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.
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May 28, 2021
Aru Nihon no Ekaki Shounen
(Anime)
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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 ... 
Mar 19, 2015
Gunnm: Last Order
(Manga)
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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 ... |
