Sketch artist Chen Peisi has a famous quote with a high rate of thieves:
"The core of great comedy is tragedy."
Mediocre comedy is only for Bo Jun to laugh, but great comedy makes people laugh with tears.
The animation that I want to talk to you about today is an excellent comedy that carries a lot of tears and helplessness.
It's just --
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > The Changeable Tanuki (aka Heisei Tanuki Battle).</h1>
"Hyakuyaku Tanuki Neko" (Heisei Tanuki Battle Ponpoko), this is a screening part of the screening in 1994, yoshiura rikiki workshop production exhibition of Yunippon.
Many people see the word "Ghibli" and take it for granted that "The Mutant Tanuki" is the work of Hayao Miyazaki, but it is not.
Its writers and directors are Takahata Hoon, and have nothing to do with Miyako.
However, whether it is the style of painting or the theme of the story, "The Changeable Tanuki Cat" has many similarities with the works of Gong Laozi, and is a very typical Ghibli animation.
For the animation of "Changeable Tanuki", I think it is not too much to praise.
You can't simply label it as something like "sub-supply" or "adult-oriented," or simply summarize its central idea with an "environmentalist."
It's like a prism in the sun.
People of different ages and different identities can appreciate the different colors of light it refracts from different angles.
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First of all, "The Changeable Tanuki" can be seen as a fun "Japanese Tanuki Culture Propaganda Film".
The anime mainly tells the story of the tanuki family rebelling against humans due to the drastic decline in the number of tanuki cats in the Tama area near Tokyo due to uncontrolled urban expansion.
In the eyes of the people of the island country, the tanuki cat is a mysterious animal, and the random change of form is a major feature of them.
As early as the Nara period, about 1400 years ago, there are records of tanuki cats transforming into human form in Japan.
According to the title of this animation, the tanuki cat who can "change" seems to have the ability to change is still above the "seventy-two changes" of Sun Wukong.
However, the tanuki in "The Changeable Tanuki" is different from the Tanuki cat in Japanese folklore:
In folklore, the transformation of tanuki cats is mostly a prank performed to fool humans,
The anime rewrites it as a means of a tanuki cat's last resort to protect its homeland from human destruction.
Although transfiguration is a tanuki talent, this talent is not possessed by every tanuki.
Some, no matter how hard they try the day after tomorrow, it will not help.
In the animation, the "change" of tanuki cats is also reflected in their group fights.
The tanuki cat damaged in the war will first change clothes with one button, and then change into stick figure form, as if it has suffered a dimensionality reduction blow.
It is worth mentioning the two magical eggs on the tanuki cat.
Legend has it that the eggs of tanuki cats are not only huge, but also have multiple functions, and they are used as a substitute for quilts, fishing nets, shields, boats, etc.
The egg is the secret weapon of the tanuki, and the anime "Changeable Tanuki" does not forget to play this terrier.
One day, an elderly turtle monk gave a lecture on a red blanket under a cherry blossom tree.
The turtle crane monk made a naughty wink of the large and small tanuki cat below, and told everyone proudly in his tone.
The red blanket under their butts is actually their own egg, which is just the size of eight tatami mats when it gets bigger.
The Shikoku area of Japan is where the legend of tanuki is most prevalent, which is also fully reflected in "The Changeable Tanuki".
The anime section on the Youkai Battle basically refers to the legend of tanuki in the Shikoku area;
Therefore, Tama sent a tanuki cat to Shikoku to ask the elders of Shikoku for help.
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In the anime, the tanuki cat in the Tama area is constantly fighting with the "evil" humans in the face of life and death.
However, this seemingly serious battle of the beavers is actually full of jokes.
At the meeting of the patriarchs of the Tanuki family, no one wanted to be selected as messengers to go to distant places to ask for foreign assistance, so they invariably began to pretend to sleep.
At this time, the fireball grandmother in the tanuki cat came with a large bag of hamburgers, and all the tanuki cats were awake for a second, and they ate and drank without shame.
In this way, the patriarchal council "smoothly" ended.
What's even more ironic is that the hamburgers they eat are actually made by humans.
Tanuki's attitude toward humans is ambiguous.
In their view, humanity should have been exterminated.
But without people, you won't be able to eat burgers, donuts and fried chicken.
So the best thing to do is not to kill everyone and leave a small part.
Not only that, the tanuki cats also retrieved a television set from human waste, adhering to the attitude of "mastering the art of mastery and making a difference", hoping to understand the latest actions of humans by watching TV news every day.
However, the ideal is very full, the reality is very bone.
Television was soon used to watch food shows.
After all, foodies can't be poured.
At this moment when everyone is trying to prepare for the war, winter has disappeared in the blink of an eye, and warm spring has arrived.
Spring, also known as the season of animal mating.
Most Tanuki follow Grandma Fireball's advice to restrain lust as much as possible before winning.
Female tanuki cats have a great task - in the face of male tanuki cats who can't control their estrus, female tanuki cats need to immediately transform into "kung fu tanuki cats" and generously give each other a fat beating.
In order to test everyone's training in transfiguration, Grandma Fireball will take the tanuki cat transformed into a human to the human world for internship.
Some of them are timid tanuki cats, who are scared back to their original shape by passing vehicles when crossing the zebra crossing.
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"The Changeable Tanuki" is an animation that makes people laugh. Watching this group of cute creatures jump up and down, the corners of your mouth will definitely not be able to help but upturn.
But smiling and smiling, you may have a hint of fear in your heart.
Is "The Changeable Tanuki" really just telling the story of a group of tanuki cats?
Not really.
The further you look down, the more you will feel that they are not so much tanuki as humans in tanuki.
Many of their behaviors are the same as those of humans who are spurned by them.
After passing the graduation exam, several Tanuki cats of the main battle faction disregarded dissuasion and used their newly learned transfiguration techniques to launch a surprise attack on the humans on the Tama construction site.
Under the influence of a series of so-called "accidents" caused by tanuki cats, the human side suffered heavy casualties.
Some people began to reflect whether the development of new towns had angered the gods.
On the other hand, the tanuki cheered for this stage of victory.
The turtle crane monk uneasily reminded everyone not to forget to mourn the poor human beings who lost their lives because of this incident.
In the process of mourning, many tanuki cats pretend to recite the Buddha, but in fact they are holding back a smile.
The so-called mourning ceremony is nothing more than formalism.
And isn't this kind of formalism exactly what human beings are good at?
Before deciding to unite against humans, the Tanukis formed gangs for food and territory, and experienced a long infighting until Grandma Fireball appeared.
Grandma Fireball warns them that brainless infighting will only cause both sides to lose, and that the human encroachment on the settlement is the main contradiction facing the Tanuki family at this time.
Unfortunately, the Tanuki team that had been hard to unite was discouraged by the defeat of a battle.
The hardliners said they would rather continue to attack than to crush the jade than to be complete;
The pacifists advocate that tanuki can simply incarnate in human form and coexist with humans, the disadvantage of which is that those tanuki cats that do not transform will lose the right to survive;
The turtle crane monks created a new religion, gathering tanuki cats that could not transform into each other, and everyone danced and chanted the sutra all day long, numbing themselves while complaining about the world.
However, tanuki cats are not human after all.
The failure of the Tanukis to fight is largely due to underestimating the extent of human egocentrism.
In the animation, all human behaviors, whether it is the expansion of the city or the transformation of the environment, are all from their own standpoint.
Tanuki cats cannot persuade humans not to pursue their own interests at the expense of other species.
At the same time, they also greatly underestimate the degree to which humans do not want faces.
Originally thought that the "monster battle" that gathered the strength of everyone could play a role in deterring humans, he did not want to fight the results but was impersonated by the owner of an amusement park.
Looking at the bombastic man on TV, the tanuki felt their hearts cold.
In general, "The Ever-Changing Tanuki Cat" is an animation work that has done a very good job in terms of picture design, character portrayal, and thought expression.
At the beginning, we said that we cannot simply summarize its central idea with a "environmentalism", in fact, because the so-called "environmental protection" has its starting point and destination being human beings.
"The Changeable Tanuki Cat" tells us that not only are human beings born equal, but all sentient beings should be born equal.
Tanuki cats and humans are the same status as children of nature, not dispensable appendages of humans.
Having such a grand vision may be an important reason for the appeal of Ghibli animation, including "The Changeable Tanuki".