There are many great video games on the market that deserve an anime adaptation, but ultimately many will never see a release on alternate platforms, with their storylines and characters left as nothing more than a (hopefully) fond memory for those who chose to play the game. Platinum Games’ Bayonetta has been pretty lucky to date. Since its 2009 / 2010 PlayStation 3 / XBox360 launch it already has a sequel lined up (Albeit on a competitors console) and just last November saw a film adaptation titled Bayonetta: Bloody Fate screened in Japan. Australian anime publisher Madman Entertainment quickly snapped up the rights to the film, and just last weekend held its Australian premiere at the annual Gold Coast Film Festival which has for many years been a supporter of the anime industry through their Cool Japan programming.
Bayonetta: Bloody Fate is not a direct adaptation of the original video game, and while the fundamentals of the storyline remain intact, many of the events that take place are unique to this film. Removing the limits of having to provide a balance between storyline and gameplay worked in the production teams favour, allowing them to focus on developing the characters and events a bit more without all the “filler” content that could have bogged down the 90 minute film.
While Bayonetta remains the central character, removing the unnecessary content also allowed the writers to allocate more time to focus on Luke Redgrave and Cereza, two characters who served as important secondary characters in the video game however never really received enough personal attention in my mind. Rodin, the proprietor of The Gates of Hell also makes a few additional appearances throughout while Enzo, who had a very small role in the first place had his cut even shorter although wasn’t completely omitted.
While the back story and plot are integral components to this film, the producers didn’t forget to acknowledge and take advantage of the key element to Bayonetta that made it such a fun action hack-and-slash to begin with… the fighting! Given the rewrites, many of the boss battles present in the source material didn’t carry over to the film. However there are still quite a few fights against angels and humanoids present throughout the film, with fast-paced action and a couple of Bayonetta’s trademark demon summons via her hair.
While there are always some limits that come with reproducing such an action-oriented video game into an anime, the animation studio GONZO of Last Exile and Strike Witches acclaim managed to replicate the same vibe well during such intense scenes, often being just as flashy with an extensive array of fast-paced movements, weapons and the not-so-occasional sexualised pose (Complemented by the fact her skin-tight clothing is mostly composed of her own hair – which she uses in battles). The visual quality is overall of a standard I would personally expect from an anime that receives a theatrical release.
The music included in Bayonetta: Bloody Fate is a mixture of songs sourced from the original game and those which have been produced specifically for the film. Many of the returning tracks are notable for being intense and often used in battles such as Theme of Bayonetta – Mysterious Destiny, One of a Kind and The Gate of Hell among others. Absent from the list of returning songs is Fly Me To The Moon (∞ Climax Mix), which surprised me given it seemed to be the most recognisable song in the game. The new tracks are of a good quality, especially the new theme song Night, I Stand which comes in a soft instrumental version during the film in addition to a faster-paced lyrical remix during the credits. Reading up on it there also seems to be an English version of the song… ready for an English localization perhaps?
As this film was only just recently released in Japan, there is only a Japanese dub track currently available for Bayonetta: Bloody Fate. While it may take a bit of getting used to the Japanese voice cast after spending so long with the English cast, they did a solid performance with their respective character roles including Atsuko Tanaka as Bayonetta, Mie Sonozaki as Jeanne and Daisuke Namikawa as Luke among others.
The question remains… just when will we see Bayonetta: Bloody Fate released internationally as part of a physical release? While I would love to see Madman Entertainment release it as a subtitled-only release in the next couple of months as an Australian-exclusive, ultimately that will almost certainly not be the case. If they decide to hold Reel Anime 2014 I think it is a safe guess that the film will be included as part of its line-up, meaning we would likely not see a release until the very end of the year at least.
The second question would be if they decide to wait for a North American company to license it and produce an English dub for it. This would most likely be the best option for their sales and I would personally love to see the English voice cast tackle this film, however they could miss the high demand time when Bayonetta 2 releases later this year or end up in a scenario like King of Thorn where they first screened the film during Reel Anime 2010 but didn’t release it on DVD or Blu-ray until early-2013. I look forward to seeing what direction Madman decide with their release schedule, and personally hope I only need to wait months rather than years to enjoy this from the comfort of my own home.
Personally I really enjoyed this 90-minute feature that streamlined the pre-existing plot, added a few elements of its own and essentially became much more approachable in regards to storyline delivery than having to go through ten to twenty minutes of gameplay for a new snippet of storyline. While I don’t think it is possible to favour one format over the other (You should consider checking out both), this adaptation should offer something for newcomers and veterans to the franchise alike. It certainly helped that the storyline was backed by the strong visuals from GONZO and an expansive music backing.
Bayonetta: Bloody Fate is a strong example of what a video game to anime adaptation should be.
———————-
Acknowledgements / Further Information
A complementary ticket for this screening was kindly provided by the Gold Coast Film Festival (Not Madman Entertainment). Currently there are no other screenings planned and outside of Japan, no international publisher asides from Madman Entertainment have confirmed they hold the rights to this film.
Do note that this review is temporary, and will be replaced by a full review once Madman Entertainment publish their physical release of Bayonetta: Bloody Fate. Given this is on the back of a single sitting, there may be small inaccuracies which will be fixed in the final review.
———————-