Review of Yuki Terai Secrets

Introduction

I love Japanese animation. Since Akira first blew me away, I have had a soft spot for this medium. Complex stories and characterisations prove that `toons` aren`t for kids alone. But up until now, all these great stories have been in two dimensions. While Hollywood has embraced CGI wholeheartedly, and now produce blockbuster after blockbuster (Toy Story, Shrek, Monsters Inc, etc) The closest we have come to CGI anime is last years Final Fantasy movie. Unfortunately, that was a case of great visuals, shame about the story. Also that was made for a global market, and somewhat lacked the style and flair of homegrown Japanese animation. So when the opportunity to review Yuki Terai came along, I jumped at the chance.

Yuki Terai is Japan`s number 1 virtual star (according to the blurb on the back of the case). A digitally created teenager who courtesy of animator Kenichi Kutsugi, stars in adventures and releases pop singles. I was looking forward to some CGI anime action.The disc details list all that is on this disc and tell you all you need to know about the stories with the exception of Project BB-11, a WWII sea battle recreated digitally.

The approximate running times are:

5.50 -FLY AWAY ALONE
7.20 -DOS/CHIN
5.30 -A LIFE
7.40 -COMET THE THIEF
5.30 -THE MIRROR
6.40 -LAZY GUI
5.10 -MY DEAREST YOU
3.40 -PROJECT BB-11

Video

Yuki Terai is presented in a 4:3 format, although the picture ratio itself varies from letterbox to 4:3 depending on the episode. In fact, Comet the Thief actually uses both ratios in the course of the story. I guess with this being a digital feature, any concerns over the transfer would be moot. At one point I did notice some grain, but in the making of, they show how they add grain to make the picture more realistic. So aside from the fact that the brightness was a little high, (something obvious in Lazy Gui`s grey cosmos and easily fixed by manually adjusting the brightness) there is little to fault the transfer. The same cannot be said for the animation. Despite the state-of-the art animation boasted about on the cover, the programme year 2000 belies that claim. In the field of computer animation, 2 years is an eternity in which massive strides are made. Since 2000, the graphics card in your humble PC will have gone through 3 generations of technology and you would expect the same in CGI. Indeed when I watched Yuki Terai, I found that the images weren`t too impressive. It is true, that Yuki is a very well designed and distinctive character, and I can see how she is recognisable as an icon, but after seeing the groundbreaking animation of Final Fantasy, there is something lacking how `real` Yuki Terai is. The characters look good, but their movement doesn`t seem weighty, and interactions between characters and objects aren`t tangible. When Yuki picks something up, it doesn`t look as if she is actually holding it. When she fights in Comet the Thief, none of the blows cause any deformation when they land. It`s small things like this that distract from the stories. You can see the improvement in animation as you watch the shows. Comet the Thief is the worst looking one, in some frames the skin mapping is flawed on the characters, and the scenery looks horrible, and it`s obvious this is an early episode. But in later episodes like Project BB1, the animation is greatly improved and you would be hard put to find any flaws.

Audio

Sound for the disc is available in DD 2.0 and DD 5.1 flavours for all the features. In addition, Fly Away Alone, DOS/CHIN, A Life and My Dearest You are presented in DTS. Dialogue is in Japanese, with subtitles provided in English, German and Danish. The sound is functional, but lacks subtlety, in this CGI world, all sounds are discrete and clear, when Yuki climbs the skyscraper, the wind effects are apparent and constant. There is no variation in the sound as there would be in real life. The songs are quite good, I especially like Fly Away Alone, which is quite sultry, but we go back to cheery poppiness for My Dearest You, which has a quite terrible eighties pop video.

Features

This DVD cheats a little, as the approximately 79-minute running time includes the extras listed on the sleeve. The making of consists of several vignettes totalling 22 minutes; they look at how Yuki is created, and what techniques are used. It boils down to a 3D master class, which presents the software as it is used with a voiceover describing the action. It is informative if a little techy. What aren`t listed on the sleeve are the slideshow, artwork and trailers. The slideshow is a 3-minute look at Yuki modelling some CG swimwear in some CG locales; the artwork is a similar thing that looks at how Yuki was created, from design sketches to wireframe models to the final CG product. There are three trailers, with a long and short version of each. Fei-Fei is another character on the lines of Yuki, and there is a trailer for another Yuki disc. Finally there is a trailer for Virtual Stars, which showcases the kind of dominating pneumatic amazons that inhabit the Dead Or Alive computer game series. The animated menus are well accomplished also.

Conclusion

Yuki Terai didn`t impress me to be honest. If you look at the running times (which include credits), you`ll see that the universal constant is brevity. The description given for each show is far too detailed. If you have read it, you know the beginning, middle and end of each little story. As such, you will gain very little enjoyment from watching some of the shows as opposed to respect for the animator. That said I did enjoy A Life and Fly Away Alone for more than just technical accomplishment. Also for such a popular character, these shows lack just that, character. After watching this, I have no more idea of who Yuki Terai is than before. In that respect, the disc fails in what it sets out to do. The animation itself, while impressive is dated. It was dated 2 years ago if you consider the fact that George Lucas managed a tangible, concrete and interactive (if annoying) CG character in The Phantom Menace. I kept waiting for the cutscene to end, so I could start playing the game, which pretty much says it all, all style and no substance makes this disc a missed opportunity. It pretty much reminds me of the CG animation demos that were popular about ten years ago. A little more sophisticated than the desk lamp jumping on the ball perhaps, but just as fleeting.