Dani Cavallaro - Anime Intersections: Tradition and Innovation in Theme and Technique

T

his text examines the artistic development of anime, from its origins as a subset of the Japanese film industry to its modern-day status as one of the most

popular forms of animation worldwide. Chapter One provides a discussion of the history of anime and the separate phases of the artistic process involved in creating a traditional anime film. There follow nine chapter

each

devoted to a single production, exploring the technical and thematic developments pioneered in works such as NillftJ

Scroll, Perfect Blue,

and

Howl's Moving Castle. The final

chapter examines changing \\Testern perceptions of anime and its frequent appearances in \\Testern pop culture and the fine arts. A complete bibliography and filmograph - are included. Freelance writer author of

DAN I C AVALLA R 0

is also the

The Allime Art of Hayao l\tliyazaki (2006) and T1,�

Cillema of Mamoru Oshii (2006), both from

IcFarland. She

lives in London.

II McFarland

ISBN 978-0-7864-3234-9

9"780786"432349

On the cover: Appurushido a_k_a_ Appleseed, 2004, directed by Shinji Aramaki (Gencon Entertainment! Photofest)

Anime Intersections

ALSO BY DAN! CAVALLARO AND FROM McFARLAND

The Allime Art of Hayao Miyazaki

(2006)

The Cinema of Mamoru Oshii: Fantasy, Technology and Politics

(2002)

Anime Intersections Tradition and Innovation in Theme and Technique DANI CAVALLARO

McFarland

&

Company, Inc., Puhlishers

[efferson, North Carolina, and London

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUiNG-iN-PUBLICATiON DATA Cavallaro, Dani. Anime intersections: tradition and innovation in theme and technique I Dani Cavallaro. p.

cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-I3: 978-0-7864-.U34-9 softcover : 50# alkaline paper

§

1. Animated films - Japan - Themes, motives. I. Title. NC1766.J3C38

2007

791.43'340952 - dc22

2007023573

British Library cataloguing data are available ©2007 Dani Cavallaro. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or trammitted in any form or by any meallS, electronic or mechanical, including photocopyittg or recording, or by an,Y information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writingfrom the publisher. On the cover:

Appurusllido a.k.a. Applesecd, 2004, directed by

Shinji Aramaki (Geneon Entertainment/Photofest)

Manufactured in the United States of America Mcrarland 6- Company, fIlC., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 WUJW. mcfarlandpub.com

This, like everything else, is for Paddy

Table of Contents Preface

1

One - Tradition and Innovation in Modern Anime

5

Two -Ninja Scroll

21

Three -Perfect Blue

37

Four - Neon Genesis Evangelion

54

Five -Aletropolis

71

Six -Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

87

Seven - Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

103

Eight -Appleseed

121

Nine -Steamboy

137

Ten -Howl's Moving Castle

154

Eleven - Anime Synergy

169

Filmography

187

Chapter Notes

195

Bibliography

199

Index

207

VII

Preface One of the most compelling aspects of animation is its power to remind audiellces of the impor­ tance of play and imagination in a world that increasingly sidelines such necessities.... animation is one ofthe most popular forms in which the spirit oftrue anarchy and the antic spirit live on. [n Native American mythology, the coyote figure is a centralforce, playfidly and wilfully at odds with the established order that it seeks to mock and undermine. Animation plays this same coyote-like role.... [It} is a liberating force that free associates like crazy and makes audiences see the world afresh and, cliched though it sounds, with the eyes of a child again. -James Clarke

Th is study is the p roduct of a steadi ly growing i n terest i n the art o f a n i mation , fuelled by the desi re to celebrate the mediu m's uniqueness . What attracted me most forcefully to a n i ­ mation i n the fi r s t p l a c e , a n d w h a t I soon c a m e t o regard a s its m o s t dist i nctive attribute, i s t h e u n com p ro mi s i n g made ness o f i ts i mages . On this p remise, I i n i tially harbored a p refer­ ence for 20 cel-based a n imatio n , which I saw as a patently artificial expressi o n o f the medi u m . However , research i n t o other types o f an i mation , s u c h a s clay-based and stop-motion tech­ niq ues, broaden ed my perspective , as I observed that even ani mational styles that aim fo r 3 D scu l p t u rality such a s those are fundamentally rooted i n a n aesthetic that squarely prioritizes the artisanal qual ity of the a n i m ated i mage . The p rinciple of m adeness accordi n gly remains pivo tal to their ventu res . I becam e interested i n exa m i n i n g the m aterial u nderp i n n i ngs o f all sorts of animation, be they draw i n gs, p u ppets or m aquettes . The scope o f my i nq u i ry expanded further as I turned to a n i mated p roductions which , while firmly grou nded i n the hand-crafted dimension , i n corporate both 2 0 and 3 D com­ puter graphics for edi t i n g , cinematograph ical and effect-related p ur p oses . I indeed real i zed that digital ly assisted a n i m ation is not i n i m ical to tradi tional forms and objectives as l o n g as t h e artist's h a n d persists as the fou nding force and is still palpably evident i n the fi n ished produ c t . I n pursu i n g these l eads , I m ethodical ly exa m i ned various types o f a n i mation p roduced in c u l t u rally, h istorically a nd geograph ically dispa rate contexts, and eventually focused on a n i m e as a p aradigmatic expression of the p r inciples I sought to fo reground. Th ro ugh close study o f a broad range o f a n i m e ti tles, I gradually discovered that t h is for m wears its m ade­ ness on its sleeve by overtly s h u nn i n g the aesthetic and ideol ogical p recepts of classic rea l i s m . This is blatantly b o r n e o ur b y a n i me's tw i n aversion to the natura l i s tic rendition o f mass a n d to t h e emulation of t h e conventions o f l ive-action c i n e m a i n the representation of movement :

2

PREFACE

goals that Hollywood a n i mation , conversely, has treasu red s i n ce the 1930s . I n keep i n g w ith Japanese art's inveterate p reference for l i near graphics, a n i m e characteristically del ivers flat , relatively simple, yet vibrantly dynamic shapes that self-consciously p rocla i m their artificial status and lay bare the material substratu m of their constructio n . I n en deavo ur i n g to identify i ts pri ncipal characteristics, I fo u n d t h a t anime is b y no means a mon o l i th i c p h enomenon w i t h u n iversally recogn ized c u l t u ra l a n d a ffective specifications. I n fac t , as recurring traits emerged, as many grey areas crept i nto the for m u l a . A n i m e , I soon determi ned, entails a s many rules a s i t does exceptions t o those rules . T h i s dis­ covery increased my fascination w i th the form insofar as i t fel icitously matched my existing belief i n the val ue o f hybridity as fa r more cond ucive to speculation and experimentation than any notion of artistic self-containedness. Reflections upon varying perceptions of anim e across the globe rei n fo rced this conviction in the conception of the boo k . Whereas i n Japan t h e word anime des ignates a n i mation i n general , i n t h e Anglophone world i t is regarded as coterm i n o us with specifically Japanese ani matio n . The "Japan icity " of anime cann o t , however, be taken fo r granted. For one th i n g , the form is asserti n g itself w ith increas i n g vigor as a global p resence . Japa nese studios have been engaging w ith grow i n g fre­ quency i n co-productions with studios from other cou ntries . It is also n o teworthy, i n acknowl ­ edging a n i me's transnational i mp act , that i ts distinctive pictorial style has been i n crem entally infil trating Western visual registers not m e rely in the real m of animation p e r se bu t also in the domains o f pop mus i c , advertising, fash ion design and l ive-action cinem a . Puris ts wish­ i n g to establish a nime's essence beyond c u l t u ral cross-pol l i n ation are therefo re l i kely to be frustrated i n thei r m ission . I ndeed, their quest may ulti mately p rove altogether spurious when one considers that the father o f modern ani me, Osamu TeZllka, created the style destined to shape the future of the med i u m l argely by i ncorporating into h i s work the aesthetic tenets of Western a n imation - w i th F leischer and D isney at the forefron t . Hence, i t could rea l istically be maintained that the supple amalgamation of d iverse codes and conventions in the ideation of composite u niverses has constituted an integral part of anime for a long t i m e . T h i s study seeks t o test , a n d hopefully substantiate , t h e hypotheses del i n eated above through detailed analyses o f a selection of representative anime titles that i l l ustrate the grad­ ual transition o f the fo rm from cel a n i m ation to the synthesis of hand-drawn graph ics and i nnovative digi tal tech nology. Concu rrently, the work seeks to extol a n i mation's knack fo r bringing i n to existence alternate realities that are subj ect to the l aws o f neither p hysics n o r logic , and m a y therefo re be conceived with unsurpassable degrees o f i nventiveness, audacity and even irreverence . My objective is to document, in the process, the extent to which n ew and com pelling aesthetics u l timately result not from the p u rs u i t of p u ri ty b u t from a passion for blending - not , to borrow Claude Lev i-Strauss's bin ary model , fro m the e ngi n eer s extra p ­ olat ion and a p p l i cati on o f s pecial i s t knowl edge b ur from t he bricoleur's eclecti c i nterm i n glin g o f diverse materials a n d tools. The fi rst chapter del ineates the book's overarching argu ment with reference to the anime­ making process and to its handling of both hand-drawn and cutti n g-edge i magin g tech n i q ues and camera work . It then focuses in depth on the theoretical and p ragmatic i m p l ications o f t h e confluence of t h e o l d a n d t h e new, w ith an em phasis on t h e role p layed therein by the a r t of draw i n g . I n its closin g po rtio n , t h e chap ter outlines t h e disti nctive roles played b y the fi l m s here studied with i n a broad developmental curve , reflecting specifically o n their deconstruc­ tive p roclivities . The main body of this study comprises nine chapters, each o f wh ich is devo ted '

P reface

3

to a detai led a nalysis of the chosen productions, co n d ucted along the axes of tradition and novelty. The tech nical and thematic d i mensions o f both o f those catego ries are systematically eval uated, in tandem with the col l usion o f indige n o us and global p e rspectives u n folding there i n . The final chapter exami nes a n i m e's i m pact on Western contexts , with a tw i n focus on changing perceptions o f the medi u m over time and on synergetic phenomena that bring anime into fertile co llusion with various aspects of both popul ar c u l ture and the fine arts . Detailed fil mograph ical and bibliograp h ical i n formation s u p p le m ents the discuss i o n .

ONE Tradition and Innovation in Modern Anime Animation, in the broadest sense of the term, constitutes a fundamental, possibly unique, means of represellting dreams: of translating them, at least for a ftw minutes, into something utterly real and tangible. It is a workshop whose sole limittltions are ofa technical nature.... It is, at this point, absolutely necessary to underscore an essential element of animation: authentic animation is not and must I/ot be a mere display oftechniCtlIperftction . It should also be remembered that a char­ acter, even when it is drawn in a peculiar way, cannot live without a soul. - Luca Fava 1998 [my translation} When you make an art piece, it is not the ''coolest'' media that mtlkes it significant; it is what you do with it. -Jean 7heberge ...

The stylistic distinctiveness of anime as both a cinematograph ical medium and a p ictorial art has traditionally resided with its tendency to foreground the eminently hand-drawn quality of the animated image . This pred ilection has tenaciously endured in recent years despite the i ncreas i n g infil tration o f t h e form by com puter-generated graphics, i n contrast with Hollywood animation's rampant cultivation of eCI at the total expense of the hand-drawn element . I ndeed, even anime productions that rely substantially on digital tech nology i n o rder to accompl ish effects that would be u nachievable by more conventional means j udiciously endeav­ o u r to i ntegrate their state-of-the-art tools w i th m a n u a l ly execu ted p ic t u res, n ever q u i te sacrificing the agency of pencils and brushes . Ani me's endur i n g ded ication to p re-digi tal methodologies is a corollary of its desi re to remain loyal to the two -dimensionality o f the art o f drawing even as i t engages i n the rendition of th ree-d imensional effects . Hence , n u mer­ ous produc tions that util ize eCl pervas ively nonetheless strive to retain a cumulatively 2 0 look o r , a t any rare , t o take the 2 0 i mage a s their fo u ndation . Ani me's com m i tment to l i ne-centred graphics could be said to eman ate from an i n t r i n ­ sically pictographic sensi b i lity, and hence t o m i rror a n aesthetic p roclivity t h a t h as been deeply embedded in Japanese art for centuries . This is inextricably i ntertw i n ed with a steadfast p ur­ suit o f stylization and o f techniques capable of articulatin g complex storyl i nes and o f dep ict­ ing deep emotions t h ro ugh m i n imalist visual registers . The allegiance to traditi o n o n the tech n ical plane, moreove r , is paralleled by a n i me's perpetuation o f trad itional subj ects and

5

6

Af'IME I�TERSECTIONS

motifs on the thematic p l a n e . I mportantly, those na rrative e l em ents are not exclusively d rawn from n ative culture but o ften reveal , in fact, i n A uences of expl ici tly Western derivation . Not i n frequently, anime's narrative appeal springs precisely from its eclectic hybridization of images and styles drawn from d iverse cultural milieux . As Pau l Wells has em phasized, the medium's tendency to both approp riate and reconstellate traditional mo t i fs is essentially a coro l l ary of the nature of Japanese art as a discourse characterized not by a l i near succession o f trends but rather by the su perimposition of novel inA uences on establ ished styles, and conco m i tant adap­ tation of foreign elements to domestic parameters (Wells 1997) . If the use of traditional animation techniques is m irrored by anime's complementary rev ival of old images and themes, the trailblazing component, conversely, finds a diegetic correlative i n the representation of fu tu ristic a n d computer-saturated societies, a s wel l a s i n t h e articulation of contemporary anxieties regarding the fate of the environment, the role played by the media and by commod ification in the shap ing of identities, and the ever-present p hantom o f war. The p resent study is structured around the two com p l ementary catego ries of tradition and i nnovation. With i n eac h , attention is devoted to both tech n iques and themes . I n explor­ ing the specifically techn ical p roperties of the chosen movies, the book concentrates both o n manually crafted components (w ith a focus on storyboards, character designs, n a t u ral a n d arch i tectural backgrounds, a n d m echan ical models) , a n d on digital concepts a n d tech n i q u es depl oyed fo r the purposes of model ling , rendering and compositing (among others) . At the thematic level , motifs that can be regarded as either dist i n ctively Eastern o r distinctively West­ ern are identified and investigated as such . Globally resonant themes, fo r their part , are exam ­ i ned i n terms of thei r releva nce t o both Eastern and Western contexts . What i s axial t o the argu ment here p roposed is that trad ition and experi ment , the o l d and the n ew, East and West are never u l t i mately posited as mutually excl usive polarities i n Japan ese an i mation b u t are i n fact consistently draw n i nt o tempora l , generic and geograp h ical com posites of kaleidoscop i c p ro fusion. As the p resent book was being planned. the 78th Academy Awards n o m i nations fo r " Best Animated Feature F i l m" unexpectedly - and felicitously - corroborated the a rgument here p u rsued : whereas com pu ter-generated blockbusters had been antici pated fo r several months as the most l i kely n o m i nees, digital technology ended up ta king a back seat to clay, p u ppets and hand-drawn characters, as Nick Park and Steve Box's Wallace and Grornit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (the eventual w inner) , Tim Burton and M ike Joh nson's Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride and H ayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle smartly pocketed their respect ive nomi nations .! I n o rder to el ucidate the artistic and b roadly cultural sign ificance of a n i m e's incremen­ tal combination of conventional and innovative tech n iques , i t is necessary to assess the a n i m e ­ mak i n g process itself. T h e ensuing pages are acco rdingly devo ted to this t o p i c . The open ing part o f the discussion focuses on aspects of the production curve which trad itional and cutti ng­ edge exp ressions of the med ium by and large share . D i gital tec h n iques deployed in the anime i n d ustry for the generation of both 2D and 3D gra ph ics are subsequently l ooked at. F i nal ly, distinctive cinem atographical strategies characteristic of Japanese a n i mation in virtually all o f i ts manifestations are evaluated, i n relation t o both typical camera moves and v isual o r s p e ­ c i a l effects . The actual anime-making process is preceded by the "plann ing phase" (kikaku dangai). There are two ki nds of plann i n g i n the un iverse of Japanese a n i matio n . O n e consists of the

One� Hadition ,md Inn01J.1tion ill Modern Anime

7

selection of com ic books or novels fo r rhe p ur pose of screen adaptati o n and i nvolves relevant negotiations betwee n producers , publ ishers and a ut hors . (The res u l t is com m o n ly designated gensaku a n i m e . ) The other revolves around the ideation and e1abo rarion of a n utterly origi­ n a l concepr o r story (gen an) by a d i rector or a n i m ator. S i nce very few a n i mation com pan ies have sufficient financial reso urces to p rod u ce a n a n i ­ mated fil m on their own , a vi ral p a r r of r h e plann i ng p rocess consists of their deal i n gs w i rh porential spo nsors . A n i mation compan ies customarily present their p roposal i n paper fo rm , o fren i n conj uncrion w i r h a rough vers ion of the scri p t i ntended to commun icate as vividly as possi b l e the world view they aim to p resent to their prospective audiences . Gensaku a n i ­ mations a r e freq uently l uckier t h a n the i r gen an cou nterparts insofar a s t h e m a n ga o r novels upon wh i ch they arc based al ready enjoy an esrabl ished customer base , and va unt sales records capable of attract i n g generous sponsorship. In the i n i tial stages of the production proper, the team focuses on the elaboration o f a "scenario" i ntended to p rovide specific ins tructions fo r the storyboarders , the character and mecha designers a n d the backgro und anists, i n o rder both to muster the i r collective i magi­ nation and to abet the i r u nderstanding of the wo rld they are about to create together. I t is u p to the d i recto r , ultimately, to supply clear a n d conv i n c i n g i nstructions, whi l e focus i n g on the i mperative to p resent physically and psychologically appeal i n g characters - o ften within the constrai nts posed by l i m ited b udgets and production schedules . The a n i m e d i rector holds r h e advantage , compared t o the l ive-act ion d i recto r , of n o t having t o deal w i th "real" actors a n d actresses, a n d hence w i th a l l manner o f h u m a n i d i osyn­ crasies and eccen tricities. The a n i m e d i rector, however, must be able to conceive of the a n i ­ mators themselves a s performers responsible fo r insti l l i n g l i fe i nto i magi n a ry personae. Ar rhe same time, the a n im ato rs must also be able to approach their characters as actors i n the i r own righ r , speculating assiduo usly about nor merely the i r su rface appearances b u t also rheir hypo­ thetical personali ties, cul tural backgro unds, ethics and tastes . A v i ral ro l e is p l ayed throughout by rhe "storyboards" : seq uences o f pictures a nalogo us to manga that i n d i cate how the narrative w i l l be developed i n terms o f a disti nctive p ictorial styl e , dyna m i c effects a n d camera angles appropriate to the capture of specific scenes. The storyboard is essent ially a visual ized script supplying the blueprint fo r the enr i re p roduction tea m , detai l i ng the n ecessary frame n umbers , visual effects a n d backgro u nd a rtwork . (A m ere 26-m i n ute sto ryboa rd of the kind requ i red by an average-len gth TV-series epi sode normally takes at least th ree weeks to draft . ) As the storyboards are being sketched, the character design­ ers develop the d ra m atis personae's physiological and psych ological trai ts t h ro u gh vi rtually cou ntless sketches o f varyi n g com plexiry. The actual layo u t , p roduced i n the wake of the sto ryboards, provides more exhaustive i nstructions abou t fram i n g tech n iques, camera moves and the placement w i t h i n a scene of particular characters and p rops. In i nvest i n g the a n i mation w i t h a d i s t i n c t ive perso n a l i t y, scene layo u t plays an unquestionably cru c i a l role . Even at i ts l east dyn a m i c , a n i m e u t i l izes th is aspect of the p roduction to underscore the impo rtance of visuali z i n g the characters fro m d iverse angles a n d perspectives, of ideating setti n gs w i th which t h e characters c a n i m ag i na­ tively i nterac t , and of evo k i n g kinetic l i nes consonant with the backgro u n ds' chro m a t i c , tex­ tu ral and perspectival qualities . Once the storyboard i n g has been com p leted, the production p rocess e nters i ts most dec i ­ s ive s tages a s far as t h e con c rerizarion of r h e team's fou ndarional vision i s con cerned . At this

8

ANIME I NTERSECTI O;-']S

j u ncture, the d i rector is requi red to mon i tor punctiliously the i ntegration of character designs w i th mecha models executed by mechan ical des igners (where appropriate) and backgrou n d art p roduced b y t h e a r t d i rectors, all t h e wh ile con ferring with the c o l o r designers, l ayo ut artists, directors of pho tography and sen ior animators . The drawings are first executed on paper and then translated into an "an i matic" (or "sto ry reel " ) , a filmed vers ion of the s to ryboards i nt e n ded to gauge dramatic t i m i n g . At i ts most basic , the a n i matic consists p u rely o f a series of still i m ages edited and displayed i n a sequential fash i o n . However, rough versions o f the dialogue and the soundtrack are frequently added to the sequence to test whether the visuals and the acoustic effects correlate consistently. When the p rel i m inary draw i n gs have received the d i rector's seal of approval , the actual frames are eventually created . These comp rise " keyframes" (or "extre m es") , the i mages that i l l ust rate the pri ncipal poi nts i n an actio n , and " i n -betweens" (or "pass i n g positions" ) , the i mages s ituated between any two keyframes . I n tradi tional a n i matio n , once a seque n ce has been draw n , all the i mages except backgro und ones are transferred from paper onto transpar­ ent sheets of p l astic , o r cels . The outline of the i mages are i n ked onto the cels and colours are later added to the m . When an entire sequence has been transferred onto cels, the p roduc­ tion p rocess enters the pho tography phase. All the cels for each fra m e are s tacked in l ayers, w i th the backgro u n d i mages at the bottom of the p i l e , and the com posite i mage is p h o ­ tographed . T h e c e l s are th en removed and th e process is repeated fo r the n ext fra m e until each s ingle frame i n the sequence has been photographed . Vo ice reco rd i n gs, soundtracks a n d o t h e r sound effects a r e fi n a l l y added t o t h e com pleted fil m . I n compu ter-assisted a n i mation , fol low ing the co mpletion o f the sto ryboards, model sheets and character designs, the keyframes are hand-drawn on paper. The i n - betweens are n ext created . The final draw i n gs are scanned i nto the com puter, digita l ly i n ked and p a i nted, superim posed over hand-crafted o r CG backgro unds and eventually com p u ter-a n imated . The movements of i n d ividual p arts of a character's body are d rawn and scanned in separately, as are the backgrou n ds and any mov ing obj ects . The programs used by many studios today com­ bine all the various l ayers into compos i te scenes, which are then re ady to be burned o n to fi l m. It is not hard to recogn ize the t i me-effectiveness of this p rocess i n comparison with the tra­ d i tional method . It is also worth observ i n g , however , that the advent o f cel a n i mation was i tself a revo ­ l utionary development i n the h istory of the med iu m . An imation's pion eers, s uch as Winsor McCay ( 1 867- 1 9 34) , designed their works frame by fram e , and every d raw i n g requ i red the repetition of each si ngle m i n ut i a , including backgro und deta i l s . With the i nve ntion o f the cel , ani mators were able to l i ghten considerably their laborious rou t i ne: the execution o f d raw­ i n gs i l l ustrating change in the characters' movements upon transparent sheets i ndeed enabled them to superi mpose the variable elements over backgrounds that could remain unaltered over a n umber o f frames . Computers can be employed in order to digitize an in dependently existing image (e.g. a conventional drawing) through scanning. Alternately, i mages may be created directly in the com­ puter in the form of wholly digital models. I n both i nstan ces, the greatest advantage carried by digital technology for today's anime studios l ies with its provision of faci l i ties whereby an a n i ­ mator may quite effortlessly modify even t h e minutest element of a frame, down t o i n dividual p ixels (the p ixel constituting the smallest unit of a digitized image) . I n the past , that very same practitioner wo uld feasibly have had no choice but redraft the entire composition.

One-Tradition and Innovation in Modern Anime

9

The com p u ter-generated images that are increas ingly i nfiltrat i n g the a n im ated medium a l l over the globe comp rise 2 D a n d 3 D graphics . 2 D co mputer grap hics , namely com p u ter­ gen erated images based on two-dimensional geometric models, strike their roots in a p plica­ tions o riginally developed in order to assis t tradi tional drafting and printing tech nologies, such as typography. Such 2D graphics intrinsical ly match anime's p redilection for styles that empha­ size the medium's anti-mimetic m adeness . This is because the 2D image is patently not a rep l ica of a real -world referent but actually constitutes an autonomous artifact w ith independent semio tic import . Its val ue cannot be meas u red i n terms o f reportorial , documentary o r pho­ tograp hic accuracy. I t is only qualifiable, in fact, with reference to alternate sig n i fyin g prop­ erties : primarily, the abi l i t y to conj u re up parallel u n iverses u n fettered by the rules o f dayl ight common sense. The domain o f 2 D computer graphics comprises "vector graphics" and "raster graphics . " The phrase vector gra phics refers to the use of geometrical primitives such as points, l i nes, cu rves and polygons to represent i mages . In the fiel d of raster graphics (also known as " b i tmap") , by contras t , images are rep resented as arrays of pixels . The h u man eye is s u pposed to cap ture its env i ronment as a raster i m age , namely a mosaic o f l igh t particles comparable to p ixels . Yet , recent research has i n dicated that the brain p rocesses the information i t rece ives thro ugh the eye as a vecto r i m age - plausibly for the reason that j ust as vector graph ics are easier to store in the computer insofar as they consist of relatively small files, so a vector-based mental i m age will be more readily retained in memory. It co uld also be argued that elementary d raw i ngs such as l ogos designed according to the sim plest geometric shapes or cartoons consistin g p u rely o f outlines are so automatically grasped and remembered because they closely replicate the sorts of patterns which the brain instinctively extrapolates from the visual world . Two-dimensional graph ics, including typeset text , can b e repeatedly m a n i p u lated and edited by recourse to 2 D geometric transformations such as rotation , scaling and skewing, to textual tools contro l l i n g type styl e , size and color, and to artistic filters capable o f furnishing an image with the visual p roperties of waterco lors, mosaics , s tain ed glass, pencil o r charcoal sketches and neon lights - among myriad other options. The programs u til ized by 2D com­ puter graphics are not designed to engender 3 D solids and 3 D o p tical effects such as light­ ing, shadows, reflections and refractions . They are nevertheless capable o f p ro d ucing multiple l ayers, of endowing them w i th different ch romatic gradients and levels of o pacity, transparence or translucence, and of stacki ng them in a certai n o rder to convey an i m p ression o f dept h . Layers can be regarded a s t h e digital equivalent of the clear cels used i n traditional a n i ma­ tion. I t is possibl e to p l ace both single obj ects and cl usters o f related objects on distinct lay­ ers, alter the order o f the layers, and move obj ects behi n d o r in fro nt o f other o bj ects . Layers may be locked so as to p revent the accidental shifting of a n object fro m its appointed place , as well as turned off or hidden in order to focus on discrete portions o f a d rawing at any one time . As independently modifiable entities , l ayers constitute exceptionally supple graph i c mechanisms. I n the final composite p icture, the layers are "painted" o r "pasted" onto the v i rtu al can ­ vas i n o rder o f decreasing depth . ( A l ayer's "depth" refers t o i ts distance fro m t h e viewer.) As the terms "painted" and "pasted" intimate, 2D computer graphics lend themselves to the d i g­ ital simulation of both pictorial a n d collage-orien ted traditional tech niques . I n both instan ces, they s uit ideally Japanese a n i m ation's inveterate p reference for hand-c rafted effects to the extent that they enable contemporary animators to mimic with extraordin ary p recision sev-

10

AN IMF [�T[RSECTI ONS

eral t i me-honored artistic p racti ces yet they can provide unprecede ntedly ti m e-effective and affo rdable methodologies to wh ich conventional cel ani mation co u l d never have asp i red . Ongo i n g adva nces i n the field of 2 0 computer graphics have also faci l i tated the produc­ tion o f aesthetically p leas i n g images by perfecting the process o f "a nti-al iasi n g . " This refers to the incremental b l u rring of sharp edges and corners in order to e l i m i n a te j agged conto u rs a n d im part the d raw i n g with a smoothly integrated appearance . 2 0 systems s u p p l y a n i m e studios w i t h fo ur princi pal faci l i ties : �

•

•

•

•

the scanni n g and p rocessing of visuals both separately and i n batches; the coloring o f an i mage's p lanes and trace l i nes (w ith the optional addition o f effects such as soft shadowed conto urs) by means of digital ink and paint; the compositing of various elements of a scene and in cremental m a n i p ulation of the ensemble ; and the creation o f the final i mage from discrete data fi l es contai n i n g i n formation about palettes, textures and shading thro ugh the "renderi ng" process .

Numerous programs are also equipped with a "frame buffe r , " a memory area devoted to the sto rage o f the p ixel data for a s i ngle digitized image . This tool makes i t possible to fill digi­ tally various frames w i th recurrent motifs that could not be p lausibly reproduced m a n ually for each i mage without impairing consis tency o f p resentatio n . I f 2 0 com puter graphics are aki n t o painting a n d collage , 3 D com p uter grap h i cs are comparable to scu lpture . Even though an ime studios have been del iberately s lower in adopt­ ing 3 D systems than 2 0 ones, in consonance wi th Japanese art's partial ity to hand-cra fted visuals with e m i n ently two-dimensional attributes, 3 D elements have featured in the i r p ro­ ductions s ince at l east the late 1990s and have o ften been put to considerable dramatic effect . The key fu nction o f 3 D systems i n the domai n of anime resi des with the model l i ng process . This designates the shap i n g o f individual objects to be s ubsequently i ntegrated i n a wider scene layo u t . O n e o f the most com mo n modell i n g procedu res, known as "con structive solid geometry, " rel i es on p r i m i tives n amely bas ic sol ids such as cuboids, pyram ids, spheres , cones and cyli nders which it combi nes on the basis of the th ree prim ary Boolean o p e rations : addi­ tion , subtraction and i n tersection . An especially usefu l tech n ique for generating smoothly curv i l i near and undulating s u r­ faces i n 3D is N URB S ("non - u n i form rational B-spl i ne") mode l l i n g . This enables the m a n i p ­ ulation of surfaces by reco u rse to control points located along m u l t i p l e l i nes that behave , when "pushed" or "dragged, " as though they we re connected by a rubber band . The construc­ tion o f 3 D structures incl udes the digital creation o f p re l i m i nary geometric versions o f char­ acters , to be subsequently "textu re-mapped" with the addition o f various 2 0 sur faces capabl e o f simulating specific material and tactile quali ties . Analogo us models underp i n t h e opera­ tions of "mo tion-capture" tech nology, where motion data digitally extrapolated from t h e actions o f l ive performers are mapped o n t o co m p u ter-gen erated models o f the cha racters . Such fo rms of 3 D structuring rely substantially on "polygonal model l i ng . " This tech n i q u e takes 2 0 po lygons a s i ts point o f departure , a n d produces 3 D gro ups o f polygons connected by shared vertices to rep resent approximately the shapes o f the desi red obj ects . A 3D gro u p o f t h i s k i n d is generally described a s a "mesh" of connected "faces," and constitutes someth i n g l i ke t h e s k i n o f an object o r cha racter . A mesh is commonly dep icted i n "w i reframe" mode : a framework show i n g the faces and overall outline prior to its colorin g and text u r i n g . In the �

�

One-T radition and InnOl'tltion in hforie rJJ Anirne

11

case o f com p l ex characters, the creation o f a mesh i s fol l owed by a fu rther p rocess known as "rigg i n g" - the construction o f a v i rtual skeleton o f h i e rarch ically i n te rrelated parts corre­ sponding to bones (rods) and j o ints (pivots) . S mooth surfaces can be p rodu ced by means of "subdivision s u rfaces . " The fu ndamental p ri nciple upon which th is method operates is that of repeated refinement : the i n itial mesh may be a s i m p l e cube, refined th rough the generation of other m eshes contai n i n g an i n c reas­ ingly great n u m ber of faces, u n t i l it ap p roximates a sleek sphere . In the field of 3D co m p uter graph ics, the render i n g p rocess entails the convers ion o f 3 D models, which are essentially j ust files conta i n i n g basic data abo ut objects, into 2 0 i mages e ndowed w i th deta iled chromatic and textu ral qualities, and w ith specific degrees of l u m i nosi ty. An especially realistic method fo r re ndering i m ages constructed through 3 D systems, known as "ray trac i n g , " is capable of rep resent i n g accurately any i maginable manifestation o f l igh t. The p rogram traces the path taken by a ray o f l ight t h ro u gh any one scene and calculates the reflection , refraction o r absorp­ tion of the beam whenever this h i ts a particular surface . The more advanced rendering p ro­ grams also i ncorpo rate m echa n i s m s fo r the generation o f real i s t i c a t m o s p h e r i c and env i ronmental facto rs such as fog , mist , smoke o r stea m . T h e dep loyment o f digital tech nology i n a n i m e has been t h e object o f heated debate for at least two decades . Studios that adop ted some of the p ioneering com p uter-generated 3 D effects were only moderately successful- i f a t all . 3 D a n i m e s t i l l consti tutes a relatively s m a l l p roportion o f t h e overall industry, t h o u g h s o m e of i ts rece nt resu l ts have p roved u nquestion­ ably o ut s tanding. I n the early phases o f computer-assisted a n i matio n , even the rendition o f 2 0 effects was h i gh l y problematic, insofar a s t h e digitally a n i mated p a r t s tended t o cl ash with the b u l k o f the cel a n i m ation. As a res u l t , the i m p l ementation o f digital tools tended to be l i m ited to scenes where the p resence o f conspicuous comp uter graph i cs was considered desir­ able . Computers, i n this respect , were especially useful i n the execution o f sensational dynamic effects fo r the more ebull ient action sequences . Alth o ugh the first atte m p ts to use com p u ter graph i cs i n a n i m e were m ade i n the early 1 9 8 0s, it was not until the m id- 1 990s that CGI we re b rought i n to the m a i n s trea m , largely thanks to s teady exper i mentation in the field undertake n for a period o f over ten years by Toe i , the largest a n i m c company in Japan . S i nce that t i m e , studios have in crementally deve l ­ o p e d m o re satisfyi n g p rocedures t o m e s h cut t i n g-edge C G I w i th t raditional cel a n i matio n , a n d acco rd i n gly del i vered i m p ressive syntheses o f t h e two forms u n m arred b y stylistic incon­ gruit ies . By the early 2 0 0 0s, abo u t 9 5 percent of the enti re vo l u m e o f TV series, OVAs ( O rig­ inal Video A n i m ations) and theatre-bo und features prod uced in any one yea r were al ready bei ng made with d i gital assi stance . These develop m e nts have been largely d ictated by financial co nsiderati o n s : d igi tal tech­ nology enables studios to cut down the cost o f cel p roduction without sacrific i n g artistic qual­ ity. However , i t would be cyn ical to claim that a n i marors resort to com puter-assisted a n i mation for the sole reason that i t is less expens ive than traditional cel a n i m ation . In fac t , the j udi­ cious i m pl e mentation o f C G I alongside conventional hand-drawn i mages also a l lows for a more extensive use o f visual and special effects than the tradi tional for m would have ever affo rded . Furthermore , many p rograms supply d i recto rs with greater flex i b i l i ty i n the han­ dling of camera work and photograp hic com position, allowing them to p revi ew the work w i th several different sets o f options befo re a final p r i n t is made . This study, therefo re , is not i nte rested i n assess ing the degree to which Japanese an ima-

12

AN IME I � TERSECTION S

tIon may have resisted the p rogression from analogue to digital , so much as i n eval uating a n i me's ada ptive disposition to discover what i t can do wi th the blossom i n g methodologies and how it can harness them to a vision that p reserves a n affil iation to t radition at the same time as i t embraces novelty. Such a quest is inevi tably open-ended i n s o fa r as science and fiction ali ke , at their most honest and com m i tted, abhor conclus ive statement s . Regardless o f the extent t o which a n i m e blends traditional hand-drawn i m a ges w i t h 20 or 3 D com p ut e r graphics ( i f at a l l ) , one of i ts most distinctive strengths is undeniably ca m ­ e r a work . ( S e e also Scott Frazier's article "Japanese Animation Camera Work. " ) T h e m a i n classic operations encompass : fix , sliding, fairing, pan , t i l t , zip p a n , i m age B G , fol l ow, fol ­ low pan , trackin g , fade i n /fade o u t , dissolve , w i p e , backl igh t i n g . An ime u s e s far m o r e persistently t h a n Western forms o f anima tion a re generally i n c l i n e d to do t h e "fix , " the cut where t h e camera does not move . The medium's detractors h ave o ften denigrated the u t i lization of this strategy as conducive to unexciti ngly stationary cuts . How­ ever, it is p recisely by recourse to the fi x that Japanese a n i mation has t i m e a n d again yielded memorable moments of reflective i ntensity and wordless pathos . No less com mon in a n i m e is t h e "sli d i n g" move : t h e s l i d i n g of a frame across t h e fiel d o f vision . A n economical means of conveying dynamism while cutti n g down on the number of d raw i n gs n eeded, th i s tech­ n ique h as come to be regarded as a veritable trademark of a n i m e cinematography. In order to accelerate or decelerate the pattern of motion of an eleme nt a t the begi nning o r at the end of a c u t , camera operators resort to "fa i r i n g" (also known as "cus h i o n" ) : a tech­ nique based on the p l acement and spacing of frames . For instance , to show an i n itially slow movement speed i n g up at the end of the cut, it is common to si tuate the first few images rep ­ resenting t h e affected object close together a n d t h e n have t h e distance betwee n t h e m i n c rease with each s uccessive fra m e . As a m e a n s of p roducing panoramic effects, anime employs the "pan" (an abbreviation of "panorama" ) . I n this move , the camera i tself remains stationary b u t its focus sw i n gs from left to right (or vice versa) to capture successive portions of a scene a cross a horizontal p l a n e . T h e "ti l t" is an a nalogous operation in which t h e focus sw ings vertically i n s tead . A rel a ted effect , the "zip pan," is based on using backgro unds that consist of l i n es rather th an of defined i m ages i n order to evoke the i l lusion of movement . For the sake of conti n u i ty, the l i nes a re executed i n the same palettes as those used for other parts of the sequence i n which the back­ grou n d displays identifiable figures . Backgro und effects also p l ay an i mportant role i n the case of the " i m age BG" tech n ique , where explosive splatters of d iverse h u es are util ized to convey a character's emotional s tate or to i nti mate a shift to alternate rea l i t y l evels. In t h is instance, the palettes a re deliberately made to clash with the chromatic range deployed i n the sequence's normal backgrou n ds in o rder to induce a vivi d sense of dislocati o n . I n t h e "fo l l ow" (a move partly akin t o t h e pa n), t h e camera travels a l o n g w i t h t h e act i o n , compensating for the fact that the various foreground and backgro u n d l ayers i n a cut tend to move at different p aces . Deali n g with shorter elements that logically reach the end befo re the longer ones do, it is common for cinematograp hers to move them back to the beginn i n g a n d to take t h e m thro ugh t h e cut aga i n (sometimes several times i n succession) . At t h e s a m e t i m e , Japanese a n i mation assiduo usly employs t h e "follow pan ," where t h e camera remains steadily locked onto one si ngle element and follows its motion throughout the cut, a n d "tracki n g , " where the camera moves with the object bei ng filmed i n a si de-to-side o r forwa rd-backward motion so as to focus closely on smal l portions of the i m age . " Fade i n /fade o u t , " the grad ual

Olle-Tradition and Innovation in Modern A nime

13

appeara nce or disappearance of an i mage , p l ays an important dramatic rol e in a n i m e , as do the "dissolve , " a n editin g tech nique i n which one shot gradually fades o ut while a nother fades in to take its place , and the "w ipe," a p roced u re whereby one i m age appears to push the p re­ vious i mage off the screen . A crucial component o f a n i m e i n all its manifestations i s u ndeniably " b ackli ghtin g , " a strategy customarily employed fo r flares, flashes of l ight and b lasts . To generate backlit effects, the a n i mators p rod uce "masks," namely cels that are pai nted black except for the regions to be i l l u m inated. These cels are shot separately and then superimposed o nto the original cut. Backl ightin g is most spectacular when it is shot through a d i ffusion fi lter capable o f s o ften ­ ing an element's hardest l i n es t o allow t h e l i ght t o spread o ut i n a halo-l i ke effect . Celebrati ng animation's inherent power to alert p l urigenerational audiences to the endur­ ing importance o f i magination and p l ay, a n i me bri ngs to l i fe prismatic dream wo rlds w ith both flam boyance and rigor. A n i m ation's potential for delving i nt o profo u nd, or even down­ right unpalatable, aspects o f being h uman is persistently thrown i nto rel ief even as comedy, romance and wish-fu l fi l l i ng fantasies appear p redomi nant. A n i m e concom itantly rejects the stylistic and ideological tenets o f m i metic realism , experimenting assiduously w ith hybrid generic m ixes . At the i r most memorable, these all ude to the poss i b i l ity that real i s m may reside l ess w ith com monsense-driven m irror-u p-to-nature depictions o f "th i n gs as they a re" than w ith a dispassion ate exposure o f the abyss on the verge o f which human existence teeters at all times . It could, of cour s e , be argued that a l l forms of animation (and not m e rely a n i me) del iver dream worlds by engenderi n g situations in which the l aw o f cause and effect can never be taken for granted, and i n congruous occurrences may therefore concatenate in utterly u n p re­ dictable ways . What th is entails is a drastic suspension o f everyday reality markers, whereby parallel and o ften refresh i ng real ities are hailed into existence . H owever , in e ntering the oneiric d i mension , a n i m ation is also capable o f disclosing n i ghtmares, visions i m b ued w ith u n set­ tli n g i mages and un palatab l e messages . Live-action cinema does this w ith some regularity b ut audiences appear p repared to deal w ith the med i u m's darker moments i nsofar as these are anchored - albeit sometimes p recario usly - to what they th i n k o f as "normal" reality: h u m a n bei n gs and settings that do not depart so rad ically from real- l i fe referents as to c o m e across as u n d i l utedly and distastefu l ly b izarre . Even when actors suddenly shoot up i nto the sky, evaporate i nto thi n a i r o r morph i nto fabulous beasts, viewers somehow know - or at least sense - that the actual bodies they occupy remai n , at thei r core , i ntact, and that the actions i n which they are i nvolved amount to wholly artificial effects enabled by machines. These , moreover, increasi ngly rely for the generation of VFX and S FX on tech n i ques i nspired by animation o f both the traditional a n d cutti n g­ edge varieties, and may therefore be expediently "separated" from the e m p i rical real m as utterly fictitious, mechanical adj u ncts . No spectato r , for instance, would seriously doubt the exis­ tence o f a flesh-and-blood Hugo Weaving beh i n d the nauseatin g p l ethora o f "Agent Smith" clones floodi ng the screen at cl i m actic j u nctures of both The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix:

Revolutions. The a n i m ated m ed i u m , conversely, does not allow for the automatic translation of its i mages into rea l - l i fe equ ivalents : in fac t , it scrambles both reason a n d l o g i c , upsetti n g all manner of pragmatic expectations . I n so do ing, i t deliberately m akes u s feel more vulnerable to fantasy's unwarra nted incursions i nt o reality, ulti mately u rg i n g u s to question the validity

14

A N I M E [:--;T ERSECTI O N S

o f o ur effo rts to differentiate between the two dimensions . Western ani mation's tenden cy to relegate the form to the category o f a child's toy, supposedly uns u i ted to the exploration o f serious issues, could be seen a s a n attempt t o keep i ts subversive potentiali ties at bay. I t is as though a n i mation could be tolerated only as long as i ts most audacious - and yet also most distinctive - traits co u l d be domesticated by curta i l ing its compass. A n i m ation, th is suggests, may be safely allowed to wreak havoc with so-called norma l ity only inso far as i ts t ransgres­ sive operations do no t s p i l l into the territory of ad u l t ent e rtainment and adul t p reoccupa­ tions . Japanese ani mation ado p ts a radically different stance, and this is arguably the prim ary reason fo r which its particular dream worlds enduringly prove both inv i go rating and discon­ certing fo r disparate viewers across the globe . Where Disn ey-ori ented a n i mation seeks to con­ sol idate the audience's concep t of reality by drawi ng neat bou ndaries betwee n real i t y and fan tasy, dayl ight common sense and oneiric wonder, anime insi stently p roblematizes the p re­ sumed authority o f the real . In this respect , it articulates to unparal leled extremes a p rocl iv­ ity which , as Wells argues, is l atently p resent in the med i u m of animat ion as a whole : "Many animations have the tone , style, and su rreal persuasiveness o f the drea m o r nigh tmare , and the i magery of reco l l ection, recognition and half- recall" (Wells 2 0 0 2 , p. 7 1 ) . Even when a sense of normality is restored - for example, through the satisfactory ro unding-off of an ani m e character's quest - t h e resol u tion is never total and t h e action's afterglow is accord ingly per­ meated by loom ing sensations of i n completeness, unce rtainty and loss. For some spectators, such inconclusive messages may feci dispiriting or even downright frustrati n g . Yet , i t is only as long as gaps are p rese rved - and indeed treasured - as vital parts o f the cul tu ral fabric that spaces for further exp loration and creativity w i l l s u rvive, and the powers o f i m agination and specu l ation thrive unhindered . The methodologies and tools deployed by the "anime factory" to transpose its dreams to the screen u l t i mately p l ay no less vital a part than its content-centred p reoccupations . Most notably, as the case studies conducted i n the fo l l ow ing chap ters hopefu l ly demonstrate , anime never quite rel inqu ishes the time-hono red legacy of hand-d rawn graphics even as i t engages, more o r l ess enterpris ingly, with digital practices and w i th the cognate concerns of both actual and hypothetical technocultures. A purely pragmatic expl a nation fo r the ubiquity and perse­ verance o f this stylistic trend l i es with the fact that sco res of a n i mators employed by studios l i ke the ones here examined have emerged from em inently artisanal backgrounds . Even w h en digital technology rises to th e status of a primary creative resource, therefore, th o s e ani ma­ tors carry within their m inds and bodies the indelible vestiges o f a training gro unded in tra­ d i tiona l draughtsmanship. Moreover, it is not uncom mon for ani m ators to supplement the i r studio -based activities with add i t ional invo lvem ent i n the p roduction o f manga , com ic strips, adverts and album covers. Thus, participation i n ancillary markets indirectly secures the ani­

ongo i ng com m i tment to a fundamentally hand-crafted art. As int i m ated through o u t th is study, while it is vital to acknowl edge anime's unfl i nch ing devo tion to the h and-drawn dimension, it wo uld be p reposterous to deny that its u t i l ization of cutting-edge com p u ter-assisted techniques has monumentally enhanced i ts p ur v iew. On the one hand, digital techn ology enables studios to better cope with o ften insanely tigh t pro­ duction schedules and shrinking budgets w ithout having to sacri fice thei r aesthetic i m pera­ tives in the p rocess . On the other hand, that technology is often better equipped than the so-called " l i m ited animation" o f decades gone by to real ize the artist's vision w i th u n p recemators'

One- Tradition and Innovtltion in Modern Anime

IS

dented s moothness and sophistication. As shown, a n i me d i rectors adamantly m a i ntain that compute rs are essentially tools and should not, therefore, be unquestio n i n gly ideal ized as ends in themselves. No netheless, no neo-Luddite m isgivings appear to cloud the potion when it comes to acknowledging the i m mense potent ial ities held by legion i n carnations of state-o f­ the-art tech nology, w ith its p ro fusion of both hardware and software designed to execute top­ notch a n i m atics, backgro unds, characters and special effects. Rather, what rem a i n s card i nal to the work of the studios discussed i n th is study is an adoption o f digital technology that never qu ite obfuscates the vital i mportance of some old­ school hands-on trai n i n g fo r all p ractitioners of the art , i f only for the p u rpose o f enabl i n g t h e m t o appreciate t h e val u e o f each o f the myriad frames w ith w h i c h a l l a n i m ators ultimately have to grapple. Rel atedly, d i rect experience o f both the blessings and the tri b u lations i n her­ ent i n the art o f draw i n g will help ani mators remember throughout the i r careers - whether or not they also en gage w ith CGI - the exquisite u n iqueness o f the tactil e , eve n sculptura l , sensati on o f carv i n g a draw ing w ith a pencil i nto the textu re o f a sheet o f paper. The argum e nt i n favo r of animation's ongo i n g fidel ity to trad ition typ ically advocated by the a n i m e p ractitioners d iscussed in th is study a re echoed by com mitted a n i m ators the world over, and should not therefore be regarded as an excl usively Japanese "syndrome. " For Pol i s h fi l m maker Andrzej Czeczot, for example, "Classical a n i m ation will stay around as long as sensitive people stil l ex ist.... It's not about how we will make a n i m ated films, but for what and for whom we're tryi n g to cook the perfect ani mated v ision .... A n i m ation should also be an oasis o f poetry and a more refined sense o f humor. Animated films can also tell much deeper, but not bori n g , sto ries. I dream about artistic a n i mated fi l ms m ade by artists , not only by money m akers" (quoted in Ball). F u rthermore , the gap putatively separati ng animators who a re faithful to traditional styles and those who e nth usiastically emb race digital tech nology is not as w i de as one may some­ times be led to bel i eve , when one considers that both categories may well be gu ided by the same fu ndamental mechanism. This, as the professor o f art and design at Columbus College Sea n Ivory has stated, amounts to no more and no less than "des i re. " Ivory su bsta ntiates h i s thesis w ith reference t o both h i s perso nal expe rience i n t h e fi e l d and h i s observation o f devel­ oping trends : I have w i t nessed a l o t o f talented art i sts who were n o t w i l l i ng t o put i n the t i m e a n d e ffort that are a d i rect

resu l t of Des i re . I h ave also seen a lot of shortcomi ngs overcome by a person's Des i re to acco m p l i sh [hi s ot her] v i s i o n . A n i m a t i o n h as been made a mllch faster a n d eas i e r process d u e t o n ew tech nology b u t i t s t i l l takes a great d e a l of t i m e , effort a n d experiment a t i o n i n order for i t to be d o n e properly. Desire is always the d r i v i ng force beh i nd a s t u dent or a profess ional putting i n the timc, e ffo r t a n d cxpe r im e n ta­ tion [Ivory, p. 5 ] .

The ani mato r Marco Valgresy, origi nally trai ned i n traditional a n i m ation a n d s u bsequently i ntroduced to comp uter-generated 3D animation , persuasively consol idates this po i nt : " Even i n CG animati o n , you are o b l i ged to have an i nterest in trad itional a n i m ation and i n the peo­ p l e who have developed the necessary skills" (Valgresy, p. 5). Pixar d i recto r Pete Docter read ily embraces an analogous stand p o i nt : There are two ways d rawing helps YOll, even i f yo u're work i n g i n stop-motion o r 3 D computer a n i m a t i o n . Fi rst , d raw i n g he lps you t a k e i n v isual i n tCmna t i o n . eood .l n i m a t i o n i s b a s e d on k e e n observation of human behavior, movem ent, a n d l i fe i n general. The only way to get this stufr to stick i n your head is to consciously observe i t-to rea l ly see it, not just rest your eyes on if. The best way I know to wake up your bra i n and really observe is to d raw. Second, d rawing s t rengthens yo u r a n i m a t i o n , especially your poses.

16

Al': IME I N TERSECT I O N S

I t a l l ows you to know what y o u need to bend, or length e n , or exaggerate . . . . The best a n i m ators at P i x a r a r e also sol i d draughtsmen , which I t h i n k is no coincidence [ D o c t e r 200 5 a , p p . 5 - 6 J .

Accordi n g to Jean Theberge , teacher at Concordia Un ivers i t y, an "advanced draw i n g educa­ tion" is not only hel pfu l in developi n g a competent grasp of "shap e , vol u m e , space and d i men­ s ion" b u t i s also "essential to those who aim towa rds 3 D software mode l l ing" (Theberge , p. 6) . D igital compos i tor Joe Raasch corroborates this propos i t ion , m a i n ta i n i n g that i n volve­ ment in "the 'creative' s ide" of v isual effects l i kew ise benefits substa n t i al l y from an "under­ s tan d i n g" of "all the trad it ional concep ts" - namely, "compos i tion , color theory, perspective" (Raasch , p. 6) . One of the most exhaustive accou nts of the i m portance of hands-on expe r ience firmly grounded i n the study and p ractice of the art of drawing is undoubtedly Joseph G i l l a n d's Ele­ mental Magic: The Classical Art of Halld-Drawn tlfects A nimation. The follow i n g passage comes from the second chapter "The Art of Draw i n g and A n i mati ng Special Effects , " and serves to i l l u m i nate G i l land's entire argument. Concurrently, i t s u p p l ies a val uable com p l e­ ment to the ethos embraced by all of the d i rectors exa m i ned i n this study. Extensive c i tation seems accordi ngly apposite at this j uncture : More t i m e i s b e i n g spent teachi ng yo ung artists how to manipulate comp l ex computer grap h ics software, and l ess time i s spent teac h i n g them how to observe, how to see and i n t u i t the i n credib l e subtleties o f n a t ure's splen dor i n o r d e r to b e s t represent i t as artists . . . . I n my experience superv i s i n g d i g i t al a r t i s t s over the l ast 10 years, I have consistently come across i n d ivid uals who h ave developed a h i gh l evel o f design s k i l l s as well as a h igh degree of p roficiency w i t h t h e i r digital tools, b u r who haven't developed t h e sense of fleling the physics of what they were trying to a n i mate . . . . Lea rn i n g to see and feel th rough h a n d /eye coord i nation practice, observ i n g , draw i n g , sc u l p t i n g , a n i mating by hand -all of these are i nval uable if an effects artist wants to get to that mystical p l ace where time, space, physics and motion become ful l y nat­ u ral and i n t u i tive . . . . Remember that n o matter how wel l you master your draw i n g tec h n ique, i f you can't flel the efleers you are trying to a n i mate, they w i l l not s i n g w i t h l i fe . An i m ag i n at i o n that is ful l of l ife , must i n form t h e well-trained draw i ng hand [ G i llandJ .

I n l ight of the cyberdevelopme nts promoted by numerous Western studios, w i th Pixar as the vanguard, one m ay be tempted to wonder whether an i mation faces a paperless fu ture2 where i n excel lence can by no means be automatically expected . I n deed, as S teve Rose has remarked, the comb ination of "cri tical acclai m , com mercial success and technological p rogress" i n the a n im a t ion sector enjoyed by many "digitally rendered del i gh ts" over the past decade i ncreas i n gly appears to be lead i ng to "an excess of p roduct and a dearth of quali ty. Eve n P ixar could only muster m iddli n g revi ews for i ts lates t , Cars [dir. Joh n Lasseter, 2006]" ( Rose) . Ryan Ball corroborates Rose's v i ew i n mai ntai n i n g that the p r ioritization of 3 D CG p roduc­ tions by the l i kes of " Disney, D ream Works, Sony, Warner B ros . and Twentieth Century Fox" is no automatic guarantee of artistic cal iber: "One th i n g the phenomenal success of some 3 D fi l m s has done is open t h e Hood gates fo r p rod u ction o f more o f the same . . . w e . . , m ay also see the n ewness of 3 D start to fa de l i ke a tee-shirt that's seen one too many was h in gs" (Bal l ) . Rose has also o p i ned that qual i tative deterioration in the dom a i n of a n i mation a i m ed p r i marily at kids may expl a i n recent attem p ts i n the Wes t to take the medi u m i nto more adult territory - as i n d i cated, for exam ple, by the science-fiction thriller Renaissance, d i rected b y Christian Volckm an , and by the psychodrama A Scanner Darkly, d i rected b y Richard L i n ­ klate r , both of which were released i n t h e s u m m e r of 2006. (Linklater's fi l m i s d i scussed i n some detai l i n Chapter 6.) Even t h e da rker facets of "vaguely ch i l d-u n friendly an i m ations such as Corpse Bride [dirs. Ti m B u rton and Mike Joh nson , 2 0 0 5 ]" cou l d be seen as forays i nto

One - Tradition and Innovation in Modern Anime

17

sem i-adult a n i mation on Hollywood's part (Rose) . I ntrigu i n gly, even though a l l of these p ro­ ductions benefit considerably from advances i n digital tech nology, their tech n i cal u n derpi n ­ n i n gs a r e decidedly traditional : rotosco p i n g i n t h e case of Renaissance a n d A Scanner Darkly, and stop-motion a n imation in that of Tim Bu rton's The Corpse Bride. This suggests that the med i u m has not reached a n unsurpassable s u m m i t through i ts com p u ter-generated exp l o i ts but actually remains engaged i n a p rocess of ongoing evo l ution , cont i n ua l ly sco ut i n g n ew pos­ sible worlds . According to B e n Fritz, the C G I "glut" w i tnessed by the Western a n i mation i n d ustry over the past few years is n o t only resulting i n d i m i nishing qual i t y, as argued by both Rose and Bal l ; in fac t , it is also takin g a financial tol l : " I n 2 0 0 4 , " the critic declares, "the average box office for an a n i mated pic was $ 1 4 9 m i l l i o n . This year, i t's $ 8 8 m il l i o n . B u t then , there are 5 0 % more toons i n release this year than i n '04 . . . . The b u l lish s p i r i t o f several years ago , when all these p rojects began p roduction , has given way t o i n trospection : H o w m u c h is too much ? " (Fritz) . A n i me is here to rem i n d us of the tenacious persistence of tantal izing alternatives to the autocracy o f CG I , and o f the plaus ibility of bringing to the screen a plethora o f dreams by cap italizing at once on diverse styles and tech nologies . Flexibility has traditionally operated as the faculty that enables both a n i m ation as an art and its characters there i n to go on rei n ­ venting i tself� a n d themselves w i t h rubber res i l ience . An i m e's supple i nt egration o f m a n ­ u a l and cutting-edge skills � o f paper a n d monitor, of pencil and mouse � constitutes o n e o f t h e most i ntrigu i n g exe m p l i fications o f that very facul ty. The movies exam ined here clea rly exh ibit certain recurring thematic p reoccu pa tions: the i m pact of technology on perceptions and defini tions of h um a n i t y ; visions of the fut u re alter­ nately based o n the exp l ici tly futuristic p u rv iew p romulgated by classic science fiction o r inspired by a retrofutu ristic steam p u n k sensitivity; and t h e vicissitudes o f the you n g i n t h e p rocess of enculturement , a s b o t h a personal p redicament and a m i c rocosm i c encapsulation o f broader societal o rdeal s . However , the fi lms are strikingly diverse, them atically speakin g , a n d ins tead o f forci n g s o m e notion of commonal ity upon them at t h i s stage , i t seems more apposite to focus on the narrative specificity of each i n the i n d ividual chapters . Nonetheless, a few panoramic observations regarding the tech n ical features o f the selected movies are n ecessary at this juncture . I n deed, while i t would be quite p reposterous to try to shove these stylistically and conceptually diverse works i nto a s i n gle thematic mold, there are viable ways of l i nking them with respect to their techn ical constitutions. To be more p recise, i t is possible to honor the techn ical distin ctiveness of each, yet also see them as p hases w i t h i n a cumu lative developmental trajectory i l l u m i nating t h e evo l ut ion o f a n i m ation's rel ationsh i p w i t h digital tech nology over the space of just over a decade . T h e earl i e r productions d iscussed i n this study are firmly gro u nded i n tradi tional cel-centred methodologies. Nevertheless, they also participate in that overall progression by anticipati ng some of the ach ievements o f both 2 0 and 3 D CG I , o r by commenting on the dom inance of digitally mediated experience . Sub­ sequent productions exe m p l i fy, with va rying degrees o f complexity, ongo i n g advances i n the j u b ilantly hybrid real m o f i ntegrative animation devoted to harmo n i z i n g hand-drawn and cutting-edge visuals. Yoshiaki Kawajiri's Nillja Scroll ( 1 9 9 3 ) util izes exclusively traditional cel a n i mation . One o f the principal reasons behind its selection is the fi l m's ground-breaki ng i n tervention i n the deve l o p m e n t of the tw i n arts of visual effects and special effects through the deployment o f �

18

A N I M E I :-.ITERSECT I U N S

tech n i ques which, tho ugh p re-digital , anticipate the achi evements o f late r works abetted by varying degrees of computerized assistance . The short a n i mation Program (2003) , briefly exam i ned in tandem w i th Ninja Scroll, i l l ustrates Kawaj i ri's transition to the domain o f cel­ CGI i ntegration and s i m u l taneously bears wit ness w i th eco nom ical el egance to tremendous adva nces in a n i me at large between 1993 and 2 0 0 3 . Satosh i Kon's Perftct Blue (19 97) constitutes a b ridge o f sorts between t h e earl i e r feature fi l m and subsequent p roductions here explored insofar as i t is firmly installed i n the rea l m o f the hand-drawn i mage , yet makes important conceptual contri butions t o the debate s u rround­ i n g the growth o f com p u te r tech nology. Thus, the movie complements its tech nical status with thematic reflections o n the shift from analog to digital media and on the repercussions o f that s h i ft fo r the l ives o f both i ndividuals and entire cultures. H i deaki Anno's Neon Genesis Evangelion 0 9 9 5 - 19 9 7) rep resents an u n p recedented leap forward where the coalescence o f cel ani mation and com p u ter graphics is concerned, p rogres­ sively utilizing classic hand-drawn v isuals in conj unction w i th i n i t ially j ust 20 and s u bse­ quently both 20 and 3D digitally executed effects . Evangelion was one of the first titles to benefit fro m the grow i n g expertise of Production I . G . Generally hailed as a fo reru nner in the evo l ution o f di gi tal a n imation , the company is especially renowned for i ts advan ces in d i g i ­ t a l compos i t i n g , storyboard i n g , chromatic grading and special effects . Conco m itantly, t h e saga boldly e n riches t h e cel/CGI b l e n d through t h e incorporation o f other p i ctorial c o m p o ­ n e n t s , ran ging from monochrome l in e sketches t o children's draw i n gs and col lages . The t h e ­ matic e ndeavor to constellate the psyche's p r i s m a t i c c o m p l e x i t y is th us rep l icated a t the tech nical level by means o f multifaceted visual mixes . I t is with Rintaro's Metropolis (2001) that the degree of sophistication o f which contem­ porary anime is capable i n the o rchestration of traditional and p ioneeri n g components becomes fully evident . Juxtaposing hand-d rawn im ages inspired by overtly carto o n ish , c utesy and car­ icatu ral characters with comp u ter-rendered locations o f dizzying i ntricacy, the film success­ ful ly fu l fi l s i ts c reators' des i re to p revent the CG el em en t fro m stan d i n g o u t as a m e re addendu m . To ach ieve this objective , t h e animators created t h e i r i n i tial i m ages b y com p u ter and then drew over them manually to bring them closer to cel-ani mation quality a n d warm th . Released i n the same year as Metropolis, H. i ronobu S akaguchi's Final Fantasy: The Spir­ its Within offers the first fully developed use of the tech nique known as "motion cap t u re" as a means o f co nstructing i ntensely photoreal istic virtual actors, or synthespians. Rel iant on tra­ ditional methodologies i n its approach to va rious aspects o f mechanical design and mise en scene, the film is nonetheless most memorable as an attempt to redefine the very notion of ani mation . The latter is i ndeed posi ted as an art potentially capable o f generating characters that can not only exist alongs ide l i ve-action performers but even replace them . The l ast fo u r fi l ms discussed in the book , a l l released i n 2004 , con s t i t u te as m any d i s ­ t i n ct experiments w i t h a shared a i m : t h e i ncrementally seamless b l e n d i n g o f hand-drawn and com p uter-generated i mages . Mamoru Osh i i 's Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence is almost u nan i m o usly recogn ized as hav i n g attained to that a i m w i th somewhat u n canny e ffective­ ness . Howeve r , what is no less remarkable abo ut the fi l m's overall visual mood is its h a n ­ d l i n g o f the t w o techn iques with defam il iarizing effects. These a r e ach ieved through the i ro n ical and u nsett l i n g j uxtapos ition o f explicitly hand-drawn and largely styl ized cha rac­ ters and photo realistic archi tectu ral environ ments executed by reco urse to the most advanced digital tools. The co ntrast causes both the styl ized and the p h o to real istic e l e m e nts to appear

One - Tradition alld IIlILOvrltion in Modern Anime

19

challengingly u n fa m i l i a r , and hence i n v i tes the viewer to question the rea l i t y level o f virtu­ ally any i mage . Appleseed has accompl ished what some o f the stricter a n i m e enthusiasts may wel l con­ sider anathema - namely, the medi um's transposition to the realm o f fu l l - fledged 3 D C G I . W h i l e t h e fil m's glossy scu l p t ur a l i t y may seem at odds with Japanese a n i mation's p roverb ially flat look, it should be noted that the conventions of traditional hand-drawn a n i m e are fully respected by the perpetuation o f somatic features and facial exp ressions that have been embed­ ded in the fo rm si nce at least Osamu Tezuka . Concurrently, Appleseed has revo l u ti o n ized con­ temporary a n i mation at large th rough the development o f a style known as " 3 D l ive a n i m e , " a b l e n d o f motion-cap t u re tech nology, 3 D C G I a n d "toon -shad ing" software capable o f ren ­ dering 3 D C G I i n to 2 0 cel-style i m ages . Katsuh i ro Otomo's stearnboy and Hayao Miyazaki 's Howl's Mo�'ing Castle, finally, could be regarded as two cognate - though visually quite distinct - p roj ects i n the ever-expan d i n g field o f i n tegrative a n i mation insofar as b o t h fi l ms u s e CG I pervas ively, y e t t e n d to temper and mellow the i r i m p act by means o f tonal and chromatic effects based o n the lessons o f tra­ d i t ional cel a n i mation and p re-digital cinematography. In the case of stearnboy, the pri ncipal tool consists, i n this respect , of a muted palette of beige , ta n , grey and b rown h ues that aptly rep l icates the atmos p h e re o f the e ra i n which the story is set . F u rthermore , the d i rector adamantly defended through o u t the n i n e years o f Stearn boy's l aborious p roduction his inten­ tion not to substi tute the hand-drawn image w i th the com pu ter-generated one b u t rather to com bine the merits o f cel a n i mation w i th the merits o f C G I so as to transcend some o f the l i m i tations i n trinsic in the t raditional approach . D igital tools, fo r Otomo , are especially use­ fu l as means o f enhancing the avai lable range of expressions and camera angles. I n the case o f Howl, the endeavor to transcend the soulless starkness o f ent i rely com p uter­ generated a n imation has rel ied p ri marily on the development o f a digital tool that emulates the soft focus of a cam era lens. This enables the production of mellow i n g and d i m mi n g effects aki n to those fo und in tradi tional cel ani mation. The p h ilosoph ical criterion u nderlyin g th is c h oi c e i s t h a t the h igh degree of photorealism o f wh i ch com p uter-generated graph ics a r e capa­ ble is tech n ically laudable , yet should not be allowed to impair the dis ti n ctive "real ness" o f cel a n i m ation a s a fo rm o f real ism s u i generis . By blending a variety of both conventional and experim ental procedu res, these movies have a l l con t r i b u ted to the elaboration of a colorfu l ensemble o f d i s t i nctive a n i mational approaches . In their collective i m p o rt , their stylistic messages eloquently demonstrate ani me's knack of j uxtaposi n g contrasti n g aesthetic pri nciples - p ree m i nently, smoothness and homo­ geneity, on the one hand, and jarring discordance, on the other. At times, the chosen fi l ms come across as gen u i n e paeans to visual harmony thanks to sequences characterized by o ut ­ standing consiste ncy i n both the atmospheric and the cinematograph ical are n as . At others, they del i berately cap italize on dissonant effects i n order to j ostle the v i ewer out o f compla­ cency and assault the optic nerve w i th a cacophony of i m p ulses, deformed l i nes and quaint h u es . D i gi tal tech nology, this study contends, has been increasin gly supplyi n g the a n i m e i ndus­ try with new opportu n i ties and techn iques for the enhancement o f both harmo n ious and dis­ cordant styles, enab l i n g it to ach ieve what would until rece ntly have been considered fran kly i m p lausible . As the chosen films document , however , no amount o f state-of- t he-art equ i p ­ m e nt is ulti mately capab l e o f y i e l d i n g authentic pleas ure u n l ess i t is buttressed b y creative

20

AN I M E i l\'TERSECTI O N S

adventurousness . In the p rocess, they also rem ind us that in order to be conv i n c i n g , any for m o f enterta i n m e nt must be able t o draw u s into i ts s i n gular u n iverse a n d to keep u s there fo r as long as i ts momentum requ i res . Relatedly, the fi l m s persistently em p h asize that audacious tools and tech n iques should n ever be adopted and upheld as ends in themselves : u n l ess they are channelled i nto the maki n g o f thoughtfully entertai n i n g stories and i nto the evocation of psychologically appeal i n g characters, their p roducts will inel uctably amo u nt to l i ttle more than frigidly steri le swathes of gl i ttery graphics. It is for this very reason that the case studies here suppl ied, whi l e selectively assess ing both the traditional and the i nnovative s trategies deployed by various artists and studios, also seek to document as exhaustively as possible the nine titles' thematic and narrative dim ensions . The productions inspected, mo reover, are i n herently deconstructive i nsofar as they har­ bor tantalizingly unresolved tensions. Due to thei r i n tegration o f p ro fou ndly different method­ ologies i n the tech n ical articulation o f thei r respective vision s, the movies appear to be what they are not, o n one leve l , and appear not to be what they are , on another. Even as they seem to comply entirely with the time-honored codes and conventions o f cel a n i mation, they are frequently u n derp i nned by cutting-edge digital tech nol ogy. Conversely, even as they overtly assert themselves as gro und-breaking interventions i n the development o f daring CG I , they tend to remain attached to the traditional legacy of hand-drawn , stylized grap h i cs . The fi l ms' j uxtaposition of i ngredients s o diverse as t o appear ill-suited t o coexistence could be seen to amo u nt to something of an aporia . I n the realm of logic , this term denotes a concate­ nation of elements which, though individually tenable, deliver an untenable inconsistency when they are yoked together. An imation , however, is no more tied to the laws of logic than i t is to those of physics . Hence, it is at l iberty to thrive on the creative energy unleashed by dialectical oppositions and turn a logical i ncongruity into an aesthetic strength . In this respect, the selected p roductions are not only deconstructive but also markedly i ronic : their m essages cannot be taken entirely at face value insofar as they are conveyed by means of i mages that are never u nproblem­ atically themselves but are actually traversed by multiple alter-egos . The two-dimensional cel , the two-dimensional drawing evoking the illusion of three-dimensionali ty, the th ree-dimensional computer-generated image , the hand-crafted frame enhanced by digital technology, and the computer-generated i mage edited so as to look manufactured - among legion more pictorial pos­ sibil ities - meet and merge in mutual suffusion . This formally composi te scenario is replicated, thematical ly, by a n i me's q uintessen t i al hybridity. This trait persistently i n forms the n i n e ti tles' hand l i n g o f thei r cultural and h istor­ ical sou rces, yieldi n g a collusion of the old and the new, on the one hand, and o f East and West , on the other. I n this respec t , the films co uld be said to encapsulate a transnationally topical notion o f cultu ral schizophrenia spawned by the amb iguous gains o f global ization . At the same time, however, they also capture speci fically ind i genous anx i eties i n m i rroring Japa­ nese culture's suspension between nationalist and global val ues. Anime i n deed rev isits w i th almost obsessive regularity - though not always i n a visually or thematically exp l i c i t fashion Japan's preoccupation w i th notions of national integrity and ideology, war and neu trali ty, eco­ nomic growth and economic crisis, env i ron mental depletion and psychological displacement . I n crisscrossing geograph ical borders and challenging the stab i l i t y o f natio nal identities through alternately lusty and s i n i ster pastiches o f fantasy and adventure , the fi l ms u l t i m ately com mun icate a pass ionate des i re to go on stretch ing - perhaps indefin i tely - the styl istic and narrative boundaries o f ani mation itself.

Two

Ninja

Scroll

1

was trying to explore possibilities in the entertainment genre. And of course, 1 wanted to make exciting entertainment. That was my goal with the Ninja Scrollflature. - Yoshiaki Kawajiri, 2003 America has uyatt Earp, Britain has Robin Hood, and japall has Yag.Y" jubei. Okay, maybe it s IlOt that simple, but it s a place to start. When dealing with an icon as vital to japanese cul­ ture and masculinity as the historic samurai, you should start by lookingfor whatever parallels your own culture has to offer. - Patrick Drazen

Released in Japan in June 1 993 and in the West in December 1 9 96 , Ninja Scroll almost instantly asserted itself as a hall mark in ani me a i med at mature audiences . Over the ensuing decades, the fi l m's popu larity s p read across the West , engenderi n g a larger fan base i n the U . S . than on home turf and i t came to be recognized as one o f the most i n fluential a n i mations ever made . With its amalgamation o f the codes and conventions o f period d ra m a , the acti o n thriller and p o l itical allegory - i n an elegantly, yet exuberantly, choreographed p i ece o f ci nematog­ raphy - the p i l m cont i n ues accruing new fans ro this day. I n 2 0 0 3 , a 1 3 -ep isode TV series titled Jubei Ninpuuchou: Ryuhogyoku-hen and directed by Tatsuo Saro was a i red i n Japan and subsequently released i n the Wes t on DVD as Ninja Scroll: The Series. Partially penned by Yoshiaki Kawaj i r i , the show is only a sequel to the feature-length mov ie in the loose sense of the term and i ts story accordi ngly fu nctions quite autonomo usly.' In thematic terms, Ninja Scroll is ver i tably steeped in Japanese t radi t i o n i n s o fa r as i t deals w i th a period o f extraord i n a ry h istorical a n d myth ical richness . Moreove r , i ts protag­ onist , Jubei Kibega m i , is q u i te overtly based on one o f the most charismatic figu res of Japa­ nese lore , Yagyu J u be i . The only h istorically unequ ivocal fact about Yagyu Jubei is that he was a re nowned bugeisha ( martial artist) o f the early seve nteenth century. H owever , such a cornucopian abu ndance o f legends, novels, movies and television shows has over the cen­ turies become so entangled w i th real documents that i t has become v i rtually i m poss i b l e to separate the truth fro m the fict i o n . Recent incarnations o f the Jubei character i nclude the samu rai featuring in the pseudo -h istorical OVA series Ninja Resu rrection ( 1 9 9 7) , and the schoolgirl protagon ist o f Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl, a comedic TV series ai red in 1999 and d irected by Akitaro Daich i . The popular i m age ofJubei is that o f a wanderi n g warrior d ressed entirely in black who roams the land i n cogn ito, p rotecti n g the i nnocent fro m evildoers . Even tho ugh Kawaj i ri's Jubei has i n herited some of his worthy p redecesso r's traits, Ninja Scroll 21

22

A� I M E I NTERSECT I O N S

portrays the character p r i marily as a ronin ("masterless samurai" or, l i terally, "wave man") and as a mercenary.2 The fi l m p resents Jubei as a fighter with a mean eth ical streak, reso l u tely rel uctant to j o i n the fray as long as he has any say on the matter. At the same t i m e , he never rel ies on b ravado in his exp l o i ts but rather on a generous dose o f sh rewdness and sheer happenstance . Jubei's wry sense of h u mor and keenness on rhetorical sparr in g are no less distinctive aspects o f h is personal ity. John Beachem gives a colorful portrait o f Kawaj iri's hero : Don't get it i nto your m i n d that Juhei is some invi ncible, sh adowy figure . . . . H e's good, b u t he's not i nd e ­ struct i b l e . H e g e t s p asted i n a few fi g h t s , knocked around, b l o o d i e d , b ru ised . . . . Take , for exam p l e , a scene i n wh ich Jubei i s recovering from figh t i ng one of the devils. He is i n a p o n d, clean i n g his wou n d s . H e p u l l s a t o o t h o u t , w a s h e s blood out of h i s m o u t h , and generally looks a m e s s . . . . Yo u n e v e r see H o l l ywood action h eroes nursing their wounds, because th ey're i n v i nc i b l e [ Beachem] .

Mo reover , i t is by unobtrusively d raw ing attention to Jubei's la tent vulnerab i l ity that the fi l m su cceeds i n making h i s displays o f finesse more effective than they would otherwise appear to be. An absol ute gem o f both Kawaj iri's cinematography and Jubei's characterization , where d i s p l ays o f a p l o m b are speci fically concerned, is provided by the first a c t i o n seque n c e . Ambushed by th ree enem ies, the protagon ist responds by throw i n g a rice ball u p i nto the a i r , drawing h i s weap o n , vanquishing t h e attackers and catch i n g t h e r i c e ball aga i n befo re i t has a chance o f reaching the gro u nd . The fi l m's setti ng i s the early portion of the Tokugawa Shogunate ( Tokugawa RIftt k u, 1600- 1 8 68) , the era that wo uld eventually witness Japan's un ification , yet was s t i l l riven , in i ts i nitial stages, by the same treachero u s feuds, crafty intrigues and clandestine cabals that had ravaged the co u ntry t h roughout the Warring States Period (Sengoku Jidai) i n the fi fteenth centu ry. An i l l - fated series o f clan lo rds deemed endowed w ith sufficient creden ti als to u n ify Japan were ro utinely assassinated by their opponents until the h igh- ranking general H ideyoshi Toyo tomi ( 1 5 36-1 5 9 8 ) brought the Sengoku Jidai to an end. After h i s death, h owever, civil u n rest escalated once more as the general Ieyasu Tokugawa ( 1 5 4 2 - 1 6 1 6) claimed contro l over the entire national territory. Toyotomi's loyalists, fa r from w i l l i n g to merely turn the other cheek, lau nched repeated and increasi ngly vicious assaul ts upon Tokugawa so as to regain ruler­ ship. Although their army was fi nally vanquished i n 1 6 1 5 , the s u r v i v i n g rebels conti n u ed plan­ n i n g thei r revenge . I t is w i th this background in m i n d that Kawaj i ri's movie ought to be approached i n o rder to fathom i ts h istorical density - even though most fans would read i ly mai ntain that lack of fam i l iarity w i th the vicissit udes o f Japan's ancient past is hardly l i kely to detract from the fi l m's visual sumptuousness and scinr i llating dynam ism . Central to Ninja Sc ro ll' s plot is a posse of ruthless d issidents know n as the "dev ils o f Ki mon" (Kimon Hachinin-shuu, w h i c h l i teral l y m e a n s " T h e D e m o n - G a te Eight") . T h i s demo n i c b a n d is abetted by a l l manner o f terrify i n g ski l l s a n d is l e d b y I-Ii m u ro G e n m a (Genma " ice-house") o r , "The Shogun of the Dark ," o n e o f Jubei's o l d enem ies w h o m the p rotagonist believes he decap i tated five years earl i e r b u t who has regrettably mastered the occult art of rei ncarnati o n . Genma's associates include the i m peccably styl ish yo uth Yuri­ maru, who graces h is employer with erotic as well as martial favors, and the scarred beauty Zakuro , who lu sts vainly for Yurimaru to her b i tter end. The v i l l a i ns' first m i ssion consists o f t h e massacre o f t h e rural v i llage o f Shimoda, a s part of a grander g a m e plan inren ded to lead them to a cargo o f gold, which they deftly disguise as the res u l t o f a n o bscu re plagu e . (This i ncident will be revisi ted later i n the d iscussion.) =

7i£!o � N i n j a Scroll

23

T h e pestilence-centered ruse engineered b y Genma's b a n d , a s i t turns o u t , is merely a fragment of a much wider poli tical conspi racy which gradu ally discloses the ubiquity o f both l i teral a n d figurative n ests o f vipers across the fabric o f proto�Nippon i c society. A team of n i n j a from an adj acent settlement is sent to investigate the puzzl ing even t b u t its members are waylaid by the dev i l Tessa i , a c reatu re rem i n isce nt of The T h i n g fro m The Fantastic Four whose ski n is capable of morp h i n g i nto solid rock and defecting all conventional weapons with the aid o f a double-bladed sword, which he th rows like a boomerang to hack t h rough every th i n g i n h i s path. Kage ro , an exquisitely beauti fu l and deadly fighter c u rsed by the pos­ sessi o n o f po isonous ski n which renders contact with another l i v i n g creatu re lethal , i s the sole s u rvivo r . Kagero antici pates the hero ine o f Mamoru Osh i i 's 1995 b lockbuster Ghost in the Shell, Maj o r Motoko Kusa nagi , in both her physical appearance and her characteristic body language , even though her character issued from Yu kata M i nowa's pencil whereas the Maj o r was ideated by H i royuki Okiura . T h i s i s perhaps not entirely s u rprising w h e n o n e considers that Os h i i 's own character possesses athletic and strategic abi l i t ies redo lent o f those o f the tra­ ditional n i nj a type - traits she has also bestowed upon the character o f Tri nity from the lvfatrix trilogy which she has clearly i n s p i red. Captured by the stony demon and most u n pleasantly abused, Kagero is eventually saved by Jube i , who n i ftily p lltS o u t one o f Tessai's eyes with a dainty dart . Follow i n g the female n i nj a's rescue , Kagero and Jubei part , see m i n gly w i th no i ntention o f ever meeting aga i n , but fate soon bonds them i n a common p ur s u i t : out- maneuveri n g the devils of Kimon's n e fari­ o u s scheme to overth row the gove rn m e n t . In Kagero's case, the task is an i nevi table corollary of her obl igation to ave n ge her dead com rades . Jubei , fo r his parr , is roped into the confl i ct much against h is w i l l by the m ach i nations of the decidedly u n holy mon k Dakua n , a spy i n the serv ice o f the Tokugawa Shogun ate who guilefully e n lists the hero to h is side by poison­ i n g him and then withholding the antidote un less he agrees to p rovide u ncon d i t i onal sup­ port . As Dennis H . Fukush ima, J r . has n oted, Dakuan's dubious ethics are overtly encapsulated by the characte r's name : The first k,mji is "dt/ku," which means "uncleanness," "mud d i n ess," or " i m p ur i t y . " Obv iously, T h i s is a com­ ment o n h i s character a n d mora l s . The second, "an," means " h e r m i tage" or "ret reat . " T h i s is l ikely con­ nected w i th Dakuan's "p riestly" facade . . . . Spies l i ke this were sent into the p rov i n ces to look out fo r the threat o f poss i b l e revo l u t i o nary acti v i t y . Safeguards s uch as t h ese m a i nt a i ned the t h ree cellturies o f p eace i n the Tokugawa period, but at the expense of s t i fl i ng fascism [ Fukush i m a] .

(Dakuan , however , is by no means the only monk w i th shady credentials i n an i m e : Cherry from the Urusei Yatsu ra TV series and features [ 1 9 8 1--19 9 1 ] a n d Jiko fro m H ayao M iyazaki's Princess Mononoke [ 1 9 97] would supply Kawaj iri's v i l l a i n w i th s u i table com pany. ) Jubei fi ghts each of h is i n famous enemies in a series of increas i n gl y intense, dema n d i n g a n d sensational scenes, eventually having to con front o n c e more h i s old foe G e n m a i n the most b reath taki ng seq uences o f all . Bes ide Tessa i , the hero's foes i n c l u de a seductive fe male with hordes o f venomous sn akes at her d isposal , a wasp-hosti n g h unchback, a n explosives freak, a pu ppeteer of l i feless bodies with an u nwholesome appetite fo r electrici ty, a b l i n d swo rdsman and a demon rendered vi rtually i nvisible by h i s o w n shadow. I ntrigu i n gly, each preternatural power is referred to as a "tech n i q ue . " As Rya n Donovan has noted, These dev i l s . . . aren't actu al l y fi re and bri m stone devils, more l ike powerfu l users of n i n j a magic . Those fam i l iar with the h yperbo l i c a b i l i t i es that H ong Kong cinema can ascribe to kung fu m asters will h ave a sense of what they are. B u t these a b i l i ties often take physical forms . . . . Each i s u n i q u e a n d creatively exe-

24

AN I M E I NTERSECTI O N S

c u t e d , m a k i n g for s p ectacular b a t t l e s . These battles a r e s o m e of the m o s t el egant , b ru t a l , a n d enthral l i n g s e t p ieces p u t to cel l u l o i d . A l a rge part of t h e v i olence i s i m p l icative, cutt i n g from a s h o t of a b l ade's t r a i l past an enemy to a s h o t o f that enemy . . . spl i tt i ng and erup t i n g w i t h blood [ Donovan) .

This type o f violence m ay well be deemed unsavory by viewers that are automatically p rogrammed to respond to the s p i l l i n g of blood on a screen as cote r m i n o u s w i th lax o r even downright perverse eth i cal standards . Nevertheless, i t co uld hardly evi nce so u n ivocally con­ demnatory a reaction were one willing to appreciate i ts sel f-consciously staged, i ntentionally formulaic and u l t imately h u mor-tinged constitution as could also be said o f com p arable dalliances with undil uted b u tchery in productions such as Terry G i l l i a m and Terry Jones's Monty Python and the Holy Grail ( 1 9 7 5 ) and Quentin Taranti no's Kill Bill (2003) . Tho ugh e m i nently action -orie nted, Ninja SCI'oll subtly i nte rweaves i ts m a i n p l o t a n d swirling battles with an understated love story a s Kagero is drawn to Jube i , y e t repels h i m th rough i nsolent behavior a s a res ult of her cu rse a n d Jube i , i n turn , develops feelings towards the female n i nj a that clearly t ranscend the professional aren a . J n a rather shocking plot tw ist, Dakuan reveals that Kagero's poison wo uld work as a powerfu l ant i dote to the noxious sub­ stance co u rsing Jubei's blood. However, Kagero is mortally wounded i n combat and the only contact between the hapless lovers we ever witness is one fut u reless e m b race . This aspect of the p l o t posed considerable d i fnculties for Kawaj i r i : "as far as d i recting is concerned," he has stated, "what I stru ggled with was not the techn ical stuff. B u t how to portray the grow i n g emotions between Kagero and Jube i . Weaving t h e tender element into t h e fi l m's s t o r y p re­ sented the greatest chal lenge fo r me i n directi n g . " At t h e s a m e t i m e , howeve r , Kawaj i ri contends that t h e "artistry o f n i nj a" is undoubtedly the " h igh l i gh t of the fi l m . " S uch p rowess, i t must be emphasized, is rendered especially tan­ talizing by the fact that its actual origins and functions are h ighly e n i gmatic . I nsofar as n i n j a seldom recorded anyth i n g i n writing or b ragged abo ut t h e i r exp l o i ts , t h e i r h istory is p r i ma­ rily apocryphal and sometimes flagrantly legendary. The d i rector has com mented th us on his ninja p l ayers : �

The ch aracters i n Ninja Scroll are me mbers o f very special ized organizat i o n s . S o I d i d n't i m ag i n e t h e m a s n o r m a l people ftom that period . They are more a gro up o f people w i th spec i a l powers who were m e m b e rs of i ntell igence organ izati ons. And their roles i n these organizations were c l e a rl y define d . They would p u t t h e i r l i ves on the l i n e to accom p l ish t h e i r m issions a n d t h e y a r e extremely d riven towards those ends . B u t I don't consider them to represe n t l i fe d u r i n g t h e feudal period i n any w a y. . . . I t h i n k t h i s k i n d of power s t ruggle did happen all over t h e worl d . So if this kind of concept from Ninja Scroll were to b e set in Amer­ ica, the C IA would be the equivalent of t h e Tokugawa spy organ ization w h i c h Dakuan b e l o n gs t o . A n d the organization w h i c h Kagero belongs to i s a much smaller one , someth i n g l i ke a l ocal s h e ri ff 's d epart­ ment . . . Ninja Scroll j ust happens to take p l ace i n t h e feudal period and I d i d n't i nt e nt i o n a l l y try to por­ .

tray that era's l i festyles [ K awaj iri 2003 [ .

Numero us h istorians contend that ninja were a select gro up o f samurai coached specifically for assassinatio n , esp ionage or sabotage . Although this hypothesis is e m in e ntly feas ible, i t should nonetheless b e noted that n i nj a were never renowned for harboring a particularly h i gh sense of honor a n d that this aspect of their rep utation blatantly contradicts the samurai caste's utter com m i tment to an exacting eth ical code : bushido (the "way of the warrior" ) . This uncon­ d i tionally demanded the assiduous cultivation of seven cardinal virtues rectitude, co u rage , benevolence , respect , honesty, honor and loyalty and advocated the p recept that i f a samu­ rai failed to maintain h i s honor he should regain it by com m i tti n g seppuku (ritual s u i cide) . Wh ile the Japanese warrior's honor depended crucially on openness and truthfu l ness, the ninja �

�

Tzvo - Ninja Scroll

25

i nevitably relied on secrecy and subterfuge . Their notoriety as p roverbially s h i fty and furtive characters i ncrementally led to the conviction that they wo u l d a u to m atically resort to uneth­ ical stratagems without even considerin g any righteous alternatives . While p ro foundly tradi tional , the ethical codes i nvoked by the fi l m t h ro u gh its sustained references to samurai and n i nj a customs have u n den iable reson ance i n raday's Japan as wel l . Although bushido originated i n samurai cultur e , i t still permeates contemporary Japanese soci­ ety and i ts heritage is recu rrently evo ked i n manga and anime though a n e m p has is on the quali t ies o f perseverance , loyalty and dedicati o n . The pop culture person ae who embody these ideals are rarely hero i c in the traditional sense of the term insofa r as the arenas w i t h i n which they endeavor to assert their u l ti mate worth are p reemi nently the mundane spheres o f p ro­ fessional l i fe , sports and the educational system . However , those characters' expl o i ts gai n mag­ n i tu de by their e l l i p t ical association with exalted rituals and mores and by the staun c h , albeit subliminal , conviction that they are somehow perpetuati n g a l o fty legacy. In h i s evaluation o f the endur i n g hold o f bushido i n Japanese popular culture , Patrick D razen has o bserved : " Samurai stories are abo ut medieval swordsmen - but they're also abo u t the ethical code the audience should l ive by. That's why some modern samurai swi n g a baseball bat o r line u p a perfect purr" ( D razen , p. 1 0 4 ) . I n this l i ght , it co uld be argued that Ninja Scrolts thematic allegiance to tradition should n o t obscure i ts concomitant connection with modern cultural perspectives . (The contem porary releva nce o f the n i nja figure will be add ressed later due to i ts contemporary p ro m i nence i n both Eastern a n d Western contexts . ) Where the fi l m's entanglement w i th trad i tion is concerned, i t is a l s o no tewo rthy that Ninja Scroll is i nt i mately associated with an established reperto i re o f e m i nently Western der­ ivation in its elaboration o f n u m erous motifs characteristic o f the classi c h orror and western gen res . Ninja Scroll offers one o f the most satisfactory articulations o f horror eve r seen i n Japa­ nese an imation insofar as it never i n d ulges i n sensationalism as a n end in i tself. Iconograph­ ically, the fi l m derives a substantial p roportion of its overall horror fro m the aforementioned s u pernatural monsters . These come across as co ncomitantly h ideous a n d fasci n a t i n g entities that are capable o f eliciting intensely visceral affects , yet also resonate w i t h the eerie i m pal­ pab i l i t y o f del usional voices i n fes ting a hau nted psyche . S tyl istically, Ninja Scroll m irrors the western's procliv i t y ra keep both the desc riptive and the dialogical compone nts o f the story somewhat slender, while e n dow i n g the l a n dscape wi th awesome s u b l i m i t y and a spectacular profusion of details. The m o v i e concu rrently echoes the western's ethical lea n i ngs i n expl i citly prioritizing c u l t u res o f honor over c u l t u res o f l aw. (Sign i ficantly, this same vision is also shared by the gangster mov ie - o f both the American and the yakuza varieties - and by the revenge mov i e . ) Demonstrat i n g o n e's allegiance to a code of honor is o f paramount importance as a means o f estab l i s h i n g one's identity; paradox­ ically, in the classic western and in Kawaj iri's anim e alike , violence and magnan i m i t y are u l t i ­ mately posited as equally v i a b l e methods i n accomplishing t h a t ai m . T h e cl i m actic sequence in which a host of val iant riders makes i ts appearance is a clear homage to the western - as wel l as a n i ronical i nvers i o n o f the rescue theme given that the h o rsemen t u rn out to be i ngen ­ iously d isguised villai ns. The spectator is thus s i m u l ta n eously rem i nded o f the classic western and o f rev ision ist manipulations o f that gen re such as Sam Peckin pah's, Sergio Leone's a n d C l i nt Eastwood's. Like the works o f those Western directors, Kawaj i ri's Ninja Scroll u n ceremo n i o usly redefines the western by demys t i fying its stodgily conventional approach to the concept o f the "hero . "

26

A N l!vt E I !'J TERSECTION S

Kawaj iri also shares specifically w ith Leone a preference for cinematograph ical tech n iques that frequently priori tize , as Joshua Kl ein has put it, "p u rely cinematic elements o f fi l mmaki n g . " T h e critic's comments regarding the Italian director's style co uld i n deed a p p l y no less fittingly to Kawaj i ri's characteristic m ethodo logies : "He carefully com poses each w idescreen i mage l i ke he's painting a great landscape, frequently indu lging h i mself i n extreme close- ups - o ften l i t­ tle more t h a n a characte r's eyes . . . . Style d rip s from each face l i ke the sweat p o u r i n g do wn h i s stars' faces" ( Kl e i n , p. 4 5 8) . Additionally, Ninja Scroll pays homage to tradition by embracing a cl ass ic na rrative strllC­ t u re to be fou n d in both Eastern and Western heroic mythology. Relatedly, i ts principal char­ acters co rrespond to as many mythical archetypes : Jubei is the hero recalcitrantly spurred into action by a senior authority figure ; Kagero is the sidekick and hel p e r ; the devils are the tri­ als to be overcom e by the hero in order to accom plish the appoi nted task . As in other arche­ typal m a n i festations o f heroic myth, in Ninja Scroll, too , the j o u rney upon which the p rotagonist embarks does not merely provide h i m with the adventure o f a l i feti m e , i t also traces a develop mental trajectory akin to the maturation p rocess common to the Bildu ngsro­ man modal ity. I t is in the rep resentation o f Jubei's commodio usness to emotional and psy­ chological growth that the fi l m most su ccessfu l l y transcends the c l i ches of the action adve nture genr e , thereby delineating a character that can never be u n p roblematically consigned to the category o f typ i cal com ic-book avenger. At the same t i m e , Ninja Scroll emb races contemporary trends to be typical l y fo u n d i n several o f today's action adventure productions i n both Eastern a n d Western m i l i eux . I ts meticulously paced and sym phon ically orchestrated figh t sequences , b reakneck chases a n d athletic escapes rap idly i m p rint the mselves in memo ry with even a si ngle v iew i n g . At t h e level of action , the fi l m's stylistic disti nctiveness most defin itely benefits from the choreograph i n g o f the hero's somewhat unorthodox fighting method - an aspect o f t h e sto ry that also serves to th row i nto rel ie f Jubei's i rreverent deviation from dom inant codes of conduct des p i te h i s fu ndamental a l l egiance to trad i t i o n . F u kush i m a h a s c o m m e nted o n the p ro tago n i s t's swo rdfigh t i n g tech n ique as fo l lows : Jubei uses an unconventional iai [ "swordplay") form. Th i s tech n i q u e was origi nally developed to deal w i t h t h e spl i t-second, l i fe-and-death situations w h i c h samurai frequently fou n d themselves i n . Jubei , h oweve r , o ften h as ample t i me w i t h w h i c h to d raw h i s sword, and thus d oe s not necessari ly ne e d to me t h i s tech­ nique. Sti l l , he l e aves h is sword i n i ts scabbard and when h e finally does attack ... , uses the force of th e air to i n flict damage to his opponent . Such a style requi res near superh uman strength and speed ... [ Fukushi m a) .

The dazzling swo rdplay del ivered by the crowning duel between Jubei and the diaboli­ cal Muj uro i n a bamboo forest could be said to not on ly antici pate b u t qu ite effo rtlessly m atch an analogous sequence in the live-action film House ofFlying Daggers (Zhang Yimo u , 2004) . It could fu rther be s u ggested that Roger Ebert's account o f the l ush visuals o ffered by House ofFlying Daggers would j ust as fittingly describe Kawaj i ri's fi l m : "There are i nteriors of ornate elaborate richness , costumes of b izarre beauty, landscapes o f mountai n ra nges and m eadows, fields of snow, banks o f au tumn leaves and a bamboo grove that fu nctions l ike a kinetic art i nstallation" (Ebert 2004) . Ninja Scroll u ndeniably teems w i t h meticulously dep icted costu mes, accessories, fur ­ n i s h ings and a rc h i tectural fixtures typically associated with trad i t ional p re-modern Japan . Kawaj i r i h as i n deed described the film as h is "period p iece . " He has also stressed, however, that "yo u don't have to know about Japanese h istory to enjoy it," noting that yo u n g Japanese

l1uo - N i nja Scro l l

27

audiences are themselves o ften u n fa m i l i a r w i th the history o f the period in wh ich the film i s set. I n t h e d i rector's eyes, " t h e sheer energy o f t h e fi l m is what appeals to fans," wh ich explains its i m m ense popularity i n n o n -Japanese m i l ieux . I n exploring the national heri tage for the sake of both structu ral and decorative accuracy, "the research team rel ied on period d ramas which are set i ll the 1700s . Num erous period dramas abo u t the 1 7th a n d 1 8 th centu ries have been made in Japa n . We've used them as the sou rce for bas i c h istorical deta i l s . B u t in tel l i ng a story abo ut superh u m a n characters i n that period I didn't want to be too restricted . As long as i t was entertai ni n g , I thought I co u ld take l i berties . Although the basic setti n g had been determi ned I allowed myself to work freely within i t" ( Kawaj i r i 2003) . I n assessi n g the cross-pol l i nation of East and West over the terra i n o f Japan ese a n i ma­ tion , i t must be em phasized that n inja appear i n both Eastern and Western fictio n . N i nj a beca me h ugely fash ionable i n Japan during t h e 1 9 5 0s a n d early 1 9 6 0 s by flood i n g b o t h the screen and the page , a nd have featu red in anime and manga as a popular subj ect ever s ince . 3 I t is generally accepted t h a t t h e first p rominent u s e of a n i nj a character i n Western p o p u l a r culture co i n c ides with the James B o n d fi l m You Only Live Twice ( 1 9 67) , where a top - notch n i n j a is recr u i ted by the Japanese Secret Service to assist the British spy. Western pop c u lt u re usually rep resents n i nj a as con summa tely wel l- trained martial artists and murderers, garbed wholly in black and equipped w i th all sorts o f outlandish weapons and gadgets . Western nov­ el ists have for long been i n trigued with the notion of Western ers b e i n g granted access to the ninja's secret caste, as eloque ntly borne out by Eric Van Lustbader's The Ninja series o f thrillers ( 1 9 8 0 ) , with their half-Japanese , half-Caucasian n i nja p ro tago n i s t . Allusions to n i nja skills are also evident, as n o ted earl ier, i n the fofatrix movies, in the film Batman Begins ( 2 00 5 ) , where B r u ce Wayne receives n inja trai n i n g , and i n Wi lliam G i bson's cyberp u n k fiction - as exempl i fied by the character o f Molly M i l l ions from Neu romancer ( 1 9 84) and that of Cayce Pollard from Pattern Recognition (2003) . Comic books, video games and role-playi ng games popular across the globe have also contai n ed d isparate and extensive references to n i nj a s i nce at least the 1 9 8 0 s . An assess ment o f Kawaj i ri 's deft reworki n g of multiple generic sources, fo rmulas and fo r­ mats wo uld not be complete i f attent ion were not also devoted to h is h i ghly original han d l i n g o f G o t h i c motifs . The afo rementioned sequence s e t i n t h e corpse-ridden and crow- i n fested v i llage o f S h i moda , c u l m i nating with the spectral figure o f a dyi n g wom a n who has managed to leave the doomed location and sp read the news regardi n g the ep idemi c , exudes a n over­ whel m i n gly eerie atmosphere o f haunting and decay that aptly exemplifies this aspect of Kawa­ j i ri's oeuvre . Through this sequence, the d i rector appears to be experimenting with what could be tentatively tagged " Eastern Gothic . " The sequ ence co uld i n deed be said to abide by the dist i nct ive rhetoric of the Gothic as a cultural disco u rse i ntent on uti l izing tropes o f phys i ­ cal , psychological and eth i cal d isa rray in order t o co m me nt allegorically Oil particular h istor­ ical and p o l i t i cal c i rcums tances . F u rthermo re , the fee l i n g o f both b o d i l y and m e ntal disintegration com m u n i cated by the scene does n o t merely contribute to the provision o f a tantalizing p iece o f ci nematic enterta i n ment : no less vi tal ly, it a l l u des to the c l imate o f per­ vasive malaise and ideological confusion characteristic o f the phase of Japanese h i s tory w i t h which Ninja Sc ro lt s p l o t is i m p l i cated . Earl ier i n h is career, and most notably i n Wicked City ( 1 9 8 7) , Kawaj i r i had al ready exper­ i m ented w i th the Goth ic or, to be more p recise, with "City Gothic" - a p h rase, as Kim Lind­ bergs explains, "used i n Japan to describe a style of anime set i n a fu turistic wo rld, wh i ch

28

AN I M E I NTERSECT I O N S

features Gothic and cyberpu n k overtones" (Lindbergs) . Packed with grotesque i magery, shape­ s h i ft i n g , twisted sexual i ties, demonic phenomena and a fai r share o f slas h i n gs and gruesome explosions, the fi l m typ i fies Goth icity at its most i ntractably corporeal . I m mediately hailed as a lan dmark i n the genre upon its release , Wicked City still retains a c u l t follow i n g among both Eastern and Western audie nces . As Jasper Sharp has no ted, the mov ie also rem a i n s notable a s " a fasci nating exam p l e of a n i me's near-obsessive p u rsu i t o f cinematic real i s m t o portray someth i n g t h a t , i n t h e p re-CG e r a a t l east , wo u ld have b e e n impossible to render i n l ive-action , and even i f it co uld, wo u l d have been far t o o graph i c to s l i p b y t h e censors . T h i s b l u rring o f t h e bou ndaries between ani mation and l ive-acti o n c i n e m a appeared to be the guiding principle o f a generation of ani mators who made their names i n the ' 8 0s" (Sharp) . This aspect o f Wicked City makes it especially i nteresting in the context o f the overa l l argu­ ment , in that i t bears w i tness to ani me's un ique potentialit ies even in the days when tradi ­ tional eel ani mation was the o n ly game in town. Kawaj i ri will venture fu rther into typically Gothic terri tory w i th Vampire Huntei' D ­ Bloodlust (2000) , a n a u thentically visio nary ani mated work com b i n i n g gorgeo usly atmos­ pheric settings , begu i l i n g character designs by Yoshi taka Amano and b reath tak i n g sequences pu nctuated by blood-spurting eruptions that co uld feasibly be desc ribed as a G o t h i c vers i o n o f Ninja Saol/. Beyond doubt one of th e most beautifu l a n i m ated fi l m s ev er made, Bloodlust is partly a sequel to the a n i m e OVA Vampire Huntei' D d i rected by Toyoo Ash ida a n d released i n 1 9 8 5 . This was i tself a n adaptation of a 1983 horror novel by H ideyu ki Kikuch i , an extre mely prolific and acclaimed writer whose rep utation in Japan is comparable to that o f H. P. Love­ craft or Stephen King i n the Wes t . Bloodlust is ent i rely appreciable for audiences u n fam i l i a r w i th t h e earlier work, which Kawaj i ri's fi l m is unan imously h e l d t o have smartly su rpassed a t t h e levels of b o t h tech nique and storytel ling. Furthermore , a s Jason Myers pers uasively argues, "yo u need not . . . be a fan of Japanese animation" i n o rder to enj oy the mov i e . "Those of yo u who refuse to watch a n i m e because yo ur i ntroduction to the gen re happened to i nvolve e i th e r wide-eyed ya p p i n g p re-teen g i r l s o r tentacles and demon phall uses : i t's t i m e to give Jap a n i ­ mation another chance" (Myers) . Kawaj i ri 's fi l m is based on the third of the twelve vo l u mes contai ned i n Kikuch i's vam ­ p i re series, namely D : Demon Deathchase ( 19 8 5 ) . This is set i n a pseudo - medieval i magi nary world i n the year 1 2 , 0 9 0 A . D . , in the wake of a n uclear and bioche m i cal con fl ict of apoca­ lyptic proportions. In o rder to survive , the scanty n u mbers of extant h u mans have no ch o i ce b u t to engage i n fierce confrontations with a powerfu l race of blood-d rinking monsters whose aristocratic p rovena nce and mo res are instantly recogn izable as q u i ntessentially D racu l i a n . Grad u ally enfeebled b y a decadent l i festyle over several m i llennia, t h e blood-dri n kers even ­ t u a l l y become u n p recedent edly vul nerable t o h u m a n attack s . The p rotago n i s t , D , is a p ro­ fess i o n a l vamp i re h u nter whose perso n a l i t y and motives re m a i n i n t ractably a m b i gu o us throughout due to his hybrid status as the half-breed child of a h u man mother a n d a vam ­ p i re father. T h e narrative cons istently gai ns substa nce a n d al l u re fr o m the coexistence o f both d issonances and harmon ies between those two natures at the heart o f D 's composi te identity. I n Kawaj i ri's fi l m , the vam p i re hu nter is rec ruited by a wealthy fam i l y whose daugh t e r , Charlotte, h a s ostensibly been abducted b y o n e of t h e mightiest remai n i n g vam p i res. D i s p ro m ised a reward of t e n m i l l ion doll ars fo r Charlo tte's safe retu rn o r fo r clear ev i de n ce o f h e r execu tion i n case s h e hersel f has been transformed into a blood-dri n ker. A t t h e sa m e t i m e , D 's employers rely on t h e effo rts of a band of five u n scru p ulous bounty h u nters e ndowed w i th

Tiuo � N i n j a S c r o l l

29

n i nj a ski l l s . Both the p ro tagonist and the band are relentl essly p u rsued by the vam p i re deemed responsible for the kidnap p i n g and by the demonic m e rcenaries i n h is service . (In D 's cas e , m atters a r e further com p l icated b y t h e b o u n t y hunters' steady atte m p ts to remove h i m fro m t h e competition altogether.) Most i mportantly, D is fo rced to face a troublesome di l em m a t h a t c a l l s his eth ical values as bo t h a p ro fess ional vam p i re h u nter and a h u ma n -vamp i re cross­ breed seriously into question. I ndeed, there are overt i n dications almost from the start that Charlotte has w i l l ingly eloped with her charm i n g , though lethal , capto r and that even though this may be s i m p ly a ruse staged by the vampire, it is also possible that the co u p l e are gen­ uine self-ex i l i n g lovers a n d should, i n this case , be peacefu l ly allowed to l ive . Thus, ech o i n g Ninja Scroll, Bloodlust endeavors to mesh i m agi natively the most charac­ teristic elements of n u merous gen res, hence delivering an intrigu i n g blend of traits typical o f the horror mov i e , o f the western , of romance, o f the epic saga a n d o f t h e samura i action fi l m . Kawaj i ri's vam p i re tale also echoes Ninja Scroll b y i ntermi n g l i n g the essential req u i rements of action-driven c i n e m a to graphy - with i ts chase sce nes, fights a n d exp losions - a n d the reflective and personal subplots dramatizing the plight of a man tormented by h is inner demons and that of a co uple locked in a fo rbidden l iaiso n . T h e p l o t of Bloodlust is not , however, what ultimately makes it t h e memorable experience it undeniably is . In fact, as Fred Patten has observed, the film's vigor resides primarily with the pictorial component : "The movie has some clever dialogue , but i t relies so heav ily on its v isual impact that it would not matter much i f it were shown as a silent film. The suspenseful direc­ tion by Kawaj iri (who also wrote the screenplay) is backed li p by beautiful graph ics . Most o f the chase takes place by day, th rough bright forest settings fi lled with trees and flowers . The vam­ pires' sumptuous palaces and court costumes are rococo marvels o f fi l igree and lace and sparkl i n g gold t r i m ( n o cobwebs or emaciated corpses here)" (Patten 2000) . Myers evocatively rei n fo rces th is proposition : "The a n i mation is orn ate and sumptuous, almost tacti l e - the visual equ iv­ alent o f crushed velvet" (Myers) . I n the case o f Ninja Scroll, Kawaj iri's abil ity to intermingle the principal codes and con­ ventions o f diverse gen res, wh i l e concu rrently experi menting adventuro usly w i t h their for­ mulae, is largely a coro l l a ry o f the great creative freedom enj oyed by the d i rector throughout the movie's executio n : 1 was all owed t o work o n t h e fi l m w i thout any restrai nts. S o 1 had a very p leasant experience maki ng the

film. The t h i ngs I real ly wanted t o d o and element s from movies t h a t I l oved e n ded up in i t . For exam­ ple, The Sting and Mission: Impossible have absorbing p l o t l ines. There's the excitement of can games a n d one-upmansh i p . An d the excitement of a c t i o n . All t h e s e element s t h at I l ove w e r e i n j ected i n t o i t . I was excited and real l y had fun making Ninja Scroll. "I want to do t h i s . H ow can I make i t exc i t i ng?" were con­ stantly on my mind. 1 t h i n k t h e audience can feel t h at when they watch t h e film l Kawaj i r i 2003] .

The lati tude o f move m e n t afforded by Kawaj i r i was unquestionably i ns t r u mental to the ach ievement o f a un iquely eclectic m i x , and to a cinematic experience that assiduo usly com­ m u n i cates the sense o f "fu n" which the d i rector experienced in its production - whether or not Ninja Scroll happens to comply with one's personal preferen ces and tastes . This p roposition is upheld by M i ke Pinsky, who argues that even tho ugh Ninja Scroll held the potential for go i n g down i n h istory as yet another p iece o f formulaic a n i m e , its i n fec­ tious energy i m m ediately asserted i ts standing as a riveti n g cinematic experience : By al l rights, Ninja Scroll should fai l . It is, after a l l , ful l of the cl iches of th e fi gh t i ng a n i m e : a r eticent hero (who a l ways seem a m u s e d by t h e i r o w n ca p aci t y fo r ev i l ) i n excessively

b a r d i n g supcrpowered bad g uys

30

A N I 1-&, I NTERS ECTI O N S

gory sple ndor. Th row i n a tough hero i n e (who still needs periodic rescui n g ) , a n i n destructible final boss, some gratuitous (and borderl i n e tasteless) sexual violence, and enough arterial s pray to p ower a downtown c i t y fountain . But Ninja Scroll works . . . . I t m a nages to succeed at what i t tries to b e : a t h ri l l i ng ride. Part o f this is due to its i nteresting a rray of action sequences . . . . D i rector Yoshiaki Kawaj i ri . . . man ages to keep t h in gs mov i n g w i th a few visual surprises and some gen u i ne scares and suspense [ P i n sky 2002a] .

Makosuke ( Marc M a rshall) has l i kew ise commended the fi l m's performative verve : Ninja Scroll is more t ha n j us t a n i nj a hack and s l ash fl ick that's got i t a l l - by taking a l l the earmarks of a tried a n d true formula and nail i ng every one of them , it has disti nguished itself as t h e qui nressent i a l entry i n i ts gen re . Although its qual i t y, depending on your defi n i tion , is debatab l e , one th i ng i s certai n : . . Ninja Scroll i s abour as good as i t gets - a true i nstant cl assic . To i ts cred i t , Ninja Scroll deserves i ts rank as a n i n stant c l a s s i c because i t g o e s a b i t farther t h a n j ust rehas h i ng the formula perfectly - the m a i n characters aren't entirely fam i l i a r and the i nterplay hetween Kagero a nd Jubei is both more creative a nd has more emotional complex i t y than you might expect [Makosuke 2000] . .

No less axial to Ninja ScroLls graphic vigor than Kawaj i r i 's d i rection is the i n p ut o f char­ acter designer Yu kata M i nowa - an artist so receptive and alert to h is environment as to d raw fruitfu l i n s p i ration from even the most p rosaic facets of h i s quotidian worl d . Asked by Lau­ ren Synger o n behal f of the o n l i n e j o u rnal D VD Vision Japan w h eth er any p a r t i c u l a r " in fl uences" have shaped h is "unique" style, Mi nowa h a s rep l ied : That's a tough o n e . Basically I am i n fluenced by every t h i n g around m e . Every t h i n g in t h i s room h e re . T h e water bottl e , that desk, t h e scenery outside a n d of course some t h ings that a ren't even seen a n d I take a l l these t h ings I h ave seen or h eard and experienced and pur them i nt o this ball or artwork, a n d then t hey just kind o f take shape as t h es e characters . . . . If I had to boil i t down 1 0 the very basics I wo ul d say take somet hing from every t h i n g . B e able to look at a water bottle and appreciate i t or the cap and a p p reciate i t a n d use i t somehow. Take every t h i n g i n and m ake i t a parr of you . Yo u h ave to work a t i t . For exam­ p l e , i f you want to draw a cert a i n p ictu re d raw i t ten times . . . . Of course th ere are people that ... are j us t naturally tal ented . But basically yo u h ave to g e t y o u r muscles to work and to g e t y o u u s e d to draw i n g . . . . D raw someth i n g one-hundred, two-hundred, th ree-hundred ti mes, b u t you h ave t o draw i t , a n d some people ask m e i f I act u a l l y h ave to d raw i t that many t i mes . I t e l l them o f course . You h ave to go through a p rocess, you can't j u s t go from p o i nt A to point Z . You have to go through al l the l etters .

Furthermore , M i n owa's app roach to ani mation offers a paradigmatic example o f a n i m e's alle­ gia nce to hand-drawn graph ics, as the fo l lowing pithy exchange demonstrates : SYN G E R -- When designing a character what mediullls do you work with and what medium is your favorite? M I NOWA - Pen c i l s . Just pencils (he l aughs) [Minowa 2004] .

Although the han d-crafted d i m ension irrefutably p l ays a p i votal rol e , i t should also be noted that at the techn ical leve l , Ninja ScroLL participates i n both tradition and i nnovation no less than at the thematic level . Accordi ngly, while the com m i tment to revered p ractices on the part o f Kawaj i r i , M i n owa and their team deserves due recogn ition , i t is equally i m por­ tant to acknowl edge the mov ie's experimental thrust . Before em bark i n g on an exa m i nation o f t h i s aspect, i t seems u seful to reflect upon the film's ori g i nal title, a s this enca psulates the

thematic motifs discussed in the p receding pages at the same t i m e as i t evocatively a l ludes to Ninja ScroLls tech n i cal m akeu p . The film's Japanese designatio n , Jubei Ninp uuchou, lends i tsel f to d iverse i nterpretations. As seen above , Jubei is the hero's nam e . T h e second kanji compound is more problematic . The first character is read a s " nin," which can mean "to endure" o r "to h i de . " (The same character is used fo r the word " ninja . " ) T h e second cha racter , "fuu" (also readable a s "fu") , carries an array o f poss i b l e m e a n i ngs, including "w ind," "stor m , " "style" or "custo m . " The t h i rd characte r , "chou," means "registe r , " "notebook" o r "screen . " F i rstly, it is a matter of interpretation whether " ninpuu" { p l ease note

Tiuo - N i n j a

31

Scroll

that "fuu" becomes "puu" fo r pu rely phono logical reasons) should be take n to mean "n i n j a style" o r "n i n j a w i n d . " Whereas t h e fo rmer may refer to a b road c o d e of con d u ct , t h e latter co u l d b e seen to allude specifically to the p rotagonist's disti nct ive swordfighting tech n ique . The final character may refer to a log book, such as a chronicle, a pai nted screen or a p icture scroll . " Chou" denotes, strictly speaking, Aat obj ects such as quires of paper and folding screens and does not automatical ly refer to a scro l l that can be rol l e d up and is therefo re cyl i n d rical . (The Japa nese language is very sensit ive to such d isti nctions i n so far as d i fferent d i mensional attributes are accorded s i g n i ficantly different counters) . The word "scro l l " is normally rendered by a total ly d ifferent kanji to the one used for " chou." O n a p u rely l i teral plane, therefore , the i n c l usion of the wo rd "scro l l " i n the transla­ tion o f the fi l m's title m ay seem somewhat arbitra ry. O n the figurative p l a n e , however , that wo rd describes the movie most faithfully, and acco rdingly const itutes a h ighly apposite choice, i nsofar as the wo rk's ove rall co mposition is vi vidly redolent of traditional Japanese scroll pai nt­ ing and of th is art's kn ack o f i nt e rspersi ng i mages and tex t . (The art of manga as a whole is profo u ndly i n debted to that p i ctorial fo rm .) The entire experience of watch i n g Ninja Scroll is comparable to w i t ness i n g a Japanese scroll painting i n motio n . An a r t form tha t has p l ayed a pro m i nent part i n both Ch i na a n d Japan fo r centuries, scro l l painting ten ds to feature Aora l , an i m al , landscape and social m o t i fs , as well as short poems or stories i nt e r m i ngled with v i sual images . (Often described as one o f the o l dest fo rms of painti n g , horizontal scrolls are cal led cmakimono [e "picture" + maki "rolled" + mono "th ing"J - tho ugh they a re also known simply as makimollo o r emaki- and were tradition­ ally produced by past i n g s i ngle sheets together i nto a len gthy ro l l . The i mages were viewed from right to left . Vertical scrolls mo u nted on rollers, known as kakemono [kakeru "to hang" + mono "thi n g"J , are a more recent art form that became especially popular d u r i n g the Edo period [1600- 1 8 6 8 J as a n ideal way of decorati n g the walls o f small Japanese ho uses .) Ninja Scroll features p rom inently the key themes conventionally associated w i th scro l l p a i n t i n g as i n tegral to i ts recu rrent visual i magery. Usi n g consistently the simp lest visual vocab ulary in the depiction of both the natural environ ment a n d domestic interiors, Kawaj iri makes us sen se the p o i gnancy of each l iv i n g creatu re , p i ece o f weapon ry, household accessory or garment. At t h e s a m e t i m e , even a s blood fi l ls the screen , one cannot fai l to be touched by the smoothn ess and refinement w i th which the figu res move t h ro u gh the elegantly del i neated landscap e . Details such as l ush blades of grass and p l u m p roses, the su n's reflection i n a puddle, craggy a n d j u t t i n g rocks, a moth d rawn to candleligh t , a spider at the center of an i ntricate web, flecked koi in a pond, the silhouettes o f i m p os i n g tree trunks against a colossal fu ll moon , snow- blanketed lanes, and crepuscular sett i n gs traversed by harsh shadows would look perfectly at home i n the context o f a scroll painting or i ndeed other fo rms of traditional Japanese art. I n i ts elaboration of tropes and motifs inspired d i rectly by a keen sensitivity to the n at­ u ral env i ronment in all its rich ness and complexity, Kawaj i r i's style co u l d be sa i d to epito­ m ize a n essentially h o l istic a p p roach to the concept of "Nature," consistently u p held by Japanese art and confirmed by l i nguistic usage . Hayao Kawai's semi nal work on this subj ect , and especially his contention that in Japa nese lore there is "no d i s t inct demarcati on" between "man and Nat u re , " are especially apposi te , i n this regard : =

=

=

=

=

Throughout European h i s t o ry, N a lllrc has becn i l izati o n , and cont i n l l c s

to

a

concept w h i c h s t a n d s i n o p p os i t i on to c u l t u re

and

civ­

b e o b j c c t i fied by h ll m a n bei n gs . The word " N a t ure" was t ra n s l ated into Japa-

32

A N I M E I NTERSECT I O N S

nese as shizen. P r i o r to t h i s we did not h a v e a concept of Natur e . Whe n we Ja p a ne se wish to talk a b out "Nature , " we use s uch expressions as sansensomoku, w h i c h l i terally means "the m ounta i ns, rivers, grasses, and trees" . . . before the encounter with the West . . . [shizen] is not even a noun . . . [bur rather] an adverb or adj ective . . . that expresses a state i n wh ich every t h i ng flows spontaneously. There i s someth i n g l ike a n ever-changing fl o w i n wh ich every t h i ng - sky, earth , and man - is cont a i n e d . Because it is l ike a contin­ ual process, i t can never be grasped spatio-tem poral ly, and strictly speak i n g , cannot be na m e d [ Kawai , H . , pp. 2 5 - 7 1 .

I n acknowledging the movie's affil iation with traditional paint i n g , i t should also be n o ted that at one point Ninja Scroll all udes self-referentially to i ts allegiance to Japan's ti me-hon­ o red arts by means o f a map - used by Kagero's clan i n the plann i n g o f the i r fatefu l expedi ­ t i o n - that displays all t h e distinctive graph ic trai ts of classic i n k sketches . Moreove r , Ninja Scroll echoes the more recent b u t no less popular art o f the ukiyo-e (the woodblock prints rep­ resenting " i m agcs o f the float i n g world") , espec ially in i ts wordless evocation o f h u m a n mor­ tal ity through shots o f volatile l i fe forms such as firefl ies . Kagero is the character most exp l i c i tly associ ated with transience - an aspect o f her complex persona which h e r very name corrob­ o rates : " He r name is the standard word for 'sh immer (of the a i r) ' or ' heat haze . ' . . . Two other homonyms (with d i fferent kanji) mean 'd ragonfly, ' and ' M ay fly' o r 'som eth i n g ephem eral .' In the fi l m , Kagero d ies during the summer. Her you n g l i fe is extremely fleeti n g" (Fukush i m a) . The proposition that the term "scro l l " is a legiti mate and i l l u m i n a t i n g ren d i t i o n o f the fi l m's original title desp ite its semantic looseness is v i tal to the exp l o ration of the tech n ical and stylistic d i mensions o f Kawaj i r i 's fi l m here offered . Tec h n i cally speak i n g , the mov i e is resol utely grounded in the medium of the 20 hand-drawn cel - a flat object - and yet i s capa­ ble o f yielding a sense o f spatial i t y often associated with 3 D sol ids . I t is at this level , as elab­ orated below, that Ninja Scroll could be said to both cultivate tradition and embrace i nnovative approaches to the art of animation . The fi l m undeniably constitutes a ground-breaking i n tervention i n the execu ti o n of pre­ digi tal visual and special effects . Especially remarkabl e , i n this regard, is its flai r for i m part­ ing certa i n i mages w i th a potent feel o f spatial density eve n as i ts cumulative aesthetic is guided by an u n fl i nching devotion to 2 0 graph ics. A str iking exam p l e is s u p p lied by the sequence i n which the reptilian creature adorn i n g a go rgeo usly tattooed dev i l , B e n i sato , see m ­ i n gly detaches itself from t h e dermal surface a n d gradually u nco i l s i n the surrounding space . The visual i m pact o f this scene is u n i que, as the prodigy appears to articulate a 3 D space , yet remains tenaciously rooted in the realm of the hand-drawn i m age . The sequence's c l i max , moreove r , offers an i nstance of i n s p i red p re-digi tal morp h i n g . (This term refe rs to the smooth metamorphosis o f an i mage or object into another.) When Jubei grabs Benisato's arm to put an end to her bewitch i n g tactics, the diabo l i cal femme fatale's e nt i re body appears to turn to rubber and then metamorphoses into the h u man equivalent o f a sn ake's cast-off ski n . ( Mor­ phing is employed again in the u n forgettable sequcnce where a tree branch reveals itself to be Oakuan i n chameleo n - l i ke disguise, as h is n i mble body gradually u n folds o u t o f the origi­ nally rigid and motionless objec t . ) B e n isato's association w i th repti l es is spectacularly rei n ­ fo rced later i n t h e movie in a further sequence attesting t o Kawaj i r i 's knack o f evoking a sense o f spatial densi t y out o f 2 D draw i ngs . I n this sequence , where the seductive dev i l conj u res up legion poisonous snakes capable o f mov ing freely in and o u t o f her own body, the a n i ma­ tion deftly juxtaposes the si nuo usly l inear motion of each creature with a mounting i m p res­ sion o f 3 D vo l u me yielded by the composite mass o f expone nt ially p ro l i ferat i n g beasts . At another key j uncture i n the fi l m , the hyperkinetic sequence po rtray i n g an i n vasion

7loo - N i nj a S c ro l l

33

of oversized hornets o ffers a textboo k illustration of t h e dexterity o f traditional animation. Fluid and stirri n g , the sequence was necessa rily executed entirely by hand and each o f the thousands o f i nsects was hence d rawn individually. The director has com mented as fol l ows on the arduous tasks facing his team : "The scenes i nvo lving cou ntless snakes and bees were physically very demandi n g . I drew q u i te a few of those bees mysel f. Now, we can easily dupli­ cate them digitally" ( Kawaj i ri 2 0 0 3 ) . F u rthermore , b o th the d i zzyi n g swirls of h o rnets unleashed from the h u mp-cum -beeh ive of the dev il Mushizo (literally, " i nsect s to reho use") and the vortices o f anaesthetic-im bued petals p rojected by Kagero to keep them at bay con­ vey a striking i m p ression of t h ree-dimensionality i n spite o f their essentially flat nature . N o less memorable i s the moment i n the early sequence dramatizi ng the fight between Kagero's clan and Tessai i n which the ninja fling a host o f t h row i n g s tars (shuriken) at the devil : attention is d rawn to the specificity of each individual star down to the t i n iest facet of i ts graphic com position . Additionally, the choreograph ing of the ensu i n g sequence man ages to ach i eve in one s i n gle movement startl ing beauty and haunting artistry, desp ite i ts u n d i ­ l u ted and undeniable brutali ty. Donovan h a s effectively summarized i t as follows : "The stone­ skinned giant is massacring the band o f n i njas with his double-bladed t h rowi n g sword . There is a distant whirring sound, a slash of ligh t , and then the n i nj as' torsos split i n the m iddle to float suspended briefly befo re fal l i n g from the trees . Cut to a shot o f several severed l i m bs and bod ies drifting to the gro und, horrified still faces settling into the grass below to be sprinkled with fine raindrops o f blood" (Donovan) . Kawaj iri's painstaking attention to details is fur­ ther confirmed by the following examp l e , aptly fo regro unded by Beachem as stylistically rep­ resentative o f the d i rector's distinctive signature : " I n one scene, Jubei's shirt gets cut o n the sleeve by one o f the devils o f Kimon. In all future scenes, Kawaj i ri makes certain that the cut is always present on the same sleeve , and that it's the same size cut" (Beachem) . All of the canonical camera moves typically evi nced by classic anime are generously artic­ ulated th rougho ut Ninja Scroll. The opening frames cont a i n handbook instances o f the type o f camera work described i n this book's first chapter. The "pan" is first employed to capture from a d istance the b ridge which the protagon ist is crossi ng. The " fix" is then used to iso late portions o f the natural environment surro unding the structure , with its lovingly ren dered b i rds and lush wa terside vegetation. The impress ion of movement is subtly conveyed by frames dis­ playi ng stationary backgro und paintings of watercolor-oriented exquisiteness, over which are superim posed the fl ickeri ng shadows of w i nd-caressed bul rushes . Analogo usly effective are the frames in wh ich the archi tectural setti ng remains static b u t is concurrently endowed with atmospheric vibrancy by the "sl iding" o f a bank of fleecy m ist across the picture's m iddle gro u n d . The meditatively slow pace o f the sequence is suddenly upset as the action switches to the first of the many skirm ishes i nvolving Jubei : the use of "fairi ng" felicitously abets the com mun ication of a tantal izing sense of rapid acceleratio n . " Pan" and "ti lt" shots are utilized assiduo usly througho u t Ninja Scroll, most memo rably i n the cap ture o f the scenery, while both the "fo llow" and the "fo l l ow pan" con tr i b u te greatly to the ebull ient dynamism of the sequences dep icting large-scale battles and duels a li ke . C i n ­ ematograph ical centrality is al so repeatedly accorded to "tracki ng" : by recourse to a rack focus, the camera concentrates on an aspect o f the foregro u n d and then swi ftly s h i fts to an aspect of the backgro u n d . Such changes o f focus require great tech n ical i n ge n u i t y and cinematic nimbleness, and serve to i nvest the a n i m ation's series o f static draw i n gs w i th an unequ ivo­ cally " fi l m-l i ke" feel . The movie also makes use of the "zi p pan" tech n i que in the depiction

34

AN I M E I NTERSECT I O N S

o f backgro u n ds by reco u rse to the simplest of l i n es and stro kes to evoke a potent sense o f energy w i th o u t encumbering the key foregro und i mages with excessive sce n i c baggage . This i s borne o u t by the storm sequence presented early i n the film, where the vehe mence of the elements is com mun icated by means of m i n i malist vertical and d i agonal l i n e s . Equally rem arkab le, i n this res pect, is t h e later sequence i n w h i c h Jubei recal l s , i n a flash ­ back , his p resu med beheadi n g of Genma and the action's savage pathos is both contrasted w i th and heightened by the elegantly res trained s h i m m e r o f a deluge o f snowflakes . T h i s sequence a l s o anticipates t h e afo rementioned House of Flying Daggers, whose c l i mactic con­ frontation takes place i n a snow-swept setting. In both films, the w i ntry amb ience clashes forcibly with the type o f scenery used p redom i n antly throughout the action , cap i tal izing on atmospheric disp lacement to convey i n metaphorical form the inner turmoil o f their respec­ tive characters at those crucial j unctu res. At ti mes, Ninja Scrolls storytell i n g may seem excessively ell i p tical o r even fuzzy to West­ ern sensi b i l i t ies -- fo r exam ple, i n the segment where the plot comes to an u n expected halt fo r the extended flashback dealing with Jubei's first confrontation w i th Genma, or i n scenes where the conflicting parties' motivations seem obscur e . However, sensit ive spectators w i l l be captivated by the fi l m's potent i magi native logic and thematic coherence rega rdless o f their cultural backgro u n d o r geographical p rovenance. They w i l l also al most certai n ly savo r Ninja Scrolls gorgeo us i magery, w i th i ts magn ificent arch itectu re a n d l uscious landscapes, and a p p re­ ciate the elegance o f the battle sequences, where the dynam i c appeal o f gymnastics and bal­ let are rol l ed seamlessly together , and a powerfu l sense o f rhy th m , poetic grace and h a u nt i n g beauty are consistently prioritized over martial prowess and bravu ra stuntwork . The short a n i mation Program - Kawaj i ri's dazzli n g co ntribution to the OVA comp ris­ ing nine shorts i n s p i red by the Wachowskis' un iverse and t itled The Animatrix (2003) - shares with Ninja Scroll a fascination w i th tradition, evi n ced by the hand l i n g of the conventions of period drama and by the studious rendition o f martial skills i n a stunning sw i rl of b reathless samurai action. However , in s i tuating the ti me-honored art o f swordfigh t i n g in the context o f a cybe rtech nolo gical society, Program also demonstrates the past's ongo i ng collusion w i t h t h e p resent and the fu t u re . T h i s thematic amalgamation o f trad ition a n d novel ty is m i rro red by a ni mble com bination of hand-drawn graph ics and eGl. While Ninja Scroll could be said to mark the zen ith o f 2 0 cel a n imation , Program signals Kawaj i ri's enthro n i n g as one o f the contem porary masters o f the i ntegrative "tradigital" approach . Developments in the creative traj ectory o f a n i n d iv i d ual d i recto r over exactly one decade thus also serve to i l l u m i nate broader reorientations in the art of anime at large . I n his eval uation o f the evo l ution of digital tech nology, Kawaj iri has stated : As far as what you can ach ieve w i t h digital tech nology goes I d o n't t h i n k we can surpass Jurassic Park. I t s i mulated sumc t h i n g v i sually t h a t doesn't exist i n real ity. After t h at ach ievemclll , cven tho ugh tech nology has i m p roved s i nce then I d o n't think we can m atch the i m p act that h a d . So n ow, com i n g u p w i th a good idea i s the key whcther YOll llSC digi tal tech nology or not . . . . I n l i ve-action fi l m s computer-generated exci te­ ment and real i s m have reached t h e i r peak . So when they arc transferred i nt o the a n i mation format a few p roductions may be seen as someth i ng new. They might make a b i t of an i m pact, but after thc n ovel t y wears off w h a t w i l l m a t t e r i n the c n d are a g o o d story and g o o d v i s u a l i m ages . Which h ave always b e e n the i mportant e l e m e nt s [ Kawaj i r i 2003] .

The A nimatrix shares the conceptual premises ideated by Larry and Andy Wachowski fo r The Matrix and i ts sequels, and accord i n gly p u rsues the hypothesis that the h u ma n world is

Tiuo -- N i n ja S c ro l l

35

a mon umental compu ter-generated simulation progra mmed a n d regi me nted b y h ighly soph is­ ticated Artificial I ntell igences . A motif that squ arely belongs in the domain o f specul ative cyberp u n k sci-fi, this theme also operates allegorically as an i ndictment o n all-too-real ideo­ l o gical agendas com m i tted to fostering a ubiquitous condition o f false consciousness . Like the parent mov ies, the nine short a n i mations o f which the collection consists feature characters that have bravely chosen to transcend the i l l usory pleasu res and vap i d p rom ises of the quo­ tidian world by means o f exacti n g digitally assisted trai n i n g , face up to l i fe's u n p alatable real­ i ties and rebel aga i n s t the n u mb i n g sys te m . Progra m's p rotago n i s t , C i s , i s one o f these characters, and the action revolves aro u nd her struggle to rem a i n faithfu l to her co u rageous choice - des p i te the h a rds h i p i t i nev itably entails --- when con fronted w i th the option o f reen ­ t e r i n g the vi rtual real m for the sake o f a trouble-free and grati fying existe n ce . I n the co u rse o f Program (the fi fth segm e nt i n the anrhology) , C i s engages i n a v i rtual fight generated by a computer p rogram meant to both test and enhance her sk i l l s . Set i n feu­ dal Japan , the p rogram first requ i res the hero i n e to ann i h i l ate s i ngle-handedly an attacki ng caval ry - wh i ch she does with aplomb, as well as some tastefu l fla u n t i n g o f gloriously ren ­ dered period garments a n d accessories overtly insp i red b y Kabuki , com p e l l ingly brought t o l i fe b y cutting-edge d i gi tal tool s . N o sooner have t h e attackers b e e n vanqu ished than a lone samurai appears on the scene : Cis recognizes h i m as D u o , see m ingly a member o f her crew and feasibly her l over , who has decided to be reinserted i nto the matrix a n d wants the yo u n g woman t o j o i n h i m . Exp l a i n i n g t h e sou rces of Program's concep t , the d i rector has stated : "One o f the insp i rations was the matter of Cyphe r's betrayal in The JMatrix. That was some­ th ing that got m e go i n g , the idea o f that betrayal" (Kawaj i ri 2002) . Cis eventual ly o p ts for the arduous l i fe o f the real as op posed to the "peacefu l l i fe o f the vi rtual wo rld," as D u o describes i t . When , at the e n d, she emerges from t h e program and i s t o l d b y a crewmate that the encounter w i th Duo was deliberately devised to test her steadfastness of p u rpose, she sternly punches h i m in the face and wal ks away, in a distinctively Kawaj irian flourish o f dry humor. Kawaj iri's cont r i b u t i o n to The Animatrix sta nds o u t as a caps u l a ted masterp i ece of comp u ter-assisted a n i m ation . The extent to which the short fi l m employs digi tal tools not as ends i n themselves but rather i n order to accomplish effects that wou ld be unth i nkable w i th i n the parameters o f trad i t io nal a n i mation i s ful ly borne o ut b y the sequences i n which various aspects of the archi tectu ral scenery with in which the characters execute their stylish wal tz-l i ke duel divide i nto rapidly multiplyi ng planes that appear to recede ad infinitum. Such settings are emphatically two-dimensional , yet acqu ire a mesmerizing aura of th ree-di mensionality by sheer v i rtue of their vertiginous p ropagat ion . The computer-generated v i rtual landscape , with its o rnately t i led roo fs, is vividly red ol ent of A n g Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) . So are the cha racters' acrobatics, although in the case of Program, a n i mation's flamboyant dis­ engagement from the constrai nts of grav ity did not req u i re the util izat ion o f h idden w i res, nor i ndeed Yuen Wo -Pi ng's l egendary cho reographing talent (on which both Lee's film and the Matrix l ive-action p roductions substantially depended fo r their effects) . The ha nd-crafted element is never totally suppressed, however, s i nce both the buildi ngs and the natural environ ment - dep icted consistently w i th a preponderance o f traditional Japa­ nese h ues - exh i b i t the palpable markers of manual execll t i o n . In discussi n g his personal con ­ tribution t o t h e creation o f Program i n an i nte rview given at the t i m e o f The A nimatrix's release, M i nowa has con fi rmed the vital agency of the artisanal component :

36

A :--J IME I NTERSECT I O N S

O r i g i n a l l y I wasn't g o i n g to be i nvolved i n The A nimatrix, but as Kawaj i ri-san w a s h e a d e d to the U n i te d States w i t h the scrip t , h e asked me to d o a few character draw i n gs to i n c l ude i n the p resent ation materi­ als for Program. So [ started out doing basic concept work based on Kawaj i r i-san's designs. Kawaj iri-san a n d I h ad talked about doing some i magery and costumes based on Kabuki i mages a n d I ran with that , doing some of the first i m ages of the soldiers on horseback rid ing aga i nst a red sky. There's a funny story attached to that because when I was doing those particular drawi ngs, [ kept runn i n g out o f pai nt - there was a l o t of red ! . . . At first they weren't sure that the h i gh cont rast style would work , but i n d o i n g those very first p i eces of concep t art , t h ey realized i t might work after all, and p rov ide a way o f m e e t i n g t h e chal ­ l e n ge of l i v i n g up to The Matrix. They realized that rather than going fu l l out w i t h very detailed render­ i ngs, they could go w i t h someth i n g very simple, someth ing that you could o n l y rea l l y do in ani mation. After that I d i d a l o t of the animation supervision, making sure t h at scenes worked, but I real l y fee l m y main contribution were t h o s e fi r s t i m ages w i t h the r e d s ky and b l ack grass, and the sol d iers on horseback with their s taffs [ M i n owa 2002J .

Program thus eloquently attests to Kawaj iri's conv iction that conventional "an i mation's appeal w i l l not change" as a result o f the i ncorporation o f d igi tal tech n i ques : " I f the i mage and also the passion are not conveyed through computer-generated a n i mation , then it w i l l n o t succeed i n mov i n g people or exciting them . So whether yo u use a pencil or a computer the i m portant t h i n g is that the passion and the image are exp ressed i n the final p roduct . . . . To exp ress the passion and the i m age wh i l e using com pu ters is j ust a matter o f fi n d i n g the right material" (Kawaj i r i 2003) . This is resplendently confirmed by Program , where n o vol u m e of d igital tricks wou l d ever have risen above the category of gl i tzy enterta i n m e n t had the action not been i n fused thro ughout w ith the drama of Cis's predicament : an internal battle between p rivate emotions and col l ective obligations, m i nd l ess pleas ure and stri ngent du ty.

THREE Perfect Blue Anime often gets looked down on I/S being simply animated excuses for violence and sexual gratu­ ity with plots that frequently seem targeted at the teenage audience. There is a great deal of truth in that but such a view also overlooks films like Perfect Blue where the animated medium is used to tell a complex and nuanced sto�y.... And the plot of someone caught in the middle of a circle of dreadful events whilst also questioning their own sanity is a classic staple of more accepted cine­ matic genres. This is a good film to show the nay sayers to demonstrate that anime is capable of quite sophisticated tales. It also rewards with strong characterization for tbe most part and pro­ vides some musing on tbe price offame. tbe demands offa1ls and the often u/lScyupulous 1Iature of people quite prepared to exploit tbe unseasoned Mima. - "banksie " Tbe colollr ofitlusion is perftct blue. - Pt·rftct Blue Tagline. Japancse version

An i nternationally acclaimed and culturally astute psycho-th r i l l e r , Perfect Blue marked Satosh i Kon's debut as a d i rector through a fusion of spel l b i n d i n g a n i mation tech n iques and harrow­ i n gly matu re themes . The fi l m has i ndeed pl ayed a key part in conv i n c i n g even the most skep ­ tical audiences that a n i mation cannot be u nproblematically relegated to the status o f i n fant i l e enterta i n ment and t h a t a n i m e , specifical ly, is capable o f prov i n g every b i t as sophisticated a s a n y respectable c i n e m a t i c fo rm . I n t h e case of Kawaj ir i's Ninja Scroll, as we have seen , th is goal was reached by means o f an utterly unsent i me ntal exposure o f the evils cours i n g a specific historical era . Kon's mov i e , for its part , ach ieves the same obj ective thro ugh a sustained explo­ ration of the darkest facets of i n d ividual psyches and of the i mpact thereon o f a p roverbially perfidious sphere o f cultural production and consumption . Kon's Perfect Blue was originally i ntended to be a 9 0 -m i n u te l ive-action d i rect-to-video p roject . Howeve r , as the p roduction h istory presented i n the movie's official site exp la in s , Prod uction w a s delayed d u r i n g early 1 9 9 5 d u e to t h e Kobe earthquakel a nd the decision to a n i mate t h e fi l m w a s m a d e . However, Perftct BIlle deal t w i t h a subj ect n ever befo re addressed b y a n i m e a nd i t was agreed to e m p l oy the best names cu rrently working i n the i n d us try. A new system o f production would be adopted that did n o t fal l p rey to the constrai nts of traditiollal a n i m a t i o n . It was fel t that a n i m e had n o t adopted the eclectic nature of m anga a n d w a s i n danger of con fi n i ng i t s e l f to the same characters a n d sub­ ject matter. Perftct Blue o ffered a real opportu n i t y t o break the mold and create someth i n g d i fferent [Per­ ftct Blue: Production Notes J .

Kon h i msel f had p resumed that the project's rather h umble origins i n the OVA i ndus­ try would make i t i l l - s u i ted to theatrical release , and had certa i n ly never anticipated its sen­ sationally positive reception not only on home turf but p ractically a l l over the globe . Asked 37

38

A N I M E h :TE RSECTIO:"J S

by Tom M i es (on behalf of the online j o u rnal Midnight £.ye) , " What's you r reaction to the s uccess and the unexpectedly long l i fe o f Perftct Blue?" the d i recto r riposted : I can only say it was a surprise . Because in the beginn ing this project was i ntended for video. As its creator I was actually a bit hesitant about Perftct Blue getting shown in theaters . Bur it was, and as a result the film was invited to a number of fi l m festivals and seen by m any different audiences. I also got to visit m any cou ntries, so I was happy with i t after al l . The fil m was much more appreciated by those audiences t han I 'd imagi ned, so I was quite perplexed at the same time.

Altho ugh Perftct Blue is loosely based on the novel of the s a m e t i t l e by Yos h i kazu Takeuch i , the thematic tw ists and p h i l osoph ical perspectives that are ultimately most p ivotal to its cumulative identity as a work of art have sprung entirely from the d i recto r's own i mag­ ination. Kon has indeed stressed that the story presented in the film is q u i te different fro m t h e novel on n u merous counts: " T h e idea of a fi l m w i t h i n a fi l m , and the i d e a o f a b l u rred border between the real world and imagination , those were my ideas and they weren't in the novel" ( Kon 2 0 0 1 ) . A l ive-action movie more faithfu l to the parent tex t , t i tled Perftct Blue: Yume Nara Samete and directed by Toshiki Sato , was produced in 2 0 0 2 . T h e fi l m's p rotago n i s t , M i m a Kirigo e , is t h e centerpiece o f a trio o f Lol i ta-l i ke pop s i n gers called Cham who decides to quit the gro up i n order to p u rsue fa m e as a n actress . H e r agent , Ru m i , is far from sup portive of this career move , believing t h a t M i rna's i mage as t h e i ncarnation o f squeaky-clea n , Snow-Wh ite i nnocence w i l l be irretrievably i m p a i red b y her s h i ft to act i ng - especially si nce her first major part is i n a lurid TV soap about a serial killer enti tled Double Bind. The agent's misgivi ngs are soon corroborated by actual events : the show req u i res M i rn a to adop t a decidedly sul try persona that is starkly at odds w i th the whi te­ kn ickered p roj ection idol ized by her erstwh ile fan s . Her compliant s u b m i ssion to raunchy photo shoots fu rther a l ienates the once loyal crowd s . J u n ko Iwao's personal engagement with the task of l e n d i n g M i m a's character a v o i c e fo r the original Japanese version o f the movie parallels the p ro tagon ist's experience . To this effect , the actress has observed : When I got t h e storyboard and the scri p t , to tell you the truth, I had some m ixed fee l i ngs abo l l t i t . I had made up my m i nd t o accep t the role at the time of the aud i t i o n , but I was a l ittle concerned about the v i o l e nt scen e s . B ecause I did n't have any experience acting violent scenes i n t h e past . . . . I t h i n k I feel exactly the same as Mima feels i n this story. This was a chal lenging role for me as an actress and I wanted to over­ come as many obstacles as I could, j ust as M i m a does i n the story. I 've p l ayed cutesy roles in the past , but I fee l that Mima and I are a l i ke . . . . The d i rectors and creators o f this p roject h ave extremely h igh stan dards and expectations. If my del ivery was less than 100%, they were on to m e right away. . . . The d i fficult scenes for me were when M i m a shouted loudly or when she was out of breath from chas i ng "vi rtual M i nl a" [ Iwao] .

M i m a's rel i nquishing o f her old sel f is sealed by her i nvolvement as the victim i n a par­ ticularly grap hic rape scene, made additionally disturb i n g by her performance i n a garb mod­ elled o n M i m a's Cham costume w ith an extra soft-porn twi s t . (This sequence will be retu rned to later in this chapter.) Alternately disappointed and confused by her novel rol e , the p ro tag­ o n ist begins to lose her hold on real ity. Shocked to discover what claims to be her own diary on a popular website dubbed " M ima's Roo m , " anguished by the real ization that the contents o f the log are i mpeccably accurate , tortured by phantasmatic halluci nations of her fo rmer self garbed i n Cham gear, and stalked by the psychotic fa n Uchida (a . k . a . " M imaniac," also ren ­ dered a s " Me-Mania" ) who regards the new M i ma a s an i m p ostor, t h e you n g woman is grad­ ' ually e n g u l fed in a paral l e l u n ive rse where i n fact and fiction seaml essly - and o ft e n vengefully - coalesce . Most memorab l e , in t h i s respect , is t h e sequence i n which the heroine

Three - Perfect B l u e

39

wakes up afrer an i ntensely traumatic n ightmare a n d barely has t i m e to draw a sigh o f rel ief at the realization that the experience was p urely oneiric befo re the very same occurrence starts rep l aying i n her ostensibly conscious l i fe . A deft visualization of M i rna's psychological p redica­ ment , the sequence also fu nctions sel f-refl e xively as a subtle critique o f the n u m b i n g repeti­ t iveness o f much com m e rcial ani m e . Ruby Marlow, t h e English voice act ress fo r M i rn a , h a s exp ressively assessed the heroi ne's intrinsic duali t y : Tech n ically, w e k e p t t h e two obvious M i m a characters separate . There was t h e "real " M i m a and the "vi r­ tual" M i m a . . . the M i m a that was al most l i ke a phantom , s t i l l d ressed i n her performance olll fir . We d i d one o f t h e m a l l the w a y t h rough , and t h e n w e went back and d i d t h e other, so w e k e p t t h e m separate a n d showed cert a i n character t r a its o f each : t h e v i rtual M i m a was l i ghter and brighter all the t i m e , alth ough she h ad an age n d a . The real Mima was broken d own w i t h i n that character into several d i ffe rent ones . . . e v cn t h o ugh I d i d n't rea l l y know el'fI" exactly what h e r real i t y was . . . t o me i t was all real i t y - i t had t o be IMarlow] .

The tech n ical strategy e m b raced by Ko n and h is team has u ndeniably p a id off, insofa r as the two Mi mas' distinct personalities are palpably appreciable throughout the fi l m . Marlow's own w i l l ingness to a p p roach each and every si tuation in which the hero i n e is ca ught as potentially real has contrib u ted significantly to the final p roduct's affective quali ty, commun icating a gen ­ ui n e i m p ress ion o f both uncertainty a n d ingenuou sness which m ight have b e e n o n ly partially articulated had the actress m ade u p her mind a p riori as to what counted as real ity and what as i l lusion. On the tech nical plane, M i ma's displacement is most effectively and succinctly conveyed by frames that deftly capitalize on intrepid layering techn iques, wh i l e concurrently throw i n g i nto rel ief t h e hand-drawn component a n d graph ic conventions o f trad i tional a n i m e . An espe­ cially striking exam ple is s u p p l i ed by the extreme close-up depicting M i rn a as she stares with m i xed horro r , disbelief and grief at the i nexpl icably dead Tetra fish l i m p l y suspended i n her m i n i -aquariu m . Ko n's sleek choreography conj ures up an eerie space i n which the hero i n e a n d t h e obj ect o f her stunned gaze appear t o interact a n d even coalesce . No less i m p ressive is the sce n e , set i n a subway carriage , in which a deso late "real" M i rn a catches her reflecti on in a window and sees not her cu rrent self but a taunti n gly cheerfu l Mirna i n her pop- idol i n car­ nat ion . This economical i m age co m m u n i cates the yo u n g woman's psychological and sensory dislocati on more radically than extensive d i alogue ever wo u l d . K o n utilizes reflections in myriad glass su rfaces th rougho ut t h e fi l m so as to t rans m i t i n a visually consistent fash ion t h e do u b l i n g , splitti ng, polarizing a n d dissoci ative m echanisms affiicting the main characters' psyches . Furthermore , Perfect Blue featu res a p lethora o f gl ass s u r faces of speci fical l y tech nological derivation alongside those p rovided by bas i c archi tectu re and i nterior design. These are introduced as a means of suggest i n g that v i rtually all the expe­ riences dramat ized in the film are synthetical ly mediated and cann o t , therefo re , be taken as transparent wi ndows onto a character's real ity - whatever this m i gh t b e . Kon has comm ented on this motif i n an i n te rv iew for the Perfect Blue official website : Most of the fi l m is set i n doors . M i m a's roo m , Uch i d a the fan's roo m , even the film s tu d i o . The other M i m a also makes h e r fi rst appearancc from t h e PC i n M i rna's roo m . To tell the trut h , I thought l o n g a n d hard abo llt how the other M i m a should besr make her appearance, and i t was Murai [ t h e fil m's scriptwriter] who came up with the idea o f the I nternet : the hom epage M i nds Roo m . I n this way, we decided to make all of the rooms evoke the same thing. There arc r h ree "screens" i n the room where M i rn a l ives: a TV, a PC and a trop i c a l fish tank w i t h the same 3 -by-4 d i mensions as a moni tor. We also shot M i nds room as

40

AN I M E I NTERSECT I O N S

i f i t was being v iewed on a T V screen . Th is is because we wanted to give a d i l uted sense of real i t y, as if all o f the events were t aki ng p l ace w i t h i n a TV screen of some ki n d . Later, when th e scriptwriter Sh iburani comes i nto the parking l o t , the entrance i s framed as i f i t were a T V scre e n , w i t h the same 3:4 d i mensions [Kon 199 8 1 .

I n h is own assessment o f t h e protagon ist's predicament, the English vo ice acto r for M ima­ niac, Bob Marks, suggests that his character favors Mima o u t of the th ree Cham girls n o t merely because o f h e r p ivotal role in t h e gro up but also, more i mportantly, because o f the latent sense o f powerlessn ess she transm i ts : "She seemed to be the voice o f the Cham girls, o r the m a i n focus, altho ugh she was portrayed a s a very gentle , actually more vulnerable char­ acter and not as aggress ive as the other girls and I guess somehow more accessible. So I guess to this character [Mimaniacl she was p robably more appea l i n g" (Marks) . M i m a is i ndubitably depicted as a rather n aive and cautious perso n , unequ i p ped with the headstrong a m b i t ious­ ness stereo typically associated with rising stars or the vivaci o us conviv iality that usually dis­ tinguishes the pop idol figure . Nor does she exh ibit the vaguest trace o f the sci-fi glamour that accrues to other classic anime idols : most notably, Lin M i n m e i from Superdimensional Fortress Macross (and i ts American version known as Robotech, 1 9 8 2 ) , M i h o Utsuse from Key the Metal Idol ( 1 9 94) and S haron Apple from Macross Plus - The MOllie ( 1 9 9 4 ) . I m mersed i n an e nv i ronment that p romotes self-aggrandizement as the n o r m , yet u n able o r unwilling to play the gam e on her own terms, Mima has no alternative b u t to succ u m b to the dubious agen das o f an overzealous talent agency ma nager and a suffocatingly m aternal business agen t . I n a sense, even the decision to q u i t the music wo rld for the screen is never overtly posited as the p rotagon ist's own personal choice . The yo u n g woman's puppet- l i ke standing is economically captured by the scene in which the two characters eager to shape her fu ture career argue about her chances o f success in the television i ndustry i n M i m a's very p res­ ence , as though she were no more sentient - let alone the h ub o f the debate - than a p i ece of office furniture . Matters are fu rther, a n d gruesomely, com pl icated b y the m u rder o f key m e m bers o f Mima's new busi ness and, worse still , b y her suspicion that s h e m ay b e responsible for t h e i r perpetration. O nce M i maniac h i mself h a s b e e n murdered, the t r u e culprit turns o u t to be Rum i , the sufferer o f a comp l ex case o f Multiple Persona l i t y Syndro m e . M i m a is eventual ly acclai med as a talented performer, comes to terms with her adult ro l e , and magn a n i mously goes on visiting her deluded ex-agent after the latter has been indefinitely hospitalize d . How­ ever, this relatively "neat" ending does not totally erase Perfect Blue's status as a n arres t i n g v i s u a l experience t h a t leaves m a n y issues o p e n t o interpretation even a s i t h i nts a t partial explanations . One possible i nterpretation h i nges on the thesis that the fi l m dramatizes a concatena­ tion of events as seen from the perspectives of th ree varyingly d isturbed characters : M i m a , Rum i a n d M i maniac . R u m i wo uld finally appear t o have orchestrated the p l o t i n accordance with her own maniacal perceptions of real ity and identity, while Rum i and M i man iac are pawns that easily lend themselves to man ipulation as a result o f their respective experiences of emo­ tional and cul tural dislocation. Another interpretation , here adopted as somethi n g o f a wo rk­ i ng model , p roposes that the delusional web woven by the movie consists p r i m arily of a series o f parallels and convergences centered on M i m a , Ru m i and thei r both personal and p ro fes­ sional relationship. In this readi n g , Miman iac operates essentially as an i ntermediate and cat­ alyzi n g age ncy, and the TV soap as a metafi l m ic com m entary on the m a i n p l o t .

Three � Perfcct Blue

41

Correlations between M i rn a's and Rum i's identities and experiences abou n d througho u t . Both are ex- idol s i n gers and both have difficulties com i n g to terms w i th t h e y o u n ge r wo man's new rol e : in M i rna's case , due to her perception of the transition fro m pop idol to actress as a potential descent from a state of purity to a "tarn ished" self- i m age (wh ich co u l d be read as her reaction to the rift between the p re-adul t and adult domains) ; in Rum i's case , due to her sub l i m inal conviction that the demise of Mirna as adolescen t pop s i n ge r amou nts to a fad i n g of h e r own identity - o f what s h e stood for i n t h e days of her p o p u larity and o f w h a t vestiges of those ti mes she has thus far managed to salvage thro ugh v icari ous identificati o n with her charge . Furthermore , i t should be noted that i t is after the execution o f the rape scene that the film increas i n gly foregro u n ds M i rn a's decl i n e i nto madness, especially as i mages o f her p rev i ­ ous s e l f attired i n t h e o utfit she wo re at her l a s t Cham concert h a u n t her and defiantly c l a i m t o be t h e "real" M i rn a . Those halluci nations emanate from Rum i 's p syche no l e s s t h a n fro m M i rna's own , i nsofar as the v i rginally i m m aculate person a they s e e k to enshrine corresponds to the agent's own yearn i n g to p reserve a van ishing past and a correspond i n gly evaporating grasp of selfhoo d . This psychological cross-hatch ing is rei n fo rced by the sequence i n which the character of the photographer is mu rdered and M i rna appears to be com m itting the c r i m e . I n fact, a s it later becomes patent , i t is effectively Ru m i t h a t is perfo r m i n g the a c t wh ile delu­ sionally bel ieving that she is M i rn a . I n both instances, t h e ou tcome is a radical mental unanchori n g conducive to paranoi a a n d sch izoid self-persecution a s far a s Mirna is concerned, and to t h e fabrication o f an intri­ cate slasher yarn rep lete with tech nological props, masquerades and more than moderate a dose of sheer bloodlust i n Ru m i 's case. The rape scene seali n g M i rn a's s h i ft from pop idol to soap actress functions as a d ieget ic pivo t , bringing the two characters together thro ugh a v ivid depiction of sorrowfu l pathos . Rum i's tears at the end o f the shooting i n t i m ate that the pain she feels is arguably more wrenching than any feel i ng experienced by M i rn a herse l f. After all , the older woman has more to lose than the rising starlet does . The rape sequence as we see i t i n its on -set construction is by no means a p ru rient con­ cession to the dubious p redilections o f anime viewers kee n on erotic titi llation . In fac t , i t fu nc­ tions as an i ronically deconstructive exposure of the ci nematic p rocess and o f both the p leasures and the tribulations it entails. The Animefu review of Perfect Blue, i n this respect , p raises the fi l m for its "subl i m e under m i n i n g of the rape scene for the TV show - with the actors caught in uncomfortable poses between camera angle changes . Qu ite cleverly remov i n g the eroticism o f the scene and hav i n g a quiet l i ttle j ab at sex scenes in general i n visual m edia" (" ban k s i e" ) . I t should also b e no ted, however , that even though the sequence is so sel f-consciously orchestrated, from a formal and tech n ical perspective , as to stand o u t as someth i n g o f a p l ay with i n a play, i t nonetheless remains deeply disturbing at the affective leve l . (The play w i t h i n a p l ay i n Hamlet p rovides an apt antecedent, i n t h i s rega rd . ) This is a logical coro l l ary o f t h e uncom p rom ising realism with w h i c h Kon has chosen t o choreograph M i rn a's e n t i c i n g act , the mounting l ustfu l n ess o f the strip club clients, the victim's feverish struggle to disengage her­ self from the th i cket o f l ewd hands reaching o u t towards her defenseless body, and her even ­ t u a l col l apse at the edge o f the strip stage l ike a discarded doll . Acco rd i n g to Aaron H. Byn u m , while the rape sequence appears t o mark the inception o f t h e p ro tago n ist's ostensibly i rre­ versible descent towards a moral nad i r , there is also, paradoxically, a sense in which i t ach ieves a diametrically opposite goal : "emblematic of what w i l l occ u r to a person's sensi b i l i ty should

42

AN I M E i !\TE RSECTI O N S

they yield to the damagi ng splendor o f societal abstractions, the glo r ified filth of the rap e , in a m i raculous way, helps to p u r i fy Mirna . . . . Identifying her television work as 'a h u rdl e , ' . . . M i rn a constructs her self-worth and sentience" (Byn um 2 0 0 5 a ) . I n t h e l o g i c o f t h e i nterp retations outli ned above, Perftct Blue's n arrative lead i n g th read consists of an affective contam inatio n , so to speak, whereby Ru m i 's l u n acy feeds M i rna's con fl icting emotions to the p o i nt that these , too, acquire the graphic sym ptoms o f ful l - b l own insani ty. I m portantly, even though M i rna fi ghts back and finally asserts her separateness from her former agent as a capable professional i n her own righ t , her sense of self remai n s t i ed to Ru m i , as evi nced by the closi n g scene po rtrayi ng one of the yo ung woman's regular trips to the institution where i n Ru m i whi les her delusion-laden days away. Communicati n g Rum i's div idedness throughout the action posed considerable challenges fo r her English voice actress, Wendy Lee : "Rumi started out as somewhat i nnocent i n her relationsh i p w ith M i rn a and I knew what the outcome was go i n g to be, that she wo uld turn i n to a very sordid, horrible monster at the end. The trick really was keeping that u n der wraps from the begi n n i ng and not giving away the plot" (Lee) . Lee's performance is u n re m i tt i ngly re markable, in this regard : an exceptionally sympathetic i m agination appears to underp i n the actress's enactment of the violently con fl icting sides o f Ru m i 's schizoid persona, and abi l i t y to participate i m p l i c i tly i n the character's pathological outlook. The TV show Dou ble Bind comments metafict ionally on the fi l m's central concerns ­ its title could barely be more apposite, in this regard . Its ve ry p l o t , moreover, echoes events seen i n the main narrative by cap i talizing on the actions o f a serial killer, on paranoid visions, on the haziness o f real i ty's bou ndaries and on the anxious search fo r altern ative identi t i es . A key scene from the TV show features the character played by M i rn a , Yoko , as a m ental patient and the ch aracter o f the doctor i n the act o f diagnosing her affliction as Multiple Personal i t y Syndrome . Although t h e characters look l i ke Yoko a n d t h e doctor from Double Bind, what the scene p lausibly dramatizes is Ru m i 's own p l i gh t i n the form o f a flashfo rward, alluding to the diagnosis of the agent's co ndition and resulti n g hospital izatio n . The characters' appear­ ance wo u l d feas ibly res ult from Ru mi's delusional state - and particularly her tendency to identify w i th her p rotegee so totally as to lose any sense o f her and M i m a's very separa te ness, let alone o f somatic diss i m i larities . With t h e sequences i n which M i m a is portrayed a s t h e subj ect o f particular actions, yet Rum i-as-Mima is the effective performer, Perftct Blue has acco m p l ished what some wou l d deem cinematically i m poss i ble : i t manages to ascribe one and t h e s a m e action to mo re than j ust one agent at any one time. The film could simply have shown Rum i perform certa i n acts as herself, wh i l e i l l ustrating by means of cut-ins the i m aginary contents o f the character's m i nd, where she ident ifies w i th M i rn a . Such a method would have kept the hero i n e and the villain discrete , and i n v i ted specific degrees of empathy o r sym pathy w i th either one or the other. By actually endow i ng Ru m i w i th Mima's semblance as those acts are b e i n g performed, the fi l m atta i n s to u tterly fresh levels o f com plexity, draw i n g the viewer i nto the ravelled n igh tmare . Furthermore , the sequences i n question derive much o f their cinematic v i gor from Kon's blend o f efficient cuts and poignantly allusive imagery, as wel l as a p redilection for delicately scattered clues that play coy with the truth rather than stark statement s . Hence, viewers are gently, even languidly, d rawn i nto the fa ntasy even though the visual and narrative content of the sequences is downright disturbing i n i ts atrocious authenticity. Arguably, th is feat co uld

Three - Perfect B l ue

43

never have bee ach ieved w i thout the d i rector's u n fl i nc h i n g com m i tment to an a n i mational style o f i n co m parable l i n ear neatness, capable o f demonstrating that potently natu ralistic effects do not automatically depend on the an i m a tor's simulation o f p h o to real istically th ree­ d i mensional local it ies but may actually s t rike the ir most melodious chords when the drawn l i ne is accorded pride o f p l ace. Kon is not, howeve r , i m pervious to change and recognizes the i m portance o f c u l tivat­ ing a commodious approach to both ex isting and developing tools and tech n iques : " My m a i n method of exp ress i o n is t h e drawn i mage . . . . I love t o draw and draw i n gs are my words . . . . I mysel f i ntend to conti n u e with 20 an imation , but my i nterest i n 3 D a n i mation is i n c reas­ i n g . I think i t's critical l y i m portant to u t i l ize new tech n iques. But . . . I t h i n k i t's also i m por­ tant to perfect yo u r o l d tech nique and make as many works as possi ble by focusing you r efforts" (Kon 2004) . The fi l m's interweav i ng of tradition and novel ty i n the tech nological doma i n occurs p redom i n antly at the l evel o f its consistent a n d subtly va ried j uxtapos i tion o f represen tations o f long-establ ished med i a , on the one hand, and o f deve l o p i n g electro n i c systems, on the other. Acco rdi n gly, a l t h o u gh Perfect Blu e does n o t seek to i n tegrate cel a n i m a t i o n and computer-generated graph ics as several later (and even synch ronous) p roductions do but actually cultivates a reso l u tely artisanal aesthetic, i t does engineer an i magi n ative encou nter o f the old and the new on the specifically rep rese ntational p l a n e . I n the cou rse o f the sto ry, references to l i ve-acti on c i n e m a , television shows, analog record i n g a n d gutter-p ress p h o ­ tography a r e conti nually contrasted w i th im ages o f d i g i t a l tech nology a n d rem i n d e rs o f t h e i n c reas ingly u b i q u i to us ro le p l ayed b y t h e I nternet i n peop le's l ives a n d dest i n i e s . T h e grad­ ual construction and deconstruction of the p rotagonist's both p rivate and p u b l i c personae encapsulate that tens i o n . I n deed, her characterization i s a l l the time t rave rsed by more o r l e s s expl icit a l l usions to the equ ally powe rfu l age ncy o f a relatively o l d - fash i o n ed i ndustry gro u n ded i n pre-digital tech nology and o f a n emp hatically contempo rary galaxy of bits, by tes and pixels. Tradi t ional and cutti ng-edge tech nologies, moreove r , are i n ca rnated by the s p l i t t i n g o f the central characte r , referred to earl ier i n th i s chapter, i nto two contras t i n g configura tions: t h e flesh -and-bone woman , on t h e one h a n d, and t h e v i rtual co nstruct , on the other. A parallel contrast can be observed i n the movie's handl i n g o f quite d i fferent a n i m ational modalities . N u merous sequences are drawn and shot i n deliberately "non -spectacular" styles so as to th row i nto relief the humdrum qual i ty o f the characters' l ives o utside the synthetic gli tter and glamo u r o f the pop i ndustry that varyi ngly defines their identities . The sequences h i gh l ighting the narrat ive's precarious balancing act between real i t y and i l l usion by means o f intensely surreal visuals, camera work and edi ting strategies, conversely, cap ital ize on overtly sensational rep resentations of physical and psych ological displacement , i n c rementally b u i l d ­ ing up to paroxys ms o f cold-blooded brutali ty, rendered i n a dispass ionately p h o to realistic fashion . The backgrou nds, too, are so reali stically executed as to o ften come across as l ive­ action matte painti ngs . Profo undly i n fl uenced b y h i s earl ier work a s a manga artis t , Kon overtly i mports the com ic-book conventions i nto the real m o f a n i m e . Kon's evo l u t ion as a m anga artist demands some attention , i n this respect , and the di rector's own acco u n t o f the creat ive path lead i n g from h is i n i t i al encou nter w i th co m i c b o o k s t o t h e perfection o f the disti nctive s t y l e emb raced in Perfect Blue seems espec ially deserv i n g o f notice :

44

A N I M E hTERSECT I O N S

I d id n't want to j ust read manga ... but h ave a go at writing them myself. I was heav i l y i n fluenced by Ka t­ s u h i ro Oromo's DOn/u ( 1 9 8 0) and Akira ( 1 9 8 2 ) . . . . From the very beg i n n i n g I enj oyed d raw i ng pictures and my early scribbles event ually developed i nto manga . At length, one story I completed won the " Kodansha Manga Award," a n d ever si nce the n , I 've been draw i n g manga not as a hobby, but as m y l ivel i h ood . . . . I can't th i n k of a particular fi l m or a particular d i rector who has real ly " i n fluenced" m e , b u t I d i d grad ually absorb the t h i n gs I saw. . . . The most i m portant i n fluence on me ... wasn't a s i ngle film hut the works of Terry Gilliam. Desp ite being fantasy, his depicti ons are q u i r e bitter, h i s narrat i o n also th rows "curve-balls," and rather than cove r i n g every p o i nt i n deta i l , he takes t h e s tagi n g off to a completely d ifferent p o i nt and p l ucks out a s i ngle, v i v i d them e . I especially l ike Time Bandits ( 1 9 8 1 ) , Brazil ( \ 9 8 5 ) and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen ( 1 9 8 9 ) . When I draw myself, I am quite n atural ly i nterested i n whatever's around m e , so that there's a feeli n g of starting from a real istic p o i n t o f v iew, w i t h which fantasy i s then m ixed, and finally fi n i s h i n g with pure fantasy [ Kon 1 9 9 8 ] .

The enduring hold of manga- inspired styles on Kon's visual imagination is fully attested to by his preference for m i n i m alist character designs, flat figures , tenuous masses and back­ ground characters reduced to i m personal cut-outs or even blobs and splotches o f p a i n t . These elements gai n visual po tency throughout the film by the i r inters persal w i th j o l ts o f grap hic complexity and richness emulating the more exuberantly baroque moments i n manga art . The d i rector has exp l i c i tly acknowledged the i nfluence o f h is backgro u n d upon h i s a n i m e work in an i nterview inclu ded in the Perfect Blue ova released by Manga Enterta i n ment : "I started out as a pai nter so I think in terms o f visual ized drawin gs from the begi nn i n g . " (Kon 2 0 0 0 ) . O n this same to p i c , the d i rector has also stated : " What came to interest me enormously when drawing manga is o f course the format , but also the layout panel by panel . Yo u d raw six or seven panels to a page , and when yo u open the page , there's the question o f which p i c t u re h i ts yo ur eye , and when a double page is open i n front of yo u , there's the flow starti n g from 'this' p icture and climaxi n g i n the end with 'that' p icture. I t has to be 'cut , ' edi ted l i ke a fi l m" (Kon 1 9 9 8 ) . I n t h e course o f t h e 2 0 0 0 i nterv iew quoted above , Kon h a s also usefu lly commented o n h i s distinctive approach t o t h e draw i n g stages of production , emphasizin g t h e need t o s trike a fine balance between attention to details and com m i tment to the picture's c u mulative design , as well as between spectacularity and fluidity: "Coming u p with a story and making detailed decisions about what type o f a home a certai n character should live in, for exa m p l e , a n d then sketch i n g it, is a lot o f work . I wo uld get caught up in the details o f the task before m e and lose sight of the b i g picture . . . . I r isn't that I tried to make the draw i n gs sensational as such, but I wanted the draw i n gs to effectively flow smoothly during the 8 0 m i n u tes o f the fi l m . Rather than have one scene stand o u t , I hoped that the story wo uld b e del ivered well over the entire 8 0 m i n u tes" ( Kon 2000) . Kon has unquestionably ach ieved h is goal i n Perfect Blue, insofar as each o f the settings reveals a u n ique blend of meticulously rendered details and overall structural coherence . The urban locations, additionally, also carry docume ntary val u e . Makosuke has pers uasively p u r­ sued this proposition i n his rev iew of the mov ie for A n ime World: Even most live action mov ies, let alone ani me, fail to capture the sort o f rich e n vi ron m e nt s that Perfict Blue is filled w i t h . M inds apartment is the most i m p ressive exam pl e : it has a cramped, l ived - i n look that captu res the fee l of Japanese city l iv i n g . . . . (For those wondering about M i m a's less-than-glamorous I i v i n g space , it's n o t unbelievable - m i n or pop s i n gers are a d i m e a doze n , and an apart m e n t i n Tokyo costs a fort u n e . ) . . . The sense of tangib i l i t y is equally s t rong in lhe backst age v i ew of show b usi n ess t h a t p rovi d e s t h e fram ework fo r t h e slor y. BOlh t he Po p I d o l scen e t h a t M i ma l eaves a n d th e T V a C l i n g w o r l d she strug­ gles to break i nt o seem believab l e , more so than i n most movies deal i ng with s i m i l a r s u b j ect mattef. . . . All this isn't just w i n d ow d ress i n g ; the Iess-l han -glamorous (but not exaggeratedly so) beh i n d the scenes vi ew

Three - Perfect B l ue

45

of act i n g gives the p l o t a l o t of its srrength and tension, and th e concrete backdrop makes M i m a's deteri­ orat i n g reali t y a l l the more palpable [Makosuke 1998] .

I t could further be suggested that the city of Tokyo i n i ts entirety rises to the status o f a p ivotal character i n Perftct Blue's n arrative , coming across a s sometimes amicable , some­ ti mes hostile, and i nvariably u n p redictable - as the fil m's h uman person ae also are. Alternately exuding a sense o f colorful o p ulence and a tenebro us atmosphere of engulfing menace, the urbanscape thus rep licates both the characters' most t reasured dreams and their most d readed n i gh tmares . To kyo , it should be noted, w i l l p lay an axial role in Kon's later production Tokyo Godfothers, the tale of th ree homeless people and, via their s i n gular vicissitudes, o f Tokyo's poverty-stricken underbelly. (Th is fi l m w i l l be returned to later in this chapter.) In the articulation o f i ts distinctive spatial poetics, barely seen i n anime befo re o r i ndeed since , Perftct Blue concomitantly cap tures what Paul Sch rader has described as the "restless and u nstable" space o f film noir. Such a space , by capital izi ng on unsettl i n g com positions and lighting strategies, radically interrogates its inhabitants' own reliability: " No character can speak authoritatively fro m a space that is contin ually cut into ribbons o f l ight" (Sch rader, p. 1 7 5 ) . I n th us destabi lizing i ts spatial organization , Perfect Blue also shatters t h e audie nce's depend­ ence on the screen itself as a supposedly safe space , compell i n g us to look on i t more warily and in the constant awareness that its coordinates may be arbitrarily violated at any moment . S i mul taneously, the arch i tectural dialectics conj ured up by Kon's camera, with its knack o f establ ish i n g a sustained tension between the inside a n d t h e o u tside ( to t h e poi nt that the enclosed settings and the surrounding cityscape ap pear to m i rror each other and even become i n terchangeable) , brings to mind the spatial relations i m mortalized by Alfred H itchcock i n Rear Window ( 1 9 5 4 ) . I t is also worth pointing o u t , in this context , that Perfect Blue echoes the classic auteur's oeuvre i n more ways than one. The fi l m's more brooding moments, for exa m p l e , are redolent o f Rebecca ( 1 9 4 0 ) , H i tchcock's adaptation o f D a p h n e D uMaurie r's Gothic masterpiece ( 1 9 3 8 ) . The mounting atmosphere of o m n i p resent t reacherousness a n d attendant p ropensity for self-delusion , conversely, recalls t h e m o o d o f Gaslight (1944) , w h i l e t h e action's sudden leaps into undiluted savagery brings it i nto inti mate p roxi m i t y wi th the affective tone o f Psycho ( 1 9 60) . 2 At t h e s a m e time, Perfect Blue develops t o great effect a n i m e's distinctive tendency t o m i n i m ize movement . T h i s h a s tradi t ional ly resul ted from e m i nently fi n a n c i a l constraints, and specifically the need to keep the total n u mber of frames down to the bare bone for the sake of cost-effective productivity. Such p ragmatic l i m itations also apply to Kon's fi l m to some extent : the l i m i ted budget at the d i rector's disposal i n the execu tion o f Pe�foct Blue entailed that the entire fi l m eventually added up to less than 3 0 , 0 0 0 draw i n gs . (To grasp the ful l significa nce of th is figu re b y com parative means, it i s worth n o t i n g t h a t H ayao M iyazaki's Princess Mononoke, also released i n 1 9 9 7, incorporated over 1 4 4 , 0 0 0 cel s . Kats u h i ro Otomo's Steamboy [2004] , as we shall see , encompasses no less than 1 8 0 , 0 0 0 draw i n gs . ) However , regardless o f budgetary considerations, Kon's work also p o i nts to a del iberate adoption o f h ighly rarefied action as a vital component o f his aesthetic , and to a n ability to harness that cho ice to a markedly self- reflexive approach to the medi u m . I ndeed, Kon abides by the principle that nothing needs to move unless it has to move to such a heightened degree that the technique has the effect of consistently rem inding the audience of the arti ficial sta­ tus of the production. The i m p ression is fu rther conso l i dated by the systematic use o f long takes and dolly shots.

46

ANIME INTERSECTIONS

Cinematograph i cally speaking, i t is also notewo rthy that Kon's take on cinematic space benefits considerably from the deployment of audacious camera angles that evade the estab­ l ished tendency to make the camera's point of view level w i th the h um a n eye and display a u n i form horizo n , and experiment instead w i th u nsettling and perplex i n g perspectives . These a re p rod uced by reco u rse to extreme h igh-angle and low-angle shots that cap t u re both char­ acters and locations from above o r below, i n preference to visually and emotionally balanc­ ing eye - level fram e s . Deep - focus shots allowing a l l the p l a nes o f a settin g to rem a in i n i d e ntically sharp focus a re also used as a means o f disorienting the viewer's senso r i u m by i nvesti n g disparate d imensions with mystifyi ngly equal relevance . We are not, at such t i m es , encou raged to recogn ize certa i n aspects of a s h o t a s more i mportant or cogent to t h e action's unfolding than any othe rs, and are accordingly requi red to take in and p rocess the e n t i re fi l m i c moment as a n ensemble of multiple, mutually sustai n i ng and mutually u n de r m i n i n g elem ents . Eve ry t h i n g , therefo re, becomes potentially momentous and peripheral at o n ce . O b l i que-angle shots based on the cap t u re of a subj ect by a t i l ted camera a re sometimes employed w i t h analogously baffl ing ou tcomes i n order to make the subj ect itse l f seem to be slanted across a diagonal plane when the fi nal film is p rojected . The assiduous use o f short cuts and swi ft transitions from one scene to the next l i kew ise i m parts Perfect Blue w i t h an atmosphere o f e nigmatic un cann i n ess. No less p ivotal to the movie's spellbinding camera work is the use o f takes that s u p p ly the audience with a s i n gle viewpo i nt by intimati n g that the scene is b e i n g p resented i n the way i t is perceived by an indiv idual character and, therefore, as a markedly subj ective rath e r t h a n shared experience . I nsofar a s t h e various personae's perspectives a re all , i n varying degree, warped by obsessions and fears, we cannot afford to take any of those scenes at face val u e, as u n p roblematica l ly denotative o f a defi n i te message . Refused the l ux u ry of rel iable viewp o i n ts, we are thus fo rced to watch and wait fo r a character's perception to be confi rmed as valid, d iscredited as a figment of a feverish imagination o r - more o ften than n o t - d iegetically emplaced as both c red ible and delusional at once . I n such instances, the fi l m overtly empha­ sizes the role played by the camera as an autonomous agent i n the man i p u l a t i o n o f the viewer's responses, and as capable o f tech n ical gestu res that foregro und the existence o f an i ns t r um e n ­ tal p resence endowed w i th grea ter knowledge than the viewer. Another defin i n g trait o f Kon's d i rectorial cachet resides with h i s cho i ce of a chromatic palette capable of investing Perfect Blue not only with the spatial , as noted earl ier, but also w i th the atmospheric q u a l i ties o f film n o i r . Even t h o u gh i ntense h u es are c o n s i s t e n t l y employed, t h e setti ng o f m u c h of t h e movie in noc t u rnal or i n door locations requ i red t h e assiduous u t i l ization o f artificial lighting, a n d this made i t possible to adj ust the tones a n d i ntensi ties so a s t o convey a pe rvasively sombre a t mosphere fo r the more meditative moments, and a harsh mood of foreboding fo r the suspense-laden scenes . The sequence in which Mirna ret u rns to her d ress ing-room after the completion of Double Bind along a deserted tiled Co[­ ridor punctuated by u n friendly neon l ights is particularly notewo rt hy. Kon has maintai ned that the i nj u nction to translate the p roject from a 9 0 - m i nllte video p roj ect i nto an 30- m i n ute theatrical release is largely responsible fo r Perfect Blue's particular cine matograph ical style : I t h i n k we had to th row out about 100 sce nes . The cuts were made because the c inema runnin� t i m e was l imited, so nearly al l the miss ing footage was just there to show the passage o f t ime. We cut several sce nes of escalating suspense that were originally there to emph asi se M ima's gradua l ly growing fea r. It's very

Three

-

Perfect Blue

47

difficult to bring out the feel in g of "gradually" when you don't have the time to do it, so that led us to become bolder and cut most scenes in wh ich stuff crept up on you gradual l y. We also used m any jump cuts to l i nk separate epis odes and as an expression of mental confusion .... It woulJ be boring just to cur o ut littl e b its and piece them togethe r, so I ... used imaging techniques to connect diffe rent scenes by pil­ ing action scenes o r images one on top of the other. As the film progressed, e.speci a l l y in the l ater half, we decided to cut from scene to scene faster and faste r IKon 1998J.

Thematically speaki n g , Perfect Blue embodies an integ ral facet of Japa nese tradi t ion i n the fo rm of a key topos drawn from class ic indigenous fairy tales : namely, the n o t i o n of inter­ penetrating worlds. This p h rase des ignates everyday d i mensions, non-quotidia n realms and l i m i nal i n terstices between those two ca tego ries , across wh i ch characters may migra te e i ther of their own vol ition or as a coro l lary of bew i tch ments . Perfect Blue paradigmatically exempl i fies th is mo t i f by rende r i ng t he membra ne that sup posedly separates exterior and i nterior doma i n s of bei ng disorientingly pa per-thi n . The w o r l d o f the old pop-idol i mage , u n w i l l ing to b e dis­ p laced by the new TV-show persona, i n fi l t rates M i ma's quotidian existe n ce w i th mo u n t i ng a n i mosity and ins iste n ce . As a res u l t , shadow doubles of the flesh -and-blood g i r l p rol i fe ra te and mal ignantly beg i n [0 g raft themselves upon her oste n s i bly defense less body a n d m i n d . As i n tradi tional versions of the motif of i n terpenetrating worlds, what is most dist u r b i ng about the scenario dep icted i n Perfect BLue is the sheer i m placab i l ity of fa ntasy's onslaughts o n the real . D rea ms cross ove r into waking l i fe , the soap drama blends with t he actual world, i mag­ i n a ry spectres become i ndisting uishable from obsessed stalkers, and t i me itself appears [0 dis­ solve i nto an i ndistinct blur as the protagonist p l u m mets into a w h i rlw i nd o f del i rious anxiety. I n the a fo reme n t i o ned i n te rv iew incl uded in the M anga Entertai n me n t DVD release o f Perfect Blue, the d i rec[Or h a s described h is app roach [0 the story and [ 0 i ts compos i t i o n t h u s : "We i ntentionally tried [0 keep the audience guessing . W e tried t o d o t h i s right from the begin­ n i ng when we were w r i t i ng the script . . . . In the end, I th in k we were rig h t in keep i ng the audi­ ence g uessi ng and leaving them to use the i r i maginations rathe r tha n spel l i ng eve rythi ng out fo r them" ( Kon 2000) . Elsewhere , Kon has exp l icitly underscored the fil m's " C h inese box construction , " stating that i ts ado ption was largely dictated by the des i re to explode some of a n i mation's most i n vete rately rooted convent ions: " For example , dream scenes have a pattern : when yo u get wavy l i nes on the scree n , i t means that you're ente r i ng a d rea m sequen ce , o r the scene sw itches [0 sep ia tones, or cream flows onto t h e [Op of the coffee , creating a whirlpoo l , or there is a close-up o f someone's eyes . B u t that k i n d of edi t i ng is [Otally boring . . . a n d I thought that it would be i nterest i ng if the v iewers did n o t im med iately grasp they were watch­ i ng a flashback o r a d rea m . Viewers a re too used to bei ng t rea ted kindly, so I 've b roke n this pat tern del iberately" ( Kon 1 9 9 8 ) . I n the evocation of M irna's fractured real i ty, Kon is ca reful [0 create a subtle balance between the i n dividual character's emotional unrest and the col lective anxieties and fea rs [0 which the yo u ng hero i ne's experiences metonym ically refe r. Among these , arrest i ng p ro m i ­ nence is acco rded [ 0 the t ra u mas spawned by pop u larity and i ts loss, the ever- present phan­ [Om o f sexual exp l o i tatio n , the th reat of I n ternet-abetted violations o f o ne's p rivacy an d i ntegrity, and the ram pant erosion o f ethical soundness . The fi l m thus stands o u t as a mas­ terfu l exploration of both personal and com muna l ordeals that a re u l t i mately i n sepa rable from the technologies - both o l d and new - that ro u tinely beget the m , a n d n o less o ften benefit ideologica l ly and fina ncially from the i r exponential propagation . The down right s p i ral t raced by M i m a's psychological j o u rney c u l m i nates w i t h the fi l m's

48

A�IME Ir-.:TERSECTIONS

cli mactic chase sequence. This yields what is simultaneo usly a memorable visual effect and a succinct s u m mary o f Perfect Blue's thematic preoccupations by displayi n g M irna's hunter both as she appears i n her own disto rted vision ( i . e . a grotesque M irna lookal i ke) a n d as she actu­ ally looks i n the empirical rea l m . At times, the two versions o f Rum i coexist in sho ts fi l med so rap idly that they appear to coalesce : most hauntingly, i n the frames where one i ncarnation o f the manic pursuer as she sprints past a series of shop w i n d ows and the alternate con fig u ra­ tion reflected i n the h ighly pol ished panes interplay as each other's specu lar complements. Devoted to the perpetuation of the topos o f i nterpenetrati n g worlds as a t i m e-ho n o red facet o f Eastern lore , Perfect Blue concomi tantly i nvokes a well-establ ished Western favorite : the C inderella topos . The main body of the action could be said to i nvert q u i te drastically the motif o f "virtue rewa rded," by depicting not the triumph o f the i nnocent and the long­ suffering but rather the degeneration of a sinless soul i nt o a state o f commodified dep rav i t y. The orthodox lesson traditional ly communicated by the Cinderel la theme is, however , rei n ­ stated - a n d i ndeed re-energized b y i t s i n fusion with topical cogency - at t h e end . I n t h e clos­ ing sequences, M irna's o rdeal is actually presented as posi tive evidence for the e n d u rance of honest , albeit misguided, conduct and intentions and, by extension , o f gen e rosi t y and sel fless­ ness . Marlow's take o n the character corroborates th is hypothesi s : "I do feel she sold out i n i ­ tially because s h e agreed t o d o thi n gs that she was n o t happy do i n g . She agreed to d o a scene [the rape one] i n the soap opera and when she went home she tore her room apart out o f anx­ iety and j ust u nhapp iness . . . . But then , I th ink thro ugh her struggle she su rvived . . . she eve n ­ tually won herself back" (Marlow) . The effective ness o f the message is fundamentally a corollary of Kon's iconoclastic take on the shoujo strand o f anime (namely, anime centred on yo ung female characters and more o r l ess expl ici tly docu menting the i r psychosexual development) . The c utesy fo rmulae of the

shoujo form are squarely t u rned on their head, as the icon o f the wide-eyed sacch arine p read­ ol escent i n frilly cloth i n g is transmu ted i nto the grotesque i mage o f a n agi n g and deranged doppelganger whose i ncongruous baby-doll costume only rei n forces her stan d i n g as the sym ­ bol of implacable malevolence . Perfect Blue, in th is perspective , const i tu tes a variation o n the Ci nderella theme of a kind that one may more read ily expect to encounter in the fi l m s o f Dario Argento, Roman Polanski o r Brian DePalma than i n a n i m e aimed a t budding females. In evaluating the fi l m's thematic topicality, it is noteworthy that Mima is an exemplary incarnation of the idoru (idol si nger or pop idol) . This term is customarily used to describe female performers i n their late teens or early twenties who rap idly achieve fame th ro ugh p u b ­ l i c i t y i n the mass media a n d the activities of fa n clubs, usually to van ish from the spotligh t i n a matter o f month s . The idoru's most cherished trait is h e r i ncarnation of an ethos o f cute­ ness deeply i ngrai ned i n Japa nese culture . The idoru phenomenon ex ploded i n the 1 9 7 0s and still characterizes contemporary Japa n ese society, even though both the working conditions and social status of the "stars" i n question have al tered over the decades, i n keep i n g w i t h b roader changes i n the domestic economy. Moreover, as Patrick D raze n h a s p o i nted o u t , i n contextualiz i n g the cultural sign i fi c ance of the Japanese idol si nger, i t is also vi tal t o app re­ ciate the cross-fertil ization o f discrete media in the enth ro n i n g and demo ting o f stars : "A n umber of pop s i n gers are also sept or voice actors . That way, if thei r latest reco rd isn't o n the charts, their voices are still before the public . If they're lucky, they'll land a role i n a TV series running twenty-six weeks or more , keep ing them b usy and fo res tall i n g the d readed day that their careers are declared over. Conversely, a dramatic vo ice role can someti m es be parlayed

Three-Perfect Blue

49

into a singing career. Seyu also become radio announcers and can even be heard lending the i r voices to computer gam es" ( D raz e n , p. 173) . I n the aforementioned Midnight Eye interview, asked whether "cri ticism" o f the "pop idol phenomenon" was one of h is "main i ntentions," Kon replied : No, th e fil m is not base d on any criti c i s m . If the audience get the i m pres s i o n from watch i n g the film that the i dol system in Japan is l i ke that, I'm embarrassed. Of course I d i d research before maki n g the film and I vis i ted a number of these i d o l events, but I d i dn't see the k i n d of example that is used in the film. Also, to reveal b e h i nd-the-scenes secrets about the e ntertainment worl d was n ever my i ntention. I s i m ­ ply wanted t o show t h e process of a young g i r l m aturing, becoming confused because h e r o l d s e t of val­ ues gets shattered, but who is reborn as a mature bei ng as a result of thar. That's what I wanted to describe. Bur because I had to stick with the i dea of an i d o l , th e film came to tal k about that particular world [Ko n 2001].

This is a realm w i t h which non-Japanese viewers may be utterly u n fa m i l i a r or only vaguely acquainted : a factor o f which Kon was well aware i n the cou rse o f the fi l m's execution . D is­ cussing Perftct Blue's reception aro u n d the world, moreover , the d i rector has j ustly noted that the movie's w ides p read appeal beyond the bou ndaries of the i ndigenous market is somewhat surprising i n the l ight of i ts cultural speci ficit y : "There are many people who don't know that the Japan ese also have a culture in which B -grade idols are m a n i p ulated . O u rs is a closed cul­ ture, and very smal l . It see med sl ightly strange to me that fo re igners could watch o u r fi l ms and find them interes ti n g , while not understandi ng the backgro und" (Kon 1 9 9 8) . Wh ile the theme o f t h e idoru may seem quintessential ly Japanes e , i n t h e con text o f P er­ ftct Blue, ir should nonetheless be noted that it is also deeply relevant to the Wes t and to West­ ern perceptions o f stardom and fandom . F u rthermore , the idoru phenomenon was i n itially a n American export t o Japan , resulting from t h e country's steady exposure to Western p o p s i n ge rs i n the 1 9 5 0s and 1960s and to all the ancil lary trapp in gs o f fam e , screa m i n g fan s i ncl uded . Wi ll iam G ibson's novel !doru (1996) provides a cogent and cultur a l l y resonant com mentary on the pop-idol trend a nd, by i m p l ication , on several interrelated aspects o f curre nt Japa nese society vis-a-vis the tw i n forces o f tradition and modernizatio n . The novel would certa i nly p rovide an inval uable compa nion for any serious Perftct Blue fan o r student . The deeply d isconcerti n g perspective articulated by Perfect Blue would soon return to haunt the anime world in the guise of the h u gely successfu l TV series Serial Experiments Lain (dir. Ryutaro Nakamura, 1 9 9 8 ) . In Nakamu ra's p rogram , the thi rteen -year-old p ro tagon ist, Iwakura Lai n , becomes i n extricably entangled with the alternate rea l i t y o f cyberspace, which she i nnocently enters upon receiving a cutting-edge computer as a p resent . G radually, the d i g­ ital matrix of vi rtual experiences and synthetic personal ities i n fi l trates the analog real i t y o f tangible people and places to t h e p o i nt that t h e barrier separati n g t h e two domains evapo­ rates altogether. As i n Perftct Blue, the crisis is dramatized through the lens o f the pro tago­ n ist's own self as an eva nescently p recarious entity. An o n l i ne s i m u l acrum of Lai n - "Wired Lai n" - emerges w i t h i n the el usive fabric of cyberspace , th row i n g the real world into chaos, causi n g the hero i ne's erstwhile fri ends to turn into lethal enem ies and i mpl icati n g h e r i nto a sprawling conspiracy. Eventually, Lain real izes that her very ident ity amollnts to a p i ece o f software a n d that i f t h e analog domain is t o be saved, s h e h a s n o c h o i c e but to w ithdraw i n to the matrix and cancel o u t all extant reco llections of her p revious worldly i n carnati o n . I n spite of the see m i ngly u n resci ndable conclusiveness o f Lai n's final move , t h e tension between the analog and the digital di mensions re m a i n s u nr esolved right through to the end o f t he

50

AN IME I NTERSECTIONS

series and beyo n d . This, as Susan J. Napier observes, is encapsulated by the show's " fi n al scene," where "the viewer finds Lain trapped i nside o f what seems to be an old-fashioned, s tatic-ridden television set" (Napier 200 5 , p. 7 8 ) . T h e s u ffocating atmosphere of psychotic d isplacement t h a t i ncreas i ngly eng u l fs Lain's "real i ty" is also ellip tically enhanced by the incorporation , as a parallel strand in the sto ry, of a sem i-realistic component in the form of a docu mentary apparently desc r i b i n g key moments i n the deve lopment o f the technolog y that wo uld eventually lead to today's com p u te r sys­ tems . These could be said to supply the histo rically recorded equivalent of Nakamura's fic tion i n thei r emphasis on the ascendancy of digital netwo rks . The examp les i nclude the "m emex , " a hypothetical analogue comp u ter theorized b y the scientist a n d engi neer Vanneva r B u s h in 1 945, and supposed to p rovide an interconnected knowledge base akin to an o n l i n e l i b rary, and the concept of "hypertext" coi ned by the philosopher and sociologist Ted Nelson i n 1 9 6 3 t o designate the orga n ization of discrete information un i ts i nto correlated " l i n ks . " A l tho ugh one m ight logically expect th is quasi-reportorial narrat ive element to alleviate the halluci na­ tory mood accompanyi ng the p rotagonist's actions, the opposite is the case : its i n fusion i nto the story actually serves to th row La i n's rampant disreal i t y into sharper a n d more p a i n fu l rel ief. Kon's interest i n anime plots that boldly challenge the med i u m's format by foregro u nd­ i n g the nebulo usness of the boundary supposedly separat i ng reality from fan tasy has fo u n d eloquent fo rmulation th roughout his career well beyond his d i recto rial deb u t . The fi l m s A1iL­ lermium Actress (2001) and Tokyo Godfothers (2003) , as well as the 13-episode TV series Pa ra ­ noia Agent (2004) , bear w i t ness to Kon's ongoing experimentation w i th c i n ematograph ical pl oys meant to blur the line between the actual and the i magi ned . In an i nterview fo r Games­ tar, the d i rector has tersely explai ned his predilection for this moti f: " I t h i n k b l u rr i n g the l i nes o f reality and fantasy is an interesting tech nique. Besides the attitude o f completely sep­ arating reality from fiction isn't a healthy way of living. In our reality, the re are many layers, and while to others i t may seem l ike a dream or fantasy, to someone else i t m i ght be n o thing less than the truth" ( Kon 2004) . Like Perftct Blue, Millennium Actress penetrates the inner, most recondite worki n gs o f the entertainment i ndustry, th is time focusing o n the art of fi l m m aki n g itself. A s i n the ear­ lier p roduction , so in the 2 0 0 1 movie , Kon j uxtaposes traditional and contemporary tech­ nologies w i th tangible gusto . The modern perspective revolves aro u nd the activities of a pair o f TV documentary m akers as they seek to commemorate the achievements o f a p restigious seventy-year-old studio i n the co urse of demo l i t ion , and specifically the history o f i ts great­ est star eve r : Chiyoko F uj iwara . The pas t , fo r its part, finds a charismatic voice in the char­ acter of the ret i red Ch iyoko , who has lived in self-imposed exi le fo r no less than th ree decades fol low ing a fo rmidable ran ge of roles i n greatly admired period sagas, melodramas, war movies and sci-fi fl icks . Japanese tradition at i ts most sumptuous comes resplendently to the fore i n Kon's stu­ dious representation of n u merous set pieces from the celeb rity's career . I ncreas i ngly, as the cinematic plot p rogresses , the individual frames come to resemble ukiyo-e (woodblock p r ints displaying "pictures of the flo ating world" or the "transient spectacle") - most n otably in the scenes from one of Chiyoko's countless period d ramas set i n a co u rtesans' house . The ves t i ­ mentary codes, accesso ries, make- up, furniture and i nterior design employed i n these scenes is especially remi n iscent of Kikumaro's works (18 00s) w ith the i r spell-bi n d i n g collusion o f

Three-Perfect Blue

51

ch romatic harmo n i es and lov i n gly executed patterns of extrao rd i n ary intricacy. At one p o i nt, in o rder to u nderscore an especially dramatic utterance, the screen eve n del ivers an a n i mated version o f the most famous ukiyo-e among Western crowds, Katsush i ka Hokusai's " B e n eath the Wave off Kanagawa" (c . 183 0 ), someti mes j ust known as " Tsu nam i . " Keen, as we have seen, t o expose the fl i msi ness o f the bou ndary p u tatively separati ng reality from fantasy, the d i rector consistently interweaves Chiyo ko's i magi nary screen embod­ i ments from different fi l m s - and hence from disparate historical eras and societal setups­ with h i nts at her personal h isto ry of unreq u i ted love . The epochs covered by the narrative encom pass a t i m e span of approximately one-tho usand years, gallo p in g from the Warring States Pe riod ( fi fteenth century) to a fu ture space age . I n the process, the action appears to Row in m u ltiple d i fferent d i rections at once . However, Millennium Actress d oes n o t merely propose an i ntrigui n gly com pressed panorama of Japanese h istory referenced by some o f its most picturesque and horrific moment s . At the same time, in fact, i t also b r i n gs forth a n alchemical distillation o f key points i n the evol ution o f Japanese cinema, ma rked by the emer­ gence o f novel styles and gen res in conjunction w i th b road socioeconomic developments . Conco m i tantly, both the actress's fi c tional personae a n d her rea l - l i fe self are constantly meshed w i th the documentarians' own perceptions o f the legendary star's p u b l i c and secret i ncarnations. They rap idly become so eng rossed in the story u n fo l d i n g befo re thei r eyes that they turn into extras acti n g w i th in C h iyoko's own narrative, w i th i n a transtemporal dimen­ sion where past and p resent blend i n m u tu a l suffusion . The di rector, who is obviously besot­ ted w i th Ch iyoko (and i ndeed has been fo r longer than even he can remember) is so utterly bedevilled by the i l l u s ion that he ends u p featur i n g in costumes and hairdos appro p riate to the periods i n wh ich particular movies are set. His ass istant cameraman, conversely, retai ns a mo re detached stance, regal ing the story w i th i ron ical and sarcastic remarks that cumu latively amount to a h i ghly entertain i n g metacomme nta ry. In spite o f the i n tense pathos exuded by most of the situations dramatized in Chiyoko's fil ms, h u morous touches are also observable throughout the story. Most remarkable, in th is respect, are the scenes i n which the di rector and camera man find themselves chas ing Ch iyoko at b reakneck speed down crowded u rban streets and country lan es, as well as across snow-swept wastelands and war- ravaged r u i n s, j ust to keep up w i th the p recip itous passage o f time. The real ity level o f the sequences i n which past and p resent, the personal and the pri­ vate, the e m p irical and the i magi n ed, insistently coalesce is no less open to i nterpretation tha n the veraci t y o f the sequences in Pe�fect Blue where M irna and Ru mi effectively merge, to the p o i nt that establish i n g w i th absol u te certainty who is do i n g what to who m becomes n o t merely an arduous b u t actually a n absurd chor e . Although Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress are generically and fo rmally very different - complying w i th, and concu rre ntly subverting, the visual rhetoric of the psychological slasher, in one case, and the formulae o f the epic love story, in the other - both fi l ms use the el aborate blurring of concrete facts and fuzzy rem i ­ n i scences t o bring forth c i n e m atic tapes tries o f exceptional poetic richness, sophisticat ion and warmth . I t must also be noted, for the sake o f comprehensiveness, that Ko n had p reviously explored the intermingl i ng of memory and reality in "Magnetic Rose, " the first segment of the th ree­ piece omnibus lvfemorics ( d i rs . Katsuh i ro Otomo, Ko uj i Morimoto and Te nsai Okamura , 1994) , which he wrote a n d Mori moto d i rected. In the piece, a gro u p o f deep-space salvagers responds to an 50S signal iss u i n g from what is believed to be a derel ict station. The s o u rce

52

AN IME I NT E RSFCTIONS

of the disturbance is located amid a "space cemetery" consist i n g of galactic detritus that exudes simultaneo usly s i n ister reverberations and an aura of ethereally lace- l i ke grace . The overall atmosphere is po ignantly enhanced by the soundtrack, an audito ry collage o f Pucc i n i arias (particularly from lvfadame Butterfly) created by one o f the most i n s p i red composers on the contemporary anime sce n e , Yoko Anno . The ani mation's stunn i n g fusion of th is musical back­ drop and an overwhel m i n g sense o f cosmic i n fi n ity, moreover, is redo l e nt of Stanley Kubrick's class ic 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Upon thei r arrival at the appoi nted desti nation , the salvagemen discover a n uncannily elegant palace cons isting excl usively of holographic images and special effects generated through nanotech n ology. This m agical world turns out to be the p roduct o f the memo ries o f a fo r­ gotten opera diva, so magnetically powerful as to ap pear endowed with a b reath i n g , p a l p i ­ tati n g l i fe o f the i r o w n even though they a r e cons u m mately v i rtual . The b l u r r i n g o f t h e boundaries p utatively separating reality from fantasy, present occu rrences from rem i n iscences, and tangible bodies from the i r electronic simulations reaches its c l i m ax as the rescuers become utterly engulfed in the defu nct primadonna's del usional web, unable to reent e r the real world hence they cam e . "Magnetic Rose" echoes Perfect Blue in its unsentimental exposure o f the ephemerality of celebrity and of the insane lengths to which fame's worsh i p pers a re p repared to go i n order to keep its treacherous phantoms al ive . Tokyo Godfothers perpetuates Kon's commi tment to the exploration o f the p uzz l i n g rela­ tionsh i p between fact and fantasy, wh ile simultaneo usly ushering i n a h i ghly refined i n tegra­ tion of lov i n gly hand-crafted cels and sl ick CGl . Weav ing together elements o f Ch a p l i nesque humor and D ickensian realism thro ugh the characters of the cyn ical alcoho l i c Gin, the ex­ drag queen Hana and the runaway teenager Miyuki , the film echoes Perfect Blue in its fa ith­ ful capture o f human mo tivations and of both thei r noble and the i r despicable consequences . The personae themselves are made aesthetically i ntrigui n g by the i r com b i nation of attributes so stylized as to verge o n the caricatural and acting skills so refined as to match those of l ive­ action dramatic pe rfo rmers o f acclaimed thespian caliber. Like Perfect Blue, moreover , Tokyo Godfathers articulates themes that few audie nces wo uld associate w i t h the m e d i u m o f a n i ma­ tion - Japanese o r otherwise . Playfully commenti n g on his p roclivity towa rds u n conventional choices , Kon h i mself has remarked : "] like using ideas others i n my field wo u l d n't even take notice o f. ] thi n k Tokyo Godfothers is a good exam ple o f this. The i n s p i ration fo r Tokyo God­

fothers came from the idea o f ' finding a baby in a trash dum pster . ' ' Trash' mea n i n g i deas that others i n my industry have considered trash . From this trash dumpster o f ideas ] retri eve what ] consider fascinating. I thi n k of it i n this way" (Kon 2004) . An analogous agenda underpins Paranoia Agent, a series written and d i rected by Kon largely out o f a des i re to make use of ideas he had conceived o f i n the creation o f Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers but left u nused . The show del ivers vi nt a ge Kon a n i m e i n t h e guise of a dynamically ornate cinematographical tapestry where i n a freakish cast o f char­ acters is bound together by an omi nous th read : they all , at some p o i n t , get whacked on the head by a mysterious elementary school kid known as "Lil' Sl ugge r , " who is eq u i pped w ith a bent baseball bat a n d golden rollerblades . The y o u n g cri m i n al's motivations re m a i n i nscrutable for most o f the act ion , inviting the audience t o wonder whether he is a n act u al kid, a malevolent spectre or a cover fo r other people's cri mes . These doubts conj u re u p a mounting sense of paranoia not only among the dramatis person ae b u t also among v iewers : there is someth i n g gen ui nely creepy abo ut the notion of a latently omn i p resent force about

Three

-

Perfect Blue

53

to sneak o u t of the dark to take a sw i n g at the next p rey. Conco m i tantly, Paranoia Agent com ­ ments on t h e rampant erosion o f b o t h personal and collective identities w i th i n postcapi talist dispensat i o n s . A pervasive atmosphere o f anom ie is effectively com m u n icated by the first episode's open ing sequence , a styl ishly constructed visual crescendo where i n the entire social fabric a ppears dom i nated by the insidious tyranny of the mobile phone . Lil' S l u gger's victims vividly recall Perfect Blue's main characters i n v i rtue of the i r duplicito u s p e rsonali t i e s : tho ugh seem i n gly wel l-adj usted, they are all hau nted by disturb i n g secrets and fea rs . The first vic­ tim, designer Tsukiko S ag i , is a clear case i n point : the creator of the enormously popular cuddly toy Maro m i , she is u nder u nbearable p ress u re to come u p w i t h a n o ther b i g hit, as well as the target o f malicious backstabbing. The character o f Yu i c h i Tai ra is l i kew ise divided : the perfect-student fa�ade eas i ly cracks when i t is suspected that he m i gh t be the attacker. The oste nsibly i rreproachable yo uth now starts believing that everybody is out to get h i m . It is very temp ting, as the story u n folds, to s u rm ise that Lil' S l u gger is an agency that the affi icted characters themselves i n adve rtently summon from the most tenebrous depths o f thei r own hearts : "When the darkness overcomes the heart ," the tagli n e warns, " L i l ' S l ugger appears . "

FOUR Neon Genesis Evangelion Autonomy and dependence are like light and shade, callght in the pull of etlch other's gravity, IIntil, after considerable trial and error, each individual can find his or her OWII place in the world .... Now a narrative is a story, IlOt logic, 1I0r ethics, nor philosophy. It is a dream you keep having, whetheryotl realize it or 110t. Just as surely as you breathe, you go on ceaselessly dreaming yollr story. And in these stories YOll wear two faces. You are simultaneous�y subject and ob;ect. You are a whole and you are a part. Yoll are real and you are shadow. "Storyteller" and at the same time ''charac­ ter." It is through sllch multilayering of roles in our stories that we held the loneliness of being an i.wlated indil,idllal in the world. - Haruki Murakami Man fiars the darkness and so he scrapes aWilY ilt the edges of it with fire. - Rei Ayanami, Neoll Genesis Evangelion TV Series, Episode II

The o riginal t itle fo r the series, ShillSeiki EvangeLion, is composed of two parts : the Japa­ nese compound Shinseiki, which means "new era" o r "new generat ion, " and the G reek word EvangeLion, which l iterally means "good news" (from eu "good" + angelein "to ann o unce" ; cf. angelos "messenger") and has subsequently come to also mean "gospel . " The English t itle Neon Genesis EvangeLion, o riginally chosen by Gainax , consists o f the Greek wo rds neon, the neuter form of the word neos ( "new" or "yo ung" ) , genesis ( "origin , " "so u rce" o r " b i rth , race") and evangelion. I n spite of a n un usually generous b u dget fo r a television show, towards the end o f t h e r u n its c h i e f di rector, Hi deaki Anno, was left w it h ins ufficient funds to shoot h is o rigin a l scri p t for Ep isode 2 5 an d Episode 26, t h e fin al installments . A s a res u lt , he o pted for an altern at ive characterized by a perplexingly unsett led endin g . T h o u gh cherished by n um e r­ ous fans , t h i s left others fee l in g dissat isfied (and, in some rather seve re instances, m u rder­ ous) . The di rector, the refo re , resolved to create an Original Video An i m at i on intended to replace the final TV episodes, ut i l izing an amended script based on h is origin al . Eventual ly, due to Evangelion's sensat ional success as a TV series, a consort i u m of Japanese corporat ions fund ed Anno's p roject so b o unteously that the o utcome was not an OVA b ut two featu re­ lengt h movies . The films Death & Rebirth and The End of Evangelion were both released in 1 9 9 7. The fi rst com p r ises two rel at ively discrete sections: the Death segment (w rit ten by Anno a n d di rected by Masayuki) , an i m aginatively reconstructed com posite o f vario u s key moments from Ep isodes 1-24 of the TV series (and also peppered with tangential a l l u s ions to Episode =

=

=

=

=

54

Four-Neon Genesis Evangclion

55

2 5 and Episode 26) contai n i n g approxim ately twenty m i n u tes o f totally n e w footage; the Rebirth segm e n t , consisting of wholly new footage to be reproposed as the first thirty m i n ­ utes of t h e fi l m The End of Elltlngelion. The End ofEva ngelio n is an entirely novel development of the story's e n d i n g , o ffering an alternate concl usion to the one provided by the last two i n stal l ments o f the TV show. The film i tself is divided i nto two segments ent i tled Episode 25' , "Ai r , " (written by Anno and di rected by Kazuya Ts u ru m aki) and Episode 2 6 ' , " S i ncerely Yours/My P u re Heart for Yo u , " (both written and di rected b y Anno) . Several highly edi ted frames from b o t h t h e T V series and Death are also i nclu ded . (Rel'il'al of Evangelion was released i n Japan in 1 9 9 8 and con­ tains a different edit of the original Death fi l m , as wel l as the episodes that form The End of Evangelion.) In both the U . K. and the U . S . , the series has been distribu ted by ADV F i l m s a n d t h e feature-length mov ies Death & Rebirth a n d The End of Evangelion b y Manga Enter­ ta i n m e nt , rap idly gai n ing an enth usiastic fo llowin g . In 2004, ADV Films released two addi ­ tional DVDs, Resurrection and Genesis Reborn, encompassi n g the di recto rs' cuts o f Ep isodes 2 1-23 and Episodes 24-2 6 of the TV series respectively. The kale idoscopic u n iverse of Neo ll Genesis Evangelion u n assum i ngly started l i fe as a reg­ ular 26-episode TV series (4 October 1995-27 March 1 9 9 6) , based o n the well - tested a n i m e fo rmula of a post-apocalyptic Earth laboring under t h e menace o f prodigious n o n - h u m a n entities a n d depl oyi n g g i a n t biomechanoids piloted b y ado lescents i n i ts defense . However , the early episodes bel ie t h e actual nature of Evangelioll. Initially masqueradi n g a s an i nnocent addition to the classic giant - robot (mecha) genr e , replete with action-packed sequences, the series i ncrem entally metamo rphosed i nt o a darkly though tfu l exploration o f the h u man con­ dition featur i n g some of the most convo l u ted personali ties ever com m i tted to fi l m (ani m ated or otherw ise) , and req u i r i n g the audience itself to ponder the u l t i mate and most i ntractab le question : what i t means to be human and to l ive as a h u man vis-a. - v is o neself and other peo­ ple. Hence, the show rapidly asserted itself as a h ighly original , thought-provoking and for­ mally adventu rous avant-garde enterprise, whereby the aforementioned fo rmula receded to the ro le of a purely di egetic underpi nn ing. Priority was accorded i nstead to the scrutiny o f a p rism atic va riety o f personal and coll ective ordea ls, i nvested with both afFective and ideolog­ ical imp lications, by means o f u northodox compositional p rocedures, open-ended plot th reads and i ntrepid cinematography. The b u l k of the story takes p lace in the year 2 0 15 , fi fteen yea rs a ft e r the " S eco n d Impact" - a calam ity o f horrendous proportions p ut a tively caused b y a meteor strike b u t actu­ ally triggered by human h u b ris - has melted the Antarctic ice cap, tilted the p l a n et's axis and wiped out half o f the Earth's popu lation. Just as h u m ans are tentatively begi nn i n g to recover from this catastrophe , they are b l igh ted by a novel scou rge : the advent of po lymo rphous and extremely belligerent b iomechanoids known s i m p ly as the "An gels . " Convent ional weapons are utterly useless against these phenomenal i nvade rs , and the sole available defense against them consists o f a f u rther breed of biomechanical crea tu res , the Evangelions or Evas, pro­ duced by the parami l i tary o rganization NERV (the German word for "ne rve") , and pi loted exclusively by selected ado lescents born after the Second 1m pac t . As the series u n folds, the actual calise of the disaster turns out to lie wi th the grandiose evolut ionary schemes p romo ted by the mysterious o rga nization S EEL E (the German wo rd for "so u l " ) . The principal character o f El'angelion is S h i nji I kari (the " T h i rd Child"] and t h e p i l o t o f EVA-Ol) , a t i m i d and s u l len teenager w h o l o s t his mother Yu i w h e n he w a s merely a tod-

56

ANIME I NTERSECTIONS

dler - as she w i l l i ngly acted as the test subj ect in an Eva-related experiment that c u l m inated with her entire being's absorption i nto EVA-Ol . Shinj i is starkly neglected by h i s father, G e n ­ dou, t h e NERV commander, until t h e latter discovers his son's usefu l n ess a s an Eva p i l o t . Shinj i's fel low p i l o ts a r e Rei Ayanami ( t h e " F i rst C h i l d " and the p i l o t o f EVA-DO) , a taciturn and apparently u n emotional g i rl whose past is shrouded i n mystery (i n o rder ro conceal her bio-engineered nature as a Yu i I kari clone) , and Asuka Langley S o h ryu (the " Secon d Child" and the p i l o t of EVA-02) , a hot-blooded and see m i n gly arrogant girl hau nted by m e m ories of her mother's suicide. Altho ugh this hypothesis is never conclusively con fi rmed, i t is l i kely that M rs . Soh ryu's i nsan i ty and resul ting self-destruction were also the res u l t o f an Eva-based experi ment. Later developments w i l l suggest that As uka's mother's soul was sucked i nto EVA02 as this was being constructed . Other key roles are played by NERV's head o f tactics, M i s ­ a t o Katsuragi , by NERV's head scientist, Ritsuko Akagi , by the latter's ge n i us m o t h e r , Naoko, by the charismatic spy Kaj i and by Gendo u's adviser, Professor Fuyu tsuki . Despite their surface differences and often excep tional capabi l ities, a l l o f the p ri n c i pal characters are socially maladj usted and burdened by a grievo us i n heritance o f loss a n d neg­ lect that renders them respectable and objectionable by turns. (Detailed portraits of Evange­ lion's cha racters - including the Evas and the Angels - are ava i l ab l e o n n u merous fan s ites and official movie s ites. As potential com panions to this study, the most h el p fu l are fel t to be the Evangelion portion of the Anirne A rchive; the Evangelion character pages o n Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia; and the official Death & Rebirth and The End of Evangelion o n l i n e h o m es . URLs are p rovided i n this hook's bibl iography. ) Add itionally, i n i ts treatment of metaphysical and ethical p reoccupations s u rrou n d i n g t h e nature of good and ev i l , Evangelion resol utely eschews any s i m p l istic dichotom ies b y allud­ i n g to deep -seated a ffi n i ties that ultimately bring the adversarial parties together despite t h e i r apparently i rreco n c ilable differences . A n n o irreverently chal l e n ges the p rerogatives of anthro­ pocentric h u m a n is m by i ntimating that mankind and the Angels are n o t q u i te as dissi m i l a r a s one may at first have heen l e d to believe . I n fact , b o t h belong to an overarch ing category design ated s i m p ly as " h umans"; the Angels are the h u man children born o f the "first Angel , " Adam , w h i l e t h e " L i l im" ( n amely man kind) are t h e h u man ch i ldren b o r n o f t h e "secon d Angel ," Lilith . Furthermore, hav i n g subj ected the l ifel ess body of the fo urth Angel to thorough i nves­ tigation after its defeat by S h i n j i in Episode 3 , "A Transfer/The Phone that Never Ri ngs," the N ERV scientists make some astonish i ng discoveries abo u t the enemy's makeup. As Ritsuko reveals to Misato and S h i nj i i n Episode 5, " Rei , Beyo nd her Heart/Rei I , " a l though com posed of a different form of matte r , the Angels' "actual composition in terms o f the arrangement and coord i nates of the pattern is a 99.89% match to o u rs . " I n Episode 7, " The Iluman C re­ ation / A H u m a n Work," Ritsuko gets even closer to revealing some unsettli n g truths as she explains that the Seco nd I m pact was not instigated by a meteor b u t by m a n ki nd's contact with the first Angel , resulting i n the enti ty's fateful explosio n . She then avers that NERV exists i n order to p revent a probable "Thi rd I m pact" from occurring. As i t t urns o u t , both NERV and SE EL E are i n fact planning a Third I mpact in thei r separate ways . I n addition , even though the Evas are deployed in order to vanquish the Ange l i c e n e m y, they ironically turn o u t to have been fash ioned on the basis o f the physical model s u p p l i ed by Adam h i mself. Concu rrently, the Evas have much more in common with the m u rky car­ nality and brute matter of the organic world, and hence of mankind i n its e nt i rety, than w i th

Fo ur-Neon Genesis Evangelion

57

the gleam i n g s u rfaces and u tterly sterile cores of conventional giant robots . Wen dy Go ldberg has v iv idly described the c l imax of Episode 19, "A Man's F ightlInt rojection , " as a p a rticularly shockin g instance of the Eva's a n i m al istic drives : "The Eva moves o n fo u r legs . . . a n d crawl­ walks over to the fallen figure o f h is enemy. Holding the head down , he begins to tear at the creatu re w ith his mouth . . . . We see the Eva from a shadowy distance; h e looks up a t us, h is eyes glowing l i ke an a n imal in the dark . Victory is no longer the clean , unam biguous posi­ tion i n the conventional mecha gen re" (Goldberg) . (While G o l dberg refers to the Eva as mas­ cul i n e , some critics - and characters i n the saga - use fem i n i ne p ron o u n s . Others o p t for the neuter, which is the gender adopted i n this study.) The s i m u l ta n eo usly fascinating and repulsive appearance evi n ced by the Eva U n i ts is a logical ou tcome o f mecha des igner I kuto Yamash ita's original concept , as described i n the fol ­ lowing passage : "The d i rector instructed me t o m ake , "the i m age of a demon . " A giant j ust barely under the control of mankind . . . . The image I had for the design concept was the fa i ry tale, Gulliver's Travels. E n o rmous Power Restrained . . . . What I came u p w i t h was a giant that looks l i ke a relief on a wal l " (Yamash ita, 1.). Numerous works included i n the Evangelion artbooks bear w itness to bot h the text u ral , structural and chromatic sump tuousness of the Evas' physiques, and the hypnotic magnetism of their all-too -human expressions. The color p lates i n Die Sterne a n d Der Mond are espe­ cially notable, i n this regard . The pencil sketches and CG draw i n gs deta i l i n g myriad facets of both the Evas' bodies and the vast arsenal at their and NERV's disposal are no less worthy of consideration : the Groundwork of Evangelion volu mes are veritable gold m i nes of graphic and tech n ical i n formation on the saga's mecha di mension (as well as cou ntless other aspects o f i ts d isti n ctive aesthetics) . Readers are also advised to consult the art appendices to the " Newtype F i l m B o oks" devoted to both the series and the features . Evangelion o ffers an u n p recedentedly complex o rchestration o f the i nterplay o f the tra­ d itional and the new at both the thematic and the tech n ical l evels . O n the thematic p l a n e , Evangelion evi nces an allegiance t o Japanese tradition i n its engagement w i t h issues o f l oy­ alty, gro up affil iation , i ntersubjective responsibility and the dangers i n he rent in the exercise of p rivate self-advancing schemes. S h i nj i's, Asu ka's and Rei's incli nation to conceive o f their very identit ies as i n extricable from their "jobs" as Eva p i l ots ful ly attests to the p ivotal role played by the traditional principle o f steadfast allegiance to one's duties throughout the sto ry. Concur rently, the saga reflects on the role of the family and on the d i re repercussions of the dereliction of pare ntal d ut y. The generational conflicts assiduously and uncompromisingly dramatized by Evangelion do not only pertain to the p rivate sphere- axial as they indubitably are to the characterization of Shinj i's, Asuka's, M isato's and Ritsuko's respective relationships with varyi ngly rem iss parents . I n fact , they simultaneously strike broadly cultural chords, i nsofar as Evangelion i s also eager t o doc­ ument the generational connotations of Japan's social and economic modernization in the after­ math of the Second World War. Accordi ng to one of the saga's most distinguished critics, D en n is Redmond, "The 'old men' o f S EELE represent the deeply conservative , i m mediate post-war gen ­ eration; Gendou Ikari a n d Fuyutsuki h a i l from the technocratic generation o f t h e 1970s; M isato and the other NERV staffers rep resent the consumer-oriented 1 9 80s; while the children them­ selves incarnate the informatic 1990s (only fourteen -year-old children have the neural flexibility to pilot the Evas, a canny reference to the ability of the Nintendo kids to meld with a given tech­ nology far faster than any adult)" (Redmond, p. 2 1 0 ) .

58

AN IME I NTERSECTIONS

The traditional element is also vividly encapsulated by the fi l m s' co n s istent em phasis on the aliveness o f the entire environment in a fash ion redolent of S h into mythology. The saga contains n u merous allusions to S h i nto's sacred texts: the Kojiki (or Fu rukotofumi, 6 8 2-712) , the oldest exta nt text documenting Japan's proto-history and i ts u nderlyi n g creation myths, and the Nihongi (720) , the second oldest record of Japan's myth ical p as t . Exp l i c i t refe re n ce is specifically m ade to the legend contained i n the Nihongi acco rd i n g to which the cosmos i n itially cons isted o f a n amorphous b l o b and subsequ ently d iv i ded into discrete regi o n s : " Heaven a n d Earth were n o t yet separated . . . . T h ey formed a chao tic mass l i ke a n egg which was of obscu rely defined l i m i ts . . . . The purer and cleaner part was t h i n ly drawn o u t , and fo rmed Heave n , while the heavier and grosser element settled down and became Earth . . . . Thereafter divine beings were produced between them" (The Nihongi, Book 1: The Age of the Gods) . Anno's own cosmogony is di rectly i nformed by this ancient fab l e . Fu rther all u s io n s to th is discou rse i nclude im ages centered on the myths of a pri mordial cos m i c soup , the B lack and White Moons, the Spear of Des t i ny (namely the lance by means of which the S h i nto deities lzanagi and Izanami are said to have created the Earth) and the i n d i genous pantheon : the S u n goddess Amaterasu (el l i ptically associated w i th the u n fathomable Rei ) , the goddess o f Joy Uzume (i ronically connected w i th the ebullient As uka) and the Storm god Susanoo (comparable to S h i n j i i n v i rtue of his unsociable behavior) . I n acknowledgi n g Evangelion's specifically Japanese legacy, it also seems worth pointing o u t that the native word used to des­ ignate the Angels is not " tenshi" (the li teral transl ation of "angel") b u t "shito, "messenger" : the use o f this term is entirely congruous with the titu lar connotations d iscussed i n the o p e n ­ ing segment of this chapter. Wes tern traditions also come prominently i nto play alongside native lore, w i th a distinct p reponderance o f Ch ristian motifs . Visual allusions to the Cross abound t h ro ughout the saga , and range from spectacular rep resentations of gigantic beams shooti n g u p to the heavens a n d across t h e u rban g r i d to p rosaically unobtrusive o rnamental details and accesso ries . Along­ side spectacular visual h i nts at the Crucifixion , Evangelion featu res sustain ed refe rences to the aforementioned Ada m (described as the first " h uman" i n the Judea-Christian tradition) a n d Lilith ( i ntroduced a s Adam's fi r s t wife); t o Eve (called "Eva" in several languages); to the Lance of Long in us (the spear said to have been thrust by a Ro man soldier i nto the crucified Ch rist); to the Dead Sea S crolls (a collection of about 850 documents p roduced over 2 , 000 years i n a variety o f media - parch ment, copper, papyrus, etc . - a n d discovered between 1 9 4 7 a n d 1 956 on t h e no rth west shore of t h e D ead Sea); a n d t o t h e Sephiroth - t h e Kabbal istic Tree of L i fe dep icting the ten creative emanations of the divine principle that intervene between God and the u n iverse . Evangelion's i nvocation o f numerous religious and mythic motifs by means of cryptic allusions to sou rces as varied as the Kojiki and the Kabbalah constitutes one o f i ts most con­ spicuous characteristics . I t is notewo rthy, however , that even though these thematic motifs are drawn from both Japanese and Judeo -Christian frames of reference and the latter discou rse often appears to have been accorded a central position , the Eastern dimension is ulti mately a more vitally susta i n i n g source of inspiration , and the Western baggage fundamentally fu n c­ tions as a narrative and iconological enhancer. Furthermore , Evangelion is no p rosely t i z i n g chunk of catechism - i n fac t , there is every chance that very devout Jews and Christians would regard its use of i m agery drawn from thei r texts as rather unorthodox . This is q u i te a ref resh­ ing message i n a world as o ften driven by evangelical bigotry as the contempo rary one i s . Asked

rOllr-Ncon Gcnesis Evangelioll

59

to comment on Evangelion's B i b l ical symbol ism , Ends co -director Tsuru mak i has explicitly underscored the playfully uti l itarian character of its employme nt : "There are a lot o f giant robot shows i n Japa n , and we did want o u r story to have a religious theme to help dist i n ­ guish us. B eca use Christ i an ity is an uncommon rel igion i n Japan w e thought i t w o u l d be mys­ terious .... There is no actual Ch ristian mean ing to the show" (Tsurumaki). Wh i l e emb rac i n g the notion o f tradi t ion at the afo re m e ntioned l evels, Euangelion s i m u l ­ taneously makes s ustai n ed reference to b road cultural and pol itical o rdeal s . T h e s e themes eloquently test i fy t o t h e decidedly top ical and macrocosm ic a m p l itude o f the a ffl i ct i o n s i t dramatizes. Cons p i racies, h idden agendas, draggi ng bu reaucratic p rotocols a n d govern­ ment cover-ups designed to sanitize the reasons and effects o f devastat i n g confrontations cast ominous shadows u p o n each and eve ry t u rn of the saga's m u lt i-laye red p l ot. T hese are ren ­ dered especially dist u r b i n g b y their method ical i ntegration w ith utterly uncom p ro m i s i n g dep ictions o f outbu rsts o f anxiety and pan i c , o n t h e one h a n d , a n d w ith deliciously i ncon­ gruous descri pt ive tou ches, such as the pet pengu i n that takes h is naps in M isato's spare freezer. It is t h i s deft ama lgamat i o n of d ive rse narrative and c i n e m at i c i n gredi e nts t h at cumulat ively enables the saga to reach fa r beyond the domai n o f soap o p e ra frequently occu­ p ied by its generic relations and well i nto the realms o f aesthet i c elegance and eth ical den­ sity. Evangelion concomitantly adopts a saliently modern perspective i n its t reat m e nt o f h is­ torical crisi s : it is vital to acknowledge , i n t h i s rega rd, that the anxieties u nderlyi n g Ann o's work l a rgely e m a n ate from c u ltu rally specific v i c i s s it u d es affect i n g J a p a n i n the early and mid-1 9 9 0 s - n amely, the b u rsti n g o f the economic " b u bble , " the Aum S h i n ri kyo ter­ ro rist attack2 and the Kobe earthq uake. At the same t im e , the image o f the Tokyo- 3 sky­ scrapers e m e rgi n g fro m t h e i r u n dergro u n d shelter at s u nset could be read as a n allego rical reference to the p rocesses o f ceaseless demol ition and reb u i l d i n g , fuelled by the imperatives of a ruthless construction state, that has characterized vital mome nts o f To kyo's actual h i s ­ to ry. M i ck Broderick has hel p fu l l y summa ri zed El'angelion 's overarc h i n g s o c i o - h i storical d imens ion as fo llows : "The h istory and origins o f Japanese post-war a n i me are i n extricably l i n ked w ith both secula r a n d sacred renderi ngs of eschaton . . . . Neon Genesis Evangelion seems to re-vision the rad ical a n d evo l utionary transformat i o n s of Japa nese societ y d u r i n g the p ast two generations, recast i n g contemporary ruptures in its narrative as h isto rical p redict i o n" (Broderick). At the same t i m e , h owever , the story's postapocalyptic p reoccupations make it concu rrently relevant to d iverse m i l ieux across the e nt i re map of o u r fe rocio usly ab used planet. Furth ermore , Evangelion 's insi ghtful treat m e nt o f t ro u bled i ndividual psyches, o n the one hand, and of n o less tormented societ i es, on the othe r , is o f equal resonance in a w ide ra nge of societal set u ps. The cri p p l i n g anx iet ies e n d ur e d by the i n d ividuals and the societ ies depicted in the Evangelion productions i n deed capture a truly gl obal n ot i o n o f "civil izat i o n a n d i t s discontents , " as t h e title o f one o f S i g m u n d Freud's most sem i n a l texts famo usly p uts It. Thro ughout the TV series, Anno and h is collaborato rs st ress t h at the problems faced by their characters at both the affective and political levels ste m fro m one card i n al cause : they are all unabl e , in various ways , to sever themselves from the i r chi ldhood experiences o f rejec­ tion and loss. This i n abil ity to access su ccessfully the ad u lt domain entails that the affected characters do not hold a shared and p u b l i cly recogn i zed language through which they may at

60

AN I � E i :-.lTERSECTIONS

least identify and name what they have lost , and are therefore i ncapable of mo u r n i n g the lost object thro ugh ratified signs and sym bols . I n fact, they pathetically grieve over a lack that can be neither expressed nor symbol ized . I ncapable of encoding thei r anguish , Anno's personae one by one retreat into silently private crypts of pai n . I n t h e p rovisional ending suppl ied b y the TV show w i t h Episode 2 5 ( " T he E n d o f the World/Do Yo u Love Me?") and Episode 26 (" The B east that S h o u ted ' I ' at the Heart o f the World/ F i nale : Take Care o f Yo u rsel f") , we are given a series of v ignettes o f the p r i n c i p a l char­ acters, set i n a dimly lit and sparsely fu rnished room and i ntercut with flashbacks, flashfc)f ­ wards a n d stylized representations of their subl i m i nal fantasies a n d fears i n t h e forms o f l i n e draw i ngs, abstract pictures a n d photographs. A s the animation breaks down , t h e giant-robot genre dismantles i tsel f drastically. As S usan J . Napier comments, "The alienation of the char­ acters, especially that o f S h i nj i , is spectacularly apparent i n the p uzzl i n g and gen u i n ely sub­ versive final e p isode, a grand finale in which, bizarrely for a work i n the mecha gen r e , n o t a s i n gle mecha is shown" (Nap ier 2 00 1 , p. 1 0 1 ). Episode 2 6 delves further into the characters' m i nds, i ntimating w ith increas i n g u rgen cy that they w i l l know no peace until they can come to terms with their inters u bjective connec­ tions . In the episode's cli max , the ani mation plu nges into Becketti a n m i n i m a l is m , tec h n ically embraci ng both the trad i tional Japanese penchant fo r stylization and innovative digital meth­ ods for choreogra p h i n g s i m ple l i n es with unparalleled flu idity. S h i nj i is translated i nt o a bla­ tantly two-dimens ional l i n e draw i n g of hi mself, proteanly metamorphos i n g fro m o n e fra m e t o t h e next t o reflect other people's discorda nt percep tions of h is personali ty. T h e s h a p e i s t h e n flung i nto a vo id where i n finite possibilities seem availabl e . T h i s sequence amo unts to an utterly unsentimental deconstruction o f S h i nj i 's psyche i n wh ich , a s M i ke C randol poi nts o u t , the exposure of i nternal affiictions a t the thematic level is aptly complemented by the ani mational style at the level o f tech n ique i n what u nquestion­ ably constitut es Evangelion's "boldest artistic endeavo r" : " F u l l a n i m ation regresses to story­ boards that in tu rn give way to a bl ack-and-white scribble of S h i nj i floati n g in a wh i te void. (The effect is not u n like the classic Chuck Jones' Looney Tu ne D uck Amuck , i n w h ich Daffy D uck fi nds h is cartoon un iverse deconstru cted by an u nseen a n i m ator)" (Crando\) . T h e episode's deconstruct ive proclivities are fu rther confirmed by i ts consistent e m p l oy­ ment of discordant visuals that appear to i nterrogate their own val idity at each t u r n . T hese i nclude elaborate col l ages o f shots from other ep isodes in the series, i nterspersed with mono­ chromatic stills captu ring key moments i n the saga , black-and-whi te photogra p h s fro m the actual wo rld, kaleidosco pic sl ivers of co lor and elusive fl icke rs of l i gh t . What the clos i n g i nstal lments of t h e show sugges t , through these audacious com positional strategies, is t h a t the solipsistic prison i nto which v i rtually all the characters are trapped m ay only be set aside when a person accepts - as Rei p u ts it - that "yo u ca nnot be yo u rs e l f w i t h o u t the presence of oth­ ers . " T h i s entails the ach ievement not only of an understanding of the val ue o f interaction and o f the mechanisms that make i t possible but also, more crucially s t i l l , o f an abi l i t y to con ceive i magi natively of alternative worlds : precisely what Anno, his team , and u l t imately all ani mators are com m i tted to accomplish . The closi ng part o f Episode 26 of the TV series, mo reover, overtly p ro poses that self­ knowledge i m p lies a preparedness to open up commodiously to the poss i b i l i t y that o n e's so­ called "reality" may merely represent a d i m i n u tive facet of a vast galaxy o f other conceivable realities. This thesis is uncharacteristically developed to comedic extremes as S h i nj i is rrans-

FOllr-Neon G e nesis Evangelion

61

ported to a s i t-com type o f fam ily and neighborhood filled with cliched slapstick, common­ place concerns and not the slightest h i nt at the l i kes of Angels a n d Evas . This alternate end­ i n g is fu ndamentally a corollary o f S h i nj i's eventual realization that h is identity as an Eva p il o t is only one possible narrative in w h i c h his existence m a y be couched, and by no m e a n s t h e s o l e defi n i n g factor of h is entire being. Following this discovery, l i fe becomes someth i n g o f a stage upon which both confl icting and complementary narratives can be e nacted . I n the clos­ ing segment of the series, S h i nj i does not rei nvent h imself from scratch . Rather, as Goldberg p u ts i t , he s i m p ly "tells a happier story - this time casting h imself i n another conventional anime genre , the teen comedy, where he has the perfect fam i ly l i fe and sex u a l i t y is 'norma l ­ ized' ( i n t h e s e n s e t h a t u nknowability is exciting, not necessarily alienat i n g ) . H e d iscovers that there is a certai n pleasure i n discovering a new person and her identity. . . . Rei becomes a typical , bubble-headed, late-for-class new student at h is school i nstead o f h e r usual coo! , ego ­ l ess self" (Goldberg ) . A j oke a t S h i n j i 's expense , this comedic fi nale i s a n apt commentary o n the character's psychological development but also, no less significantly, on the degrees of depth o r su perficial­ ity to which the art of anime may o p t to asp i re . Any top i c , Anno here i n t i m ates, m ay o ffer t h e raw materials fo r either a tragedy or a farce or i ndeed both i n the hands o f an i n s p i red artist . I t is by capitalizing on this premise w i th unp recedented temerity that Evangelion has stretched the l i m i ts of what the ani mated fi l m co uld ever hope to convey, o ffering at once a masterfully execu ted sci-fi action adventure , a revisionist sat i re o f that same ge n re , a B i l ­ dungs roman , and a dispassionate study of t h e i ncidence of i nsecurity a n d loneliness. I n the p rocess, the series a nd the featu res alike have left an i n del ible m a rk o n the a n i m e industry i n i ts enti ret y. Where techn iques are concerned, the saga is staunchly com m itted to the perfection o f hand-drawn graphics t h a t are capable of evoking a realistically m u l t i - faceted u n ivers e , w h i l e simultaneously perpetuating t h e Japanese p reference for stylization by recou rse to p o i gnantly econom ical visual symbo l s . Yosh iyuki Sadamoto's designs, moreover , ev i n ce a n uncanny abi l ­ ity t o grasp t h e subtlest n u ances o f t h e various characters' personalities, prov i d i ng clues t o the i r plausible attitudes and conduct i n si tuations other than those exp l i c i tly d ra m atized b y t h e series a n d movies . They t h u s emulate, at t h e l evel of character design , t h e ach ievements of "method" actors in the realm of theatrical performance . I magi n i n g the dramatis personae i n roles and contexts external to the logic o f the saga enables the character designer to b u i ld up satisfyi ngly m u l t i faceted and conv i n c i n g perso n ­ alities . B o t h Die Sterne a n d Der Mond offer n u m erous examples of Sadamo to's knack of plac­ i n g the characters i n a variety o f alternate realities. The i mages are, at ti mes, so starkly in cont rast with the nature o f the characters as one has com e to know them t h ro ugh the a n i ­ methat they m a y w e l l b r i n g a s m i l e o f amusement to t h e viewer's face . Visions o f Rei a n d S h i n j i i n formal eve n i n g wear; of bo isterous playgrou n d p ranks centred o n Asu ka; o f S uper­ D eformed versions o f the main personae; of Misato playfully c l i m b i n g a Honda b ike; and of Rei and Asu ka affectionately i nteracti n g with each other, for i nstance , are so glorio usly "out of cha racter" as to verge on the h i lario u s . However , such i m ages a re perfectly consonan t , philosoph ically speaki n g , w i t h t h e existential message conveyed by b o t h t h e closing portion of Episode 26 o f the show and End of Evangelion, where i t is p roposed that the world is what one contingently m a kes of i t - and that the coexistence of confl icti n g , parallel visions of one's rea l i t y is not necessa rily q u i te as p reposterous a scenario as one might at first suspect .5 Fur-

62

AN I M E ] ;\fTERSECT I O N S

thermore, Sadamo to's character designs are harmon iously integrated w ith Yam ashita's mecha n ­ i c a l desig n s . A s Redmond h a s noted, i n t h i s respect , Over and over aga i n, Anno w i l l strike just t he right balance between Yamash ita's people-moving pl atforms, giant conveyor belts and Eva-related equipmem , and Sadamoto's crisp, emotive c haracter designs. Dur ing an early scene of [ Episode I, "Angel Attack"], for exampl e, R itsuko, ... M i sato and S h inji are s i l h ouetted in an e levator aga i nst a glowing p ink background, gloomily discussing th e near-impos s i b i l ity of ever get­ ting the Eva to work properl y; sudden ly the vast h umanoid hand of EVA-O I material izes in th e storage tank beh i n d them. A s i m i l ar tech nique is used when Shin j i first confronts the gaze of EVA-O l, whose seg­ mented, eyeless face glares l ike a styl ized demon out of Japan's storied theatrical traditi o n : d i stant obj ects look n e ar, and ncar objects l o o k d istant [ Redmond, pp. 207- 8 1 .

The hand-d rawn element i s self- reflexively thrown i nto rel ief, mo reove r , through t h e i ncor­ poration o f frames and shots that reproduce s n i ppets of the origi n al storyboa rds, sketches, character designs and wate rcolor backgrou nds, drawn from various planni n g and p roduction stages . These techn iques play a n especially vital role i n sequences devoted to the depiction o f t h e characters' troubled psyches . Some o f the most vividly real istic depictions o f both characters a n d sett i n gs can be detected i n the sequences dramatizing the Evas' confrontations with the A ngels . At less dyn a m i c and more i n t rospective times, real ism gives way to a graphic style t h a t del i berately fo reg ro unds the v is uals' hand-crafted dimension. On such occasions, both the natural e n v i ro n m en t and the urban scenery are repeatedly rep resented by recourse to emphatically two-di mensional watercolor pai nt i ngs characterized by h ighly diluted washes and i ntensely stylized elements. Whether it e m b races the naturalistic modal ity or i ts allusive cou nterpart , Evangelion's p icto­ rial style u n relentingly evi n ces an affectionate devotion to details that is no less concerned with capturing the stains on the walls of a school lavatory o r the s tark l i nes of rails and pylons than with portrayin g the o m i n o us beauty of an intricately des igned bio mechano i d . When methodically paced and meditative moments develop i nto j o urneys across the con­ torted mi nds o f those who experience them i n the first perso n , a fur th e r aspect of the hand­ drawn tech n ique comes into p l ay : the somatic featu res of the affected characters acq u i re harsher, more angular and even maskl ike traits, the shadows fall mo re deeply and search i ngly onto the i r aggrieved countenances, and the chromatic palettes are m i n i malized so as to g i ve su rreal p ro m i n ence to a s ingle h ue range . As Jeff Wi l l iams persuasively maintains, th is auda­ cious admixture of realism and s tylization has occasionally met w ith puzzled responses: " What con fuses some people is the visual style of the series - many shots are q u i te spartan by des ign rather by any technical l i m i tation ... by an intentional stylistic dev ice" (Will iams, J . ) . The a n imation's deliberately j arri ng effects are he ightened b y Evangelion's use of cap­ tions presented in the form of ultra-swiftly flashing ktmji that foregro u nd the intensely painterly flavor of Japanese writ i n g . Additionally, polychromat ic and m i n u tely detailed sequences a re disco ncerti ngly j uxtaposed to m i n i malistic animations of abstract p e n c i l draw i n gs o f efferves­ cent adaptabi l i ty. I n the final feature , the hand-drawn dimension is fu rther emphasized by means o f its j uxtaposition with fragments of l ive-action footage and stills derived from real urban l i fe . These various p loys serve to comment ellip tically on the very p rocess of the fi l m s' p roductio n . This applies, i n varying degrees, to the TV episodes and the feature-length fi l m s alike . A t t h e same t i m e , Evangelion's cinematography offers a number o f wordless a n d exquis­ i tely slow sequences, barely registering any obvious sense of dynamic change , o f the ki nd of

FO/lr-- Neon Genesis Eva ngelion

63

which o n l y a n i m e at i ts most p roficient is capabl e . As Wi l l iams observes, "many shots lack any movem e nt whatsoever for l e n gthy, al most uncomfortable periods o f time . . . for exa m p l e , Rei a n d Asuka's fa mous elevator ride i n silence , w h i c h goes o n see m i n gly fo rever . . . is s i mply i l l ustrative of character relationships, and also serves to tweak the viewer a l ittle b i t" (Williams, J . ) . (The scene referred to by Wi l l i ams, i n cidental ly, occ u rs in Episode 22, "At Leas t , Be Humane/Don't Be.") No less memorable is the cl imactic frame of Ep isode 2 4 , " T h e F i nal Messenger/The Beginn i n g and the End, or ' Knocki n' on Heaven's Door' , " where a perfectly motionless EVA-OJ cl utches Kaworu - the " F ifth Child" and "seventeenth Angel" - for an ostensibly interminable sixty-three-second spell befo re reso lving to crush the creature to death . The pathos o f Sh inj i's predicament , as h is tormented conscience gradually comes to terms with the ghastly real i t y o f h is fr iend Kawo ru's true namre , could barely have been captured more po ignantly by a lengthy dialogical or monological sequence - in fact , there is eve ry chance that the use of any words whatsoever would have lowered the p rotagonist's o rdeal to the level of vap i d ly garru lous melodrama . S h i nj i's train ride i n Episode 4, "Rai n , Escape and Afterwards /Hedgehog's D i le m m a , " l i kewise supplies a paradigmatic exa m p l e of Ann o's pen­ chant for wordless sequences, i nsofar as the silence su rro unding the hero as he makes a fee­ ble attempt to flee h is responsi b i l ities evokes with admirable concise ness h is path o logical separation from h i s fellow h u mans . In assessing Evangelion's aco ustic dimensio n , it must also be stressed that th e saga i n its enti rety is com p l emented by quite a un ique use of mus i c , incl uding both the sound track actu­ ally com posed fo r the p u rposes of the series and of the e n s u ing featu res and an inspi red adop­ tion of classical p i eces . T he latter include Georg Handel's "Messiah," Ludwig van Beethoven's " Symphony No . 9 in 0 m i nor Op. 125," Johann Sebastian Bach's " Su i te for Cello Solo N o . 1" and "Jesus Bleibet Meine Freude ," and Gi useppe Verdi's " Requ ie m . " N o less distinctive o f Anno's cinematographical signature than the use o f lengthy static i mages is the di rector's v isual m i n imalism . As cultural theorist Azuma H i roki o f Tokyo U n i­ versity has pointed o u t in an interview conducted by Krystian Woznicki , whereas n u merous anime di rectors "are beco m i n g more and more obsessed with draw i n g a del uge o f details into one frame , " Anno consistently cul tivates the aesthetic principle of red uction so that , by and large, "the i n formation i ncluded i n one frame is very l i m ited . " Relatedly, " i nstead of m u l t i­ plying i n formation w i th i n one fra m e , Anno does multiply i n formation by the speed a n d rhy thm of cut-u ps" (Wozn icki ) . F urthermore , Anno's employment of cut-ups - perfo rmed by taking a l i near fi l m ic tex t , slicing it into pieces and the n rearrangi n g the p ieces i nt o a n ew text - is vividly redolent o f Jean-Luc Godard's cinema . Anno's persistent dedication to th is tech nique is matched by the u b i q u i to usness, across all of the available Evangelioll artbooks, o f col lage-l ike composi tes o f various characters that point to their inte rsubjective roles and connect ions . These works are also thematically cogent i nsofar as they aptly complement the story's emphasis on the fu ndamentally relational status o f h u man identity. Pictorial ensembles including S h i nj i , As u ka and Rei , normally with one o r more of the Uni ts looming i n the background, abo u n d . M isato is o ften i n c l uded as is, occa­ sionally, Ritsuko i n o rder to u nderscore the three Eva p i l o ts' i m b rication i n a network o f strategic and scientific priorities . S o m e of t h e composites reach straight to Evangelion's meta­ physical core - e . g . in the depiction of Asuka and Sh inj i stari ng at a m i n iature Rei suspended i n s ide a beake r in a fetal position , or i n that of Rei and Asuka against the backgro und of a rad iant Geofront where i n Sh inj i's n ude body helplessly floats . The i mage of Gendou observ-

64

Af" I M E I NTERS ECTIONS

i n g the scene fro m a guarded distance is sporadically i n corporated to lend silent pathos to the ensembl e . The more elaborate montages i nclude all of the saga's key characters i n multi-lay­ ered formations of considerable structural complexi ty. Their i ntegration of myriad kaleido­ scopic shards closely app roximates the v isual vibrancy of Evangelion's a n i m ated cut - ups despite the absence of empirical movement. Wh ile fosteri ng hand-drawn and styl ized visuals, Evangelion also constitu tes a gro u n d ­ b reaki ng i ntervention i n t h e evolution of compu ter-generated graph i cs . The i m p l e mentation of appropriate digital tools i n the editing of the pictorial components mentioned above and i n their i ntegration with the "regular" frames has clearly abetted Anno's ambi tious a p p roach to co llage, yieldi n g a markedly personal vision that is si multaneously t raditional and i nn ova­ tive . In the TV series, CG I were used extensively but consistently p rocessed as 20 i mages . I n The End of Evangelion, a 3 D element was i n corporated b u t analog p rocess i n g was also employed i n order to i mpart the 3 D CG scenes with a visual flavor consonant with those fil med in conventional fashions. The result is a cinematograph ical accomplishment o f arguably u n p recedented worth : "Neon Genesis Evangelion - both the series and movies - is o ften beau­ tifully 'shot , ' with an artistic style oHraming and use o f color and l i gh t i n g heav ily i n fluenced by some o f the great l ive action cinem atograp hers of the past and p resent" (Williams, J . ) . The overall tech n i cal qual ity of both the series and the features owes much to the p io ­ neering exploits i n t h e domain of digital animation i n it iated b y Produc tion I . G - - the studio behind epoch-making ani m e movies such as Mamoru Osh i i 's Ghost in the Shell ( 1 9 9 5 ) a n d H i royuki Kitakubo's Blood: The Last Vampire ( 2 0 0 0 ) - and S t u d i o Gai nax - the com p a n y fo u nded b y A n n o , Sadamoto, H i royuki Yamaga and Taka m i Akai i n 1 9 8 4 , and b e s t known for The Wings of Honneamise (dir. Hi royuki Yamaga , 1 9 8 7) and the series Nadia: The Secret of Blue Wtzter ( 1 9 9 0 ) , of which Anno was personally i n charge . Both studios' tech n i cal excellence is eloquently borne o u t by Evangelion's use of various trai lblazi n g tech n i q ues, and especially o f digital com positi n g . M a n ual compos i t i n g posed i nevi table restrictions on the n u mber of laye rs that could be realistically i n c l uded i n the fi n al p roduct , and was extremely laborious when it came to harmon izi n g the individual l ayers so as to secure their recip rocal compatib i l i ty. With the advent o f computer-generated com p o s i t ­ i n g , t h e layers c o u l d be edi ted i n groups, which would guarantee consistency o f p resent a t i o n . Moreover, add itional effects such a s lighting could be app l i ed to either a w h o l e frame o r to discrete layers , according to a scene's conti ngent requi rements . The saga also benefi ted con ­ siderably from t h e creation of digital special effects, for which Production I . G is globally renowned . What is most distinctive about the studio's p rocedures , i n this respect , is i ts knack o f creati n g analog effects by digital means . These include lens effects such as the fish -eye lens, motion b l u rs and instabili ties i n both camera focus and light exposure so as to evoke specific moods , a n d light i ng effects such a s variable shadows and gu n -muzzle flashes . Evangelion's use of cutti n g-edge tech nology works self- reflexively o n t h ree dis tinct lev­ els . F irstly, com p u ter-generated i magery is consistenrly emp loyed i n o rder to rep resent cyber­ netic equipment and digital data : for example, geometrical diagrams of the pil o ts' bodies as these are s ubj ect to CAT scans, comp uter maps detailing the p rogress of a n attacki n g A n ge l , and bar graphs i l l ustrating the various phases of an Eva's activation p rocess or the results o f a synchron ization test involvi n g a n Eva a n d its p i l o t . Secondly, Evangelion's na rrative com­ m itment to the investigation of the ulti mate meaning of h u m a n i t y vis-a.-vis an apocalyptic vision of tech nology leads to a radical suspension of conventional real ity marke rs that is aptly

Four-Neon G e nesis Evangelion

65

paralleled by the u s e o f state-of-the-art tech n iques . These a r e expl icitly i ntended to t hrow into rel ief the vaporousness of the real by foregro u n d i n g the rampant artifice i nherent in the med i u m of a n i m e itself. Thi rdly, sophisticated digital tech n iques are imaginatively u t i lized to convey the divided and composite nature of the central characters' psyches by means of i mages that l iterally mul­ tiply the i r countenance w i th deeply disorienti ng effects . In Episode 1 , for exa m p l e , Shi n j i 's con fusion upon meeti n g his father (wh om he has not seen fo r three years) and being asked to p i l o t EVA-Ol is forcibly com m u n i cated by the shot of Gelldo u's own face against banks of video mon itors exh i b i t i n g multiple i mages of Shinj i . These video i m ages , moreove r , are i n turn deftly m irrored b y a close-up of Gendo u's glasses , i n whi ch they a re reflected . Also emblematic is the sce n e in Episode 5 in which Shi n j i visits Rei in the dilap idated and eerily resonat i n g apartment block where i n she dwells and finds that her sole p ossess ion , beside assorted l i tter and bloody bandages, is a cracked pair o f G endo u's spectacles . Sh i nj i's reflection i n the warped lenses as he tentatively approaches the object sym bolically capt u res the m e nt a l s p l i t h e experiences throughout the s h ow a s a result of his i n a b i l i t y to arrive at any conclu­ sive decisions regard i n g e i ther h is father's or Rei 's true n a t u res, let alone the relationsh i p between the two characters . There are also occasions on w h i ch Evangelion deploys self- reflexively its blend of trad i ­ tional a n d digital tech n iques . A class ic example is o ffered b y Episode 9 , " B o th o f Yo u , Dance like Yo u Want to Wi n!/Wi th one Accord, in a Flash," th rough the seque nce i n which U n i ts 0 1 and 0 2 's j o int attack against the seventh A ngel is choreographed as a feat o f seamlessly har­ monized movements . In the sequence's cli max , the Evas' coord i nation is tech n ically rep licated by a montage consisting o f exuberantly hand-drawn and digitally composited graph ics by means of which b o th the two Evas' and the i r pilots' bodies appear to merge i nto one s i n gle entity. Ep isode 1 1 , "In the Still Darkness /The Day Tokyo -3 Stood Stil l , " also functions self­ referentially i n o rder to consolidate techn ically the adventure's pervasive mood . The s u ffocat­ ing atmosphere o f i n e r t i a and stasis pe rvad i n g N E RV as a resu l t o f a l arge-scale blacko ut - wh ich co i n c ides w i th the advent of the ninth Angel - is conveyed by recou rse to sophisticated CGI for the representation of the sp ider-l ike enemy and i ts ponderous motion , and traditional a n i m e camera work for the fi l m i n g of the th ree Eva p i l o ts' craw l i n g p rogress along the labyrinth i n e passages lead i n g from Tokyo-3 to the N E RV Headquarters, as they endeavor to reach the i r Un its. The different tools here emp loyed collaboratively contribute to the evocation o f a potent sense of i m peded laboriousness . The animation's complexity is already evident i n the TV show's o p e n i n g , a 9 0 -second p iece comprisi n g 84 u p - tempo cuts . With each shot receiving a n average o f approxi mately one second, the footage del ivers an overwhel m i n g vo l u me of i n formation en riched through ­ o u t by an i ntrigui n g array of mystical symbols, a perfect m atch o f vis uals and m u s i c a n d soph isticated fram i n g . Wh ile i t is common for an anime series to o ffer a t a g t h a t s imply b r i n gs together sam p l es of i ts action foo tage , snapshots of its key personae and elements of music­ video rhetoric , Evangelion supplies a radically i nnovative visual p reamble of autonomous artis­ tic quality. The i n itial frame exh i bi ts a m i n ute glimmer o f throb b i n g l i ght s p reading i nto a circular shockwave . This is repl aced by a blazing backgro und nebula upon which is s uperi m ­ posed an i ntricate e m b l e m that gradually recedes i nto the distance . A fo rwards z o o m through an ocean of ice-blue galaxies is then p roposed, w i th a gleam i n g close-up o f the Seph iroth scro l l i n g downwards in the fo reground, and then dissolv i n g i nto a tw i n kl i n g azure glare aki n

66

AN I M E I NTERSECTIONS

to the reflection of candlelight in a puddle. The title sequence p roper now begi ns, ushered i n b y t h e Japanese char acters for "Shinseiki" against t h e Anglophone word "Evangel ion . " The sequence then moves onto a pan of S h i nj i's face against a serene sky beaded with fleecy clouds . A dusky silhouette of his enti re body makes a brief appearance to the right o f the fra me , and is then superseded by the l i ghtless shapes of Rei's and Asu ka's bodies, scro l l i n g vertically o n e i ther s i d e o f S h i n j i 's face (to t h e right a n d upwards in Rei 's case, and to t h e l e ft a n d dow n ­ wards i n Asuka's) . A close-up o f M isato's outstretched hand against the backgrou nd o f a rad i ­ a n t golden sky appears nex t , a s the Sephiroth aga i n scrolls through the scree n , this t i m e i n upwards motio n . T h e sequence reaches i t s affective climax w i t h a stunn i n gly elaborate montage including a close-up o f M isato's m i e n , a shot of her conto u r agai nst the backdrop o f a glow i n g o rb , and a close-up o f S h i nj i's face i n the upper right-hand corner of the scree n . Each i m a ge smoothly rolls out o f the frame j ust as another image rolls i n . A shot o f Rei behind a closed w i ndow is then i ntroduced, and fo llowed by an intensely realistic close-up of her albi no eye rep l ete with i n fi n itesimal quivers o f ligh t . The closing part of the o p e n in g cred i ts offers b rief shots of English words central to the saga's indigenous vocabulary - such as " Test Typ e , " " To kyo- 3 " a n d "EVA-O ! " - i nterspersed w i t h gl i mpses of moments fro m t h e series a n d close-ups o f the various characters, c u l m inating with emphatically graphic i mages of EVA-O I at i ts most i m pos­ ing. The final sho t , i ron ically, is that of a smili ng S h i nj i . Each o f the key i mages elegantly cou nterbalances another i m age moving i n the opposite d i rection . For exa m p l e , the fi rs t s h o t of the Sephiroth t o w h i c h we are treated displays the sym bol i n descending motion , wh i l e t h e second adopts a n ascending traj ectory. L i kewise, t h e vertical scro l l i n g motions o f Rei 's and Asuka's silho uettes are explici tly contrasted, and further juxtaposed with the horizontal ori­ entations o f Misato's silhouettes . Chromatic contrasts, harmo n i es a n d blends, allied to sub­ tle variations i n shot pac i ng , ideally com p l ement the sequence's acco m p l ishment . Anno's tech n ical adventurousness is fully corroborated by the two feature films released i n 1997, Death 6- Rebirth and The End ofEvangelion. Death has been somewhat harshly bran ded by some cri tics as a re-edit of the TV series. In fact , it constitutes a b rave c i n e matog ra p h i cal ex periment bolstered by audacious syntheses o f hand-drawn visuals a n d CGI that b r i ng s together portions of the events dramatized in t h e show b u t not m e rely i n o rder t o p rovide a neat synoptic replay fo r the u n i n i tiated spectator. I t is i n deed hard to i magi n e h ow a v i ewer without any degree of fam i liarity with the series and i ts p rem ises could adequately appreci­ ate the fi l m's e m inently collage-like, non-linear and multitemporal n arrative . M o reove r , a n u m ber o f climactic occu rrences drawn from the TV show - such as battles between the Evas and the Angels - are not rep roposed in the original o rder. The b u i ld - u p to and consequences of particular m issions are consistently telescoped and com p ressed in ways that preclude fo re­ gone conclusions abo ut any character's si tuation at any given j u nctll r e . 4 Therefo re , Death c o u l d be s a i d t o reconstruct quite drasti cal ly t h e show's narrative b y reco urse to t h e deft j uggl i n g o f a nu mber of scenes from a selection o f episodes , int e rcll t w i t h poignant references to t h e characters' deep -seated traumas. As a resul t , any p o s s i b l e p r in ci­ ples of causali t y and teleology offered by the original p rogram ar e radically called into qu e s ­ t i o n by the mov i e , u l t i mately i ndicat i n g that A n n o h as p recious l i t t l e t ime fo r gra n d exp lanatory systems of quasi-Hegelian orientation driven b y a determ i n istic yearn i n g fo r clo­ s u re , and in fact favors p u rely tentative and ulti mately resci n dable ou tcomes . T h u s , Death consti tutes a p o i n tedly autonomous visual experi ence in the context of Evangelion as a whol e .

FOllr�Ncon G e nesis Evan ge lion

67

The featu re's novelty is tech n ical ly enhanced by its util ization o f digital p rocedu res not avail­ able i n the execution of the series, espec ially in the more sophisticated areas of l ayeri n g , com­ positing and both visual and aco ustic edi t i n g . Death util izes v i s u a l and thematic materials t h a t cover events presented in t h e series u p to Episode 24 a n d t o t h e defeat of the seve nteenth Angel . Rebirth, t h e fi l m's second section , was i n i tially i n ten ded as a remake of Ep isodes 25 and 2 6 of the TV show. I n the course o f p roduction , however , i t became clear t h a t t h e vo lume of fresh contents available to Anno's team was far too b u l ky to be real istically accom modated w i t h i n Rebirth. I t was therefo re decided to keep the latter down to ap proxi mately two -thirds o f the new Episode 25, and to devo te a separate theatrical release ( The End ofEvangelion) to the film co mprising both o f the reconfigu red ep isodes . Co-producer Tosh i m ichi Otsuki commented on the ex perience o f acco m p l is h i n g two theatrical releases in the space of o n ly six months (Death & Rebirth came o u t in March and End ofEvangelion i n August) i n an i n terview cond ucted by Kei Watanabe on behalf of A1ainichi lvfanga Town, as part of a 10th-anniversary Evangelion special repo rt . When asked by Watan­ abe about the toughest t i mes, Otsuki rep l ied, "Without doub t , the hardest thing was when we couldn't m ake the open i n g dead l i n e fo r the mov ie back in 1997 . . . . I made the decisi o n to create two movies . . . . Eve n the n , we still had to work up until the very last moment to get the second mov ie o ut on t i m e . I went home to catch up on some sleep w i t h o u t even watch i n g t h e movie" (Otsuki ) . Death & Rebirth ea rned 1 . 1 bill ion yen at t h e box office, w h i c h made i t t h e seventh m o s t su ccessfu l Japanese mov ie for 1 9 9 7, w h i l e End ofE11angelion grossed 1 . 45 b i l ­ lion ye n , t h u s gai n i n g fo u rth place on t h e scale . I n Rebirth's o p e n i n g frames, w e are treated t o what i s possibly o n e o f t h e tec h n ically most accomp lished a n d evocative scenes i n the whole o f Ellangelion, as S h i nj i mutely beholds the su nken r u i n s of To kyo- 3 . The melancholy of the once magn i ficent edifices is i ron ically j uxtaposed w i t h the awesome subl i m i ty of azu re skies and waters, while an overwhe l m i ng s i lence ruptured only by a d iscreet "s plash" and by the hyp no t i c wh i rr i n g of cicadas in the distance engul fs both aspects o f the landscap e , as tho ugh to mock any p retensions to indi­ vidual i ty on the part o f each . Death and reb i rth are i ndeed posited as i n extricably i nter­ twi n ed, to the point that n e i ther is ent i tled to claim u ncond itional superiority ove r the other. The o p e n i n g segment o f Rebirth thus encapsul ates the i n trinsically dual istic character o f the apocalyptic world v iew, intimating that any hope of regeneration m ay only arise from dev­ astation and chaos . The End of Eva ngelio n elabo rates this mo t i f and com p l i cates i ts meta­ physical i m port by e m phasizi n g that the transition fro m one state to the other req u i res conscious agency and the scru p u l o u s exerc ise of free will and cannot , therefo re , be lefi: to random chance . A gem of digital compos i t i n g , the scene's cli mactic mom e nt consists o f a bi rd's-eye shot i n which the ripples caused by the fa ll of a piece of debris i nto the ubiquitous waters, the reflections o f the clouds lacing the skies above and the emergi ng rem n an ts of Tokyo-3 's sky­ scrapers are a rranged in perfectly concentric circles aro u n d a w h i te-hot s u n . The shot's han­ dling o f digi tal tech nology eloque ntly demonstrates that the i mp lementation o f i nnovative tools in a n i m e does n o t inevitably b r i n g fo rth sterile swathes of glea m i n g visuals . In fac t , despite t h e preponderance of c o o l h ues, the image verily oozes with pai nterly warmth and a tactile sense of the artisanal skills chann elled i nto i ts maki n g . Anno's proverbial penchant fo r elaborate montages com b i n i ng hand-drawn graphics and

68

A N I M E 1 NTFRSFCTJO:.JS

sophisticated d i gital tech niq ues is resplendently b rought to fru i t i o n in Rebirth. Especial ly memo rable, i n this regard, is the sequence i n which M isato exp l a i n s to Shinji that mankind is actually "the eigh teenth Angel , " born o f Lilith, and that S EELE's a n d Commander I kari's agendas right from the i nstigation of the Second I m pact have not been in the l east benevo­ lent , let alone altruistic . As M isato's revelations u n fo l d, Rebirth o ffers one of the enti re saga's most memorable montages . Far from simply providing an enticing p iece of cin e matography, though i t indubi tably does this i n spades , the sequence yields a highly comp ressed vision o f Evangelion's cumulative n arrative traj ectory. The montage begins with a med i u m shot o f EVA­ � O 's i nitial skeleton (as seen i n Episode 2 1 , "The Birth of NERV IHe was Aware that He was Still a Child") , consisting of the Uni t's head and an anatomically p recise backbone . The screen then changes to a shot o f a seeth ing array o f tendrils reach ing downwards i n to a pool of blood­ red fluid; these later turn out to be the spinal co rds emanat i n g from myriad Eva cra n i u m s . A series of flash i n g shots, so rap id as to be almost impercep tible i n "real t i m e , " fol lows . These encompass i mages o f the crater left beh ind by the Second I mpac t , o f Adam as a l u m i nous giant, o f the same Angel i n embryon ic for m , of the graveyard where Yui I kari is commemo­ rated, o f the digital table outlining the Angels' baffl ingly h u man makeup, and o f a sepia sketch o f Yui 's face followed by a still o f Rei i n her piloting s u i t . This last shot i s not actually v i s i ­ ble except i n very slow motio n . Considerately integrated digital effects enhance t h e cels' over­ all quality by augmenting their l u m i nosity and sharpness, thereby also foregrou n d i n g their hand-drawn features i nstead o f subs u m i n g them to the com p u ter's rule . The bold cinematographical experiment i n i t iated in Death & Rebirth cont i n ues u nabated with The End of Evangelion. Frighten i n g , contorted and yet l ovely by turns, this film consti ­ tutes a veritable tou r de force, p ickin g up the plot in the i m m ed i ate aftermath of S h i n j i's destruction o f the seventeenth and final Angel sa rcastically, his sole real "friend" ever a n d t h e n p roceed i n g to s u p p l y an alternate conclusion to the saga to the one offered by t h e TV series . As mentioned, it was with The End of Evangelion that Anno's team first i nt roduced 3 D C G I capable o f p roviding an expans ive spatial ambience . Analog p rocess i n g was n o n e theless applied to the CG scenes by recou rse to fi lters akin to those u t i l ized fo r conventional s h o o t ­ i n g , so as to evoke a harmon ious v i s u a l mood and ensure t h a t the CG c u ts would n o t clash with the trad itional ones . Whi l e Production I.G played a key role th ro ughout the project, the bulk of the CG p roduction was undertaken by O m n ibus Japan (who also handled the digi­ tal effects for Oshi i's Pat/abor 2: The Movie [1993] and for the aforementioned Ghost in the Shell) . The majority of the CG scenes are located in the second part of the fi l m and i n c l u de the cut where col ossal crosses are strewn over the Earth's entire surface and the cut display­ ing multiple Rei s . O m n i bus Japan also dealt admi rably with the digital p rocessi n g of trans­ m i tted ligh t , a task unan imously regarded as particularly arduous by com p u ter a n i mators . The closing credits, scro l l i n g i n the shape of a helix rem i n iscent o f the graphs used to i l l us­ trate a n Eva's connecti o n w i t h its p i l o t's sensori u m , a re also a d i gital effect execu ted by O m n ibus Japan . End p resents h u m a n i ty's struggle to overcome loneli ness, and hence the cripp l i n g p a i n i nel uctably spawned by t h a t condition , i n t h e form o f a cosmic metamorphosis engin eered by S EELE as the n ext stage i n h u m a n i ty's evolution the " Human I nstru mentality Pro j ect . " This momentous Th i rd Im pact entails the mergi ng of a l l people i nto a s i n gl e u n di ffe renti­ ated mass akin to the soup o f l i fe from which all l i fe is believed to have eman ated . The drama�

�

�

Four�Ncon Genesis Evangelion

69

tization of I nstrumentality suppl ies Anno with unique opportun ities for the deployment of state-of-the-art digital i magery, and especially "morphs" : namely, CG i m ages that gradually change their shapes until they become quite different images . Rei's fusion w i th Lilith and result­ ing transformation i nto a giganti c , diaphanous crea ture o f truly p retern a t u ral statu re o ffers a paradigmatic i nstance of morp h i n g . So does the p rodigious body's subsequent splitting into a double- torsoed being combi n i n g aspects of Rei and aspects o f Kaworu . I n order to acco m p l ish smooth morp h i n g effects, the footage relies on the synchronous occu rrence o f three related tech n ical events . The shape o f the i n i tial , o r "so urce , " i mage is distorted over t i m e so as to turn into the shape of the final , o r "destinatio n , " i mage . The des­ tination i mage , in t u r n , sta rts off i n a deformed guise that m a tches the source i m age , a n d i ncrementally u n d istorts until i t resumes i ts normal for m . Meanwh i l e , t h e opacity o f t h e dig­ ital layers i nvolved gradually alters i n order to allow the destination i mage to become visible over the source i m age as they are both morph ing. A particularly effective method, abetted by vector graphics, which End stylishly deploys cons ists of warp i n g one i mage at the same time as i t fades into another i m age , by markin g equivalent poi nts o n the source and des t i n ation images . For i nstance, one configuration of L i l ith's body could be morphed i nto another by markin g certai n key p o i n ts on the so u rce body, s uch as the contour o f the head and l im b s , and marking these s a m e p o ints on the desti nation body. The com p u ter would d i s t o r t the fi rst body- i mage to make i t acq u i re the shape of the secon d body w h i l e s i m u ltaneo usly cross - fad­ ing the two i m ages . Rei n forc ing the thematic m essage commun icated by the TV series' controvers ial cul m i ­ nati o n , End proposes t h a t accepting one's separateness from others is t h e p recondition o f h u m an i nteraction a n d that the latte r , i n turn , is the p recondition o f self-conscious existence . This real izati o n is sign alled by 5 h i nj i's decision to reno u nce the pseudo-identity conferred upon him by I nstrumentality. He recognizes that indiv iduals h ave been d rawn i nto the T h i rd I m pact's all-encompass i n g vortex by the p rom ise o f a world w i t h o u t lonel i n ess, and that altho ugh the fusion of all creatu res i nto an und ifferentiated m ass may at fi rs t h ave appeared to fulfil a fan tasy o f p l e n i tude u n marred by separation anxieties, the a ncestral blend actually amounts to an amorphously dreary sea of negativ ity. The denial of personal barriers, w h i l e seem i n gly bringing h um a ns i n t i m ately together, does not actually p e r m i t gen u i n e i n terac­ tion , for this is only ever possible as long as a distance between self and other m ay be per­ ceived even t h o u gh , i n ev i tably, t h i s p e rce p t i o n must at all t i m es coexist w i t h a tw i n recogn ition of the possib i l i t y that the self and the other w i l l desert and betray each other w i t h lamentable repercussions. Wh ile the vanish i n g of in dividual boundaries was earl ier symbol ized by an indistinct aggregate of ve rtigino usly swirl i n g marble-sized red dots, the return to a world o f borders and i n d ividuated subjectivi ties is marked by the reconstitution o f the Earth as a solid shap e . Fur­ thermore , through an i n s p i red deployment o f 3 D polygonal modell i n g , the sphere is i ncre­ mentally en dowed w i t h a deta i l ed grid of parallels and m e r i d i a n s . M a n k i n d 's i n t ractable corporeal i t y is by n o means effaced by this cosmic move , h owever . C rea t i n g coord i n ates and patterns is n o t tantamo unt to constructing a frigidly flesh less rea l i t y : the substance in which the restored globe's partitioning l i nes are drawn is indeed vividly akin to blood at its warmest and ooziest . Ulti mately, the story's i n trospective dimension on the thematic plane is echoed by El'an­ gelion's fo rm : Ann o's ongo i n g i mpetus to lay bare the dev ices depl oyed i n the construction o f �

70

A ", I M E I NTERS ECTIONS

the visual narrative , by reco u rse to both conventional and pioneering tools, m akes the e n t i re saga a markedly self- referential exercise . This aspect is fu rther bolstered by the consistent adoption o f i nterior mono logues and stream-of-consciousness m e d itations . H oweve r , this app roach does not yield a self-grat ifyi ng vis ion , si nce fo rmal experi m e n ta t i o n u l t i m ately enables both the TV series and the featu re fi lms to transcend the introspective enclos u re . The sel f-reflexive proclivity in deed leads to a drastic explosion of conventional molds : i n [he process of dissecting the characters' heads, Anno also deconstructs the art o f a n i m e i tsel f, as ful l a n i ­ mation gives way t o c l i p p i n gs from t h e designers' sketchbooks, childlike crayo n draw i n gs flaunting aggressive h ues and angry l i nes, and eventually black-and-wh i te scribbles and squig­ gles . Hence, Evangelion stands out as a formally paradoxical enterprise whereby the subjec­ tive prisons in which i ts personae pathetically writhe are s i m u l taneously replicated by the sto ry's concern w i th i ts own i nterior work ings, and b u rst open by a drastic u n h i n g i n g o f the narrative codes and conventions associated with m a i nstream a n i m e . Most i m portantly, h ow­ ever, neither the series nor the second feature concl usively purport to del iver a fully compen­ satory r o u n d i n g - o ff o f the fict ional weave . In an i n terv i ew p u b l is h e d in the m agazi n e Protoculture Addicts #43, Anno has disarm i ngly commented on h i s saga's i ntentional i n co n ­ clus iveness : "El,angelion is like a p uzzle, y o u know. A n y person can s e e i t a n d give h i s / h e r o w n answer . . . i magine h i s / h e r own world . We will never offer t h e answers . . . . A s fo r m a n y Ellangelion viewers , they m a y expect li S t o p rovide t h e 'all-about Eva' m a n u a l s , b u t there is no s llch thing . . . . Do n't expect to be catered to all the time. We all have to find o ur own answers" (quo ted i n Eng 1 9 9 7 ) .

F IVE Metropolis A nimation is JOmethillg tha t 's just a dra wing, i t 's a still imllge and something thllt sho uld not m ove IIctl/lI/{Y moues. A nd tha t 's like retlll)' reflecting the humlln irnllgin,uion and that 's real{y the spe­ cialty of animation. - Rintaro 2002a While real acting has lim its, YO ll can do anything with animation. - Katmhiro Otomo 2003

Rintaro's Metropolis is based on a manga p rodu ced by Osamu Tezuka i n 1 9 4 9 . O ften described as the "god o f manga , " Tezuka ( 1 9 2 8 - 1 9 8 9 ) is heralded as one of Japan's most talented and prol ific comic-book and anime artists both domestically and i nternationally. Without a shadow of do u b t , both h is visuals and h is narrat ives revolutionized the industry, audacio usly b u l ldoz­ ing ex isting conventions and rel a ted audience expectations, and thus p av i n g the way for the trailblazi ng di recto rs and a n i mators discllssed i n this study. As noted in the official webs i te dedicated to Tezuka's l i fe and work, h i s "manga and ani mated films had a tre m e ndous i mpact on the shap i n g of Japan's postwar yo uth . His work changed the concept o f the Japanese car­ toon" and "also i nfluenced a range of other gen res" ("Osamu Tezuka O n l i ne" ) , The i ntensity of Tezu ka's pass ionate com m i tment to h is art is eloquently co rroborated by the fact that he was still draw i n g on his deathbed i n a hosp ital . By the end of h i s l i fe , he had created a total o f approximately 1 7, 0 0 0 pages o f manga, 700 stories, 12 TV specials and 21 TV series . Daniel Poei ra's concurrently i n formative and heartfelt homage to Tezuka's legacy deserves ci tati o n : "Tezuka's works have touched s o m a n y people aro u n d t h e globe t h a t i t's hard to find some comic book artist or ani mator who has never heard o f him and was not i n fl uenced by his works on some level . . .. I f today we have Pokemon, Akira, Cowboy Bebop a n d Serial Experi­ ments Lain, it was because one day, 4 0 -someth ing years ago , a fu nny old m a n w i t h a silly hat decided to give i t a try " (Poei ra) , Ri maro's 2 0 0 1 p roduction also bears similarities to the fi l m o f the same title d i rected by Fritz Lang i n 1 9 2 6 i n i ts adoption of a marked ly retrofu t u ristic approac h . Lang's fi l m pro­ vides a subtle c r i t i q u e o f the u t o p i a n t h ru s t of F u t u rism , with i ts celebra t i o n o f s p eed, dyn amism and techn o logical progress, by construing the fu tu re as a world of vertiginous high­ rise ci tyscapes that stand not so much fo r p rogress as fo r cap italist exp l o i tation and inj ustice . Ri ntaro's fi l m picks up this lead in o rder to develop a polymorphous urban architecture where i n sky-choking h o rizons do not serve as an u n p roblematic metaphor fo r the t r i u m p h of tech nology over b ru te m a t t e r but rather em body a pervas ive mood o f o p p ressiven ess and 71

72

A N IME I NTERSECTIOr-.:S

uncertainty. This is conveyed i n turns by the Babylonian grandeur of the city's upper strata � as balefu l as they are awesome � and by the squalor of the cri m e-ridden s l u m s that spiral into the seemingly u n fathomable depths of Metropolis's u nderbelly. Rintaro's film is sometimes described as "the a n i m ated version" of the 1926 s ilent class i c , yet its allusions to the original Metropolis were not deliberate even though Rintaro has professed deep a d m i ration for Lan g's work : " Fritz Lang's fi l m is one of my favorite fi l ms, so ever since I was yo u n g that fi l m has been i n p u tted somewhere i n the corner of my b rai n . Now, i n the p rocess o f making the a n i ­ mated Metropolis feature fi l m , influe nces from t h e original Metropolis m ight have u nc o n ­ sciously popped u p , b u t they certainly weren't i ntentional . So if the audience feels t h a t there is a s i m i larity between the Fritz Lang version and my version , wel l , I had absolu tely no con­ scious intention of do i n g so" (Rint aro 2002b) . (As for Tezuka , he clai med to have drawn inspiration from the poster a n d fro m some reviews o f Lang's movie b u t not to have yet watched the actual motion picture at the time o f creati n g his own manga version of Metropolis.) I t is also worth bearing i n m i nd, i n this con­ tex t , that Rintaro's pri ncipal concern actually resided with d iscovering whether o r not, in a n age where the science-fiction scene is seem ingly dom i n ated by the theme o f "vi rtual real ity," a "fantasy" -driven adventure i n the more traditional mold could still p rove appeali n g , a n d i ndeed stand the test o f time (Rintaro 2003) . Hence, Rin taro's mov ie is not so much a remake as a rei magi n i n g o f the earl ier fi l m . Released domestically i n June 2 0 0 1 and in the u . S . i n January 2 0 0 2 , Metropolis was also the first anime title s i nce the mid- 1 9 9 0 s to be aired i n the U.K. (on Channel 4 ) . The o rigi n a l story formulated b y Tezuka was adap ted for t h e screen by Kats u h i ro O t o m o , the comic-book artist and a n imation d i rector largely responsible fo r draw i n g the West's attent ion to the art o f anime through h is seminal fi l m Akira ( 1 9 8 8 ) . I t was Otomo h i mself, mo reove r , that shortly after Akira's release p rophesied the l ikely development of a n i mation styles based on a synthe­ sis o f traditional graph ics and digital tech nology of p recisely the kind one encou nters i n

Metropolis. Prior to Tezuka's death in 1 9 8 9 , Rintaro � who had been one of the earliest m e m bers o f Tezuka's T V ani mation staff� had invited the "god of manga" t o consider a screen adapta­ tion of Metropolis, but Tezuka had flatly turned h i m dow n , putatively due to h i s lack o f esteem for h is very early work s . Com menti ng on this episode, Rintaro has stated : "He told m e d i rectly that anyth i n g he had done bero re Tetsuwan Atom [Astro Boy, 1 9 5 2] was never i n tended to be made i nto a n i m ation or motion pictures . Tezuka said that his earl ier work was not skilfu l enough , and a l s o t h a t h i s story structure was not q u i t e up to the level he w o u l d h ave l iked i t t o be . Those were two reasons that h e did n o t want t o make i t into a n i m e" (Rintaro 2 0 02b) . I t was not until 1 9 9 7 that Rintaro revisited the idea, this time tea m i ng up with Otomo . I n the autu m n o f that year , the two creators retreated to Rintaro's m o u ntain cab i n for a l abor­ i ntensive th ree-day planning sess i o n , i n the cou rse of which they made v ital decis ions con­ cerni n g which parts of the parent manga should be retained and which should be excised or abridged . Metropolis's retrofu ru ristic look is overtly based on its m anga parent and specifically o n Tezuka's visualization of t h e future through the lens of 1 9 2 0 s desig n . This is palpably evident througho u t , permeati n g not only the larger architectural tableaux , the robots and the veh i ­ cles b u t also t h e m i n u test facets of i nterior decor, sartorial styles, accessories a n d even orna­ mental patterns . The most concise assessment o f Metropolis's temporal d i m en s i o n one could

Five - Metropolis

73

wish to enco u nter is p rovided by the title of Randall S m ith's rev iew of the movie fo r Cinekkle­ sia: namely, " D ays of F u t u re Past : Osamu Tezu ka's Metropolis. " These words capture w i th extraord i n ary clarity the film's proclivity to imagine the fut u re w i t h reference to the visual attributes of a past that is also i m agin ed, i nsofar as factually accurate data i ncessantly coalesce w ith vis ionary speculation . With i ts Byza ntine alloy of disparate tools and methodologies, Metropolis manages to come across as a sleek depiction o f a hypothetical fut u re , a n d yet exude the q u i rky charm of weathered documents and maps o f the kind one would expect to dis­ cover in the dusty cab i n e t o f a n i n eteenth-century techno-visionary. Tezuka's vision comes to resplendent fruition in Rintaro's movi e , to a sign i ficant degree thanks to his own tech nologically visionary fusion of cel a n imation and eG I - as we shall see i n some detail later in this chapter. Whi l e Tezuka's im agery i n forms !'vfetropolis t h ro ugh ­ out , no less inspiring an i n fluence w i l l certainly have issued fro m the manga artist's u n iq u e compositional rhetoric , and particu larly from his u n p receden ted abil i t y to i m b u e h is stories with a dynamism o f veritably cinematographical orientation. This o ften relied, as Fred Pat­ ten has emphasized, o n a "flam boyant use of cinematic effects (close - u p s , tracki n g shots, unusual camera angles)" (Patten 2002) . Tezuka's formal choice would have been regarded, up until that p o i nt , as utterly alien to the defin ing style ofJapanese comic books, where em phat­ ically static and somewhat theatrical i m ages tended to p revail . I n the fil m's openi ng sequence, the people of the city of Metro p o l i s celebrate the com­ pletion o f their greatest acco m p l ishment to date, a glea m i n g and toweri n g structure named the "Ziggurat" w i th reference to the Babylon / Babel myth, am idst glorious sp rays o f fi rewo rks , flu rries o f l igh ts a n d clamoring crowds . T h e Babylon /Babel mot i f is someth i n g of a cyber­ p u n k o bsession , and also features promin ently in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner ( 1 9 8 2 ) and Mamoru Oshii's Patlabor 1 : The Mobile Police ( 1 9 8 9 ) . Metropolis is n o tech nological Ede n , however . T h e lavishly staged glorification o f mankind's scientific a n d intellectual excellence by means of which one is ushered into the world o f Metropolis is only a fl i m sy, h u b ristically self-co ngratulatory fa