Black Tulip

Translating any book as a short animated adaptation is always going to be difficult. Black Tulip does do an admirable job. It is not perfect, I did think that it was rather rushed, understandable considering the scant running time but it didn't work with a story like this, that some of the character designs were on the crude side(more in the secondary roles than the lead ones though), some of the action was clumsy in choreography and in editing and that some of the dialogue was cheesy in alternative to witty. On the other hand, it is colourful to look with some detailed backgrounds, and the music is rousing. The story is condensed and has to make do with a short length but maintains the story's excitement, thrills, fun, intelligence and sometimes even poignancy on the whole, and while the characters are not quite as interesting as they were in the story they are not bland or stereotypical either. The voice acting is decent. Overall, not bad but fell short for somewhat understandable but altogether unfortunate reasons. 6/10 Bethany Cox