The Mighty No. 9 Documentary is a Facepalm Fest

Where do I even begin with the Mighty No.9 documentary?

We all know that the Mighty No.9 Kickstarter is a continuous source of dissatisfaction for backers. Maybe I’m still a little sore from that Anime-fan on prom night comment. However, even before that, we’ve been documenting this Kickstarter’s nose-dive. Watching this Kickstarter is like being a passenger on a derailing train. A train filled with crazy people who don’t react as the carriage explodes around them like an Inception dream.

The total disconnect from reality is painfully present in this ‘documentary’. Especially when Inafune is talking about how he is looking forward to feedback. Either that is some high-level delusion or no one has bothered to give him the memo about the angry mob outside. Can we really call this 18-minute Behind-the-scenes video a documentary? I can’t say I learned anything from it aside from the workers are clearly as sick of their bosses as we are. Oh, and that comment about hiring young workers didn’t slip under my radar. Young workers, A.K.A. cheaper workers. I imagine them wondering if they should omit having worked on Mighty No.9 entirely on their resume.

The appropriate expression for watching this documentary.

The documentary is about 1 third filler. Do we really need 20 seconds of a Japanese guy walking to work? If I wanted that I’d just shadow my friend Shota for a day! Also, who uses yellow subtitles? I can deal with subs, anime has trained me for that, but why such a hard to read colour? Especially combined with the awful shirts and yellow walls. What’s wrong with black and white subtitles? Also, can we have a camera man whose previous filming experience wasn’t as the protagonist of Cloverfield? One thing that really grinds my gears about the video is it is so staged, so painfully obviously staged. There’s a bit where the camera is ‘spying’ on Inafune and a supervisor while they’re chatting and the dialogue is so stilted. Then again that might just be the translation which also ticked me off. FYI you don’t need to translate word for word the Japanese expression when you can say it plainly in English and retain its meaning!

Needless to say, I cringed a lot and I imagine Mighty No.9 fans did too. Even if Comcept had made a great documentary it’s too late. The fans and backers aren’t about to be appeased by a Youtube video, I doubt anything short of a full refund will do that. I feel sorry for all the people who have been put off Kickstarter by Mighty no.9’s poor performance. I sincerely hope that all the backers take the time to fulfil Inafune’s one humble request; to give Inafune their feedback.