The first major new voice in Japanese anime to appear after Makoto Shinkai’s breakout spectacular YOUR NAME/’16, has produced no spectacular. But that's fine for this chamber piece from debuting director Kiyotaka Oshiyama taken from a popular manga that's all about manga (the Japanese comic book/graphic novel hybrid) and lasting just under an hour, It’s a high-spirited yet contemplative look at two unlikely friends, an ultra popular, extroverted grade schooler and an introverted home-based classmate (a near shut-in) who become rivals with competing mangas on the school paper. But a face-to-face meeting shows what opposites can offer each other, a yin to her yang. Oshiyama has yet to build up his narrative skills, and a discontinuous timeline doesn’t help clarify things, but as anime technician & innovator, he’s downright formidable. What cool POV angles! And he’s helped rather than hindered by the tight budget forcing set pieces to be built up from stills & montage effects that detail artistic growth as these two natural artist pals work their specialties (character, story, background) to reach the greater goal. A treat just to gaze at; plus some big emotional payoffs catching us by surprise.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: As mentioned, YOUR NAME which is a fully mature masterpiece. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/06/kimi-no-na-wa-your-name-2016.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: One of the film’s producers is M-G-M whose famously fatuous motto: Ars Gratia Artis, for once, actually fits the project it’s attached to!
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