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Recently added to MAL, I'm shocked by how little it's been seen by others despite winning many awards in various animation festivals. "A Japanese Boy Who Draws" is perhaps the most personal and genuine thing I've ever watched, which makes sense given it's partly an autobiography.

This is however a review full of SPOILERS since it would be difficult to talk about an anime short without talking about what exactly it's about. With that said, I highly recommend it and it's only 20 minutes so give it a shot!


Review:
The most obvious trait of this short film is it's experimental art style and animation, having the style ... grow along with the protagonist as he ages and progresses more as an artist and mangaka. While this alone would make it stick out, it has an added charm of seemingly using the artists actual drawings from when they were a child, making it all feel very authentic and personal and all the better conveys the starting point of the protagonists journey.

Added on to this, there are a plethora of different art styles that are blended together, everything from pixel-art to paintings to deviantart shitposts, there's even an appearance of a Dada piece(Anti-Art) by one Marcel Duchamp. It acts as both an homage to various forms of art as well as gives us quick insight into how the protagonist feels about those around him, whether it be drawing some like muscular shonen protagonists or crude artwork indicating his distaste for them or even drawing teachers of art in classic painting style to indicate his respect for them and what he learned from them.

There's also another characters art featured, a friend from when the protagonist was a child who enjoyed drawing people with wrestling masks.

You also get to see insight into the kinds of titles and mangaka the protagonist takes inspiration from, particularly experimental titles such as Lain and Evangelion or big accomplishments like Akira.

This works into the story of the film nicely, as we see his passion for drawing leading him to become a mangaka himself and while he wants to follow in the footsteps of his heroes like Akira Toriyama or Osamu Tezuka, making something truly his own, he finds himself being brought down by the very industry he had such a passion for, slowly evolving in style to appease the crowd just to get by, leading him to art styles like Moe or Bishounen that you can clearly see his distaste for as he slowly loses the spark that he had when he was young.

This even culminates in a particularly powerful scene where we see the protagonist sit on a bench with various famous mangaka. Normally this kind of scene would evoke some kind of inspirational message but it instead subverts that by giving insight into just how far the protagonists passion has fallen, having the famous mangaka telling the protagonist to quit drawing. Eventually he puts down his pen, giving up drawing and the art immediately shifts to greyed out live action, brilliantly conveys the lack of color in his life as he moves back in with his mother and takes on a passionless life.

While all this is going on, we quickly move over to a character introduced earlier in the film, a friend from childhood who enjoyed drawing wrestling masks on people. While his skill has not progressed at all since then, the color of his artwork remained and upon hearing about the protagonists success and progression as an artist, sets up their old drawings in a museum. It's also of note that this character has down syndrome but it's never made out to be anything out of the ordinary, which I respected for not victimizing or treating it like some illness. Though I'll admit the character would have perhaps benefitted from some more screen time but works perfectly fine as a supporting character for a short film.

Eventually the protagonist receives a pamphlet for the museum from his mother, the pamphlet being partly colored, the only colored thing shown from his point of view. Upon seeing these old artworks, all colored in completely, they remind the protagonist of fond memories back when he had fun drawing and watches as the next generation have begun their journey into drawing themselves.

Seeing the pure love for what they do, the protagonist is reminded of what made him want to become a mangaka to begin with and so, fulfilling the desire of one of the kids by humorously drawing them "boobs", the color returns to his life and he goes on to continue his career, followed by credits featuring various drawings from what I assume are different times in his life that simply didn't make it into the film or perhaps drawings from his friends back in school.


Verdict:
I am not sure what could be changed about this film to make it any better besides perhaps a nitpick here or there or maybe a longer runtime but with the short time it had, it made me completely endeared to the protagonist, invested in his struggles and growth, rooting for his success and left me with a massive smile on my face.

This is an incredible example of what makes animation and artwork so wonderful as a medium, using visual storytelling to convey so much character, story and emotion along with an inspiring message about improvement through hard work as well as finding and keeping love with what you do in the face of the hardships of reality. This is as personal and genuine as it gets and I wouldn't change anything about it.

I hope to support the future works of Masanao Kawajiri.

NOTE BEFORE READING: This is a review of Gunnm: Last Order, thus it takes into account that you have already read the first series.

The highly anticipated sequel to the unbelievably fantastic original series of Gunnm. This sequel is fairly controversial due to it's change of pace and narrative to the original story, however, I still feel this is an outstanding addition to the universe.

Art: 8

The first thing you will notice is the art style change. Gally looks different than she did before. Yes, she has bigger lips and nose but her original design, while memorable and sexy, was more like a perfect doll than anything ... else, I felt she looked more realistic in Last Order. Her body also becomes more muscular which shows a more significant change from her original slim self into a badass fighter.

The rest of the designs are great too... for the most part. There is less detail in the background and character faces but the eccentric designs are what make up for it. While the original series had a rustic, gritty feel to it. Things are a lot cleaner and smoother which goes along better with the new setting.

Some robot and creature designs are very odd though. I won't give anything away but there are some questionable choices that are difficult to take seriously.


Story: 8

The series starts off and the first thing you'll notice is that it completely nullifies the ending of the original. Starting off from where Gally was exploded by Nova's bomb.

Another thing you will notice is that Last Order is less on the subtle side of narratives like the original and more on the world building and philosophical side of narratives where there is more dialogue and explanations going around.

This by no means is bad, though it can be a bit jarring going from the originals style to Last Order's style. I understand why they chose this type of narrative. The scale of this series is far higher than that of the original series. They go into space and distant planets for crying out loud. Loads of new cultures are introduced, new worlds, new fighting styles. Things need to be explained in order for it to feel believable. It would be almost impossible to keep things as subtle and laid back as the original series. Never the less, it's still heavily dialogue driven so I can understand others not being able to get passed that.

The story is split between 2 sides, the action side of things which is mostly filled by Sechs who is on a journey to find what it means to be a warrior and the philosophical/sci-fi side which is mostly filled by Gally on her quest for enlightenment and self-discovery.

The series does a good job of explaining almost everything in the series, from how the scrapyard was formed to why Gally feels the way she does about fighting. Though, it doesn't explain EVERYTHING, mostly giving hints to certain parts that will likely be expanded upon in the sequel to this series, "Mars Chronicle". While the explaining can be a bit tiresome at times, all it does is add depth to the series and makes it more believable and that much more realistic.

There are a few things I didn't quite like about the story though. Some of the fighting styles were a bit too over the top and goofy to take seriously and while the fighting is still pretty badass, it often revolves around characters yelling out their attack names, which feels more fighting shounen-esque rather than seinen. With that said though, the fights still have loads of variety and excitement.

The ending is also not so conclusive, mostly because it's not so much an ending to the series so much as an ending to this arc. It works fine but it will leave you desiring more. Luckily there is a sequel being written.


Characters: 9

The characters, like the original, are very well done. Every single important characters gets an interesting backdrop that helps you to sympathize with them more, even the supposed "bad guys". There are often times that a character is introduced as a horrible human being but is later revealed to have justifiable or at least plausible reasons for doing what they do. It helps make the conflicts feel less black and white and I was impressed with it.

I won't give too much away about Gally but there is a new angle to her in this part. It goes into her past more and we get to see why she is so drawn to fighting and why she likes to fight so much. We get to see her go through a lot of human emotions as well as question her own humanity as she goes on a journey of self-discovery of sorts but I won't go too far into it at risk of spoiling anything.

The rest of the characters in the story all serve their purposes fine and in many cases are properly fleshed out and developed. There are a lot of interesting side stories, whether it be Sechs' quest to find the true meaning of being a warrior or a post-apocalyptic vampire story which shows the cruelty of humanity. They never felt like they were interrupting the story to me though because they were always used to properly flesh out the characters and help build the world or further the plot in some way.

There are the occasional characters that, despite the excellent characterization the series tended to have, feel either a bit too silly or a bit too evil to be believable. They are very rare though and didn't take away from my enjoyment but I can understand others having a problem with them.


Enjoyment: 9

While it's true there are things in each segment that bugged me, whether it be the occasional silly design, the narration being a bit too dull or a character here or there being too unbelievable, I had a lot of fun with this series. I found it very interesting with likable characters, some fun action, some great artwork and took everything from the original series and upped it in some way even if it feels it didn't always work out.

Verdict: 8/10

I recommend this to fans of the original series, provided they can get passed the different kind of narrative it goes for.

Be sure to check out the sequel "Mars Chronicle" as well for more Battle Angel Alita goodness.