An Unusual Ascent: The Summit of the Gods

Novelty alone might have got my attention when Netflix began streaming a movie based on a manga but animated in France. A “live-action adaptation” would have been familiar enough. (A few years ago, I happened to see reports of a French movie based on a “localized” version of City Hunter from quite a while before.) So too would have been an “anime-esque cartoon”; the manga being adapted seemed rather different than the Western fan-creator “impressions of anime” I’m aware of (for all that I’m not opposed to them in principle). In being distinct from either of those possibilities, though, the movie did get me thinking again of the hand-wringing among English-speaking anime fans about animators in Japan being stretched to snapping. (I’ve seen interviews with European animators enlisted for the final ordeal of Wonder Egg Priority, although I do wonder if the writing was more of the ultimate issue with that series, and whether the three-month delay before the last episode was three months some people could still feel positive towards the show...) The notices for the movie seemed good even so, so I was willing to make The Summit of the Gods the latest thing eking my Netflix subscription along. I happened to watch it in the evening with wind audibly blowing outside, which might have added something to a movie about mountain climbing.
( Ever upward )