20th Century Anime Movies, Part 2
Jun. 2nd, 2021 08:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerWhen “I could make a whirlwind tour through a century’s worth of animation from Japan in three months of my time” turned into “I will stop by a different decade by the calendar every weekend,” I knew I’d have to start with decades’ worth of animation screened in theatres. With that in mind, it wasn’t long until I’d decided that even in that later era of “half-hour shows for television” I ought to keep watching movies. Rounding out the twentieth century stayed as much a matter of small samples as ever, but I did happen to book some “two movies over two nights” double features.
I entered the 1960s with The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon. While that might not be a perfect translation of its Japanese title, I have to admit using untranslated romanizations can seem a bit pretentious to me in most other cases. Having seen comments before about “mid-1960s designs,” I was ready to see that myself even if my thoughts on the subject might have dwelt a bit too much on “It’s A Small World.” (As I considered that again, though, I did happen to think that permitting myself to step beyond the mid-1960s brings Samurai Jack to mind...) I was also able to pick up on full-blown Japanese mythology in the story of “cartoon-safe loss and quest” involving young deities, although I have to admit to then thinking one thing that had helped introduce me to that subject was the MSTing of “The Misery Senshi Neo-Zero Double Blitzkrieg Debacle,” the fanfic “riffed” on within it probably qualifying for that ruder, jokier English-language fan substitute for “Japanophilia” invented years after the fanwork. The film did seem interesting as a whole, although those thoughts of its “distinct look” had already made me resolve to make a double feature with a short movie from six years later, when that convenient oversimplification of “anime design” had gelled a bit more. The speedy mayhem of Flying Phantom Ship remained quite entertaining in its own way.
There weren’t a lot of films ready to my hands from the 1970s, but in the end I settled on the Aim For the Ace! movie. It was all-new animation rather than a condensation of the TV series from half a decade earlier, but in remembering how the roughness of the TV animation had seemed to add to the distinctive look of the sports series I did wonder what I’d make of the film. Actually watching it, though, did reveal interesting touches to its animation. I suppose I did get the impression the development of connections between the young female tennis players got a bit shortchanged from what I remembered of the series, but the movie did get a bit further into the plot than the episodes I watched “fansubbed,” which also pointed out Gunbuster: Aim For the Top! might not have cast off its initial parody-homage material altogether after its opening instalment.
For the 1980s, I’d had a particular movie in mind. Knowing it had premiered in Japan as part of a double feature, though, had me contemplating its theatrical partner with its own hefty yet ominous reputation. It took remembering I’d watched a mildly infamous work from World War II not that many weeks ago to resolve to watch Grave of the Fireflies at last. I’d had a Central Park Media DVD of that movie (one film from Studio Ghibli not included in the package deal that had passed from Disney to GKIDS) for years, but comments it was so wrenching it was hard to see more than once had kept me from unwrapping the disc even as I wound up buying the Sentai Filmworks Blu-Ray as well. Not that long ago, however, some promotional coverage of a “BFI Film Classics” book about Isao Takahata’s movie, which had mentioned there were some subtleties to its story beyond “what a tragic thing to happen in the midst of this tragic war,” might have offered a bit of a nudge for me too. Beginning to watch at last, I did face some gruesomeness in the death of the mother of the movie’s siblings Seita and Setsuko in a firebombing raid, but was ready to see the real setup for tragedy in the slow souring between Seita and his aunt when he just sort of slacks off pitching back in for the war effort without quite losing his simple patriotism (or, to look at it a different way, does his best to be there for Setsuko). I recognized the sadness of the movie, but didn’t seem to have a “I couldn’t bear to see that again” reaction; that just left me wondering again about how far my emotions reach. I did also start reading the In this Corner of the World manga again for another take on the time. The next day, though, I headed on to the other half of the original double feature, My Neighbour Totoro. Hayao Miyazaki’s film was certainly more cheerful, charming, and fantastic, although I did recognize the uncertainty seeded in the story with the mother of its two young girls Satsuki and Mei being in a hospital. Opening the deluxe boxed set for it did let me go through the included booklet, which offered a certain number of “here’s how to think about this” comments but also relocated the “timeless countryside” to the 1950s.
To get to the 1990s and close out the twentieth century, I opened another movie I hadn’t got to for quite a while. Satoshi Kon’s reputation might have been somehow intimidating even before his unfortunate early death and some “what’s going to become of anime now?” lamentations, but some time after lucking across a used set of his TV series Paranoia Agent and watching it just to make sure the DVDs weren’t defective I did move up from my unopened Manga Entertainment DVD to a new GKIDS Blu-Ray of Perfect Blue. I could contrast its jaundiced take on a small-time idol singer getting the chance to leave her trio and start an acting career with the more fanciful and more recent “idol singer anime” I’ve watched; I also took more interest than I suppose I should have in Mima buying a Macintosh Performa 5200, not just a computer I recognize but the one I used for three years at university, before an early “the online world is disturbing” take started reality unravelling. That there was a conclusion and an explanation for a lot of things did leave me pondering whether I’d been expecting an unhappier ending; on the other hand, a hypothetical message summed up as “don’t get into entertainment at all” might have packed its own uncertain mixture. I’m in any case still looking ahead to a few more movies to close out my indulgent project.
I entered the 1960s with The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon. While that might not be a perfect translation of its Japanese title, I have to admit using untranslated romanizations can seem a bit pretentious to me in most other cases. Having seen comments before about “mid-1960s designs,” I was ready to see that myself even if my thoughts on the subject might have dwelt a bit too much on “It’s A Small World.” (As I considered that again, though, I did happen to think that permitting myself to step beyond the mid-1960s brings Samurai Jack to mind...) I was also able to pick up on full-blown Japanese mythology in the story of “cartoon-safe loss and quest” involving young deities, although I have to admit to then thinking one thing that had helped introduce me to that subject was the MSTing of “The Misery Senshi Neo-Zero Double Blitzkrieg Debacle,” the fanfic “riffed” on within it probably qualifying for that ruder, jokier English-language fan substitute for “Japanophilia” invented years after the fanwork. The film did seem interesting as a whole, although those thoughts of its “distinct look” had already made me resolve to make a double feature with a short movie from six years later, when that convenient oversimplification of “anime design” had gelled a bit more. The speedy mayhem of Flying Phantom Ship remained quite entertaining in its own way.
There weren’t a lot of films ready to my hands from the 1970s, but in the end I settled on the Aim For the Ace! movie. It was all-new animation rather than a condensation of the TV series from half a decade earlier, but in remembering how the roughness of the TV animation had seemed to add to the distinctive look of the sports series I did wonder what I’d make of the film. Actually watching it, though, did reveal interesting touches to its animation. I suppose I did get the impression the development of connections between the young female tennis players got a bit shortchanged from what I remembered of the series, but the movie did get a bit further into the plot than the episodes I watched “fansubbed,” which also pointed out Gunbuster: Aim For the Top! might not have cast off its initial parody-homage material altogether after its opening instalment.
For the 1980s, I’d had a particular movie in mind. Knowing it had premiered in Japan as part of a double feature, though, had me contemplating its theatrical partner with its own hefty yet ominous reputation. It took remembering I’d watched a mildly infamous work from World War II not that many weeks ago to resolve to watch Grave of the Fireflies at last. I’d had a Central Park Media DVD of that movie (one film from Studio Ghibli not included in the package deal that had passed from Disney to GKIDS) for years, but comments it was so wrenching it was hard to see more than once had kept me from unwrapping the disc even as I wound up buying the Sentai Filmworks Blu-Ray as well. Not that long ago, however, some promotional coverage of a “BFI Film Classics” book about Isao Takahata’s movie, which had mentioned there were some subtleties to its story beyond “what a tragic thing to happen in the midst of this tragic war,” might have offered a bit of a nudge for me too. Beginning to watch at last, I did face some gruesomeness in the death of the mother of the movie’s siblings Seita and Setsuko in a firebombing raid, but was ready to see the real setup for tragedy in the slow souring between Seita and his aunt when he just sort of slacks off pitching back in for the war effort without quite losing his simple patriotism (or, to look at it a different way, does his best to be there for Setsuko). I recognized the sadness of the movie, but didn’t seem to have a “I couldn’t bear to see that again” reaction; that just left me wondering again about how far my emotions reach. I did also start reading the In this Corner of the World manga again for another take on the time. The next day, though, I headed on to the other half of the original double feature, My Neighbour Totoro. Hayao Miyazaki’s film was certainly more cheerful, charming, and fantastic, although I did recognize the uncertainty seeded in the story with the mother of its two young girls Satsuki and Mei being in a hospital. Opening the deluxe boxed set for it did let me go through the included booklet, which offered a certain number of “here’s how to think about this” comments but also relocated the “timeless countryside” to the 1950s.
To get to the 1990s and close out the twentieth century, I opened another movie I hadn’t got to for quite a while. Satoshi Kon’s reputation might have been somehow intimidating even before his unfortunate early death and some “what’s going to become of anime now?” lamentations, but some time after lucking across a used set of his TV series Paranoia Agent and watching it just to make sure the DVDs weren’t defective I did move up from my unopened Manga Entertainment DVD to a new GKIDS Blu-Ray of Perfect Blue. I could contrast its jaundiced take on a small-time idol singer getting the chance to leave her trio and start an acting career with the more fanciful and more recent “idol singer anime” I’ve watched; I also took more interest than I suppose I should have in Mima buying a Macintosh Performa 5200, not just a computer I recognize but the one I used for three years at university, before an early “the online world is disturbing” take started reality unravelling. That there was a conclusion and an explanation for a lot of things did leave me pondering whether I’d been expecting an unhappier ending; on the other hand, a hypothetical message summed up as “don’t get into entertainment at all” might have packed its own uncertain mixture. I’m in any case still looking ahead to a few more movies to close out my indulgent project.