Bakemonogatari - Why Art Direction Matters

I wanted to do a little post about the current trends in anime art direction. Many of the big studios mass-produce several series a season, and like their American live-action counterparts, they tend to all look the same. They're nice-looking, clean and functional; but nothing stands out or is memorable about them. Places like Bones and A-1 Studios make series that are easy on the eyes, but the art direction rarely stands out from the crowd. However, smaller studios like Silver Link and SHAFT (the one I will be referencing here) have smaller budgets, and thus can't afford the full, lush animations that big studios give series and have to get creative to tell their stories. And Bakemonogatari, by SHAFT, might be one of the most interesting-looking animes ever made.

First thing you will notice about Bakemonogatari is how simple it looks. It lacks much of the detail you tend to see in current anime, often using silhouette and solid color to fill out foregrounds, backgrounds, and even character models. Much is made of colors and palette swaps, and heavy use of spotlight and shadow to focus the viewer and depict moods and developments. Many scenes have static environmental shots interspersed with exposition, showing us physical objects that correlate to the subtext of the scene versus just the character's faces as they speak. Aspect ratio gets played with quite a bit to change the tone of a scene. Often times, there are just blank cells with the scene or animation number, and what is "supposed" to be animated there. There are rapid fire scenes of just printed words that can be interpreted as internal monologues of characters or backstory that are lightning fast. There are even highly stylized live-action scenes edited in. It all helps add to the sense of unease and "weirdness" of the show.

Given that Bakemonogatari is a story about ghosts, vampires, demons, Gods, curses, and powers, these choices in the art direction make sense. The muted tones, stark lighting, and abundant "off-ness" of some of the scenes (characters will often be animated standing in a different place each cut, closer or farther away from other characters depending on their words or tone) can make the viewer question everything they are seeing. It causes us as the audience to become a bit of an unreliable narrator, because there are very few "rules" when it comes to the supernatural, and this show like to play with all of them. When characters reveal things we've been seeing aren't there, or don't mean what we thought they mean, accompanied by unusual shot composition and framing, it disorients you and keeps you from guessing where the story is headed next.

SHAFT, and lead director Akiyuki Shinbo in particular is known for having this very unique and stylish look to their series. Bakemonogatari is one of the prime examples of their "style," and to date the entire Monogatari series has been their biggest claim to fame, but they are also well-known and beloved for their work on Puella Magi Madoka Magica. And, I think, in the end, because of SHAFT's limited size and budgets, it forces them to be so much more creative in their process, and rather than just animating everything the same, at a "higher quality." Their work is instantly recognizable and much, much more interesting to watch than another generic shonen series with "pretty" fights and perfectly-drawn backgrounds. Sometimes, less is more; and every once in a while, less can even be a feast.

Pet Girl of Sakurasou - A Review

                 "I realized... It wasn't that the days were boring. It was being just like everyone else."

Pet Girl of Sakurasou (or just Sakurasou as I will refer to it) is a surprising anime. What appears, at first, to be a rom-com slice of life series about a group of eccentrics, geniuses, and weirdos becomes an emotionally complex look at the impact talent and genius can have on average and gifted people alike. Our protagonist is Sorata Kanda, a high school boy of average intelligence, talent, and looks who is hard-working and kind-hearted. The former trait allowing him to be enrolled at a private high school for the arts named Suimei, the latter trait leads him to taking in every stray cat he sees and thus getting him expelled from his dormitory. He moves into Sakura Hall, an off-campus residence for "problem students" where he meets peers of his who are exceedingly talented, but also exceedingly strange. And while he cares deeply for his new friends, he is also deeply conflicted as a result of being around them.

“[You know...] with talented people... They draw people to themselves and without trying to, they tear them to shreds. The closer you are to them, the more viciously you’ll be torn apart.”

The main conflict of the series is an internal one Sorata, and another girl in his class Nanami suffer through; that no matter how hard they work, no matter how much of themselves they sacrifice to try and get ahead, the world is an unfair place and those with raw, natural talent will always come out ahead. It's played out time and time again for our two more average protagonists that failure is a very real and often unavoidable thing, and it's often juxtaposed against the successes and achievements of their talented peers. The show goes to great lengths to allow us to see the emotional toll these events take on our characters, and isn't afraid to make them lash out nastily or react in a very negative, but human, manner. Threaded into this central conflict are a handful of romances, often interrupted, derailed or complicated by the failures and successes of the characters. It comes together to created a detailed and emotional mosaic of life among those who are both very skilled, but still immature.

"Hey, what color do you want to be?"

But, the show does not let you down on your initial impression of the series as being a funny one, because it is very, very funny at times. The dialog is sharp, the characters very fully-formed, and the interactions they have are often the biggest highlights of the show. But, the real meat of the series lies in the (sometimes uncomfortably familiar) feelings of coping with conflict and failure, and where a person's true value lies. The show is also animated almost excruciatingly beautifully, with the smallest details left in, like seeing a character's pupil expand and contract as they become emotional. Overall, this is a powerful series that deals with the one thing modern fiction especially doesn't like to, which is the fact not everyone has some secret hidden talent that will just come bursting out if they work hard enough and believe in themselves. Sometimes, your best won't be good enough, but that doesn't matter as long as you do try, and are a good person to those around you. That's the real message of Sakurasou, and it's a message that will resonate long after all the other series about incredible, limitless heroes fade into the background.

Pet Girl of Sakurasou: 9/10

Your Lie in April: A Review

Your Lie in April is an anime about the turbulence of youth, first love, and the explosive power of music to channel our deepest emotions and project them onto others. The series focuses on 14-year old Kosei, a former piano prodigy who stopped playing after suffering a mental breakdown due to his mother's death. He finds himself unable to hear the notes he plays anymore, and his life has become dull and aimless as a result. This all changes when he meets Kaori, a spirited and wild violinist who motivates Kosei to play once again, with feeling. Alongside Kaori and his childhood friends Watari and Tsubaki, Kosei confronts the spectres haunting him, and discovers what really lies in the heart of a musician.

 First and foremost, the most noticeable thing about Your Lie in April is the astounding visuals present. Mixing traditional hand-drawn animation with CGI and watercolors, Your Lie in April might be the best looking anime of all time. The backgrounds are often detailed and gorgeous, heightening the mood of the scene without overwhelming it. And, the visuals are at their finest during the musical performances. Rather than show us what the audience would see with the naked eye, we are taken into an alternate reality of sorts, the inner mind-scape of the musician. The show crafts surreal, elegant, and often poignant sequences that convey the emotions and innermost thoughts of the musician while they play, springing to life the feelings they are attempting to share with the audience through their playing. Also significant is the use of color and pallet when relating to Kosei's journey in particular. At first, he sees the world in drab, monotone colors, washed out and blending together. But, Kaori's introduction brings a bright blast of color to the show, and the colors only deepen and become richer as the series progresses.

The music is, of course, incredible. The series has a wonderful original score, but the real highlights are the classic pieces performed by our musicians. From Beethoven to Chopin to Kreisler to Debussy, there is a wide variety of music present, and each one is used to punctuate a character arc, opening a window into our character's soul. From Kaori's free-wheeling with tempo on "Violin Sonata No.9, 1st Movement" to Kosei's emotional farewell to his mother via "Love's Sorrow" these familiar pieces become imbued with new meaning, and become transcendent. Combined with the unique visuals, each piece becomes a whole new thing, something you want to be able to live in yourself over and over again, to be able to feel that openly and grandly.

My only nitpick with Your Lie in April, and it's a small one, is the over-use use of slapstick humor. While levity is much needed to allow you to breathe in between the monstrously huge emotional performances, the use of physical humor (usually against a boy who had at one point suffered abuse) falls flat in comparison to the rest of the series' successes. But really, it's nothing that takes away from the show, but rather it stands out so much because the rest of the series is so good at everything it does. The voice acting is top notch, and the story is simple but told well and with wonderful, well-rounded characters. The show manages to balance rapturous joy with tragic heartbreak at every turn, making you invest more and more of yourself into the story and these characters. Even just thinking about moments in the series, or hearing that opening titles song can make all kinds of emotions rise to the surface and soar out of me. Kaori often asks in the show, "Will you forget me?" The answer, Your Lie in April, is never.  10/10

We Steal Secrets: A Review

We Steal Secrets is a documentary by Alex Gibney about Julian Assange, Chelsea (nee Bradley) Manning and WikiLeaks. Thought it was a very interesting film, which told the story of both people as well as the rise of the infamous website fairly well. It was much more focused on the aftermath of the leaks versus anything that came before, but in that way it almost is more effective because it plays on the nature of competing realities almost. What's reality to one person is not necessarily reality to another. And, these contrasting realities are the heart of the story. Assange, while smart and savvy, is also very petty and proud and selfish. While some might say he painted the target on himself to keep the rest of the people who made WikiLeaks under the radar, it seems to me more that he wanted the celebrity, he wanted to be the face and be the icon because it suited how he viewed himself best. He always saw himself as a Very Important Person who was both the rock star and the martyr. All the shit with his legal issues in Sweden, which if you listen to his followers make it seem like an international conspiracy to silence WikiLeaks forever, was nothing more than a man who refused to take an HIV test for two women who he had unprotected sex with, and got fed up with his attitude. He then allowed WikiLeaks followers to donate money to pay his bail and legal fees, all the while trying to keep his legal issues and WikiLeaks' issues tied together, thus making him almost a dual pariah. You see that he became this paranoid, secretive man who basically sabotaged his own creation and turned it into something he despised once. He was actively misinforming the public to protect his image of being the persecuted hero.

While Assange might be the more complex subject of the film, Manning is the most interesting. Here you have a person who is almost the polar opposite of Assange. While Julian Assange is almost master of his own reality, crafting and creating and editing as he goes along; Manning is a victim of realities. We see a person who from a very young age was under assault from the realities within and without that are created by us and forced upon us. Manning has an acute case of conscience and empathy, which doesn't fly well when working in Military Intelligence. Manning brings into her service a life of having to adapt and camouflage just to get by in day to day life, then finds herself faced with the stark realities of war. After having to stare long and hard at what is on the other side of the curtain, she decides that her reality must become everyone's. She can't handle this reality alone anymore. But, even though she feels morally vindicated for leaking all those hundreds of thousands of documents, she is torn by the implications. She feels for all the people who might be put in harm's way in the name of naked truth. But, most of all, it seems like she is in search of her true identity, her chosen reality, and maybe had hoped this would be a keystone in that journey.

Overall, I would give the film high marks despite getting a little bogged down in the mire of the Assange legal scandal, but I do praise the fact it reports on all sides of the issues, both in favor of and against the kind of leaks that took place. The film definitely has an opinion on the matter, but it is far closer to common sense than some documentaries in the past. Gibney has a knack for getting inside the heads of his subjects, and then using a wide array of visual styles to convey personalities and character traits and/or flaws to the audience. It is a strong piece of reporting, and from what I hear, not favored by WikiLeaks itself as much as The Fifth Estate which it had direct input in (take that as you will). And, if for no other reason, see this film because it tells Chelsea Manning's story, which all other takes on the WikiLeaks story fail to do. Manning's story is easily the most compelling and heartbreaking, maybe because she took all the risk, suffered all the consequences, but didn't get to become an icon for hackers and internet anarchists like Assange did for just being a middleman. Compelling stuff, at the end of the day, and a lot to think on.

The Podcast of Doom

There is now a page with a handy embed-able player for my new podcast, Podcast of Doom located here.  You can listen to every episode and comment riiiiiiight here:



http://thenocturnablog.blogspot.com/p/podcast-of-doom.html

Listen or Die: Episode 4

Listen in to Episode 4 of "Listen or Die" reviewing the Game of Thones episode, "What is Dead May Never Die."

http://reeltimepodcast.org/2012/04/16/listen-or-die-3-a-game-of-thrones-podcast-2/

Listen or Die: Episode 3

Listen in as Todd and Jenny critique the newest episode of Game of Thrones, "The Night Lands."

http://reeltimepodcast.org/2012/04/09/listen-or-die-3-a-game-of-thrones-podcast/