Fractale: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Fractale: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Fractured is more like it.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 4, 2012

The problem with Utopia is that it can look so very good from the outside, but once you start delving into it, it may not have the same luster of perfection. The same might be said of Fractale, a gorgeously animated anime that has the fundamentals of a really intriguing (if cliché-ridden) basis but which never fully capitalizes on its potential to deliver as mind bending a trip as it seems to promise in its early outings. Fractale mixes up elements of any number of franchises—both anime and live action—into a seemingly deliberately confusing stew that forces the viewer to simply accept what’s going on without questioning anything too much. That in and of itself is rather ironic, as it’s one of the key plot elements of Fractale—namely, a society under the thumb of an artificial intelligence, a society which has become complacent and accepting and simply revels in the faux holographic perfection the so-called Fractale System has created for it. Fractale might remind some viewers of the Matrix franchise, or anime fans of some elements of Ghost in the Shell or (for fans with a really long memory) the old Jules Verne inspired series Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. In fact, it’s almost as if Fractale’s co-writer and director Yutaka Yamamoto decided that if enough well worn and previously successful elements of various other offerings were simply thrown against the virtual wall, certainly something would stick. The problem with this approach is two fold. First of all, one needs to be able to catch the various references, whether or not they’re intentional. Second of all, Yamamoto offers nothing really new here, and what is offered is so often left unexplained or undeveloped that the series becomes more and more arcane as it goes along, leaving viewers “unplugged” like a Neo detached from his fake reality.

Fractale starts of well enough, if also in a derivative fashion. Clain is a young boy who lives in Ireland (or what appears to be Ireland) in the far off future, a future where every little jot and tittle of Mankind is controlled by the Fractale System, an aggregation of orbiting satellites that gussy up actual reality with prettier holographic versions and which also download data (and medicine, if necessary) directly into its citizens’ brains and/or bodies. Like the rest of society, Clain is content to wander about this peaceful Utopia, standing at attention for daily “prayers” when Fractale evidently needs to interface with its human underlings. During one of these prayer sessions, Clain is stunned to see a young girl riding an airship (shades of Nausicaa, anyone?), who is evidently trying to outrun some buffoonish bad guys chasing her on their own, larger airship.

The girl seems to sacrifice herself by jumping off of her spaceship, but Clain soon realizes she has fallen to a cliff ledge below where he’s been standing next to the Irish seaside. Clain inches his way down to the girl and secrets her away in a cave as the buffoonish bad guys continue to flit and fly around, looking for her. The comical villains eventually leave, and Clain gets the girl back to his little bungalow. She introduces herself as Phrynne, but is reticent to share any information about herself. However, that doesn’t stop her from stripping down to her birthday suit so that Clain can salve her wounds with ointment, something the young boy does with rampant embarrassment. Phrynne then disappears, leaving a shining blue pendant in her wake, a pendant which then magically emits a holographic entity named Nessa. Confused yet? It only gets better, by which I mean worse.

Clain soon finds himself in the middle of a huge struggle between freedom fighters called Lost Millennium and keepers of the status quo, who operate a Temple devoted to Fractale. The problem is that Fractale is failing, needing some kind of reboot every thousand years or so, and that has meant that more and more people are extricating themselves from its supposedly insidious effects. Except this is just one of several places where Fractale doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense. One would think in a story like this that the Lost Millennium freedom fighters would be the unquestionable good guys and the Temple masters would be the arch villains, and yet Fractale, perhaps to its credit, paints both groups with decidedly gray (rather than black and white) brushes, so that neither seems to really be up to total good (or evil, as the case may be). But that also makes the whole plot simply nonsensical, as what difference does it make if Fractale lives or dies, as it were?

The series only gets more bizarrely unfathomable as it goes along, as a relationship between Phrynne and Nessa is revealed that also ties into Fractale’s very existence. But even that supposed major revelation is ridiculous and confusing and, like so many other elements of this series, never fully explicated. Over and over again many viewers are more than likely to be asking “why”, and Fractale never provides any convincing answers. Even a relatively minor plot point like the holographic entities known as “doppels” is never really fully explained. Why are all of these avatars running around anyway? Why do they look like surreal robots painted by Salvador Dali instead of whatever humans they’re supposed to replicate? Why in fact then does Nessa, a doppel, resemble a human rather than the surreal robots? Just these few, admittedly not very important in the scheme of things, questions point out how mind numbingly confusing so much of Fractale ends up being. It should also be noted in passing that Fractale has some extremely unsettling and unseemly plot elements mixed into its overall arc, including hints of pedophilia and sexual abuse. This is not a children's animated series by any stretch of the imagination, despite its candy coated surface image.

The one thing that can’t be questioned is Fractale’s brilliant design aesthetic. This is one of the sharpest looking anime series of the year, with a visual flair and keen character design that instantly elevates it above a lot of its anime kin, even if many elements seem lifted whole cloth from the Studio Ghibli efforts of Hayao Miyazaki. Other elements, like those bizarrely surreal doppels mentioned above, are relatively unique and help give the series a bit of an unusual flavor. Even the opening credits sequence is wonderfully psychedelic and kaleidoscopic, with swirling fractals and paisley patterns melting into each other in hallucinogenic frenzy. But like fractals themselves, honing in closer and closer to Fractale only reveals the mirror images of other, better franchises that this show has appropriated for its own second hand use.

Fractale: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Fractale may be a mess, but there's no denying it's a beautiful mess, especially as presented on this Blu-ray, courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment and featuring an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. If you're a fan of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, you may well be able to overlook the shortcomings of Fractale's actual storyline, as this is such a gorgeously animated piece that simply watching it on purely aesthetic grounds is a decided pleasure. Line detail is extremely strong, and colors pop beautifully throughout the eleven episodes. Backgrounds are rendered nicely, and the weird surreal doppels add a nice, innovative touch. There's quite a bit of nice looking CGI woven into the enterprise, including everything from environments like water to more graphic elements that involve some of Fractale's machinations.

Fractale: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Fractale is presented with its original Japanese language track delivered via Dolby TrueHD 2.0, and an English dub featuring a glut of FUNimation regulars in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. The Japanese track is somewhat more subdued than the English, but the English benefits from the 5.1 mix if for no other reason than the series' extremely evocative and downright gorgeous score is opened up so brilliantly. The score, which runs the gamut from Celtic tinged cues (the closing theme is the old chestnut "Down By the Salley Gardens") to some really pretty orchestral cues that feature nicely orchestrated strings and winds. Voice work is excellent in both languages (FUNimation's Brina Palencia seems to have cornered the market on anime adolescent males). Fidelity is top notch, and the 5.1 mix also features both nice ambient environmental effects placed throughout the soundfield as well as some nice LFE in selected episodes.

Fractale: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Episode 1 Commentary features FUNimation regulars J. Michael Tatum (adaptive script writer) and Scott Freeman (Sunda). It's interesting that the very first thing Tatum and Freeman mention is how much this series resembles Studio Ghibli features. They also get into the Celtic elements of the story as well as our increasing reliance on technology, something that is part and parcel of Fractale's overall storyline.


• Episode 7 Commentary features Colleen Clinkenbeard (director) and Brina Palencia (Clain). These women tend to be pretty raucous in their commentaries, and this is no exception. "Let's just make grunting sounds and fart with our armpits" (an actual quote from this outing) is emblematic of this commentary's general tenor. They do reveal some spoilers that happen later than Episode 7 as they go along, so forewarned is forearmed.


• Original Preview (HD; 00:32)


• Promotional Videos (HD; 3:50)


• DVD & Blu-ray Commercials (HD; 1:08)


• Shobi Wind Orchestra, Tokyo (1080i; 4:52) is a beautiful and haunting live performance of the Fractale Suite for Wind, Movement 1 by Souhei Kano (who also conducts the ensemble). As a pianist myself, I have to ask what is up with them having the concert grand facing upstage so that the poor keyboard player needs to look backward over his right shoulder to see the conductor?


• Fractale's Art Sanctuary


• U.S. Trailer (HD; 2:02)


• Textless Opening Song (HD; 1:32)


• Textless Closing Song (Japanese Lyrics) (HD; 1:32)


• Textless Closing Song (English Lyrics) (HD; 1:32)


• Trailers for other FUNimation Entertainment Releases

Fractale: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're easily distracted by bright, shiny objects, Fractale may well do the trick for you, for it is one of the most sumptuously gorgeous animes I've seen this year. The actual story, on the other hand, is just a jumble, a mishmash of ideas that have been exploited in a much clearer fashion in any number of other franchises. But, oh, those visuals (and that score!). It's sad, really, because Fractale really could have been something remarkable. This isn't a total loss, due to its beautiful aesthetic qualities (both visual and aural), but it's also hard to give it an unqualified recommendation, either. I defer again to my original statement above, phrased below as a question, and suggest that how you answer it will give you some insight into how much you'll like this series: are you easily distracted by bright, shiny objects?