While Yasuomi Umetsu is a known veteran of the industry whose involvement in with anime stretches back to Toei Animation in the 1980s starting as an in-between animator, the director is perhaps most known for his late-90s hentai OVAs with Arms. A Kite and Mezzo Forte were original creations that showcased many of the director’s signature creative touches that helped them stand out beyond sexual content. Highly-detailed graphic violence, young female protagonists engaging in highly-technical acrobatic action sequences emphasizing a mix of weaponry, fistfights with stunning fluidity, often blending realism with sci-fi.
Over the years he’s come to dip his hand into many franchise, revisited these ideas for a non-hentai TV series, but rarely has he had an opportunity to bring a new, entirely original vision to life since these seminal turn-of-the-century creations. A big reason for this is because in 2014, a few years following the conclusion of 2008’s Kite Liberator, he began production on a new original theatrical film series with SHAFT that only now is beginning its rollout to masses. Virgin Punk certainly allows Umetsu the freedom to unleash on a creative canvas entirely his own, even if the release format of this film series and the brief 35-minute runtime of this first part makes it too early to say whether the story was worth the wait.
The story begins in an orphanage, a peaceful scene where Ubu is showing off her robot to the other kids and heads of the institution. There’s cheers and joy abundant as everyone enjoys watching the robot dance, a rather quaint and idyllic scene before it’s interrupted by the sudden intrusion of Mr. Elegance and Maggie. These two bounty hunters who ruthlessly murder the management of the orphanage who cared for Ubu in order to collect a bounty. Before leaving, Mr. Elegance takes a sexual interest in the 14-year-old inventor, hoping to meet again. Ten years later, she’s become a bounty hunter herself, one of the best for her acrobatic skill, weaponry, and ruthlessness, hoping to find Mr. Elegance along the way and get revenge.
Such a story certainly bears parallels to Umetsu’s Kite, not just in its orphaned protagonist, hyper-violent action and its hyper-charged sexual elements, even if Kite’s creation as a hentai OVA means it certainly goes further in this regard than the still-intense ecchi of Virgin Punk. But this isn’t to say this project kickoff is a mere retread of classic themes. Nor is its protagonist a copy-paste integration replacing an underage assassin with an underage bounty hunter.
If Kite was attempting to capture the fears of a Japan at a crossroads in its gritty setting amidst its violence and sex, Virgin Punk has at least established the beginnings of a story about agency and the controlling organizations hidden in the shadows amidst its futuristic world. That being said, with so little time to explore these ideas - the film is more of an extended pilot episode at just 35 minutes in length - and the fact this is the first in a planned series, there’s certainly a lot left unexplored in this first film in the series.
What exists here is still intriguing, nonetheless. Despite the lurid sexual fantasies Mr. Elegance plays out on his partners in crime by controlling their actions and even how they dress, seeking pleasure in their forced humiliation, it successfully portrays him as a horrid yet intriguing blend of a villain and a target. The fact he’s such a central part of the life of Ubu and the broader assassin underworld without being its overarching leader (these people are merely hinted at without a full introduction in this first part) makes him memorable and fascinating without being distant or untouchable.
The question is where does portrayal become a tacit approval? Exploitation of minors is an easy shortcut in creating someone anyone can despise, and isn’t new to Umetsu’s work. Mr. Elegance embodies this role, and the film is unafraid to show him partaking in his fantasies of ogling, dressing and taking pleasure in witnessing the naked bodies of minors. In just this brief time we have no hope in understanding what brought Elegance into this underworld, or who he is beyond this characterization. But we certainly get to sit side-by-side with him as the film animates in some detail the bare chest of an underage girl. It’s almost as though the film wishes to signal this disapproval while engaging in the act itself, though I do feel this is more because we don’t have the time to learn anything more.
He's still a sufficiently depraved villain with enough to make him compelling. Indeed, if there’s one core issue at the heart of Virgin Punk, it’s that all its most interesting ideas, especially with Ubu’s character and the sudden shift in fortunes she experiences across the film, are not given time to develop in this early stage. Much of the time is instead spent throwing its audience from location to location, fight scene to fight scene, with just enough flashy animated prowess to distract from the lack of depth till after the credits have rolled.
It's still asking a lot to pay a full cinema ticket for barely 30 minutes of entertainment, but if there’s one area Virgin Punk justifies this cost regardless, it’s in its animation and action. Over half of the film is taken up by hails of bullets, blades, and flashy action across multiple thrilling sequences, including a final set-piece that takes us across the Italian-inspired future setting through trains and rooftops. Whereas the backstories of these characters aren’t fleshed out to any real depth, the fighting styles and weaponry are varied and detailed.
Compared to Elegance’s typical use of guns, Ubu’s use of circular blades that take advantage of her petit frame to pirouette through hails of bullets and debris to slice through anyone standing in her way is a joy to watch. The team have made high-intensity action a key selling point for the film, relying minimally on CG animation while utilizing over 740 cuts of animation, far beyond the typical 400 featured in a typical 25-minute episode of animation. The fluidity of movement and the tactility of blades and bullets slicing through metal and human flesh caused me to recoil because the level of detail made their impacts much more visceral.
It's a wonder to see unfold. In the moment ,at least, Virgin Punk is amazing. Yet it’s hard not to feel there’s so much left to explore when this entry is over-and-done in 35 minute, its sudden ending putting a downer on the high-quality animation where its lack of depth becomes painfully apparent. But I see potential in Umetsu’s world, and I’m sold on seeing more when later installments in the series are eventually drip-fed to the public. If Virgin Punk can reveal a grander narrative that can match the quality of its animation found in this first unfinished pilot-of an installment, it’ll be worth the wait.
