We sincerely hope that the anime is already ceasing to be perceived in our country as something nuclear, wild and marginal. To ignore this rich layer of mass culture means depriving yourself of many extraordinary worlds, heroes and stories.
We decided from time to time to illuminate the most standing works of Japanese animation. Let's start with a small selection of films and series, which are not only good in our own, but can also be perceived in isolation from Japanese culture. These are seven stories with a non -highest threshold of entry for those who have hitherto avoided a close acquaintance with Japanese animation for any reason – whether it is characteristic stereotypes or rejection at the sight of eccentric children's and adolescence anime.
Choose.
Berserk (Berserk)
Berserk , manga Kantaro Miura , Produced since 1989. Against its background, anime-screenization seem to be trailers-even a series for twenty-five episodes. But at the same time, he himself is perceived as an independent, whole work.
At first, the Berserk captivates with its pure "medieval". Instead of a matte dark fantasy, which the first frames hint at, you are watching the thorny ascent of the hired “Falcon gang”. The harsh soldier's everyday life smoothly flow into palace intrigues, and then into a psychological drama.
The paints are thickened.Something is coming.
And suddenly something is condescending. The idea of what is happening instantly changes. The brave gats, a man of men, the owner of a two -meter sword (more like a club) and a thunderstorm of the whole district, no longer feels as cool as a couple of seconds ago. He is in shock – and with him you.
But it is worth the scene to change, and you are returned back to medieval everyday life full of conspiracies and bloody battles. Such a contrast deepens the intrigue and complements it with a sense of inevitable trouble, compared to which any battle and any war seem to be games in the sandbox. The further the huge Gats sword stretches, the blacken the shadow of Damoklov Sword over him and everyone who surrounds him.
And be sure that not a single gun will remain charged to the finale.
How to look: We'll have to choose between the old series and the new film adaptation of three full -lengths. Complete -free are more spectacular and bloody battles and outright erotica, but many interesting moments remained with brackets, and three -dimensional graphics in some places beat in the atmosphere – which can not be said about the gloomy, “dirty” old version.
Millennium actress (Millenium Actress)
The director Satoshi Kon was very fond of surrealism. In a psychological thriller Perfect Blue This technique brilliantly reflected the vice of madness, in Paprika became the language of dreams. But in the "Actress of the Millennium", Kon showed through the Sur the usual, to the ingenious simple, but not primitive drama of one actress.
The film begins with the fact that the director who makes a documentary about https://cosmobet-casino.co.uk/ the greatest actress of the outgoing century decides to take an interview from her. The seventh dozen goes to the old woman, and she lives in solitude, but still agrees to the meeting. And we all tilt together in her story, where reality has so closely intertwined with the fiction of dozens of roles that it can no longer be perceived separately.
The eras are replaced, genres are lushed, but in the focus of history there is always a pursuit of an innocent dream of youth – a new meeting with the first lover. However, the film is not at all about love: romance here was a place, but in a completely different form. The actress herself does not even remember the face of her lover – however, she carries a naive dream through the years of prosaic reality. So devoted and beautiful that own life becomes its main and only role.
Grave of the Fireflies
From the whole variety of works by the GHIBLI studio, the first of all remembers the films of Hayao Miyazaki, forgetting about other, no less important paintings. Among them, a full -length anime is worth The grave of the fireflies ", The basis for which was the Autobiographical novel by Akiyuki Nosaki.
Anime shows the life of two children during World War II. After the next air raid, the mother of the guys dies – while their father serves in the imperial fleet of Japan, the brother and sister become actually orphans and try to live on their own until the end of the war. Their story has little in common with the fairy -tale plots of Miyazaki: here innocent children are awaiting severe trials by a reality for which they are not ready. Without exaggeration, without embellishment – and with a thin, melting hope to wait for the father among the devastation and hunger.
Monster (Monster)
Is human life equivalent? The colossal "is trying to answer this question" Monster ".
Each solution has far -reaching consequences. The talented neurosurgeon Tamma Kenzo knew this fully when he faced a choice: to obey the corrupt leadership of the clinic or the Hippocratic Oath – and his own conscience. Choosing the second, Tamma receives a cruel lesson. His ideals are subjected to increasing tests, and life turns in pursuit of a monster generated by the purest thoughts.
"Monster" sway gradually. Its detective story flows smoothly, constantly looking at the world around – and this world is full of life, breathes other stories. If you like their contemplation, you will love each of the seventy series. If not, the “monster” is still able to justify its heavyweight: every new step on the path to the unraveling of the nature of the mysterious killer will be increasingly accelerate the tension.
Each new grain of information, raising the veil of secrets around the nature of Johan Libert, gives enough fuse to wait for the new. The plot of the Monster is complex, thorny and verified to the smallest detail. The author kept the balance between the detective, psychological thriller and philosophical drama. Without adding a gram of science fiction, he managed to surround the story with a dense mystical fog, wandering in which is a pleasure.
It is not surprising that Guillermo Del Toro succumbed to the charm of Monster and is already working on the script for the adaptation series. Wait for HBO.
Ghost in the armor (Ghost in the Shell)
" Ghost in armor "Became a classic of cyberpank, inspired the authors of thousands of different works (from" Matrices »Before Deus Ex ), and not just like. This is the cold world of reinforced concrete jungle, ode to the era of progress and computerization. A world that has become a cradle for high technologies and a “nursing home” for humanity, as it was. Here, a rare person has no implants, people with completely cybernetic bodies are on guard of state security, and the line between the living organism and the machine became thinned almost until completely disappeared. It is difficult to find more appropriate scenery for the history of the birth of the first artificial intelligence known to humanity.
Having dressed in the form of a detective action movie, the “ghost in armor” looks more like philosophical work. Of course, his combat scenes cause delight, and manic “dead” landscapes fascinate, but all this is only aesthetics, a form for much deeper content. I would like to discuss after watching not shootings, chases and fights using thermooptic camouflage, but completely different matters. The soul of “ghost in armor” is in questions about what progress leads to, what the next generation will live and what will change in his idea of the world, about himself and about life as such.
How to look: If the 1995 graphics are repelled (in vain), start with Ghost in the Shell 2.0 – original with an updated picture. Next, watch Gits 2: Innocence, two seasons of the Stand Alone Complex series and the Solid State Society movie. For ARISE, take the last.
Cowboy Bibop (Cowboy BeBop)
" Cowboy Bibop " – of those things that you fall in love with the first second, from the first note that opens the screensaver. He is all woven from charisma, aesthetics and style. It guesses a thousand and one source of inspiration, from the revolving smoke of spaghetti westers to the smoke of cigarette, which is impregnated with the Hero of a Black and White Noir detective. With virtuoso dexterity, Bibop juggles with its arsenal: Jet Black’s workdays and spike Spiel mix (but do not shake) different genres, giving out cosmic chases, then tense shootings, or impeccably animated fights, then heart -reasons, then reasons to think about life – And all this under the incomparable jazz-blinker soundtrack Yoko Cannon. In the lives of free -haired, there will be a place for the drama and the lyrics, and where, without this, the clip of comedy and ridiculous situations.
In each of the stories, you can find references to mass culture, parody, quotes and quails of old motives. But still, the “cowboy” has its own face – with many the smallest details, but recognizable immediately. The face of a hobby and an intake who knows how to become the soul of any company and a knowledgeable bike for every taste. On the threshold of the final, this face belongs to the best friend, with whom I want to let the real men go down the glass in the bar under the blues. At least once before the last parting, inevitable and impregnated with light sadness of tobacco smoke. Or pistol smoke.
How to look: After the series, a full -length animated film appeared, showing events before the final series of the original. This independent story reflects all the advantages of the “cowboy”, but it is better to watch it after the main anime – at least not to guess why Spike and Jet are accompanied by a woman, a child and a dog. And we guarantee that after the final series you will want to stay with these heroes a little more. The film is suitable here as possible.
Legend of Galactic Heroes
The distant future. Empire against the republic, monarchy against democracy. Good – against evil? As if not.
"The Legend of the Heroes of the Galaxy" is a grand cosmic epic. The ocean of stars, where every light is someone's life and someone's story. The romance of a classic cosmo -opera, not evaporated under the influence of the realism of the authors.
And realism here manifests itself in a lot. People have long left the limits of the Earth, but are busy with the same as before – by the division of power and a dispute, who has the state to the right. And while they find out relations with the help of thousands of flotillas and millions of lives, new stars go back on both sides of the barricades. On the one hand, there is an ambitious tactical genius Rainhard von Musel, which aimed at overthrowing Kaiser and establish a new order of things. On the other, a cheerful, but not naive pacifist Jan Wanley, who dreams of resign as soon as possible and become a historian. When Yana’s military talents become obvious, he has to come to terms with the role of a democratic “queen” in the Chess Party of two interstellar states.
And while the figures are lying across the field to classical music, a complex network of destinies and stories about political intrigues, tactical maneuvers and life during the war – a kind of “Game of Thrones” in the surrounding spacecraft. She is cruel, but not alien to romance. Indisputable classic.
How to look: The story begins with the film “The Sea of Stars submits to me” about the first combat meeting of Rainhard and Yana, but nothing prevents me from starting from the first series, and then go to full meters later. The series was shot for nine years, so the quality of the graphics is gradually growing – and with it the pace of the story and the intensity of passions. The main series is probably not enough for you – and here fifty -two series of stories about the past of Rainhard and Yana will come to the rescue: “One hundred million stars, one hundred million luminaries” and “Spiral labyrinth”. But the film "Golden Wings" is better not to watch at all.