Well, Uncle Manhammer has to admit something to his Nieces and Nephews…when he first agreed to review Bible Black he thought it was that anime series that was about all those high school kids banging each other and turning into demons. It’s not.
This Bible Black is the first episode of an anthology series/motion comic/piece of borderline nonsensical garbage that’s trying way too hard to be edgy and frightening. The quality of the writing is on the level of a 14-year-old goth girl trying her best to be deep with vignettes that go nowhere like God committing suicide. Upon hearing lines such as “Today, for some unexplainable reason, he had enough.” followed by an explanation as to the reason why he wants to off himself I kinda figured the next 20 minutes were going to be rough sailing.
I wasn’t wrong.
A story (and I use the word ‘story’ as loosely as I possibly can) about Jewish people boarding a train to a concentration camp narrated like it’s a happy-go-lucky newsreel is just… there? About the only decent bit of storytelling in these 22 minutes of hell was the aside about a woman who gets raped and later identifies with her rapist after her friends and family blame her for it. But the main event, so to speak, is broken up into three parts and that’s the story of Lobster Girl.
Lobster Girl is a stripper with sharp lobster claws for hands (I wish I were kidding) who seduces men into having surgery to have their hands turned into claws because… reasons? But since there’s more time to fill we’re treated to the tale of Lobster Girl’s mother’s death, her rape by a crazy albino, a fight against the crazy albino who’s trying to kill their son, and yeah… this is really dumb. Like, the whole thing.
The visuals are okay, and they’re the best part of the whole thing, but it feels more like an art project for a class than an actual attempt at storytelling. Imagine the art from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman covers if it were done by an artist who didn’t quite get what was going on, or why those covers were good, and you’ve got the art style for this 22-minute audio/visual bowel movement.
If they make more, don’t include me. Waste of time.
If this interests you, the episode is up on Amazon for a couple bucks.
