#project harmony

main takeaway from the leaks tonight is that she's neat :)

So last night I treated myself to a special one night screening of Project Itoh: Genocidal Organ.  I didn’t know this ahead of time, but the whole time I watched, it felt like this was a “spiritual prequel” of Project Harmony.  When I got home and looked it up, I found both films are derived from science fiction novels by the same Japanese author, Satoshi Itō (伊藤 聡 Itō Satoshi), who writes under the pen name Project Itoh.  They definitely feel tonally similar, very bleak.  Genocidal Organ is also science fiction, but it’s a “near future”, set in 2020, as opposed to Project Harmony, which is definitely far far into the future.  But you can see how the world as it is in Genocidal Organ gets morphed into the world of Project Harmony.  It makes thematic sense.  Unfortunately, while Project Harmony is a good film and the far future setting makes suspension of disbelief easy, the “near future” setting of Genocidal Organ makes its central conceit ludicrous and strains credulity beyond the breaking point.  It just gets downright “hokey”; the writing is incoherent and unfocused.  The moral doesn’t land because the premises are too absurd.  The main enjoyment to be had in this film is in its graphic, gory visuals and in the spy vs. spy / special ops cat & mouse game while it lasts. Its “deeper” philosophy is superficial and pretentious, which is a shame because Project Harmony’s was unsettling and thought provoking.  Project Harmony feels like a corrected version of Genocidal Organ, fixing the mistakes of its predecessor.  Only it was released first.  Ouch.  This film was licensed for North America by FUNimation, with special screenings last night and tonight.  I don’t know if a dub version was made by FUNimation, but in any case, only the original Japanese version with subtitles was available in my area near Houston, Texas.  If FUNimation releases a dub for a theatrical screening, they usually release both versions on separate nights.  They are not doing so in my area; but there is no screening of any version in my area tonight, so maybe larger markets (NYC, LA?) are getting the English dub tonight?  Inquiring minds want to know.

AyaSide

Constellations by the virtual band Heuriskein now live on Bandcamp, Spotify, and YouTube!

YouTube

Heuriskein photoshoot for the release of Constellations

Full international tour lineup for Project Harmony Act 4, Chapter 8