In honor of it being spooky season, I tried to find a new anime (to me) that was somewhat horror and stumbled across this….Giant bugs are actually very scary. While I actually am afraid of insects, this movie was sorta funny in a twisted way, with weird fanservice. I saw far too many boobs. Like truly, it was off the charts, to say the least. I always found it interesting how fanservice is really geared more towards the male audience. Can’t go one hour without seeing boobs huh? Very interesting how they didn’t censor boobs or other body parts for the women, but somehow drew the line at super gory things, like a body ripped in half.
Flashback time
I can’t even believe I sat through this movie, considering I do not like insects. I remember when I was younger, I used to be deathly afraid of flies. My mom would often tell the story of how I almost was hit by a car as a small child, trying to get away from a fly. When I got older, it was so bad that whenever I’d see a bug, I would scream over and over, like I was possessed. When I lived in freshmen dorms in college, I learned to stop screaming, when I saw bugs. Mostly because, people are willing to fight, when you wake them out of their sleep. I ain’t want them type of problems.
I lived in a very old dorm, that was mouse and roach ridden. Which looking back was ridiculous, because I was paying so much to live there. And it was a private college. My suite always had roaches in the closet outside our rooms, it was actually so terrible. I’m glad my roommate at the time, was from Florida, so she was used to seeing big ass cockroaches and didn’t mind doing the killing in our suite.
What is this movie even about?
So basically, the movie starts out with a group of high school kids waiting for a flight. Their plane crashes, and they end up on a mysterious island. how they all survived the crash, I will never know. Somewhere down the line, these teens learn it’s not inhabited by humans, but instead, freakishly large insects. I wouldn’t say they were killer insects because….aren’t they just following the laws of nature? They are freakishly huge, but it’s survival of the fittest out here, b. Anyways, some of the teens are killed, or carried off to an insect’s nest. The initial goal, is to make it 3 days on the island, holding out hope that help will come.
In the beginning, we meet Oribe Mutsumi first. She’s this weird girl, who is very knowledgable on insects, and doesn’t wish to hurt them. She wants to find the class rep, who is her best friend. Along the way, she meets up with softball captain, Ayumi. And they eventually catch up with their classmates. Once together, things just kept getting worse and worse. From fighting off big ass butterflies, to killer wasps and ticks, and not to mention a very huge dragonfly. They eventually defeat their last foe for the time being, and after tying up some class traitors, make their way to a safe place.
Stick together: Golden survival rule
Mutsumi’s knowledge of bugs literally got them out of every situation, which was really good considering the circumstances. She lacked too much confidence for my liking. For someone who isn’t afraid of insects (that aren’t hella huge), I really expected her to be a bit more of a bad ass, although she did do some bad ass things.
Honestly to me, some of these higschool kids weren’t shit, and some of them were very selfish at certain times. There were a few situations where the self appointed “leader” Atsushi, only did things that he wanted, and not necessarily for the better of the group. Like saving his friend, and not the class rep. He didn’t even want to save her, until he remembered her phone had GPS. At one point, he tried stopping Mutsumi from going after the class rep. Personally, if we’re ever in a deadly situation, and you decide to run off to save someone, I’m going with you. Strength in numbers, and all that jazz. Plus I’ve always told myself if the group is getting killed off I do not want to be alone.
I’ve been playing Dead by Daylight way too much, and I always hate when I’m the last person left in the match. I never win that way. Not sure if Atsushi had some sort of superiority complex going on, but he was pretty much like “my way is the best way.” Unfortunately, his big headedness and arrogance, causes him to be left behind by his classmates. There was also another character named Jinno, who is the one to convince Atsushi to “be a real leader” and betray everyone else. She’s a textbook mean girl. Uses her body, to get what she wants. I was surprised to see she made it so far, I always expect the pretty girls to die first.
What’s Next?
At the very end, Mutsumi says she knows of a place, where they will be safe, until help comes and the movie ends. I don’t know if I wasn’t paying attention or not, but I wonder what place she’s talking about. If you stay until the credits end, there’s a cutscene and we see some girls, walking out of a house, to go and find food. A girl stays behind closing the door, staring into the camera rather ominously.
So there are inhabitants on the island, the teens just haven’t seen them? This was such a weird movie. Mutsumi explained why the insects where so large. But they found a “clinic”. It looked like it was some sort of laboratory. My theory is, some scientist were messing around, and accidentally created some big ass insects. They evacuated the island, and maybe left the insects to kill the villagers, that already lived on the island.
There is a manga, and an ongoing sequel called The Even Bigger Island of Giant Insects. I don’t really like bugs, but I am actually curious to see if they will make it off the island, or find new people. Also, I’m really curious if they actually left Atsushi and Jinno tied up in the clinic, possibly to their deaths. Seems kinda heartless for teens. I think I may check the manga out.
Was this really a horror movie?
I think if you really don’t like bugs savagely killing people, or bugs in general, then yeah this is a horror anime movie of sorts. It’s so interesting the things people consider scary. But there were literally scenes that made me turn away. Bugs are just so gross. And I would say, the scenes were as graphic as they could be, for insects killing people.
Also, this is completely unrelated but there’s one scene where Oribe is walking down this really long hallway and it’s an obnoxiously long scene that makes me laugh because, why was it so long.
The art style is pretty standard, but the insects looked so realistic, hence why I would turn away from my screen. All in all, I give it a 9/10, only because I could have done less without the boobs, and naked bodies. But if you like that kind of stuff, then this movie has plenty of it. I’m assuming the plot is for them to literally get help off the island, whilst not getting killed. The movie was good enough for me to want to read their manga, so I would say that’s a win.
Hopefully y’all are watching some nice horror anime, during spooky season! Isn’t it so crazy how fast October has gone by? Well, until next post!
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