It wouldn't be a film night without films, and this year's Anime Allnighter certainly had a strong selection.  Here's a brief rundown on what was shown...
 

Simulcra

A surprise inclusion on the bill, this award-winning 4-minute CGI short film may not technically have been anime but it was still pretty good.  The story follows a robot living in a completely automated city that is surprised when a flower petal floating in the air.  Using his telescopic vision he spies the source as a flower in a distant army training area, but after running a computer analysis he finds that the flower is supposedly extinct!  It seems that the only surviving specimen is the one in the middle of the weapons testing field, and he decides to try and save it from destruction.  However, with all of the hi-tech weapons flying about will he end up being destroyed instead?  A creation of the Thai filmmaker Tatchapon Lertwirojkul, Simulcra is impressively animated and gets its story across well despite its short running time.  The music is good and the world well realised, whilst the main character and the mechanical design is equally impressive.  If there is a fault its that the some of the robot's movement is a little unrealistic, but despite this the

film was a nice, fun intro to the Anime Allnighter.  It doesn't tax the brain cells and has a nice little twist at the end, it's actually a shame it wasn't a tiny bit longer.

Rating:
___________________________________________________________________________

Appleseed: Ex Machina

Because of its short length there was no break after Simulcra, and instead we were launched straight into Appleseed: Ex Machina.  The film is the sequel to the cel-shaded Appleseed film that came out a couple of years ago, and like that film it looks great and has a massively action-packed story.  The plot once again follows ESWAT team member Deunan and her cyborg partner Briarios, who are trying to protect the neutral territory of Olympus from terrorism.  During a battle with a rogue group of cyborgs Briarios is injured by an explosion and with him out of action the top brass decide to team Deunan up with a new partner. Deunan is not happy with the decision, especially when her new partner Tereus arrives.  Tereus is a 'bioroid', a genetically engineered human who has been based around Briarios' DNA.  This means that he looks and acts like Briarios did before the accident that forced him to become a cyborg, something which Deunan finds hard to deal with.  However, she has to get her head round it soon as serious trouble is

on the horizon.  A mysterious virus is causing people to go crazy and launch seemingly random attacks, but there are signs that it is engineered and someone is manipulating events.  But for what end?  And can Deunan put aside her reservations with Tereus and combat the threat?  I must admit that Appleseed Ex Machina was a great way to start the night, the action flew thick and fast and the story was suitably compelling.  The characters were great and the design and animation was brilliant too.  John Woo is credited as producer and his influence shines through in some stunning action set pieces and gratuitous scenes of doves flying.  The only real drawback was that it did frequently rely on some serious action film clichés and moments of extreme cheese.  Overall though, pretty good and not as brain meltingly complicated as other titles by the same author (Ghost in the Shell, I'm looking at you...)

Rating:   
___________________________________________________________________________

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Luckily I was back in my seat when this one started, as it came on whilst most people were still queuing for the loo.  It was by far the best film of the night, and it was the most original and enjoyable too.  The story followed a clumsy schoolgirl called Makoto Konno who finds that she has a strange power when she is thrown off her bike into the path of an oncoming train.  Instead of meeting a messy death she wakes up to find that it's the morning of the day of the accident, and it has yet to happen.  Confused by what happened she recounts the events of the day to her aunt, who tells her that she 'time jumped', and that she has the power to do it again.  Excited by her new found ability Makoto uses it to make her days perfect, avoiding mishaps and getting perfect scores on her tests, but she soon starts to find the changes she makes are causing adverse effects for others.  There's still a lot she doesn't understand either, like how she obtained the power and why, but there's more issues than that on the horizon.  With all the changes she's

making has she taken things too far?  And what will happen is someone else discovers her ability?  The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was for me the unexpected hit of the evening.  There was something decidedly old school about the animation and art but this gave it a certain charm that fitted the story like a glove.  Unlike the other films on show this one was both funny and dramatic in equal measures, balancing entertainment with a plot that had some superb and unexpected twists.  It handled various emotions well and held my interest throughout, whilst the characters were believable and likeable.  For me this was the best film on the night and also the best anime film I have seen this year.

Rating: 
___________________________________________________________________________

Tekkonkinkreet

It seems to be a common theme at every Anime Allnighter that around 4am a film will come on that will send half of the audience to sleep, this time it was Tekkonkinkreet.  As usual there's nothing that wrong with the film itself but it's slow moving and a bit too introverted to take in fully at that time in the morning.  The story is set in a fictional city known as Treasure Town, an ageing mess of a place that is something like a shanty town crossed with the seedier suburbs of Hong Kong.  The underground of the city is ruled by two near feral children known as Black and White, but this state of affairs is shook up when a Yakuza known as the Rat returns to the town with his heavies.  The Rat's boss has plans for the city and starts to subdue the local gangs, but after Black beats some of his men senseless he shifts his attention to them.  The Rat wants to see the town's character retained but his boss wants it to be turned into an entertainment area, and he can't have Black and White messing up his plans.  When their attacks on his men escalate he decides to take extreme