The 1980s were undoubtedly the golden age of Japanese animation.
A large number of famous works that we are familiar with were born at this time, such as "Valley of the Wind", "Football Boy" and other animations.
At this time, Japan has not yet experienced the storm of the bubble economy, the economy is still in the process of taking off, such an economic situation is reflected in the animation industry is that directors have more funds, can be more free to create their own works, so at that time the good works were frequent.
At this time, robot-themed animation was very popular, and "Machine Warrior Z Gundam" and "Galaxy Railway 999" were the best works of this period.
In so many famous works, there has been an obscure but wonderful animation, which consists of a series of short films, and almost every short director has become a master in the future.
This work is —
Robot Carnival
Robot Carnival consists of a total of eight short animations, of which only two are audio animations, and the other animations do not have a single line.
THE TWO SOUND ANIMATIONS,"PRESENCE" AND "MEIJI CIVILIZATION KITTAN- THE RED HAIRED MAN ATTACK VOLUME" ARE directed by Yasuto Umezu and Hiroyuki Kitakubo respectively.
Umezu Yasuto was not the yellow storm master of the future at this time, so he told a story of robot awakening in a very strange way in "PRESENCE".
In the animation, the male protagonist is an ordinary office worker, he has no worries about food and clothing, but he has a heart disease in his life, that is, his wife's work ability is stronger than his own.
So he came up with a solution that he couldn't think of in a decade of cerebral thrombosis - to build a female robot to relieve stress.
The male protagonist belongs to the standard dead house, and in the house he secretly bought, he not only builds robots, but also piles up some toys, which he feels are all to supplement the maternal love he lacked in childhood.
Just like many robot works, the robot of this work has also awakened, and the male protagonist did not write a language program for her, but she took the initiative to speak.
However, after the awakening of this robot, he did not steal or rob nor did he want to compete for human status, he wanted to fall in love with the male protagonist, and the male protagonist gradually felt unhappy when he saw the robot out of his control, and he picked up the wrench and directly smashed the robot.
When the male protagonist is old, he seems to see the female robot walking towards him again, but soon falls into self-destruction.
PRESENCE is the longest in the entire anime, and Umezu Yasuko certainly doesn't spend that much space just to tell you that no matter what species you are, you can't die when you lick a dog. (Of course, there is really no good end to doing dog licking.) ）
In this animation the properties of the robot itself are not important, what is important is that it reflects a certain inferiority of the human being itself.
In the history of mankind, there seem to be countless such a desire for control derived from inferiority, or a violent act, like the male protagonist.
Speaking of violence, the "Meiji Civilization Strange Tan - The Coming of the Red Haired Man" also reflects the violent side of human beings, and Kitakuro Hiroshi presents Japan's modern history in a very obscure way.
On the surface, the story is simple, a robot war comedy. A mad foreign scientist driving a robot of his own invention attacks a small Japanese town in the Meiji period.
A group of young people in this town drive a robot of similar height to fight back, you fire, you fire, you fight back, burn coal and use electricity at the same time. The two sides fought back and forth, evenly matched, and finally ended in the retreat of the Westerners.
The victorious young men looked at the setting sun, and the leading youth said, Victory is over; another young man answers, which is debatable.
The leading young man pointed to the sun again and said, Look, the setting sun in Japan, his companion reminded him, no, it was the rising sun.
If you look closely at this animation, you will find that this animation clearly reflects modern Japan.
The robot symbolizes the formation of a powerful force by Japan through industrialization, which has also enabled it to escape the fate of being violently colonized by other countries, but their force has also suffered from the suffering of other Asian countries.
At the end of the film, the anime is a metaphor for the fate of Japan after its violent conquest of other countries, and at the end, the young man who leads the way faces the sunset and forcibly says that it is the rising sun, and the animation is accompanied by a picture of the infamous rising sun flag.
This young man represents some of Japan's most blind and fierce militarists after its successful modernization.
Ignoring japan's actual situation, they thought that Japan was invincible in Asia and would rise like a rising sun, but in the end of World War II, it ended in a way that harmed others and harmed themselves.
The short story "Meiji Civilization Strange Tan - The Coming of the Red Haired Man" is not only very brilliant in plot, but also has a very unique lens language, and director Hiroyuki Kitakubo uses a popular transition method in the black and white film period - scratching.
When the two robots hit the winner and loser, the director directly did not put any sound to make the audience nervous about the outcome of the victory or defeat.
Using the language of the lens to mobilize the audience's emotions in this way is undoubtedly an extremely clever approach.
Of course, in addition to this animation, the short story "Frankend Tooth Car" is also very good, which is directed by Koji Morimoto.
Coincidentally, in 2003, he went to direct a short story from the also robot-themed "The Matrix Animated Version".
This "Frankend Tooth Car" is a very pure showmanship work, and Koji Morimoto almost completely restores Mary. Shelley's Frankenstein science fiction novel.
It's just that in the novel, a scientist uses a corpse to spell out a strange person, and in the animation, the scientist builds a robot by himself.
This animation does not have a single word, and it is completely touching people with rich lens language and shocking original paintings.
Koji Morimoto directly uses the gradual spread of black and white to present the most critical plot of the whole film - the resurrection of the robot.
When the robot is about to kill the scientist, Koji Morimoto does not directly shoot the bridge section of the robot's hand, but uses a cut metal ball to metaphorize the death of the scientist.
Of course, the director of the most bullish original painting must be Katsuyo Otomo, after all, this person has used 180,000 original paintings to draw an animation, which can be described as a real detail maniac.
In "Robot Carnival", you can still see Katsuyo Otomo's consistent reflection on science.
The plot of this animation is not too difficult, which can be summarized in one sentence, that is, the story of an automatic walking machine city and the destruction of a backward village.
The robot that blows the trumpet, like an army honor guard, actually fires firework-like shells from the trumpet, and a girl robot in a dress is a missile landing from the air.
These animations also have a coherent plot, the most stream-of-consciousness of which is an animation called "Cloud", which does not have any communication between the characters, that is, a small robot keeps walking.
Behind him, the audience can see dinosaurs, angels, thunderbolts, white rabbits and other confusing pictures in turn. These things give the audience a lot of power to explain.
This can be the thought of a robot when it was just conscious, or it can be a robot that looks back at human history after the extinction of mankind. Such animation is the richness of the effort to make this interpretation.
The experimental nature of these short animations is very strong, basically the product of Katsuyo Otomo organizing some of his old acquaintances and playing hi, and many directors have also cooperated with him in the divine work of "Akira".
The attempts of these big guys also remind us that we can actually have more requirements and expectations for the current animation, rather than just satisfying to watch a good story, after all, 35 years ago, there were already such avant-garde and unique works.