Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Blackmage03
As a weeb of Russian descent I would've loved nothing more then to have put this anime in my top ten list and rub it into the face of every weeb I'll meet. But sadly, I can't do that.
On one hand Studio 4C did an incredible job with animation and sound design and honestly saved this movie from being a complete disaster. Where First Squad falls short is story wise.
If this wasn't a movie I feel like First Squad would've had a chance to be pretty good. The story utilizes a lot of strong story elements that in themselves can carry any story but in this case were rushed because of limited run time and didn't really let any of the potential shine through. They add magic and superpowers which under normal circumstances would make me so happy I'd spontaneously combust. But they don't establish…
Read at the sourceJJR1971
The main reason I enjoyed watching this movie is for the visuals, seeing Soviet troops drawn and animated in Japanese anime style, and the Russian voice acting.
This is by no means a good movie. But it might be one of those so-bad-it's-good kind of films. You have to accept from the outset that this movie is completely absurd; it's a flight of fancy about an alternate WW2 where magic and occult mystical powers are real but kept secret.
It is well known that on the German side the high ranking SS were very obsessed with theosophy and occult matters and imagined themselves as the spiritual successors of the ancient Teutonic Knights. This actual quirk of history gets riffed on in this anime and made literal in the story.
The Russians for their part have their own quasi-mythic heroes of the…
Read at the sourcemegafat
Every now and again, there is an anime project done in conjunction with a country outside of Japan. With First Squad, the project was done in conjunction with Japanese animation studio Studio 4C and a Russian company Molot Entertainment. Molot Entertainment doesn’t seem to have done much else besides First Squad besides another animated film called Ivan about a post-apocalyptic world filled with magical creatures such as dragons From what I can find, the company seems to be focused on helping promote independent projects.
First Squad itself seems to have an interesting history by itself. Starting out as a music video in 2005 by both Studio 4C and Molot Entertainment, with the song for the music video done by MC Ligalize. It even won an award at the MTV Russian Music Awards for best hip-ho…
Read at the sourceku258
Pervy orjad - First !ORDER!
The reason why I hate this anime is Because:
It is boring - THEY JUST TALK FOR F*** SAKE!
Story sucks - It is nonsensical, ends without point
History? - Yeah no match hear, It is... I dont even know.
Bonus:
Why the f*** is she having katana? Japan and Russia were enemies (russian WWII melee weapon was knife). They are speaking German, but not Russian. As a Czech history student and WWII book writer I found this really odd, in this anime Germans were not amused by cold. The art was fair, but soundtrack poor (I wanted to hear rap but no vocals).
This anime is waste of time
Read at the sourceWittmann
I'm going to start this off by saying I love anything related to World War Two, especially anything about the Eastern Front.
I'm willing to make a whole lot of exceptions for Eastern Front films, but in this case, even I couldn't overlook some glaring flaws. The film opened with an enjoyable ten minutes, and a very realistic depiction of an airstrike, I thought I was sold, and had the film ended there, I'd have given this a 10.
But then the rest of the film happened.
While I never expected them to play the setting straight, they could have at least taken the time to make a coherent plot. We are introduced to a number of characters in the underworld/afterlife who make a grand total of "zero" effect on anything in the story. It feels as if the writers came up with a bunch of different sto…
Read at the sourceTigrex22
Considering this is my first review, this is actually a hate mail. Why is that so?
You'll soon see why...
I started watching it believing this would be something interesting. What a fool I was. If you think this anime is going to be "interesting" because it has WW2 and Russia, you're damn wrong. You should avoid it.
I was almost interested for the first 10 minutes. But the acting was terrible. The characters showed no emotions. If you do want to call them emotions, be my guest. I one was rejected by the false interpretation of those "emotions". Oh well... we'll let it be.
Story 1/10
I have absolutely no words to describe what I just watched. The story was pathetic. How should I put this...
"Soviet teenagers with extraordinary abilities" - this is actually a phrase from the anime's detai…
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
Overview:
Time to review a REALLY obscure anime that most people have never heard of. I recently reviewed the first Berserk Movie by Studio 4C and lambasted it for the terrible art. Has 4C ever made an anime with really good art? I found that the answer is yes. A few years ago a Russian film studio funded by the Russian government hired 4C to draw a Russian written, acted, and directed anime that would basically be a Soviet version of Hellsing Ultimate! This actually fucking happened!!!
Story and Characters: 5/10
The plot is fairly basic since this is a fairly short movie and half the time is spent on real world interviews of Red Army veterans that seem completely out of place and are inserted into random action scenes that not only take the viewer out of the story but break the viewer…
Read at the sourcenucblus
First Squad is a really bad movie. The only reason I even watched this movie is that it came as part of a box set, which I bought to get Paprika, Memories, Tekkonkinkreet, Steamboy and Metropolis. It was a good deal, although I also got some things I really didn't want. Like Cowboy Bebop the Movie and Tokyo Godfathers, that I already owned. And some random movie called Millennium Dragon and, you guessed it, First Squad.
I already knew this movie was gonna be bad going in. So I took the approach of 'Let's just relax with an hour of mediocre explosions and fun fights' attitude. And trust me, this was NOT what I got. So let's explain why:
There was no story. Nothing was resolved, there was never any tension and no character was interesting. They had a romantic subplot going on, but that was…
Read at the sourceDarknim3
This is my 1st recommendation I hope you like, First Squad is a film anime russian Japanese that I personally loved it, a totally great animation the action scenes are very well made although the plot is somewhat rare and out of the ordinary is what good enough the movie to keep you glued to your seat without taking his eyes off the screen, the OST is magnificent and the protagonist trapped in the well-known vortex of violence that was the 2nd World War is EPIC! history is not closed all hopefully the 2nd part of this incredible story was a fitting end to this great Russian-japonesUn anime anime with action, drama, a bit of gore and many loads of suspense is what awaits you in First Squad.
Read at the sourceNeonKazma
Before I review this anime, a little history: First Squad is a Russian / Japanese film collaboration with Molot Entertainment with anime studio Studio 4C and it was the ONLY anime that was entirely made by Russian filmmakers with little Japanese animators to work with. All I know is that nobody ever seen this anime, even Anime News Network never even bothered to review this and so, like a curious little kid, I bought the film, watched the whole film and......... I was very disappointed in this anime. Talk about a big bitch slap in the face, First Squad is so bland, forgettable and boring, that all of those interesting story ideas that this anime had just gets thrown away into a fucking blender and then gets shit out of some guys ass and it's never seen again. THAT is how I feel about this…
Read at the sourcefesc
This is my first review, so it may not be literary gold, but bear with me.
First Squad: The Moment of Truth is loosely based on a music video made by Studio 4C, who also made the movie. The story is set on the eastern front during the opening days of World War II. The main character is a young girl called Nadya, member of a secret unit of the Soviet army consisting of teenagers with supernatural powers, who have been drafted and trained to fight off the German advances. With all her squadmates dead, Nadya now finds herself alone in the barren and frozen Russian landscape.
She soon gets involved in a plot to fight against an SS officer who plans to raise an army of 12th century crusaders and have them help conquer the Soviet Union. The cast of characters is largely forgettable, save for…
Read at the sourceArrvilja
When I started watching this anime I did not have any expectations except strong disapproval of the topic. In fact, we study WWII and the Great Patriotic War as a part of it for many times (at school + college and uni if u attend them), leaving behind the fact that there are many subjects that provide with the information of the kind. Plus state holidays each year. That is why the topic held me somewhat tense and suspicious.
More detailed acknowledgement showed it was not that bad. The idea and the story were decent (mixing GPW and magic is interesting at least), moreover, the art was well-done. And watching usual anime stamps (like the scene in the garden, or Leo, or two Nazi agents) in the context of Soviet reality was quite unusual and fun (however, they made the story hard-to-believe i…
Read at the sourcenikolas_dmx
OK, at first an anime about WWII seems a little odd the very moment you hear about it. of course that is just my oppinion. Anyway, about the movie. I find the studio and the director's job quite facinating and awesome. The idea of the movie is quite interesting and original, if I may say, involving such mystycal story for such ruff times. There was alot of action and blood which are making the mood even greater. And at last but not least - the art of the movie. Even supported with some PC activity at times, combining the anime style with the traditional Russian animation was briliant and gave perfect results. That is the thing I really, really loved in the picture.
Read at the sourcemoozooh
Ok, there are many reasons why this isn't a good movie, but it being a WW2-inspired fantasy flick isn't one of them. The problem is that it aspires to do things well, takes itself very seriously (have you seen the official site?), announces that boldly… and proceeds failing across the board. It's by all means a schlock feature masquerading as something it isn't.
I had suspected the movie wasn't going to be close to the teaser music video that preceded it—but the extent of difference was truly shocking. All of the titular First Squad members except the protagonist only appear in the movie for a few minutes, which came as a complete surprise. Obviously, none of them are anywhere close to being developed as characters—the protagonist is not an exception, sadly. Naturally, most of them don't…
Read at the sourceRanivus
I'll admit, I was sort of excited when I found this when I was randomly searching for some good Original Anime Music Videos. Russian rap and Studio 4°C (S4C) animating the video was perfect mix. But as an avid music video watcher in my hey day (when MTV actually showed music videos), one should know that you don't ever take a music video literally or you will lose the game.
Enter, First Squad: The Moment of Truth. I have seen many of S4C's animated shorts recently and have been a fan of most of their work. So to find a full length movie by them got me excited. And to realize its all in its 'native' language got me even more hyped up because, how often do you get to watch anime (or even movies) in native languages? It also adds to the level of detail this story tries to tell.
If you hav…
Read at the sourceForion
First, just a few words about what this film is and what it is not.
First of all, it isn't something complete and standalone. The creators of the movie didn't pretend to have accomplished all their goals in one fifty-something-minute piece. They couldn't, and they haven't. The end of the film is just the point where all events are launched and all characters are deployed, and what happens next is the matter of the sequel. Placing some final rating for the story at this point would be as hurried as, for example, judging a TV series by the first few episodes.
Second, it's a myth. Till today, most stories about World War II are either facts cut and bent to the purposes of propaganda, or myths and legends told in a dull and fact-like manner and also bent to the purposes of propaganda. This t…
Read at the sourcesneg
I come from Ukraine and the Great Patriotic War is something very important to people of post-Soviet countries. We respect our ancestors who died in this terrible struggle and all those unfortunate innocent people who fell due to genocide that was Nazi occupation. When I first heard of First Squad: The Moment of Truth I already decided that this should be a must-see movie for me. A slightly mystical spin on the story also seemed justified taking into account the rumours about Nazi elites being interested in occultism.
So I grabbed a drink, some snacks, made my self comfortable in my armchair and morally prepared myself to watch this promising film. It is to my disbelief that as the movie progressed the plot looked more and more disappointing. Despite amazing animation and stunning detail…
Read at the sourceSamFury
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Pre-Review Notes
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I'm going to be using a more freeform style for Movie reviews, as they are much smaller and I can describe my feelings for the movie in a much clearer fashion.
Studio 4°C’s anime transcends the borders of Japan. From Linkin Park's "Breaking the Habit", to the Animatrix, and even to the Gotham Knight, their portfolio is varied and extensive. First Squad, their latest effort, is a collaboration between two Russian directors and 4°C, crossing the sea once again to create international anime. I had high hopes for First Squad, as the Studio's last movie, Tekkon Kinkreet, was excellent. However, the bullets of the collaboration were quick to puncture my hopes; after an hour and thirteen minutes they looked like swiss cheese.
The story of First Squad is told…
Read at the sourcemikewando
This is my first review, but I feel like it needs to be written because no other review has highlighted how much of a let down this movie is.
Story (3/10): The premise is not terribly deep and can be summed up quite quickly; basically the Nazi's want to summon this ghost to kill all of the Soviets, so the Soviets send this clairvoyant teenage girl fight the ghost. The premise isn't amazing, but the movie could have still been good despite that. Where the story really goes bad are during these documentary-esque live action scenes with 'war veterans' and 'historians' (who are not actually war veterans or historians). The scenes do very little to help advance the plot and don't help add to the back story. The movie without the live action scenes would have been just as good, if not better, a…
Read at the sourceKsunich
I've never written any reviews. This is my first time so I'll do my best to show you my thoughts about this anime.
First of all, this anime has a serious and global topic (you know, World War II was terrible for all people, especially for Russians). The autors had showed the negative side of the war so foreign people can learn some important information about the Soviet culture, fighting spirit and, finally, about different people. It's a very great idea, I support it!
The characters are awesome! Every person has an individuality, his/her own specific qualities. But I wonder why some Russian people are blond like Nadya? They are dark blond! Almost forgot: I like the main heroine's name very much because in Russia it means "hope" - the most important thing for poor and frightened people.…
Read at the source