The daughter of Shimada Man, a veteran female screenwriter who has written scripts for countless popular animations, recently came to the sad news in the Japanese animation industry, saying that Ms. Shimada died of illness at 11:30 on December 15 at the age of 58.
Mr. Shimada loved Disney animation works since childhood, and joined Toei Animation Company in college, but at that time, the social concept was patriarchal, and Shimada transferred to the screenwriting class. In the past 38 years, she has created many well-known animation works such as "Dr. IQ" and "Dragon Ball".
Shimada's masterpiece "Romeo's Sky"
In 1995, he wrote the script for the 33-episode "Romeo's Sky" and became his masterpiece, after which Shimada also participated in "Detective Conan", "Kaneda Kazuna Incident Book", "One Piece" and other works. The anime "Little Witch Academy", which aired this year, became her last work, and she served as the series composition in this work, and personally responsible for the script of half of the entire series!
Today's Xiao Bao would like to recommend this article from the reader's ear mosquitoes in the past few weeks, I hope to share with you this "Little Witch Academy" brought by the touch.
The heart that believes is your magic,
The balance of 2017 has bottomed out, and among the few dramas I watched this year, the one that attracted me the most was "Little Witch Academy". I only watched this anime in October, and as a result, I watched it three times in a month and a half, and it was also a lot of applause to read reviews on the Internet. In this article, I would like to talk about this anime that is supplied with ideas.
Little Witch Academy
A brief history of the Little Witch Academy
Little Witch Gakuen did not appear in 2017, she was born in Japan's "Animation Future 2013".
The real name of "Animation Future" is "Young Animators Incubation Program" (Wakasatsuアニメーター育成プロジェクト)", commissioned by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan and organized by the Japan Animation Producers Association (2011-2014) and the Japan Animation Association (2014-). Since 2010, the program has been funded by the government and trained in the form of animation projects in commercial animation companies, with four works per year.
Little Witch Academy (OVA) is one of four works in Anime Future 2013. Five newcomer animators from Gainax came to Trigger to participate in the original painting under the guidance of the original painting boss Yoshinori, who also served as an animation supervisor for the first time. At that time, the government gave each animation a production budget of 38 million yen, according to the production of the documentary "When the Witch is Born", the number of original paintings in the general 23-minute animation is about 2,000-3,000, while "Little Witch Academy" has reached 17,000, and Yoshinori laughed and said that "taxpayers can't waste their hard-earned money."
After its broadcast in 2013, the response was very good, and it was also very popular overseas. That same year, Trigger announced plans to make a sequel and launched a crowdfunding campaign on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. As a result, within a month, 7,938 people raised 625518 US dollars (about 74 million yen). Then In 2015, Trigger completed a 50-minute theatrical version of Little Witch Academy: Magic Parade.
When "Magic Parade" was released, the TV animation plan of Little Witch Academy had already come out, so there was this year's January "Little Witch Academy".
Witches and magical maidens
First of all, let's make a point: "Witch" and "Magical Girl" are not actually a concept.
Witches are also called witches, and the provenance is no longer available. According to the Old Testament, witches use magic (or witchcraft), they worship the devil, they are the embodiment of evil. There is no shortage of witches in Western literature, and they have slowly evolved into the image of witches in our minds: black clothes, wizard hats, magic wands, flying broomsticks, various spells in the mouth, and magic around us. These are all symbolic things, symbols of the status of witches. In these works, the witch is not necessarily evil, but because of the inheritance of blood, she is born with magic power, and usually has a sense of honor as a member of the magical family.
Magical Girls are a product of Japan. They were originally ordinary people, and they became magical girls the day after tomorrow because of special reasons such as encountering some mysterious powers. Usually, they still play an ordinary social identity role, but once they encounter problems and crises, they "transform" into magical girls and use the power of magic to solve them. They are youthful, energetic, kind and brave, and are the embodiment of positive energy.
As for what the magical girl has to do with the witch, I will only speculate here. First of all, due to the influence of works such as Cinderella fairy tales, wearing glass shoes to become a beautiful princess is the dream of almost every little girl. Secondly, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Japanese government began to develop women's education based on the Western concept of equality between men and women, and the image of "young girls" was born, and culture such as lesbian relations and girls' literature was developed. Coupled with the introduction of Western witch stories to Japan, the combination of the three has produced the theme of magical girls.
Of course, this is only a preliminary judgment, and we can continue to discuss it.
Obviously, "Little Witch Academy" is the story of a Western witch. It also retains some of the more traditional rituals about witches, such as "Witch Hunting" in the theatrical version and "Witch Trial" in the TV version of Episode 17. These rituals were dark and cruel to the witch, so Diana disapproved of the magic parade, believing that "the history of the witch's suppression is only a disgrace". It can be seen that a considerable number of people in that world are malicious to witches, but the animation also refreshes people's understanding of witches through the yaks who change the meaning of the ritual.
Magic and technology coexist in the animation industry
The contradiction between magic and technology runs through the entire TV anime. With the gradual disappearance of magic and the rise of science and technology, the once glorious era of magic is gone. In an interview, Yoshinori said that the theme of animation is "today's animation industry" and that the decline of magic represents the decline of the Japanese animation industry.
Faced with this status quo, there are several attitudes in the animation.
The conservatives, represented by the teachers of Crescent Gakuen, insist on the pride and honor of being a witch, and strictly manage their own behavior while reprimanding those who do not respect history and tradition, just as the older generation of Japanese animation "artists" rebuked the animators who do not respect art now. People criticize the current animation as the exclusive property of otaku and rotten women, in large part as an indictment of the excessive commercialization of Japanese animation.
And some of the objects of their accusations are making goods that please otaku and corrupt women, and even constantly break through the bottom line in order to make money. In Episode 5, The White Dragon is exactly like this, making a lot of profits through online investment, and deceiving Crescent Academy to make them pay off their debts. But after being exposed, he also sighed helplessly, "Now what dragons and magic are outdated." He is Daisuke Hiraoka in "The White Box". Those animators who do bad work, why don't they have any artistic pursuits and don't want to do a good job of animation? They are accomplices and victims, and can only be powerlessly pushed by this trend.
There are also witches who use technology to make the wizarding world better. Spiritual fuel aside, Kulova's "modern magic" is a pioneering achievement. Although Fresnel-sensei objected to the preservation of tradition, Crescent Gakuen introduced modern magic – isn't Miyazaki also using CG technology to make Poro the Caterpillar? Whether technology is invasive or combined with magic depends on the creation of human beings.
As mentioned earlier, the outside world basically has no good feelings for witches. Radical politicians and some people, represented by Andrew's father, only believe in technology, do not understand or even hate witches, and think that magic is useless. Of course, more people are indifferent to the attitude. What happens to the animation world has little effect on most people, after all, there are other better ways to entertain. The story of Anna, the author of episode 4 "Night Fall", somehow satirizes those of us who only point fingers at the work.
After all, the decline of magic is not the most terrible, the lack of diversity and dependence on a single force is. In Episode 14, once the elves strike and control the Magic Stone, the entire school completely stops functioning, and finally relies on Kulova's SSS system to resolve the conflict. In episode 7, the mild-mannered teacher Ursula also has a rare scolding: "It's stupid to only care about grades and face!" We do not have to reject new things too much, as in the 5th sentence:
"When tradition and new power meet, the door to the unknown opens."
In addition, Yako entered the academy because he watched a wonderful magic show, just like many young people entered the industry after watching a wonderful animation. The difference is that Jacob persevered. Ji Chengyao said as early as "When the Witch was Born": "Many people, even if they have talent, will eventually give up, hoping that they can continue to paint." "In the last episode, it was 7 students who stopped the missile, and the two teachers just gave them a white coat. It seems that animation wants to make Yake them a new savior image, but also puts the future of the animation industry on young newcomers - this is the original intention of "Animation Future".
I was touched when I first saw the animation
As an ordinary animation enthusiast, "Little Witch Academy" for me is not only the so-called animation industry, but a sentence by Lottie that speaks to many viewers, including me.
"When I saw Jacob, I remembered the excitement of the first conversation with the elves as a child, and the joy of magic."
Watching "Little Witch Academy", I also felt the excitement, happiness and emotion when I first watched the cartoon as a child.
It's hard to describe.
Ma Xiaoguo in "What is Animation, why are we so obsessed with her? In the article, the charm of Miyazaki's works is evaluated "lies in his dynamic depiction of transcendent reality: whether walking or running, the crisp and neat dynamics, the rhythmic sense of rhythm, are not in reality, but are based on the imagination of reality." ”
Maybe the level of each film/episode is different, but "Little Witch Academy" also has such characteristics. Ji Chengyao's demand for character dynamics is almost perfectionist, and the audience can intuitively feel the free and rich and rigorous character movements, and the smooth and imaginative picture. That's what makes animation fascinating.
At the same time, the values conveyed by the works are simple and bring us pure touch. As in episode 11, Ya Ke refuses to use the extreme means of "forgetting everything" to achieve the goal of "becoming a Chalio", opening the end of the second sentence: "Dreams are not taken from others, but are earned step by step, through accumulation of their own." This is the same as the aforementioned Ursula teacher's angry theory of grades. In this way, whether it is the form or the content, "Little Witch Academy" is permeated with an anti-commercial and anti-success flavor.
"The heart of faith is your magic." This childish sentence that is not much to think about at first glance, or even a little chicken soup flavor, "Little Witch Academy" repeats 25 episodes. I'm a little embarrassed every time I hear it, and if a friend sits next to me, I might wonder how naïve I am to look at this thing. Until the last episode, people all over the world have turned their beliefs into magic to Yark and Diana, and this sentence has gradually become a reality from the beginning of a false statement. Kulova sighed, "Believe in the heart of magic, that is actually the source of magic." "Yes, after some experience, we understand with this exclamation that this does not require much complicated logic and explanation, this is such a simple and pure thing.
Ma Xiaoguo wrote at the end of the article: "[Our fascination with animation], comes from our vague emotions about nature, from our childhood belief in animism; from our innate perception of beauty, from our intuitive understanding of beauty and art; and from the uncertainty of the real world, from the fact that we feel that there is something strange in this world, but we cannot describe it clearly." ”
Maybe that's why we can find the emotion when we first watch "Little Witch Academy".
Know yourself and be yourself
In my opinion, this is the core theme of this animation.
Acharya was a simple, arrogant, impulsive, self-centered man, sometimes irritating. Looking at the OVA and theatrical versions, I'm looking forward to her growing up in long-form TV anime.
However, it did not.
Although in episode 21, Ursula says to Jacob, "You've grown up well", anyone with a discerning eye can tell that she hasn't grown mentally (her magic skills have grown a little). Even though she injected life energy many times to activate the Leaf of Words, the realization of this moment quickly faded. Yoshinori wants to do daily farces such as "Ninja Chaos" and "Doraemon" that do not require the protagonist's growth, but he has joined the main line of finding the end of the leaf to unseal the big three-curve branch diagram that allows the protagonist to grow. Under this fragmented approach, you can only "grow" in such a forced way.
I don't know whether it was intentional or coincidental, but this setting instead caters to the theme of "know yourself and be yourself".
At first, Jacob just kept blindly imitating Chario, wanting to win the flying competition only because Chario had won it; he wanted to become a moonlight witch only because Chario had become one. It is not until episode 12, guided by Ursula and The Fountain of Praris, that she decides for the first time to "do what she can do". The title of the 12 episodes is "what you will".
"I know I can't be Chario. Flying gorgeously in the sky, using beautiful transformation magic, I want to be that wonderful Chario. But Chario is Chario, I am who I am, and I can only be myself. This is Jacob's confession to Charlie, her biggest and only change. Jacob was still the worst witch, but everyone accepted her.
Not only Yako, but also Diana and Andrew, who have always been bound by the family, have followed their hearts later.
The final world-changing magic is a small branch. Kulova looked at it with a dazed look, like the shock of Shiraya Kurosaki when she first saw Kurosaki's swastika--"Something so small can't be a swastika!" The strongest magic in psychologist Jung's Red Book is also a small branch, and the beginning of that chapter is the beginning of OP2 of Little Witch Academy, "Raise your hands"—raise your hands and accept this magic.
A branch is very small, but it contains all kinds of things, contains the energy to change the world, so it is great, like each of us. There is no need to chase others, cultivate your own garden, and the towering giant tree also originates from a small seed. One is all, all is one, and there is no difference between great and small. Knowing yourself, being yourself, we have endless possibilities don't we?
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