Hello, today I will recommend a few good fairy tales from which you can start your adventure with Japanese animation. For a change, this time I took full-length films to my workshop. The criteria were as in the previous text, in this case I only focused more on a low entry threshold. I limited myself to only one film per series (as in the case of DBZ or "Lupine III"), but that does not apply to the directors. Mainly because Hayao Miyazaki and the late Satoshi Kon made too many outstanding productions to limit themselves to just one of them. Although I saw each of these films at least once, for the purposes of the text, I only refreshed some of them, because I did not have time for all of them. I know, it's unprofessional to talk about it, but I prefer honesty. I'm talking about those of whom I really don't remember much. I watched most of them relatively recently and / or saw them so many times that I remember them well, so I only dusted off my memories.
I rejected a few fairy tales, almost all of them would be suitable for this list, but ... Honestly speaking, I do not want to watch them or write about them, too much time investment. I rejected some of them for other reasons - for example, "Akira", which needs a manga to fully understand it, is also too long, and IMO has aged badly (although God forbid in terms of animation, he is still a cat in this field). Or "Space Brothers 0", about which I don't have much to add after the last text. However, if I had more free time, I would add all the anime to this list.
Reject List:
- Asura
- About a girl jumping through time
- Space Brothers 0
- Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
- Grave of the Fireflies
- Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
- Redline
- Ninja Scroll
A Silent Voice
I do not know about you, but several times I wondered how I would perceive and understand the world if I were blind, unable to hear or feel nothing (neurological diseases). Maybe I'm ignorant, but I can't recall any other good movie or series that would talk about this disability and be really good at the same time. Apart from the cult "Scent of Women" with the brilliant role of Al Pacino. I am not surprised because it is not easy to present the world from the perspective of a blind person. Ie. sure if someone just wants to make a medium level movie then it's not actually much more difficult to create a "normal" production. The stairs start when you want to do it really well. You need to think a little more about the script, be able to bring the perspective of a sick person closer, and somehow outline how they perceive the world. You have to find the blind, ask them a series of detailed questions, to have material to make a decent picture, and then skillfully and interestingly transfer it into the language of the film so that everything is well understood by the viewers and properly sounded.
The movie "Koe no Katachi" is about the girl Shouko Nishimiya, her tormentor Shouya Ishida, their relationship, and the problem of bullying at school. The main character, as you can already guess from the introduction, is deaf and that's why she teases many of her students. As if that was not enough, the educator does not see the problem (and to put it bluntly, he does not give a shit) until it grows to a dangerous level. Shouya is her main stalker, he teases her cruelly on almost every occasion. It is not entirely his fault - the boy, as far as I remember, grew up without a male role model (and "at best", the father was often absent in raising his son, at least that's what I remembered it), and besides, he had a tacit approval from class. If they weren't for a bunch of fucking cowards who stand like rams and watch or enjoy human harm, then most pathological behavior would not have occurred. Ok, a single person might not be enough (although it is doubtful, Shouya is not a textbook overgrown school bully, so simply paying attention to him would rather be enough), but if two colleagues or a friend and colleague came along, it would definitely give him food for thought or at least he would start to think about what he was doing. I am not saying that he is innocent, but I know from my own experience on both sides that people growing up in such families usually do not recognize their bad qualities. They also do not know the patterns of correct behavior and they do not know how to live in society, so they duplicate the patterns they know + take out on others by not being able to cope with their problems. Over time, his relationship with the deaf Shouko will turn into friendship and then love.
When it comes to visual and audio aspects, I have nothing to complain about. The soundtrack is especially important in the case of a movie on this subject, and the line is very nice. In general, it is very lively, with a lot of vegetation, and the characters, as well as the whole world, are realistically depicted, multi-colored and rich in detail. The director and animators took care of even the smallest details, which can be seen, for example, in the scene in which the protagonist wipes the school blackboard and we see dust floating. Well, no wonder here, after all, we are talking about a feature film from the Kyoto Animation studio. Personally, I do not like their productions (mainly because what I saw did not appeal to me like old anime such as MadHouse studios), but it does not prevent me from appreciating their technical craftsmanship.
Summing up, if I had to be guided only by the issue of like/dislike, this film would rather not be included in this list, but since other aspects also count, I added "A Silent Voice". Even if we don't care about the main character and a better understanding of her disability, it's worth watching for the honestly presented problem of school bully. This topic is just as important and just as timeless.
Berserk
Even though I do not recommend any Berserk fairy tales and I usually try to send people to manga, I know how it is with people. Hardly anyone is used to reading a comic and / or people prefer the animated version. Having a TV series or a cinema trilogy to choose from, I choose the latter solution. True, it cuts or shortens a lot of material, and some of the CGI fragments are a disgrace to Kentaro Miura's lovely line, but it's easier to view and only the second part has aged really badly. The first one is ok in my opinion, it's nice to watch, the third one is Eclipse, and to screw up this event, you have to really try hard. I wouldn't be complaining if the project continued, but unfortunately, the poor box-office and sales of DVD and BD copies meant that it was suspended after the trilogy. It's a pity because this title has the potential for great movies.
I will describe the plot briefly, i.e. I will limit myself to only 3 films because I wrote a summary of it in the previous text. The history of the film trilogy focuses on a shortened version of the story-arc entitled The Golden Age. The main characters are Guts, a lone mercenary who wanders from battle to battle to somehow earn some money to wander the world idle, and Griffith, the leader of the Falcon Group. Masses of mercenaries, deserters, and thieves who want to fulfill their leader's desire to own a kingdom. They meet after the battle and Griffith asks the mercenary to join his formation. As you can guess, Guts refuses and tells him to get out of his sight or, in other words, to fuck off. Young Falcon won't give up and proposes a duel - if Griffith triumphs, the mercenary will join his group. He wins quite smoothly and our protagonist has no choice but to join the ranks of the group. The grumpy mercenary quickly establishes relations with everyone and becomes a friend, even brother of the white-haired man. They enlist in the service of the King of Midland and win more battles for him, taking new lands and hard-to-conquer Doldrey. All that is good ends sooner or later. Some say that the nicer it is to live, the more we will pay for it. I have never really thought about the validity of this saying, but it fits perfectly with this example. As a result of a few mistakes and certain events, Griffith lost the chance to pursue his dream (as well as normal life), so he decides to sacrifice his closest people to obtain something that many times exceed his most beautiful imaginations.
It comes to the Eclipse, an event for which I think it is worth exhausting the two previous films. It does not look the most beautiful, but despite the budget limitations, it perfectly captures the atmosphere of this event. You can feel the growing madness and madness of the characters reacting to the change of surroundings in the scenery that we can associate with horror movies in various forms. While the anime looks "ok", in the comic book Kentaro Miura showed very sharp scenes that are beautiful despite all the suffering, evil and injustice. While they did manage to get some really good moments, like Skull Knight saving two characters, most of the scenes look poor. More on the level of Netflix anime than a well-made full-length production
Broly
If I could only recommend one best Dragon Ball thing, it would be DBS's first theatrical movie. You do not even have to remember this fairy tale, it is enough to remember something from the times when he flew on RTL7/TVN7 (Polish TV stations where we watched DB) or some foreign channel. If you're 25-35 years old, chances are you have come across this anime several times, even if you haven't watched it yourself. Is it stealthy on TV, or by randomly switching channels at a brother's or a friend's? Possibly one of your friends or cousins was watching and was at least a little excited about it. Anyway, even this is unnecessary. "Broli" can be watched like "Avengers: Endgame" - viewers who do not know DB, but like this type of movie, should not complain. Those who loved DBZ when they were young, but then became interested in something else, will see the title in the best possible form. Fans, on the other hand, will get fanservice and make most of their dreams come true for this fairy tale. Those from childhood and later, after playing various games for PS X-Boxes and other consoles.
The plot is simple and its entry threshold is suspended at the height of more or less Marvel's "Endgame". We start with a flashback in which we see King Cold and his young son, Freezer, arrive on the planet Vegeta. He tells his vassal King Vegeta III that his son is taking control of the Saiyans. A race of warriors that has the passive ability to grow in strength when they come close to death. Sometime later, he orders all Saiyans to gather on their home planet. Bardock, the father of the main character in the series, realizes that the tyrant is preparing something wrong and sends his son to Earth. A small, harmless planet where he should survive without any problems. Kind of like Clark Kent from "Superman".
The movie is not called "Goku", but "Broly". A character that got into the universe thanks to one of the cinema. Such a Hulk among the Saiyans, a monster with unlimited potential, therefore could only act within that film. Akira Toriyama was looking for inspiration for Goku's further adventures and decided to watch a movie or some of them, I don't remember exactly what he said. He liked the character of the Legendary Super Saiyan and reworked it accordingly before adding it to the world of Dragon Balls. The new Broly is still extremely powerful, but this time it touches the wall and doesn't have unlimited energy. Besides, he finally got some character - in the movie "The Legendary Super Saiyan" he was either as heavy as possible or he couldn't be controlled. Here he is a Conan the Barbarian, with a chaotic-good character. By introducing Paragus and his son, Akira had to rethink the story we know a bit, but there aren't too many changes. In fact, they're so organically linked to the Bardock and DBZ episodes that you might not even notice them at all. When the flashbacks end, we move to the current timeline of events after the Power Tournament, which was the finale of the series called Super.
When I was talking about the best DBZ, I didn't mean the plot. Yes, this one is good, but the heart of "Dragon Ball" is fighting. And what is better than fighting the Saiyans and abusing their arch enemy, Freezer? Especially in the stylized line for the beloved series Z? Especially with the best fights in the history of this brand. There are no repetitions here, as in the TV series - each punch or block was used only once. There are also no looped combat sequences, which, like massive ki-blasts, are used to stuff airtime. The film has a high budget, and the cartoonists and animators were given enough time to perfect each scene. Sometimes there are uglier CGIs, but it's usually a fraction of a second, not meaningful compared to how the whole picture was drawn and animated. A completely different league from what we saw in the best form from DBZ animations so far. As YouTuber Adacho rightly said - "Imagine the best and prettiest scenes from the DBS Power Tournament and multiply it by 10". Despite many of my "buts" to the last TV series, I will give her one thing - the premiere of "Broli", there were the most beautiful and best animated scenes in DB's history. However, something else has happened here - the right plan, idea and better preparation from the substantive and visual side, which Super was too often missing. We see the exact difference between Goku and Vegeta's fighting style. The former has more fun, and the prince fights technically. Speaking of making dreams come true, it's the first time that a prince wins a solo and Kakarotto bites the ground. If you've ever had a positive experience with DB, then you just have to watch this movie.
Gundam the Origin
Before anyone complains that it is OVA, not movies - the first 4 parts were shown in Japanese cinemas + as in the case of "Berserk", I recommend a whole series of films here. In addition, there is also a TV series that was edited on the basis of 6 episodes. As the name suggests, it will be about the beginning, and more specifically the events that happened before the first series of "Mobile Suit Gundam" from 1979. One of the most iconic brands for the Japanese, they put up so many impressive statues of popular mechs for a reason.
Origin, like the series from '79, is about human cruelty during the war and about dealing with it. Like "Legend of the Galactic Heroes", it shows with sharp examples that war does not look like it does in the games or stories from the "Once It Was" series. It is hunger, poverty, and ubiquitous death. Both in soldiers and civilians. Soldiers are killed in space and ground battles in cities, and civilians are fired upon in colonies or on Earth. Massacred by Mobile Suites and the army, or they die in a worse way than in the explosion of an atomic bomb. While there are many similarities to LotGH (references to history, brutal scenes, general atmosphere, and message), Origin approaches the subject of war in a slightly different way. Ie. it focuses on showing different aspects or the same, but dividing the proportions differently. And there is one thing that LotGH does not have - the above-mentioned Mobile Suite. They are huge machines with a humanoid structure, which, thanks to their firepower, are able to destroy enemy freighters relatively easily. They are even more dangerous as they are much smaller and operated by one man, which ensures a much faster time to make a decision. In addition, they have a good reactor, which makes them incomparably more mobile, quick and maneuverable, which makes them difficult to hit. In this series of films, we learn about their origins, we observe preliminary tests that take place in strict secrecy, such as the Manhattan Project, or other so-called "Black Projects" and the first battles in which they slaughter enemy units.
The plot focuses on two threads - the fate of the Deikun siblings and showing how the so-called The One Year War, the worst event in human history. The conflict between the part of the cosmic colonies run by the Zabi family (such a cosmic nobility of Spacenoids, i.e. people born outside of Earth), and the Earthlings and colonies that make up the "Earth Federation" (such UN 2.0, a world government that also includes people living on the lunar cities). Artesia, Casval, and their parents are the first victims of the greedy aspirations of the Zabich family. Zeon Zum Deikun is betrayed by his friend, and Astraia Tor Deikun is banished and their kids have to flee the military purge. The boy wants to avenge his father, so at some point, he flies straight to the wasp's nest according to the rule "darkest is under the lantern", this place is a school for young cadets. A little earlier, he gives up his old name, renouncing his former self and transforms into Char Aznable, later known as the Red Comet. The plot, however, does not focus only on one side of the conflict, we see events from both perspectives. It is true that people from the Earth Federation have much less airtime, but on the other hand, they are not that important to this story. They have enough of it to draw their perspective well enough for the viewers.
If you like "Gundam the Origin", this series seems to end in a perfect point. I would have to refresh the classic animation because I'm not 100% sure, but even if I was wrong, it's not much. If you live through the old animation, plot, and length (each of the 3 compilation films is a real mare and will likely drop out while watching), it only gets better from the next. The final part is great, and the sequel to "Gundam Zeta" is my favorite series in this universe. Anyway, it seems to me that if you are interested in Origin, it will be easier to survive the shortcomings of the old fairy tale (I use the singular because the Zeta has grown old and is pretty cool). This is a great introduction to Universal Century in "Gundam", whose origins have aged very badly.
Princess Mononoke
I've never been a fan of Ghibli's work, and I don't remember waiting for a movie of them. Maybe someone will get me something from the past, but I honestly admit as in confession - I do not remember much. Yes, I have often mentioned "Spirited Away" as an outstanding anime, but not with the same conviction as I do with "Space Brothers" or "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood". However, I cannot in any way question Ghibli's enormous contribution to the promotion and creation of anime. It is difficult to say what Chinese fairy tales would look like today if Hayao Miyazaki had not been the director of cartoons, but had followed the path of, for example, Hideo Kojima. Surely they would be poorer for many great titles, and the Japanese art of animation with many awards and distinctions from critics.
I've seen "Princess Mononoke" several times, rarely in its entirety. My first session was with a hangover, probably somewhere at the beginning of high school. I was lying down with a slight headache and switching from channel to channel. For lack of a better option, I figured this one would be the best. I think he flew on TVP2 (Polish TV station) with a voiceover. Back then, I appreciated the film, but with less recognition than "Spirited Away," I had watched a bit earlier. After a refreshing screening, my opinion changed a bit. I'm still no Ghibli anemone, but this was the first time I watched Mononoke for myself, not out of a sense of duty like "it's classic anime, so it's worth knowing."
The plot focuses primarily on the conflict between the forest rangers (represented by animals, deities, various spirits) and people. Defenders want to stop their expansion and development at their expense, and people want to have as much as possible, earn as much as possible and live their best lives. They will achieve it, if not by request, then by threats or deception. The main character is Ashitaka, the prince of a small village attacked by a possessed boar. Having no other choice, he decides to kill the animal, which causes a terrible curse on himself. The local oracle tells him that he must go to the God of the Forest, a human-faced deer to heal him.
"Princess Mononoke", like many Asian fairy tales for children (and European ones, for example in the form of the original versions of "Grimm Brothers"), is more aimed at older children. This is definitely not the type of story that puts it all down. This is a magnum opus you need to see for, and preferably watch at least twice. After a few years' break, so that we can verify the content of this film with the reality that surrounds us and draw conclusions. On the other hand, Hayao Miyazaki has carefully outlined his messages on many different occasions. For example, that people should live in harmony, try to maintain a balance between their desires and the things actually necessary, and not build their happiness on someone else's misfortune. Or from the threads we saw on the example of both people and animals - emotions are always a bad adviser. Not only because they obscure sober judgment, but also because it is difficult to return to normal life later on. When we go too far with something, it becomes harder for us to see our wrong decisions that brought us to the point where we are now.
It's worth watching, mainly because there is no artificial and bloated pro-ecological message. The director doesn't resort to such cheap plays - instead, he prefers to show that both people and nature have good and bad sides. Glorious things (care for the sick by Ms. Eboshi), as well as short-sighted actions that will not change anything in the long term. It's worth watching, at least once, and if you own Netflix, you have the opportunity to do so. Now, maybe this title is not very recognizable, but in its prime-time, it was an important production, and a lot was written and talked about.