sp1ti

5/10

As apparent by it's trailer, Danger Dolls does not set out for high art. This was also reinstated by the directors video announcement before the screening, stating he wanted to make a movie with "kawaii" girls who are fighting with swords (before he went on to rant about Japan's nuclear energy politics). Unfortunately it's not a very good movie. The setup goes like this: The Reagan Administration stops the global use of nuclear energy (and weapons). The ever so popular President George Bush manages to dispose of guns world wide. Come present day, guns might be gone but there is still criminal activity with swords being the weapon of choice these days. Enter the bad guys from an alternate reality, looking to rule the world that does not have nuclear weapons... It's obviously the job of the Danger Dolls to put an end to this. My main issue with the movie is easily the fighting. There are plenty of (repetitive) battles but they're not particularly exciting and despite the sword action there is no blood at all except for the one time a "normal" human got hurt. Despite it's ridiculous setup (and FX) it's all played straight but some more humor would have been welcome. The idol part of the movie was really clunky and seems to be for milking only as the inserts to the alternate reality Danger Dolls "idol group" were distracting and the whole undercover operation as idols was really dumb. Given that the director Shusuke Kaneko did his fair share of movies I was bound to expect more (I enjoyed his "God's Left Hand, Devil's Right Hand"). There is already an english dubbed trailer for the movie which suggest they want to market it. So if you are going to watch it I can only recommend to keep your expectations in check.