Mardock Scramble: The First Compression (2010) follows the same rape/revenge formula as Yasuomi Umetsu’s Kite (1998) and Mezzo Forte (2001). Mardock Scramble: The First Compression is set in a super hi-tech future à la Blade Runner (1982) and Ghost In The Shell (1995) populated by cyborgs and androids. The plot follows a fifteen year old girl named Rune Balot who is transformed into an enhanced killing machine with a sidekick shapeshifting mouse named Œufcoque after being left for dead by Shell, who has been abusing her sexually.
Rune Balot’s backstory of familial sexual abuse and forced prostitution mirrors the character arcs in Umetsu’s films. The main difference between Mardock Scramble: The First Compression and so many other similar anime features is the presence of Œufcoque. Œufcoque serves as a kind of noble mentor whose morality is entirely uncorrupted and unquestionable. He acts as a sort of guide for Balot as she faces her assailant in court and learns to defend herself from his thugs. There’s a juxtaposition in iconographies between Balot and Œufcoque that makes their philosophical differences physical. When Œufcoque isn’t disguised as a choker or as a lethal handgun he appears as an adorable glowing yellow mouse. Balot, on the other hand, wears a costume not dissimilar from that of Mikura in Mezzo Forte.
The world that director Susumu Kudou has created in Mardock Scramble: The First Compression finds as much inspiration from the aforementioned Blade Runner as from The Wizard Of Oz (1939). The city center in Mardock Scramble: The First Compression is modeled directly on the matte paintings of the beloved musical which adds an uncanny fairytale element to the otherwise gruesome proceedings. This impulse takes the internalized wounded child of Balot’s character and externalizes it as the landscape that serves as the backdrop for her acts of vengeance.
For all of the sleaze and gore of Mardock Scramble: The First Compression, the film remains a moving and highly stylized portrait of a character grappling with grief and trauma. This depth of compassion elevates Mardock Scramble: The First Compression from the typical, politically incorrect anime that is so abundant. Mardock Scramble: The First Compression belongs in the same pantheon of disturbing works of art in this medium as Urotsukidoji (1989) and Kite (1998). These films, full of nightmare images of sexual violence, are nonetheless beautifully animated and relevant statements on the social and political degradation of late twentieth and early twenty-first century society.
