By Jaime Grijalba
While doing my Horror Madness Month during October at my blog I take the following approach: I need to see and review a film daily, a horror film, but what film can it be? I’ll never know. Sometimes I know the name of the film the day before I have to do the review (but I never see the film in advance), but sometimes I have to get, see and review the film in just a few hours before the midnight of the next day comes. It’s crazy, I know. Nothing would’ve told me that I’d end up reviewing a horror anime film of all things I could end up reviewing (this month I even got the chance to see and review the classic Disney animation ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ (1948), not that much horror, but scary for little kids). So for this Saturday Anime, Bob has let me link to my piece on this wonderful OVA (Original Video Animation) from the land of Japan, the 2004 production ‘Le Portrait de Petit Cossette’. Don’t let the title fool you, this is a very Japanese effort, with some of the usual traits of the anime (like the use of the lolita character with fancy dressings (specifically, gothic lolita, of all things), as well as some stock characters, but still manages to confuse and horrorize as well as give you one of the greatest and most impossible love stories of all time: between a living man and a dead girl.
You can check my brief capsule here, thanks!
Jaime, between this and “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time”, let it never be said that you don’t take full advantage of your guest spots in this column to plump through some of the stranger examples of the anime form.
This was a blind viewing for me, and what strikes me most of all is how expressive and abstractly surreal the visuals are throughout the three episodes, and how the OVA structure helps it stay as aesthetically explosive, whereas a more traditional serial or feature-length format would probably tether it too tightly to narrative obligations. Here, the threadbare story of haunted objects, spiritual possessions and eternal love is one that’s thin enough to be repeated in variations over the course of the episodes without standing in the way of the visuals, allowing for all kinds of flourishes in terms of color, framings, animation, etc. Granted, it can all get a little hectic when the supernatural action is put in the foreground– things are surreal enough on their own while people are talking, but add over-the-top set-pieces and it can get almost incomprehensible, like David Lynch directing a wire-fu movie. Still, it’s worth it for those visual flourishes, and if you’re in the mood for something dark and sentimental (and can look past the whole lolita-fetish thing or the rather oddly maternal variation they have here of the harem sub-genre) then this is definitely one worth checking out. Probably moreso than “Dance in the Vampire Bund”, anyway (by the same director, to boot.
You nail it perfectly, and I think that I may be way too over positive due to my inexperience in the field of anime. But I just wanted to tell how it felt to be overwhelmed by the visuals and the distinct decisions that made this feel like an art piece to me.
Oh, it definitely is. And another thing, it does what all great OVA and televised anime have to do in order to survive– mask the minimal animation throughout much of the running time in order to save the full motion for where it counts. This one does it primarily through a lot of rather beautiful shots that don’t have to move very much, just striking uses of color and composition.
Well, your nervousness went for nothing JAIME. I just finished reading the review and not only is the writing exrta good, but your probing analysis of the film made me want to look this one up and take a look for myself. Don’t feel bad about the rushing around, sometimes it helps you to focus when the pressure’s on. SAM and I both wrote some of our better pieces during scrable time for the Musical count. All and all there seemed to be no complaints… So, sometimes the added strain brings out the best… WELL DONE!!!!
Thanks Dennis! Do check it out if you can.
Wow Jaime, you’re busy this weekend! (Wonders readers will soon see what I mean…)
I am going to express my anime ignorance once again and ask: what is “OVA”?
I put it up there but I’ll expand. OVA is “Original Video Animation”, meaning a DVD or VHS with a 3-chapter story/arc of japanese animation.
Actually, the length of an OVA varies. Oftentimes they’re 2 or 3, with an overall length averaging about 90 minutes. 6 has been a popular length (Hideaki Anno’s “Gunbuster”, Tetsuro Amino’s “Starship Troopers” & “Iria: The Animation”, Kazuya Tsurumaki’s “FLCL” and others), and television anime tends to be concieved in 6 episode blocks (a good example of this is “Neon Genesis Evangelion”, the initial arc climaxing in “Operation Yashima” lasting six episodes). Sometimes you can get even more out of an OCA– “Giant Robo: The Animation” went to 7, with extra-long ones at the start and ending.
When I hear the name Cosette I think of Hugo’s LES MISERABLES of course. But I’m not the only one who is thinking in those terms. This was indeed a surprise Jaime, and you have penned another marvelous piece in the anime series. Like Bob says you find some rarities, and I look forward to your other contributions on this Halloween weekend.
I’d call it Cosmic Bureaucracy, these things piled up. Thanks for the comment Sam!