Shelf Life

Spiriting Away

Ishi does a splendid job creating each character's backstory; it helps that he has a deliciously unique sense of humor, illustrated with everything from yakuza men with fecal coils on their heads, to grandfathers who debate the best poses an anime superhero should adopt. It's the kind of humor where you have to giggle and ask yourself, "Is this really happening?" It's a bit laborious to sit through, quite honestly, but the movie delivers the reward of watching each person chasing after his/her own goals, and observing as characters' lives deliberately weave together at crucial time points. However, as I said, it requires a lot of patience, especially for a full-length feature film. The “slice of life” genre is a delicate one to handle, and requires a commitment from not only the director, but from the moviegoer as well.

The movie is not hard to “get.” There's really not too much to get. But, it's one of those films that have be viewed like a painting in a gallery: you sit there for a while, examine the details, and pull your own conclusions. It's definitely not your average summer blockbuster. The Taste of Tea isn't out on DVD yet, but if you can't make it to one of the theatrical showings, mark this one down for later.[TOP]

Everything else about it is just so over-exaggerated. The music matches the scenes, but only superficially. If there are children smiling, suddenly it's a whirlwind of giddy pizzicato strings and chipper flutes. Even if the children are just sitting there, eating a sandwich, the music has to be histrionically happy. When a cloud passes over the sun, the music reaches an orchestral apocalypse. Battle scenes have their trumpets blaring and their bass drums thumping and surely you get the point by now. It takes a really out-of-place soundtrack to make one realize that bad music can be very distracting.

However, now would be a good time to talk about the story itself. Sometime in the far future, Earth is so angry that mankind has destroyed it that the forests have begun to fight back. Intruders are beaten back by angry vines, and the precious water supply can only be tapped into by forming a delicate partnership with guardians of the forest. They call themselves Zruids, perhaps because “Druids” was already taken. When a young boy wanders into a forbidden part of the forest, he encounters an Enigmatic Girl. Frozen in time for 300 years, she has been “sent” from the past to help mankind realize how they can befriend the forest again.

While environmental anime films (and series) seem to be growing in frequency, it's not that aspect of it that slows down the movie. In fact, the message of the movie is an earnest one, but it's lost in somewhere in the ornate execution. While the first half does a good job of setting up mankind's plight, the ending is a maelstrom of cannons and guns and vines and outright absurdity. It's messy and distracting, just like the soundtrack. Ultimately, it's worth seeing for the artwork, but there's a lot of lost potential.[TOP]

But, really, if you are a fan of Disgaea, you will probably like this show. It's filled with energy, you can relive the game without having to play it again, and the dub is fantastic. And it has lots and lots and lots of Prinnies. Unless, of course, you're a purist, which in that case you'll be bitter the whole time because there are discrepancies between the anime and the game.

As someone who hasn't played the game, though, I can't really recommend this. By trying to cram a game into a 12-episode series, and trying to be funny while doing so, it's really made itself too inaccessible to non-fans.[TOP]

If you haven't seen it yet, though, it may be something that will pique your interest. Galaxy Railways is certainly not for everyone. Even though it was only made in 2004, it keeps the Leiji Matsumoto tradition with his trademark aesthetics and storytelling. And, frankly, to many modern anime fans, Matsumoto's stuff looks “old.”

Still, it's not fair to pass it off so quickly. The storytelling style, while quite episodic, is one that reminds me of listening to a grandparent tell stories. Each episode is like a story, and if you're the type of person who uses books and anime to explore new worlds, then Galaxy Railways will light your imagination. It sets itself in a future where intergalactic travel is made possible by trains. Although they are extremely technologically advanced, travel is still dangerous because of terrorists, meteors, and the like; it's up to the SDF to protect the entire fleet. The series follows one boy's journey as a member of the SDF, a job that leads him to perilous planets and ghostly stations and everything else that can be dreamed of in a 26-episode series.

When I first read Galaxy Express 999, I was endlessly fascinated by each new world that was introduced. It was with Galaxy Railways that that same spirit of adventure was met again. It sounds old-timey and maybe even a little silly, but even after all these years, no one quite does frontier exploration quite like Leiji Matsumoto.[TOP]