Garakuta-doori no Stain

Away from bustling streets of everyday people hastily making their way, past pitch black alleyways, and into dirty corridors occupied by a vast array of strange anthropomorphic animals, you’ll find yourself at a junkyard where the illustrious Mr. Stain resides. Sorry, did I say illustrious? I meant the complete opposite. Mr Stain is an unknown homeless man that spends his days scavenging the dirty junkyard for items he finds interesting. He’s joined alongside the many inhabitants of the back alley, but never in alliance with one another. For if something is found, everyone acts in their own selfish desires—often vile in executions for their own ... greedy self-gain. This place is dirty, disgusting, and brazenly violent. Yet it’s behind this veil of disgust that Mr. Stain presents to us a surprising depth of humanity and relatability, the kind that pushes you out of your comfort zone and defies sensibilities. Well, at least that’s what I get out of Masuda Ryuuji’s work.

Because yes that’s right, this is another work by Masuda Ryuuji, the creator of Popee the Performer, and one that is often overlooked compared to its predecessor. Airing just two years after Popee the Performer and a run of just 13 short episodes and a 30 minute OVA finale, Mr Stain builds itself a unique identity that somehow takes even more creative liberties than Popee the Performer. Rather than working within the restrictive limitations of its budget and software, Masuda builds upon the creative foundations he built during the production of Popee and expands on them to achieve even more of his bizarre ideas in Mr Stain. However before we get into that, I need to preface this review with a recommendation to read my Popee the Performer review if you haven’t, as it adds much needed context for this review.

Upon starting the first episode of Mr. Stain, the first thing you’ll notice is the detailed background designs, atmospheric lighting and effects, and a multitude of objects occupying the space. This is in direct contrast to the limitations faced during the production of Popee the Performer which took place in a simple, flat desert plain. Masuda Ryuji wanted to make the world of Mr. Stain feels more alive and interesting, thus a meticulous focus is placed on set design and atmosphere.

Alongside this focus on backgrounds is a significant improvement to the camerawork. Part of Masuda’s decision to place Mr. Stain amongst tall buildings is a desire to express a sense of physical space in animation, much like a camera does in live-action films. By utilising 3DCG, he’s able to easily convey this idea due to the camera being a literal physical object within that space. It goes without saying that traditional hand-drawn animation can achieve a similar effect, but it requires an immense amount of time and skill. By utilising computer technology, Masuda is able to bring his desired cinematic style into animation. As Masuda Ryuji puts it: “The main attraction of 3D CGI animation for me is the potential to combine the best elements of live-action camera work and animated expression. In simple terms, with 3D CGI, you can virtually build a set inside a computer, similar to stage design in live-action, and place a camera within it to move around. This allows for realistic camera movements—such as circling around a character or raising the camera like on a crane—enabling direction beyond simple cuts.” (Masuda, Oct2009). You can see the result of this in the first episode, for example, when Mr. Stain and his cat buddy (if you can even call them friends) Palvan enter a room. Instead of cutting away to a different shot, Masuda Ryuki utilises the free flowing camera to crane upwards, showing the characters walking through windows, and up to the roof of the building, all in one seamless take. Mr. Stain constantly has shots where the camera circles around characters, such as in episode 2, which does a great job at establishing the surrounding area and showing unique angles and details you’d otherwise not see. All of this does wonders to bring the space occupied by Mr. Stain to life.

This purposeful and meticulous focus on establishing a sense of space achieves realism, too. Unlike Popee the Performer, which indulges in its absurdity to form surrealist humour, Masuda attempts something completely different with Mr. Stain to achieve a similar level of surreality. The titular character, Mr. Stain, is deliberately designed with more human-like features; his movements are smooth and lively (in contrast to the rigid movements found in Popee the Performer); and he exhibits emotions and reactions the viewers can relate to. Mr. Stain is often portrayed acting illogically, such as in episode 3 where Mr. Stain falls in love with a portrait of a woman in a painting, to the extent that he’ll stop eating (and taking care of himself in general) to stare upon her figure for hours. Palvan attempts to please Mr. Stain by adding to the painting the image of Mr. Stain, but he becomes furious upon seeing himself, perhaps disgusted by his own image next to someone who, in his eyes, is perfect and beautiful. Enraged, he furiously rips apart the part of the painting that Palvan drew on, with a bloody hand from the broken glass shard he uses. This scene is raw in its disgust and incredibly uncomfortable to watch, and that’s the point. In Masuda’s own words: “People are emotional creatures. They tend to react emotionally more than logically. So rather than create designs written on paper, I have characters react emotionally - and interestingly - to the story.” (Masuda, 2006) With this idea in mind, Masuda is able to create characters that feel real. Characters you’ll find yourself genuinely compassionate towards. Characters who have a heart, in spite of the surrealist moments throughout the series. Masuda is also attempting to portray a “strange realism,” the kind that makes you feel uncomfortable on purpose to portray the rawness and brutality of this setting and these characters.

To get an idea of what I’m saying, look no further than episode 4 where Mr. Stain finds a bird in a cage in the junkyard and, of course, tries to eat him, but he manages to escape. However, the bird then saves Stain from falling to his death, which leads to the two bonding with each other. But the bird died because the season changed and it was a summer bird or something like that. So Mr. Stain violently chops up the bird, cooks it, and stuffs it in his mouth. Masuda talks about in an interview about how when he was young he would see chickens being chopped up this exact way, so he was very used to this kind of unapologetic violence.

All of these scenes are disgusting and uncomfortable. Mr. Stain’s art is weird and gross. Yet everything is portrayed in a strangely real and relatable way—exactly what Masuda is trying to achieve. Characters that are morally questionable and disgusting, yet undoubtedly human. It’s able to tug at your heartstrings and make you genuinely care for these characters, even after (or during) these brutal and disgusting scenes. Alongside the art amplifying a sense of realism, everything makes for such a surreal experience. If I haven’t sold the idea that Mr. Stain is incredibly surreal yet, during the last scene of episode 2, the lizard that hung out with Mr. Stain and Palvan dies and his ghost rips a fat cigar right in front of their faces before ascending to heaven. Everything about Mr. Stain is batshit insane, yet the fact that it’s able to build a world and establish characters that feel relatable is impressive. I’ve got one more quote from Masuda to ponder: “I’ve always been drawn to stories where things don’t quite come together perfectly, often with an ironic twist. It’s something closer to Terry Gilliam’s style of humour [Monty Python] than to typical Hollywood movies. I also loved manga growing up and frequently read works like Phoenix by Osamu Tezuka. It’s not a happy-ending story—instead, it explores themes like life’s disjointedness and challenges. And because of that, the ‘fate’ that sweeps the protagonist along takes on a strange weight, a unique realism. It’s not just gritty; it’s more like a vastness that leaves you awestruck once you finish reading.” (Masuda, Oct2009).

I find Mr. Stain to be a significant part of Masuda Ryuuji’s portfolio of 3DCG anime for all the reasons I’ve discussed in this review. He was able to more freely explore the wicked, and oftentimes grim, ideas he has. You can feel his creativity overflowing throughout Mr. Stain, be it through the characters or set pieces. It’s a shame that Mr. Stain is often overlooked in comparison to its significantly popular predecessor, since I believe it provides a similar level of crude and wicked absurdity that made Popee the Performer so charming in the first place.

And to end on a similar note as my Popee the Performer review, Mr. Stain is the idea of rejecting your sensibilities and embracing unconventionality personified into a story. Mr. Stain is the kind of anime you can very easily dismiss on a surface level for its strange art style and disgusting story. Yet it’s exactly these aspects that challenge the viewer’s sensibilities, as it’s able to portray a surprising sense of humanity throughout its surrealism. It’s visceral, raw, and real, all of which makes for such a truly unique experience that I highly encourage anyone interested to try. Thanks for reading this review <3.

-Sources-
- Masuda Ryuuji Interview for Mr. Stain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LTagdc7pVg&list=PLtABcpnRh2OyYD6f6zHHyl7JOTRvvc7s4
- Adobe Education Interview https://web.archive.org/web/20141129032634/https://www.adobe-education.com/jp/interview/interview18.html

With the recent hype around Popee the Performer, I just felt attracted to viewing Masuda's other works. It's just as enjoyable, if you liked Popee, like weird or bizzare shows, or generally dark themes, you'll love Mr. Stain on Junk Alley!

As far as story goes, there isn't much of a linear plot, but past events are referenced in later episodes. What started off as a silly weird childrens' show became a throw at humanity. Honestly, the more you get invested, the more you realize what Junk Alley is and who it reflects in life.

Everything is CG Animation, as Masuda is known for, but the ... visuals are very good considering (1) budget and (2) time era of production and release. There are no speaking lines, just noises from Mr. Stain, but sound effects and music are really well put. The outro is a bop to be honest.

Each character has a special role on Junk Alley, and it always seems like Mr. Stain is looking for his if he's unsatisfied with his heartbreak and art career.

It's bizzare,it's sad, it's enjoyable, there is no way to describe it other than it is the pinacle of Ryuji Masuda.

From the creator of Popee the Performer was all I needed to know about Mr. Stain on Junk Alley to give it a shot. The more time passes, the more I realise how truly original, inspired and deeply traumatising Popee was. Mr. Stain has a lot of the same stylistic choices. It’s entirely CG animated with rather creepy shiny faced character models. There’s no spoken dialogue, with only the odd musical cue and recycled sound bites used. Each episode is only 5 minutes long and features some truly bizarre imagery. The big difference between the two is while Popee is about the darker side of ... humanity with jealousy, sadism and hatred, Mr. Stain is about compassion and love, albeit sometimes a rather creepy desperate form of love involving paintings and flowers.

The story is about Stain, a homeless dude living in an alleyway full of rubbish and follows his escapades as he rifles through the seemingly endless piles of junk to find strange artefacts. As a general rule, the weirder the item Stain finds, the better the episode will turn out, which isn’t as often as I would like it. A big part of this comes from the animation not really working if you’re not going to go properly surreal. The characters look vaguely nightmarish with their bug-eyes and unreal movements, which is used intentionally in Popee to make you feel uneasy while Stain tries to tug on your heartstrings. While Stain’s grasp on reality is loose at best, unless it goes truly bizarre the episode rarely leaves much of an impact.

When it does go truly strange though, it works magnificently. I prefer the idea that Stain doesn’t actually have any of the adventures the episodes show him having. He’ll find a dead bird and them in his hunger-driven state will concoct a story involving him tending to this bird’s ailments and building it a shelter. When taking this in mind, the formula works better when some of the darker desires of Stain comes through in the stories. My personal favourite was the one where he grew his own plant lady and spent their nights dancing on the rooftop as aliens flew in overhead and blew up the city. Or where sentient clay takes over the body of his cat and now Stain has a friend in the same shape as himself. These reflect his desires for romance but seen through his equally strong desire for some form of life and green in his dingy alley, or alternatively his desire for friendship but with someone much like himself instead of with his cat.

Mr Stain 2As I said before though, Stain is not nearly weird enough. Apart from one truly strange scene involving a black hole forming in the centre of a cat’s face, the show never made me truly pull a 0_0 face while Popee managed this reaction at least once per episode, usually more. They’re obviously different types of shows. Popee uses the weirdness for dark comedy, while Mr. Stain uses it to show the main character’s compassion. But the weirder it got, the more impactful the compassion through this bizarre view of the world became. It could have been even better than Popee because Stain has heart that does manage to get to you. Well OK, Popee has heart too, but it’s a blackened dead heart while Stain gives you feels.

That said, this director still has a great grasp of storytelling, and there’s a huge amount of imagination on show. The voiceless characters means they over-exagurate everything, but what’s great is how it shows emotion in the non-human characters. The glove that’s trying to rescue the lost little girl, or the robot who just wants people to dance with him. It’s that same Pixar style of emotion through non-human characters that makes it work, even when the character is a flower with very long attractive legs that is merely the concoction of a homeless man’s longing sex-drive mixed deliriously with his gardening hobby. I did enjoy the show quite a bit, and it’s certainly an easier starting point to this man’s style than Popee is, which is like introducing you to swimming by throwing you into the mouth of a basking shark. It’s very short and I would recommend you give it a shot, especially as preparation for the true masterpiece that is Popee.