Conde - Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke.. This film was one of the best that I have seen so far. The story line was actually interesting and the art and animation style of the film was done very well, especially considering it was created in 1997 when we did not have a lot of the animating technology that we do now. One thing that I loved and think was used brilliantly was the combination of hand drawn artwork and computer animation. It was done in a way that made it visually interesting but still hid the fact that it was done in a completely different way than the rest of the animation.

I have seen in some amines that the combination of the two doesn't work very well, but Princess Mononoke did it promisingly good. The mixture of the two can often come off looking like two different people made the specific scene in the film, but princess has a unique style. This film uses a lot of well saturated colors to give off a sort of "bright" feeling in most scenes, which they used to help them keep the style of the hand drawn art and computer animated art the same. They also did a good job not overusing the amount of computer animated material  that they put in the film, otherwise it could have conflicted with certain parts of the story by distracting the viewer from what is going on. They only used about 5 minutes worth of computer animated material throughout the entire film, which for their situation was very good. Their smooth use of these two types of animation is one thing that made this film very successful. 

They were also able to keep the art in the movie very sharp, but still sketchy in areas that sketchiness was needed. That is something that is also very difficult to do. If an art style is too sketchy in a film, it can still come off as just moving drawings. Yes, they are just animated drawings, but the smooth quality of the art is also what gives character a more "human-like" quality

Conde - Grave of the Fireflies, what audience?

 Grave of the fireflies.. For me, definitely the most touching anime that I have seen that we have watched so far. Actually, probably the most touching anime that i have ever seen. There isn't really one specific thing about the film that makes watching it so emotional, but a collection of the occurrences in the film make for a meaningful and significant story. I am not saying that it made me necessarily shed a tear, but it did however make me think. This film puts you in a situation where you actually feel for children and all of the heartache that they have to go through. I think that the mixture of the innocence of the children being faced with these serious situations is what is really capturing about the film. Some of the things that they go through(for example, their mother dying, or little sibling dying)are things that it would even be difficult for a grown man or woman to go through.

One of the things that is interesting is how so much responsibility is put on the older sibling. Even though he is 14, he is faced with having to take care of his little sister, who is only 4, which is something that normal 14 year olds never really do. He has so much to deal with for her that it almost occasionally seems like his sense of being a kid is often lost. I found myself forgetting that he is only 10 years older than his little 4 year old sister, which is a huge reality check. No 14 year old should be put through situations like that. This does make him a good brother, and son to his mother, but it is still a struggle for him in the end, especially because he has to face the fact that both his mother and sister die.

One thing that was brought up in class was whether or not this should be a story for children or a story for adults. I thought of it to be an interesting question because a pretty decent argument can be made on both sides. Some could say that it could be a story for children because the children who watch it may relate to the children in the actually story, so they may understand more about what they are thinking about, and that relation between the character and the physical, real-life watcher can make a very strong connection, which can make the story even better. But at the same time, is this a situation that young kids should be experienced to when making that connection. Death is used in many films for kids, but usually speaking they are deaths of maybe animals or other types of creatures that can maybe be related to humans. For ex. (The Lion King, those thousands of animated ant/bug movies that have wars between different types of insects..the list goes on, i just don't feel like naming anymore..) Maybe this is because it gives younger kids a slight, feathered introduction to a serious topic such as death, but personally, i feel that this movie should be geared towards the audience of older kids and adults, because of how serious some of the situations get, especially because of their reasons for death..

Like really? What child wants to see that?

Conde - Harp of Burma

The Harp of Burma is a different kind of anime than the other that we hve been watching. We are used to seeing animes with different types of "supernatural" elements to them, and for one week it is actually kind of interesting to see something that strays from that trend. I think what is interesting about this short film is that it talks and displays something real, and we are more able to relate and understand the human heartache that these soldiers and such are going through. Since much of it was based off of real events, we know that a lot of it isn't made up so it makes us realize that it is really a little more serious of a topic that is being displayed.

Although there are many versions of the Harp of Burma, or the "Burmese Harp", they all follow a similar pattern. Throughout all of them, and throughout the Japanese culture itself, they are very honorable. This film along with it's other versions depict how honor is a underlying trait that the Japanese all seem to have. Everything they do is out of honor and they are some of the bravest people ever. Whether the reason that they are so honorable is a religious or a cultural thing is left up to interpretation, but it is a fact that they are.

In class we talked about suicide and whether it was an honorable thing to do or a cowardly thing to do. As everyone agreed, it really depends on the situation, but in Letters From Iwo Jima it is definitely done in an honorable way. Giving up hope and killing yourself is one thing but when you have a legitimate reason for it, it may not be the most cowardly thing to do, but the quite opposite. In this film it is done to prevent the enemy from gaining information that could possibly take away from the chance of success for the Japanese. In a situation like that, if you are killing yourself to protect a large amount of people, than that is one of the most heroic things you could possibly do. It surely shows that you are/were someone who cared about the situation to an extreme extent.

Honor in unfortunate situations like that is still something important. That is a trait that really shows you are a good person, and it seems that in this film, and possibly the people in the situation that this film was based off of, were able to stay honorable until the end.

Conde - Ghost in the Shell, Technological Advancement

One of the most interesting aspects of anime today is their use of technology. Anime, being done with drawings and animation has a lot of room for creativity and coming up with their own ideas. Technology is used in pretty much every anime and it is interesting how some animes take technology and make it a very important factor in their story. In Ghost in the Shell, and actually Perfect Blue and Akira as well, technology is so advanced that even though it hasn't completely taken over peoples lives, it is still a major aspect of it. Motoko, the main character in Ghost in the Shell is created to where technology is the thing that keeps her running, literally. The use of her camouflage is a big example of how she uses this aspect of herself to her advantage. 

The art that is used to create the asthetics that is used in advanced technology is often interesting in itself as well.


I think part of the reason that people, humans, find it so interesting when their is a highly advanced technological element in a story is because we see parts of that advancement in our own world. We are able to compare how far we have come along in our own "real" technological world, and then possibly even hope for what we may see in the future. It is interesting because even though most of us know that we are rapidly becoming more technologically advanced, we still like to see how far things can be pushed in these animes. In Akira, the goverment uses complete control over technology and is able to monitor and check almost everything that is going on. Maybe another reason we find situations like that interesting is because some of us are maybe even scared of what our rapid advancement of technology will bring in the future. The argument can then be made whether or not technology is truly helping us or hurting us. There are other movies that use the idea of technology becoming overpowered and taking over as well. Movies like Eagle Eye, and iRobot, which are two personal favorites.

The way Mima's life is being stalked all using technology is something that is already seen today. When that film was made, we may not have been as advanced as we are now, which also shows the rate we are going. Even in everyone's personal lives, most of us are somehow connected throughout the internet in some way. As this seems like a good thing, and extremely useful, it could quite possibly result in a large downfall in the distant, or maybe near future.

Conde - Vampire Hunter D

In my opinion, Vampire Hunter D was an okay movie. It was basically everything that is to be expected out of an anime based on a half breed vampire who slays other vampires. This similar plot is used very often today and is something that is becoming more and more popular. One example that shows a lot of similarities with Vampire Hunter D is the Blade series. Blade is a half human half vampire mix who hunts vampires for a living, but at the same time, every once in a while his vampire side comes out and he is under temptation to suck some blood or something.  

This idea is an interesting one. The thing that makes it so dynamic is because as humans, we like to watch things that still maintain human qualities. In many series, characters are half human, half something else. The fact that these characters have an "outer earthly" characteristic to them, they still have human like qualities, so we as readers/watchers can get a better understanding and a deeper understanding of their personalities and ideas.

Although this theme is used very often today, personally i think a lot of the older vampire movies are better written. It also seems that in this newer time that we are in, the idea of what a vampire looks like has also been a little different. Not, often we see that depictions of vampires are these beautiful people that are often romantic. This image of a vampire is popular because for us as humans, we find it more appealing to be reading or watching something about a good looking vampire rather than a blood-thirsty creature that lives alone or something. Vampire Hunter D is an example of on that uses "good looking" vampires. The exception for this movie is the very old vampire, but that's understandable because come on, a man who's lived for thousands of years can only be beautiful for so long. 

To me, Vampire Hunter D is an example of why I think vampire themed plots work better with Anime. It gives the story the ability to make exotic characters and effects. Although the movie visually was not the beat, I still think it was interesting for what it was.

Conde - Perfect Blue Violence

Ahh..Perfect Blue.. there really is too much to say about this film. I can honestly say that this may possibly be one of the most confusing animes that I have ever watched. It jumps in and out of reality so much that if you are not paying extremely close attention to it, you can easily find yourself getting lost. There are many moments in the movie where you have to kind of think about what is going on, more than usual.

The story starts off with the main character Mima. She is dancing on stage with her popstar group and she is a famous popstar that everyone loves, she wears very kid-like clothing that looks very girly and innocent. One thing that it seems that most animes do is mix the elements of young innocent girls, but put them in serious situations. Yes, the story takes Mima's innocents and turns it around by making her willing to do whatever it takes to become an actress. She slips into a darker side of herself and has no problem with doing rape scenes and scenes that are not something you would expect of her. She is seen taking nude photos from a photographer.

Other than just the sexual aspects that take her innocents and destroy it there are multiple scenes where she gets into fights and completely destroys her enemy. I think that perfect blue did this very well because it was completely unexpected the first few times that it happened. In particular, the scene, that I talked about in class is my favorite. Not because it is her constantly stabbing the photographer (which dont get me wrong, i found very interesting), but because it is so unexpected. It really shows the character change once that happens, and you can completely tell that Mima has gone crazy. Having these moments in the film like this really increases how interesting it is. Yes there are brutal fight scenes in almost every anime made today, but Perfect Blue was somewhat unique in the way that they had such a random attack come from such an unexpected attacker.

I really enjoyed it actually. When it started off I did not think that I was going to like it because of the art style but it got interesting. The fact that the plot was so dynamic in their delivery makes it very interesting. It makes you have to think about it, and there are a lot of moments in that movie where my mind was just completely blown. And as much as I want to leave you a video..all there is on YouTube are Perfect Blue AMV's..so no.

Conde - Botchan and Student Days

Watching these films this week somehow made me do a lot of thinking. These films in my opinion were not very good artistically and some of the plots to me were kind of week, but when you look a little deeper past that you start to realize that the Anime's display some real things that happen in both Japans society and America as well.

Starting with Botchan..

Botchan takes a teacher and puts him in a situation where he has to teach kids that he is unfamiliar with and he is very different from. Because of this, the way the students react to him are not like how they would react to another teacher that they maybe have known for a longer time or have more similarities with. This is something that happens very often today in society, and many of us know tat from just experience in the classroom. In high school when there is a new teacher, students usually treat them worse. When it's a new teacher, students have the attitude like "Oh he's new, he hasn't been here as long as we have so there is no way that he can be the boss of me." That attitude is shown very well in Botchan because these kids that the man has to teach are completely rebellious and they do not want to listen to anything. I think that the creators of this film did a very good job of capturing the image of what REALLY goes on in an all boys classroom. I went to an all boys school myself and I know for sure that this is very accurate, even at the age that I am.

As far as student days..student days even though in a very poorly done manor, they take a concept that is very serious in all communities today and display it, suicide. Even though in this film, the student that commits suicide overreacts it still captures reasons why suicide happens today. Suicide for young people usually happen over relationship issues, problems at home, stress from school and other problems that they have to deal with. Usually, it results from a mixture of all of these things combined, when someone feels they have been pushed so far over the edge and they have so much to take care of that they can no longer handle it anymore. These issues today are serious and it is a very sad thing, but they do happen. I think that student days does do a good job with this, even though considering I do not think the art style of the anime was very good or interesting, they do take concepts that are recognizable today and use them to make the story a little bit better. That is done for both of these films and I am able to see how they are classics because of it.