Films like Mardock Scramble: The Second Combustion.

Mardock Scramble: The Second Combustion (2011) reads as Sombre, kinetic, extreme animation / sci-fi, surreal in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, cold. Every film below is ranked by distance across the same twelve hand-scored axes — with what it keeps, and where it walks away. Not a genre dump.

Mardock Scramble: The First Compression (2010) poster
1. Mardock Scramble: The First Compression2010

Keeps the bone-dry seriousness and the documentary-plain realism — one of the nearest reads in the catalogue.

The Garden of Sinners: Murder Speculation Part B (2009) poster
2. The Garden of Sinners: Murder Speculation Part B2009

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the bone-dry seriousness; trades toward a patient, unhurried pace.

The Garden of Sinners: Remaining Sense of Pain (2008) poster
3. The Garden of Sinners: Remaining Sense of Pain2008

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the bone-dry seriousness — one of the nearest reads in the catalogue.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings (2012) poster
4. Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part I: Beginnings2012

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the bone-dry seriousness; trades toward a chilly detachment.

The Garden of Sinners: Paradox Spiral (2008) poster
5. The Garden of Sinners: Paradox Spiral2008

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the bone-dry seriousness; trades toward a relentless forward drive.

Re-cycle (2006) poster
6. Re-cycle2006

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the bone-dry seriousness; trades toward a patient, unhurried pace.

Gantz: Perfect Answer (2011) poster
7. Gantz: Perfect Answer2011

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the bone-dry seriousness; trades toward a relentless forward drive.

Dawn of the Dead (2004) poster
8. Dawn of the Dead2004

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the bone-dry seriousness — one of the nearest reads in the catalogue.

Annihilation (2018) poster
9. Annihilation2018

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the bone-dry seriousness; trades toward a patient, unhurried pace.

The Garden of Sinners: Murder Speculation Part A (2007) poster
10. The Garden of Sinners: Murder Speculation Part A2007

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the bone-dry seriousness; trades toward a patient, unhurried pace.

Dark City (1998) poster
11. Dark City1998

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the bone-dry seriousness — one of the nearest reads in the catalogue.

Night Watch (2004) (2004) poster
12. Night Watch2004

Keeps the cold, bleak undertow and the bone-dry seriousness; trades toward a relentless forward drive.

These are Mardock Scramble: The Second Combustion’s neighbours — where are yours?

Rate five posters and the same twelve axes read you — then tonight’s pick comes from your own centre of taste.

Find my film for tonight — 60 sec →