Mardock Scramble: The First Compression

Mardock Scramble: The First Compression introduces Rune Balot, a teenage sex worker scraping by in the futuristic city of Mardock. Her circumstances change when Shell Septinos, a wealthy casino manager, takes her in and gives her a comfortable life. Rune grows suspicious of his motives and looks into his past, a decision that turns violent when Shell learns of it and sets her car on fire.

Dr. Easter recovers Rune using a forbidden technology that rebuilds her body and gives her unusual abilities, and she sets out to track down Shell and his associate Boiled. The film is directed by Susumu Kudo, from a screenplay by Tow Ubukata, and features Megumi Hayashibara as Rune, Kazuya Nakai as Shell, Hiroki Touchi as Dr. Easter, Norito Yashima as Oeufcoque Penteano and Tsutomu Isobe as Boiled. It is the first of three Mardock Scramble films Kudo directed across 2010 to 2012, a run that sits at the start of his filmography and precedes Ghost in the Shell: Arise - Border 4: Ghost Stands Alone (2014).

The film runs 69 minutes and was released in Japan in November 2010, produced by Aniplex, GoHands, BROSTA TV and the Mardock Scramble Production Committee. On IMDb it holds 6.4/10 from around 1,700 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.9/10 from 126 votes, a smaller and slightly more favourable sample.