May 12, 2014
Mod Edit: This review was originally posted for Watashi no Coffee Samurai: Jihanki-teki na Kareshi (Coffee Samurai) (6616) and has subsequently been merged into Indie Anibox: Selma Danbaekjil Coffee (28235).
Coffee Samurai is a 30 minute short film about a samurai who ends up being re-incarnated as a coffee vending machine. Sounds weird? Well, it is, but that's part of it's charm, and there were some other things I liked about it as well.
The story is fairly decent, despite it's basic structure. Things move at an appropriately slow pace, and it ends up feeling somewhat longer than 30 minutes by the end. The narrative is also
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presented fairly well, with some nice moments sprinkled throughout. It starts off as just being weird, but quickly changes into a love story, which I thought worked really well, despite the relatively odd nature of everything. The story also has a few original takes on romance tropes in it, but they didn't stick out to me, and fit in fairly well. I guess I could say that the story didn't surprise me or anything, but I don't think it was trying to. It was basic, but well done throughout.
The characters are much along the same lines. The two main characters, the Coffee Samurai, and the waitress, named Hemi, are both pretty simple character archetypes when you break down their personalities. Yet, they're also given all of these little quirks that make them both stand out from other similar characters. It makes them feel more original, despite having any actual depth to them.
I think the visual designs on both the main characters and the villains are really nice as well. It brings a certain charm to the art style, and makes me forgive some of the poorly animated scenes and the generous use of limited animation that stood out like a sore thumb, especially during the action-packed parts. Still, I thought the use of color and the backgrounds were all well done. This short film isn't going to wow you on the visuals, but it's got a basic kind of appeal to it.
I can't say the same for the audio, however. The soundtrack is almost un-noticeable throughout the entire thing, and doesn't really seem to compliment much, and when it is noticeable, it's a poppy Japanese ballad that fits the scene it's in, but doesn't really stick in your mind. The whole soundtrack just feels unambitious. The quality of the voice recording is somewhat poor, as well, making the sound feel like it was made on a really low budget. Especially during a few action scenes, where there's lots of yelling and the audio is noticeably clipping. Still, the sound quality being as poor as it was, I was still able to enjoy the actor's performances. They weren't outstanding by any means, but I thought they did a decent enough job portraying their characters.
Overall, I liked Coffee Samurai, but I'm not sure it would be the first thing I'd recommend if somebody asked me for something bizarre and crazy to watch. It definitely has shades of both of those things, but I feel it succeeds more on being a charming little tale with some fantastical elements thrown in. However, all of that is buried beneath the relatively low quality of the audiovisual experience, which manages to be pretty lackluster. There are some moments that definitely make it interesting, but if you are going to watch it, I'd definitely recommend going in with managed expectations.
I give Coffee Samurai a 6/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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