Forum - View topicSoul of the City: Cityscapes and background in anime.
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Wu Ming
Posts: 113 |
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I have to wonder sometimes, which anime director first decided to do it. As in, who tried to capture the essence of city life?
Patlabor 2, Neon Genesis Evangelion, To Aru Majutsu no Index, Ghost in a Shell, Kara no Kyokai, Kare Kano, Otogizoshi (2nd season), and a whole lot more, etc. etc. In every one of these anime, the City, whether it be fictional or a rendition of Tokyo (after all, Tokyo is at the Center of the Universe) gets a lot of screen time, and not necessarily as a backdrop. {MOD EDIT: Fixed your link. - abunai} The City has character, or perhaps can be said to _be_ a character in its own right. Animators/Anime directors are even willing to devote whole scenes to just portraying life in the City. In Neon Genesis, the viewer is brought in to feel the loneliness of Shinji Ikari as he rides a quiet rail-line similar to the Yamanote line in Tokyo. We look over the shoulder of Captain Kiichi Gotoh in both Patlabor movies as we see more and more of Tokyo Bay reclaimed and remolded, Mamoru Oshii exposes us to whole segments of the City as if he intended to have the scenes completely engulf us in both Ghost in the Shell movies, and even in Kare Kano, we're greeted perhaps not with a stunning backdrop but small reminders of the days of youth (well, if you were Japanese that is), of sliding doors, monotonic school bells, and even close ups of Pocky, Sour Lemons, and other typical candy. Even the bicycle that gets ridden by a protagonist gets a close up as it sits by the doorway of a shop, waiting for its owner to return. So, why do you think so much effort is placed in capturing the essence of the City, instead of letting it stay as mere background? |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7995 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Setting up the setting or location is one of the essentials of telling a good story. I've noticed that series that do this, and pay attention to the details, usually end up being very good. This tactic tends to draw the viewer into the show more and make them feel like they're actually there rather than just a spectator.
Although, there's a difference between doing that and just being cheap and lazy by showing stills of scenery or inanimate objects while characters talk elsewhere so they can save on money by not having to animate people. |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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As I read your post, one movie came to mind instantly: Blade Runner. If you've not seen it, the first few minutes are dedicated to showing the city. And how it does it pulls the audience in for a ride that shows a darker side of technology. If you've not seen it, do so. It's a fantastic movie. As Kruszer states, it's part of the story and gives the viewer a chance to prepare themselves for what's about to come. I also agree that there's a bit more to the story telling using this style. In many, the viewer becomes part of the story, rather than just an observer. I'd like to see more use of this, but not to the point where it's turned into a commodity for the sake that others are doing it. Time of Eve took a similar approach, albeit not to the city level. Just enough that audiences paid attention to the environment just as they did the characters. And that's just based on my observation with just two episodes. Now, to get to the rest... |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Urbanism has been considered integral to cyberpunk since its cinematic inception, as the above post alludes to. High-rise cityscapes embody the notion of technological advance like little else, and allow the viewer to grasp with some immediacy the approximate time in which a work of science fiction is set. Letting the viewers browse the streets highlights to them this difference between our world and that of the production, before characters can steal their attention. Showing the viewer around their settings, for the purpose of immersing them within them, is of course hardly anything new in film making. |
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