Anime Feature Round-up

SUMMER WARS

When timid eleventh-grader and math genius Kenji Koiso is asked by older student and secret crush Natsuki to come with her to her family’s Nagano home for a summer job, he agrees without hesitation. Natsuki’s family, the Jinnouchi clan, dates back to the Muromachi era, and they’ve all come together to celebrate the 90th birthday of the spunky matriarch of the family, Sakae. That’s when Kenji discovers his “summer job” is to pretend to be Natsuki’s fiancé and dance with her at the birthday celebration. As Kenji attempts to keep up with Natsuki’s act around her family, he receives a strange math problem on his cell phone which, being a math genius, he can’t resist solving. As it turns out, the solution to the mysterious equation causes a bizarre parallel world to collide with Earth, and it’s up to Kenji and his new fake family to put reality back in order.

Despite what one might believe, director HOSODA Mamoru's follow-up to the critically acclaimed The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (highly recommeded) is a bit of a rarity these days. Most anime is produced specifically for younger audiences though the image of anime abroad is "mature entertainment" rather than "kiddy fair." However, that really is a problem of perspective—a comparison of "cartoons" versus "anime." In reality, while there are anime that are certainly not meant for children, broadcast at late night time slots, the anime industry's bread & butter still come from the lighter fair broadcast during weekday and weekend primetime as well as summer film releases. Auteurs like HOSODA, MIYAZAKI or KON Satoshi, who make anime for "film lovers" are few. Though this summer like every other has seen a good number of animated films, most are feature-length episodes of popular animated TV series, even the surprisingly successful Evangelion 2.0. The budget and production schedule required for a true feature-length effort is viewed as risky. That is why it is very special indeed when a film like Summer Wars gets released. Many of the staff from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time return including scriptwriter OKUDERA Satoko and character designer SADAMOTO Yoshiyuki (Evangelion, FLCL).
The film retains the stylized realism in character design that is a trademark to SADAMOTO, which incorporates well with the lush, painted backgrounds. The use of CG to represent the "parallel world" seems appropriate and remarkably does not clash with the artistic style of the film. In a time when many western production companies have turned their back on cel animation, it is probably no surprise that it is Japan that is still keeping 2D animated features alive. 3D certainly has it's place (see following), but one can only truly appreciate "animation" as the art form that it is when one can see hand illustrated characters brought to life against hand painted backgrounds.



OBLIVION ISLAND—Haruka and the Magica Mirror—

Your favourite teddy bear. That model kit that took so long to complete. The picture book you used to read over and over again. The shining stone you found that day in the park. Where do all your childhood's treasures go when you grow up? In this story, we meet fantastic creatures that gather all these little objects that fall into oblivion as they are forgotten by their owners when they step into adulthood. These creatures sneak into our world from a different dimension, and unseen by humans, they take all the ditched and forgotten "treasures" into their world. Here, they use their booty to build their own city, a fairy tale-like place called... Oblivion Island!

The story follows Haruka, as she stumbles upon this world in search of a mirror very dear to her. There, she befriends and is aided by a fox named Teo and the two embark on an incredible adventure as she also discovers the things we lose as we mature.

source: Nippon Cinema

I believe there are two very important things one should take away from the above trailer. First, the incredible well-realized fantasy world in which Haruka falls into is something that's been missing from animated features, both from Japan and abroad, cel animated or 3DCG. Even Pixar still tends to ground their films in a solid reality, though the perspective from which they are told may be whimsical (a toy, insects, cars, a robot, etc). A setting like Oblivion Island, I believe, has yet to be seen and one has to wonder why that is. At any rate, it is wonderful to finally see what amounts to be a fairy tale realized in film narrative once more. The second point is the technical prowess on display. In my humble opinion, Production I.G. is one of the finest animation houses working today and they have turned their incredible artistry and experience in 2D animation and translated it quite brilliantly into 3D. You have to admit, despite what we've seen from the likes of Dreamworks, Pixar, Sony, etc., this film has a distinct look and feel that only an animation company like Production I.G. could deliver. I would even say that this is the natural evolution of Japanese animation's approach of cel animation to the digital medium. It is not just a re-interpretation of 2D methodology into digital, but a rethinking of how digital technology can bring to life their 2D ideas. In other words, it's still about the art and artistry. According to the company's sale sheet:

Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror will inherit the unique expressive style that has made Japanese animation hugely popular around the globe, and at the same time it will pursue a completely different texture from Western style 3DCG animation.

The film took 4 years with a staff of 200 to complete, and I think the efforts in "dedicating time and resources to the establishment of a fully equipped [3DCG] production environment" certainly shows.