Rin – Daughters Of Mnemosyne

Violent, gory and sexy, often all at the same time, anime proves that too much is never enough.

Violent, gory and sexy anime, often all at the same time, proves that too much is never enough.

Manga is an acquired taste, you either buy into its over the top,
over expositional ways or you look at it as nothing more than geek
nirvana. Rin; Daughters Of Mnemosyne will do little to convert
you if you fall into the latter category but if you’re in the first,
this will send you into delightful rapture.

Rin is an immortal girl that has walked the earth for close to a
thousand years. This is all thanks to a mystical tree of life known as
Yggdrasil, which releases spores called ‘time fruit’ (bear with it). If a
woman ingests a time fruit they are granted eternal life, however if a
man eats one they become an ‘angel’, not in the metaphysical sense, as
they sprout wings and have super human strength but with a greatly
reduced life span. To compensate for this though the immortal women are
attracted to the ‘angels’ in an uncontrollable manner. Rin, and her
partner Mimi, run a Private Investigation agency while Rin’s nemesis,
Apos, ruthlessly plans her down fall.

It all sounds over the top, but Rin is actually a hugely engrossing
and epic story. Due to the title character’s immortality, the series
spans over half a decade, allowing for heart wrenching moments as
mortals enter the tale and then die off leaving Rin and Mimi to deal
with the ramifications of living forever. The idea of a PI style gumshoe
dealing in the supernatural is reminiscent of comic book, and later Keanu Reeves starrer, Constantine.
There are obvious parallels but Rin forgoes much of the brooding
mannerism of Constantine and instead plumps for a more seductive
approach.

Indeed there are points that Rin is so sexually charged it feels like
a soft-core film you might find on late night television (don’t pretend
you don’t know the ones). So some scenes verge on the sexually explicit
while others let the gore literally fly off the screen. If you were a
fan of the gratuitous blood letting in the animated stages of Kill Bill then Rin will truly float you boat.

To try and make Rin into a live action film would result in all
manner of scandal. But, and this is crucial to Manga films, that is the
point. These animated films are most certainly for adults and as such
are allowed to tip over the limits of acceptable content. Furthermore,
the over stylised ways would look ridiculous in a live action film, see
any Michael Bay effort as an example, it’s laughable, but here it feels lavish and further heightens the visceral world that Rin inhabits.

Over the course of six episodes Rin is able to convey an endless
amount of themes and some genuinely warm moments. All of this wrapped up
in a balls-to-the-wall, sexually explicit action extravaganza. If
you’re a fan of the medium then Manga does not get much better, if
you’re new to it then you will find this a delightful baptism of fire.