So I found this movie at a closing media store for $1.99 with an additional 50% discount. I wasn't expecting much at all. Looking into this, I'm finding out this is mostly a one man project aside from voice actors, help with backgrounds and such after the creator's (Tact Aoki) hands stopped working properly, and other things like motion capture or singers. Tact Aoki did the rest of the music, the screenplay, script, directing, producing, and pretty much everything else. He says he definitely regrets trying to do everything on his own, but he still seemed really passionate about his creation.
Without knowing any of that, I watched this movie and thought it was actually kinda good. Yes, the movements of the characters weren't always too fluid and could be described as flat, but at the same time, the feelings of the main characters were all expressed really well. The art style really drew me in as well; the characters mostly look so different from each other. If this art was just on paper, the style would have a certain edge to it, but there would be an interesting bit of expressiveness.
I actually liked the script and our two main characters more than I thought I would. I actually appreciated that this anime's story wasn't just, "Always pursue your dreams and do your best". It's more like a "People might try to stop you from going for your dream, but don't use that as an excuse to not do it". 'You wanted to do x, and you left because someone won't let you do x, but now that you're away, you haven't done anything to further achieve x'. No more excuses. I like that message.
The music was usually nice too. Relatively nice voice acting. I dunno, I just really liked the street vibe this anime gave me, and the story wasn't too bad.
Seeing that this was a nearly one man project, I'm actually impressed with how this turned out. Sure, there are other one man projects which were "better", but it's all about what skills said one man has. Tact Aoki was a musician before he started to dabble in animation. He just kinda decided he wanted to make a movie and did it. He doesn't have the skills to make a "better" one man project, but for the skills he does have, I felt he did a really good job conveying what feelings, messages, and other important aspects we was attempting to get across to his audience. A "professional hobbyist" as he called himself. I actually learned a few things from this anime personally, but one thing I will definitely take to heart is Tact's warning. I'm someone who isn't fond of asking for help and prefer to do everything on my own. I just finished a project on my own a while ago-- I did all the audio mixing, voice acting, art, and music. It was stressful and took a lot more time than I expected. That wasn't even the project I was planning to work on-- it was a class project. The project I wanted to work on was on a much larger scale. The school project's art was all still frame with no animation and I was already pooped after like five frames. The project I had planned to work on before the class project came up would have actual animation. I'm still ready to do it, but I've been hesitating because I know doing all this crap alone is harmful to oneself. The warning Tact Aoki gave was exactly what I should heed, "Don't try to make a movie by yourself". He stressed that it was good to work with others and looking back, he wonders how he EVER thought he'd be able to do everything by himself. It's really making me rethink some things... It's really important.
I'm really glad an anime was able to make me stop to think about so many things: working alone, not preventing yourself with excuses, and the art style of this in general. I just really like the art style. Maybe the animation could be better, but the art style is just so cool.
Anyway, overall I think this wasn't too bad. I might even recommend it to someone who has the ability to measure something's worth on more than its animation/art style. |