Imagine We Still Had VHS: Ultraviolet: Code 044

*This blog post was started on July 15, 2022.

I think that I am nearly recovered from Fan Expo Chicago 2022. The cats were kind enough to let me literally sleep through half of my day off. There was also a degree of relief to realize that my current work week is only five consecutive days. That makes the lack of a two-day weekend for the foreseeable future an easier thing to swallow. The finances are great despite a trip to an entertainment convention.

Poshmark: $20 too much mstone4200.

Can you believe that I made it out of Rosemont with only purchasing two Funko Pop! bobbleheads? Only one was purchased at the con on top of that.

Still, the exhaustion has lead to bit of a lack of content creation motivation. With two podcasts already recorded and an easy to binge third podcast to compose, I have not watched a movie since "The Producers" on Sunday the third. Because there is a lack of stress to binge sub 100-minute films, my intention for the next couple of weeks is to catch up on features with runtimes that are greater than 100 minutes (Thanks Starz [And ThePoeticCritic for requiring me to subscribe to watch "The Cable Guy" for NinetyForChill: The #Podcast's Jim Carrey Episode.] for throwing up "Spider-Man: No Way Home" on your platform.) and binge the series(s) that I meant to for Fan Expo. There is also a lot of video game stuff for me to clear up to get to "Pokémon Legends: Arceus". Where is the time to come up with blogs?

Time is still something that I have difficulty managing. Thus, wanting to get to bed at a reasonable hour means more than a hundred minutes is difficult to obtain. It is tough to find 90 minutes. Thankfully, television determines 22 minutes equals 30 minutes. This lead to a dive into my unwatched anime vault. 

66 minutes is easy enough to manage. When one of these anime's is inspired by a worse ("Equilibrium" is bad.) Kurt Wimmer movie, the thought of 28 minutes less of "Ultraviolet" is one that can be stomached easily.

Ultraviolet: Code 044 (Eps 1-3).

It has been 60 years since the hemophage virus had divided the human race. The Central Government has declared that those infected are no longer human and must be annihilated, not just from the Earth, but all corners of the galaxy. Their efforts on their home world have been very successful. Off world, the wise phage named King has been able the rally the outcasts to a position of strength with aspirations of creating their own government in the asteroid belt.

The Central Government's primary weapons are clones who have been infected with the hemophage virus, so they can utilize the superhuman, vampiric abilities of their target while being docile to their masters. These clones maybe stronger than humans, but the virus will kill them eventually. Five years of service is all that is expected. This applies to even the government's best agent, 44.

44 is the most efficient disposal agent. Her youth leads many of her targets lowering their guard. Her determination to make the most of her short life makes her seemingly invincible. But, she was infected at 14. She has just turned 19. With little time to fulfill her purpose, she is off to the colony of Neo-Tokio to stop King.

This is the furthest away from government supervision that she has been. With this freedom and yearning to truly understand her existence, will she have the focus to succeed in her task? Or, will the new conditions allow her to reconsider her purpose? One government will fall, but it may not be the one she intended to take down.

I will give creative director Osamu Dezaki (Director of "Golgo 13: The Professional" and "Golgo 13: Queen Bee") for understanding the film he was tasked with expanding upon. The shoddy construction of the first scene of "Ultraviolet: Code 44" feels like a copy and paste from the 2006 Milla Jovovich film. If that does not deter you from watching the rest of the first episode, it does get better action and story wise. Too bad the style of Madhouse leaves it looking dull.

This series did get a brief run on G4, probably as a result of the success of the "Marvel Anime" series. I did go back and look through the features the studio worked on, and what I stated about the style maybe an over statement. Then again, when one of their projects pops out at you, the direction comes from legends like Mamoru Hosoda ("The Girl Who Leapt Through Time", "Belle", "Wolf Children") or Satoshi Kon ("Perfect Blue", "Paprika", "Tokyo Godfathers"). The art style is beautiful on the whole, but the color always seems to be lacking.

If your are adapting a manga, that seems appropriate. When you are adapting a live action feature that was dependent on bright colors to distract you from the lack of coherent direction or story, the mark has been missed. This is something that the "Marvel Anime" I had watched ("X-Men" and "Blade") was hurt by. The series needed to at least look as bright as Fox's "X-Men" from 1994.

To Madhouse's credit, there are some series that look fully flushed out from an aesthetic standpoint. If I had all the time in the world, I would have rather continued on with "Black Lagoon".

It is rare for me to be caught up on color since my experience was ravaging through the shelves of Suncoast in the late 1990's. There is a generational divide between me and millennials who got anime series sold to them on American TV and in full season box sets. Perhaps I just find it tricky to sample new (brighter) things. But, I know what the standards are now, and "Code 44" is not what the kids are expecting.

I will get beyond the bland palette because there are things to like about this sample size. The soundtrack is solid with great opening and end themes by BECCA (produced by Meredith "Bitch" Brooks), and once the drama picks up, so does the presentation of the action. Wimmer would be envious.

Unlike the Wimmer movie, the series takes the time to explain everything that happens in this world. It has a nice "Blade Runner" vibe and you can understand the existential crisis our protagonist is going through. She is neither human or phage and has never been given direction beyond her orders. I am currently trying to find suggestions for my own personal direction. In short, it tells the story of needing to grow up in a moment, not a lifetime. Who (has not sampled anti-depressants) cannot relate to that?

If this was released 10 years prior (1998), I would probably have been engaged with this series instead of moving on to something else for my blog. This series is what Wimmer sold us in the opening credits of his feature. Too bad he just wanted to poorly shoot action sequences instead of providing us with a sensical narrative.

Sony probably greenlit "Ultraviolet" because it had Jovovich as the star. People seemed to dig the first "Resident Evil" franchise. They failed to realize that it was not the star that kept us invested. It was that we had an idea of the world RE existed in because we played the video games. A colorful trailer does not make up for four video games of inspiration.

There is a lot to like about "Ultraviolet: Code 44" if you are willing to look past the inspiration and have strong vision to separate the gray visuals. It does not offer anything new to sci-fi action, but it does not do anything wrong outside of lacking paint between the ink. If it had a little humor or more intense violence, this would be worth sampling at full-price.

Too bad what you get is a barely acceptable DVD from Mill Creek Entertainment. There are no captions and it is a dub. But, you get this entire series with two other Madhouse franchises for $15. 39-episodes of TV is tough to resist.