Anime Netflux

I’m kind of enjoying not managing my queue in Netflix. Sure, I’m leaving myself open to queuejacking from the wife, but she hasn’t shown interest in reorganizing the queue either. As a result we are getting movies that have been long forgotten and sometimes it’s fun. Last week we received two anime films that I had put in there seemingly eons ago (probably at the recommendation of Roger Ebert) – Grave of the Fireflies and Princess Mononoke.

Grave of the Fireflies (video summary/spoiler) sets itself apart from most anime I’ve seen in that it does not take place in future nor ancient past, has no technological gadgets or mystical universe elements (like planets being alive) and has an ending that actually makes sense to a Westerner. Wikipedia’s entry states that the movie is based on a semi-autobiographical novel and that makes it all the more depressing. The film takes place near the end of WWII when the Americans are bombing Japan. The narrative is seemingly told in flashback style, but the flashbacks are so long (a la Titanic or even Saving Private Ryan) that you forget what you know in the present. In fact, the first words are a young man stating “This is where I died” as we see him supposedly looking at himself.

A Japanese naval officer’s teenage son, Seita, is burying many of his family’s valuables and essentials in the backyard before an air strike happens over his town. His mother urges Seita to take his young sister, Setsuko (not more than 5 or 6), with him while they all meet up at the shelter. The bombing begins before they get there and the kids have to delay their arrival by hiding where they can. It’s here that you start to understand that with his father at war, Seita must now be the one to care for his sister.

When the children finally arrive at the shelter Seita immediately finds out that his mother has been badly burned beyond all hope. She dies soon after and the kids are forced to live with their aunt. Seita never reveals to Setsuko that their mother has died and always changes the subject or says that they’ll go visit her soon. This genuinely human response struck a chord with me because my father died when I was 16 and my sister was 4. One of the first things I said to my mom when I heard the news was “Don’t tell my sister.” I’m sure it was out of denial or something but it felt like too big a burden for someone so young to bear. So I understood part of Seita’s position in the early goings.

Not too long after staying with the aunt do you realize that she is only grateful for the things the children can provide – Seita goes back to his decimated home and digs up his posessions, they use money left behind by the mother and navy connections from the father to get food and other things. Since the aunt is not a caring mother figure to Setsuko, Seita takes it upon himself to cheer her up all the time with trips to the beach, walks at night, and generally watching over her. When the food runs low, and the aunt’s patience wears thin, Seita makes a fateful decision to strike out on his own and take his sister with him.

With the war still going on they set out and make camp near a pond. Tragedy compounds tragedy and you know through the flashforwards that you have seen earlier that neither child is still alive, but it doesn’t make the despair any easier to behold. Seita’s compassion, care & cooking skills belie his age, but his pride and pigheaded decisions display his youth much more than his fresh face. Early on it is stated that his mother has money in the bank, but he waits until it’s almost too late to go and get it. As they emaciate from malnutrition he does not seek help from a doctor until it is again too late. He never even swallows his pride and goes back to see his aunt or ask for her help.

At one point Seita finds out that the war is finally over. I started thinking that maybe this means they’ll finally get taken care of. But the real world timeline doesn’t work that way, and so it is in this movie. It just starts out depressing and goes down from there. I had no idea what to expect, but the human element combined with the indirect anti-war message makes for a heart-piercing film that won’t soon be forgotten. Even watching the video clip I linked up above put me in a state of melancholy. Powerful

Princess Mononoke (video trailer) couldn’t have been more different. The typical mystical elements are there (the forest is alive with spirits and talking animals are gods) and it takes place some time in Ancient Japan. A demon boar covered in worm-like creatures (not making this up) has attacked a town and the young prince from the town slays the beast. He was infected with the worms, though, and must travel far west to find out what made this demon and to find a cure for his disease.

The infection causes the prince’s arm to flare up with inhuman strength (when he is angry or about to give in to hate) – strength enough to shoot an arrow from a bow and lop off a few heads or an arm here and there. I had to laugh out loud at this point because it just seemed ridiculous. Thankfully the chopped-off-heads-by-arrows were kept to a minimum. We soon see the titular Mononoke in the forest sucking blood and poision out of a wolf-god and realize this is no girl to mess with. The prince shows up at Irontown (just down the mountain from the forest) and we see that big business is the rule.

Irontown makes (wait for it) iron and is ruled by a woman hellbent on power. She wants to overtake the forest and to do so must kill the animal gods as well as the spirit of the forest. I won’t get into all the ins and outs of gods and spirits because it can get overwhelming and confusing but the underlying theme is to not let hatred and zeal for power overtake you or you will become something unrecognizable (which in movie means you may lose an arm or head or get covered in demon worms or turn into mountain sized black goo).

The movie was entertaining but extremely hard to take even remotely seriously after watching the depressing realism of Firefiles. Add on the fact that it goes on about 45 minutes longer than the previous movie and the ending battle/resolution is completely mindboggling, Mononoke became a chore at the 1:45 mark.

The animation in both was superb and you can see why the craft has been touted as superior to other forms of animation (until CGI advances were made). I’m sure I will never truly grasp some of the concepts or emotions in either film without being truly Japanese, but these are worthwhile excursions into another “foreign film” genre.