The Tokyo Godfathers
Nobody personifies the diversity of Japanese animation better than Satoshi Kon. His untimely passing in 2010 was a real loss to the world of cinema, but he left us four gems that unfailingly feature in all the top-animes-of-all-times lists out there. From Perfect Blue, a muddled, coruscating, visceral psychodrama tackling exploitation of women in show business, mental disorders, and identity theft, to a heart-wrenching love-letter to cinema that is Millennium Actress, to Paprika, a garish fantasy said to make Inception look like a dreary, unimaginative snoozefest, the director never shied away from the disruptive and the avant-garde.
One of our favorite creations of his, though, is the one we didn’t mention: an unusual take on a traditional Christmas cinema feature, The Tokyo Godfathers. The film follows three unlikely protagonists: the matronly drag queen Hana, churlish, middle-aged drunkard Gin, and irreverent teenage runaway Miyuki, all sleeping rough on the neon-glaring streets of the Japanese capital. Going through the trash on one chilly Christmas evening, the trio unexpectedly finds an abandoned baby boy, whom, after much deliberation, they decide to return to his rightful mother and duly set out to look for her while also trying to deal with their own demons in the course of their journey.
Funny, smart, and richly visual, The Tokyo Godfathers is the best of both worlds, uniting the warmth of a holiday movie with the enigma and whimsicality of an anime. A must-watch, in our humble opinion, but so are all of Satoshi Kon’s boundary-pushing masterpieces: he is the David Lynch and Martin Scorsese of animation, and that’s as good as it gets.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
As much as Satoshi Kon adored exploring all the facets, dark and otherwise, of the human psyche, another anime great Mamoru Hosoda just can’t get enough of time travel, but, to cut him some slack, each of his readings on the topic always takes you unawares with its quirky originality.
Case in point is The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, a joyous, but with a hint of bittersweet, motion picture that mixes time-hopping with the growing pains of adolescence. An ordinary Japanese schoolgirl Makoto Konno stumbles upon a strange object that helps her leap through time, a discovery that turns her life upside down. Apart from using her newfound talent on doctoring her exam papers, heisting cakes, and free-riding at numerous karaoke sessions (as any normal person would), the lovable protagonist also comes face to face with her coming-of-age tribulations, rewriting relationships and finding her place in the world. An adorable, witty study with Van-Gogh-esque hues and Groundhog Day meets Back to the Future vibes, the film is a solid 7.8/10 on IMDB and feels like it.
Another of Hosoda’s stand-out works, Mirai, prescribes time travel as an unusual treatment for sibling rivalry. Bratty four-year-old Kun is horrified to discover that he no longer will be the one getting all the sweets: there’s a baby sister on the way, and he already loathes her quite a bit, becoming even more cantankerous when Mirai, his bête noire, actually makes an appearance. One day, he happens upon a magical garden where he is confronted by a strangely familiar teenage girl, and that’s when his self-study adventure starts. We’re a long way away from the movie’s release in Russia, which is set for December 13, but it’s already had its shot at Japanese, Australian and New Zealand audiences and managed to snatch itself an official selection status at the Cannes, Annecy, Melbourne, and Sydney film festivals, so it’s a promising contender for hitting that sweet spot at the festive season’s box office.
Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms, 2018
If you don’t mind some melodrama, welcome one of the biggest anime tearjerkers ever, Mari Okada’s directorial debut Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms. Set in a Lord of the Rings-ish fantasy world inhabited by weirdly familiar long-haired ethereal creatures and power-hungry monarchs, this eerie and very touching movie tells the story of teenage girl Maquia. She belongs to the Iorph, an ethereal race of immortal beings who hide from mortals in an unseen city and devote their lives to weaving magical cloth to pass down their stories from one generation to the next. After her homeland is invaded by foreign soldiers searching for the secret of immortality, Maquia flees to the human world, where she finds an orphaned baby, Erial, and adopts him. Despite being warned by one of her elder clanmates that finding love outside Iorph will result in loneliness, she chooses to open her heart to a mortal, and there is no way back for her.
Though set in a magical world, this story is actually about human feelings, loneliness, love, hope, and death. Amazingly beautiful hand-drawn animation, great lyrical soundtrack, emotional resonance, relatable characters, and complex storyline (even a little bit too complex, to be honest, but hey ho) make this flick really worth checking out!
5 Centimeters per Second
We couldn't write this story without mentioning Makoto Shinkai, one of the most acclaimed anime movie makers, the author of the Japanese box office smash Your Name, and some of the most heartfelt animated dramas we’ve ever seen, such as The Place Promised in Our Early Days and The Garden of Words. However, our favorite of Shinkai’s works is his fourth and probably most well-known: 5 Centimeters per Second. Told in three short stories, this movie follows its main character Takaki Tono through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, focusing on his romantic feelings for his childhood friend, Akari Shinohara. Filled with Makoto Shinkai’s traditional motifs of loneliness and nostalgic melancholy, 5 Centimeters Per Second is perhaps the best introduction to Shinkai’s world for both aficionados and newcomers alike.
Enjoy! Yours truly, ITMO.NEWS
Written by Anastasiia Labunskaia and Anastasiia Krasilnikova.
