story. If you really, really love Westerns and anime, then buy this as soon as possible. Otherwise, just get some friends together and prepare to laugh your ass off.