Review: Virgin Punk: Clockwork Girl's incredible world will leave you wanting more

When I wrote about Virgin Punk: Clockwork Girl in my November Animation Preview, I noted that I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to be seeing. The film has a 35-minute runtime listed on Letterboxd, but the theatrical program was around 90 minutes. It ends up it was my guess: the (short) film couched in a bunch of BTS footage. Weirdly, though, I still feel a little unsure about what exactly the film is. Even after watching it and seeing all of the extra footage, I can't quite tell if it's a one-off film or the start of a larger series. It certainly feels like it should be the latter.

I'll start with the actual film, which is obviously the meat of this Fathom Events release. Very obviously, as a lot of my theater's audience left once the credits rolled or shortly thereafter.

Virgin Punk: Clockwork Girl is the newest work by Yasuomi Umetsu, a revered filmmaker whose work I am unfamiliar with. The theatrical program opened with some footage from a couple of his previous works, and then a short interview with him, the film's producer, and the president of SHAFT, the studio he worked with on this project. The reverence these other men have for Umetsu was clear. It certainly made me want to see more of his work, which has been promptly added to my Watchlist.

Virgin Punk opens with a tranquil scene at an orphanage, where 14 year-old Ubu, a sort of engineering genius, is showing off her latest creation, a dancing robot that's entertaining her fellow orphans. The revelry is interrupted by a pair of bounty hunters with their sights set on a staff member. A violent exchange unfolds, making a mark on Ubu, just as she leaves a lasting impression on Mr. Elegance, the (pedophilic?) leader of the bounty hunters.

In this film's world, there are humans and Somadea, which are basically robots that still have their human brains inside them. There are also humans who receive illegal body modifications which give them robotic components. Many of the bounties are for humans who have done just that.

Ubu goes on to become a bounty hunter herself, one who's extremely capable and able to stand toe-to-toe with both the robotically-enhanced humans she's hunting, and her full Somadea rivals in the trade. Even after a decade, Mr. Elegance longs to have Ubu under his control. Which he manages to do, turning Ubu into a Somadea who also happens to look like her 14 year-old self rather than her 24 year-old self. Yes, Mr. Elegance is disgusting. Yes, the other characters in the film call him out for being a perv.

So, this whole thing has the feeling of being an extremely compelling pilot episode for a larger series. We get the backstory of Ubu, brief introductions to some of the other bounty hunters working under Mr. Elegance, a lot of world-building without a bunch of needless exposition. This is a tight, exciting, action-packed film, and one that sets up the larger (main?) conflict: how can Ubu gain her independence when Mr. Elegance quite literally controls her. He has a remote that he can use to shut her down or power her up, tracking embedded in her. She's his mechanical doll (gross).

(I should note, some viewers will probably not be able to get past the gross-ness of Elegance and his Lolita-obssessed self. There are even some nude scenes. So, yeah, just a fair warning if that's stuff that might make this a non-starter for you, which is fair!)

It's worth mentioning how stunning Virgin Punk: Clockwork Girl is. The attention to detail is staggering. In one of the BTS segments, there's discussion about how Ubu's gun, which is modeled after a real gun, was realized to have been missing a couple grooves that are present on the real article. This is a pain-stakingly realized world. The lighting, colors, action scenes -- it's just so gorgeous. Umetsu specifically calls out how proud he is of the indoor scenes, with their immersive color palettes and detailed lighting effects. For me, I was (perhaps unsurprisingly, as a lizard-brained boy) most taken with the action scenes, which are so fluid and bombastic and just plain cool. If this really is a one-off, I just have to ask...why??? I want more!

After the film, the first chunk of BTS shows the filmmakers going to a Q&A during the film's opening week in Japan. During this segment, even more of the audience left because it just is not really interesting. It's repetitive and doesn't provide much insight at all. I guess it's just a little victory lap? Who knows.

But after that, we travel to SHAFT's offices, where we get to spend time with a lot of the crew who explain their work. This was really interesting, and a great reminder as to how collaborative an art form animation is. We get to spend time with people who work in compositing, art direction, finishing, sound mixing. One of the most fascinating scenes was a "rush" meeting where various crew members watch footage and receive notes from Umetsu, whose eye for detail is impeccable. We also get to see him at work. It reminded me of the various Miyazaki documentaries that have been released over the years, because Umetsu still draws so much, and still does it old-school. He likes the feeling of pencil on paper, and says he hasn't had time to learn how to do it digitally. I have a hunch he never will.

Whatever Virgin Punk: Clockwork Girl ends up being, even if this is it, it's an exciting and dynamic work with memorable characters and an impressively fleshed-out world. If Umetsu and his collaborators could do this much in 35 minutes, I can't even imagine what this would look like if expanded out into a series, or at least a series of films.

But if their goal was simply to leave us wanting more, well...mission accomplished.