One to follow closely....
That was the most entertaining flash I've seen in a fair while - it had a nice balance that I think would have been lacking in similar animations. It was a good mix of the different elements (humour, drama, suspense, etc.) that kept it from getting stale before the end, and that must have taken some considerable writing and\or directing skills to accomplish, considering the subject of the film.
Graphics: The smaller format really seemed to suit the film, and the details didn't seem to suffer for it at all; I didn't notice anything that was too small to be seen clearly. I awarded a bonus point since I was able to run it in high quality, which is becoming something of a rarity recently. I fail to see why a machine that can play Doom3 just fine should have so much trouble playing a flash animation.
The characters were very well drawn, and animated nicely. The backgrounds were detailed enough to give the overall impression of seediness, and they made for a nice location for the story to take place in.
Sound: Fantastic voice acting from both artists, making their characters believable and giving them a lot of extra depth. I didn't hear a single wooden line anywhere. I personally found that the situation was more believable since the characters responded to each other realistically.
Violence: Handled very well, considering how over-the-top it could have been. I thought that the thrashing of the headless corpse was a very nice touch, and added a slightly darker counterpoint to an otherwise fairly comical death. The backflip made me chuckle. :)
Interactivity: Nice menu screen, and bonuses are always welcome; I wondered what the rest of that commercial looked and sounded like, so it was good to see it as an extra. I also thought the Kazahana Project featurette was very well done, packing a lot of information into a time frame that didn't drag on too long. One small extra convenience you could add to the end of that trailer in future films is a clickable link that opens the lifepoint1 website in a new window.
Humour: I thought the humour really added a lot to this film. It gave it part of that balance that made me feel like I was watching a complete film, instead of a half-baked short made to show off one idea without thinking about the other necessary elements of the story.
As I've already said, I found the shotgun to the head and subsequent backflip to be quite humorous - I'm not sure if I was supposed to, but sometimes things just seem funny to me if they're handled in a certain way. Watching Ai almost wetting herself as she stared down the barrel of the shotgun also made me smile....it's satisfying to see someone like her get what they deserve. The stuff that was clearly supposed to be funny (like the guy's behaviour at the beginning and end) didn't miss it's mark either, and I couldn't help but laugh at him getting up and ordering more videos after being stabbed and blowing someone's head off. XD I'd still can't figure out exactly how he was able to get up after having roughly twelve inches of sharpened steel rammed in his gut, but I'm not going to think on that too much since I was on his side for most of the film anyway. ;)
Overall, it was a highly enjoyable experience in pretty much every department. If future productions are of similar quality to this one, I can only hope you're able to put up with the amount of e-mails you'll get asking for new episodes. I for one will be eagerly awaiting the next installment of the story.
