Week 9 - The Anime Machine: Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo

The Anime Machine by Thomas Lamarre, pg 1-63

In the first five chapters of The Anime Machine, Lamarre describes the history of the development of Japanese anime, particularly animation techniques and elements that distinguish it from Western animations and cinematography. In the first chapter, Lamarre talks about the history behind the use of multiplanar images to achieve the illusion of movement. In the second chapter, Lamarre discusses the application of multiplanar machines and the division between "full animation" and "limited animation", particularly its use by Walt Disney versus Miyazaki Hayao for depicting the illusion of depth. Chapter three goes deeper into the difference between cinematism and animation when it comes to composition. The fourth chapter takes on a specific look at Miyazaki's work, Castle in the Sky, and discusses Miyazaki's approach toward weapon technology. This is continued in the fifth chapter with discussion on Miyazaki's fascination with flight. Having a number of years of artistic training and having watched quite a number of Miyazaki's films (Castle in the Sky, Grave of the Fireflies, Howl's Moving Castle, Iblard Jikan, Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Only Yesterday, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, The Cat Returns, Whisper of the Heart, and 8 Lupin III movies), I fully agree with everything that Lamarre has said.

Last October, I attended New York Comic Con and watched the premiere of Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo (Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below). It took me quite a while before I realized that what I was watching was not a Studio Ghibli production but a CoMix Wave one. The art style matched, the character designs matched, and the music matched; only the plot style and slightly unfitting action/adventure pace gave it away. Essentially, Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo was Makoto Shinkai's tribute to Miyazaki Hayao. Shinkai, often called "the next Miyazaki", is a rising industry big name, director of 5 Centimeters per Second, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, and Voices of a Distant Star. All his previous works focused around the theme of romance, but for Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo, he tried following in the footsteps of Miyazaki. Tried a bit TOO hard some may say.

Despite being animated by an entirely different studio, the art and animation of Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo was extremely resemblant of a Ghibli work (ignoring the blantantly Ghibli-inspired character designs). The countryside landscape designs were strongly reminiscent of Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. The sense of scale of the world was heavily emphasized through the use of Lamarre's described multi-layer depth changes; the tiny travellers would gradually migrate across a plane of unmoving landscape, often at an angle to show the three-dimensionality of the world. Shinkai's love for anime-style layered clouds clearly showed a bit too frequently. In the few scenes with a moving camera, the multiplanar effect was strongly apparent. In Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo, considering the absolutely stunning quality of animation (and absurd attention to detail), it was quite clear that such animation techniques were taken not as production cost savers but as artistic style.

Another point worthy of noting was Shinkai's depiction of weaponry and flying devices, which were strongly Miyazaki-like (although arguably so forced that I felt it detracted from the movie with its usage). Machine guns and pistols were used, but in every instance of their appearance, it was shown only as a means of a method for quick, unfair advantage. In all instances of usage (or threatening of usage), the wielder was depicted as "evil" and having malicious/corrupt intents (akin to the bad guys in Castle in the Sky). Only upon dropping the weapon does the wielder regain his sanity and fight in a strengthened honourable manner. Also similarly to Castle in the Sky, the plot revolves around the possession of a stone of a special kind of material holding strong mysterious powers (which are not scientifically explained of course). It holds a connection to an airship-sized creature, which also happens to glide slowly through the air in a non-physically-plausible manner similar to the many flight machines of Miyazaki's world (the catbus from My Neighbor Totoro being the one that comes to mind).