Shunji Iwai, this name is not unfamiliar to everyone. "Love Letters", "Fireworks", "Swallowtail Butterfly" are all his works, and he is a very personal director.
Today's manga to say that this anime "Flower and Alice Murder Incident" is also his work, but also the first animation work he directed, which integrates live-action performance and animation to achieve the unification of image tracing technology and 3DCG technology.
Therefore, in the case of different painting styles and low frame counts, "Flowers and Alice Murders" still uses smooth and grounded action, various small details of the characters, and simple but not conventional young girl youth stories, which have touched the audience and produced emotional resonance.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Preface: Synopsis of the story, the story of the two girls</h1>
"Flowers and Alice Murder Incident", many people may be dissuaded when they see this name, but in fact, there is no "killing" incident in the plot.
Flower, is Arai flower, Alice is Tetsuko Ishikawa, the Japanese pronunciation is the same as Alice, so it is called "Alice". The two people did not have any connection, and the "killing incident" was the bridge and bond that connected the two of them.
Alice's parents divorced, and her mother took her to the countryside, where there was a flower house next to her new home, and there was a girl inside, who often looked through the window at the pedestrians outside. On her first day, Alice was so frightened that she fell downstairs.
That girl, that's the flower.
Alice's school after the transfer is The Flower's School, and the class is also the same class, and it is more coincidental that the two of them are actually front and back tables, but the flower stays at home for a long time and has not been in school, the reason is because of "Judas's death".
It was rumored in the class that Judas had four wives, and then one of them found out about his other wives and poisoned him. Therefore, the person who sat in that seat would be cursed by Judas and taken to the demon world. There is also a classmate Mutsu who sets up a boundary and casts spells every day, making it mysterious.
Because sitting in that seat, Alice witnessed Mutsu's serious casting of spells and "believed it" to be true. Later, she saw the letter from the previous owner in the mailbox of her new home and saw a name called "Yuda". Originally, the pronunciation of "Yuda" was "Judah", and "Judas" meant Yuda.
In order to find out if the room she was staying in was the room of the "dead Yuda", she went into the hanaya, met Arai Hana, and was told about the relationship between "Juda" and "Yuda".
The two also conspire together to track down Yuda's father and find out whether Yuda is alive or dead. The process is very bumpy, tracking the wrong person, the last train did not catch up, squatting in the Yuda family's neighborhood, cold enough to hide under the car at night, and in the morning there was a "friend was swept into the bottom of the car" oolong.
Fortunately, they met Yuda.
The teenager who liked the flowers, but in order to make everyone remember him, he gave many girls a "scumbag" Yuda who applied for marriage. The flower gave the marriage application but was rejected, and finally the flower took a bee and stung the tang field rolling on the ground.
Seeing this, everyone has actually understood that this is a young girl's youth story, a sweet but sour youth story about friendship and love.
After reading the biggest feeling, in fact, is the friendship between Hua and Alice at first sight. Two people seem to be friends who have long known each other, because an event has laid a solid friendship, accompanied by a journey to find out the truth, triggering a series of funny stories, pure friendship, really very enviable.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > there is no male protagonist in the teenage girl's youth story</h1>
Unlike other teenage girls' youth stories, the protagonists in this story are actually Flowers and Alice. The "Yuda", who has been used as a story thread throughout, is just a background board, and he is not present in the girls' stories.
Hana grew up with Yuda Aome Takema, and the two of them often gave each other gifts on Valentine's Day or birthdays, which lasted for many years. Later, the two men also made the front and back tables. As usual, Hana gave Yuda chocolates, but with a marriage application attached.
For the flower, it was a confession of love. Unfortunately, Yuda refused, but sent marriage applications to other girls, and there were three of them.
Judging from the whole plot story, Hua is a girl who dares to act, and she does everything temporarily and does not consider the consequences. It's like she came up with a improvised idea to let Alice go to Yuda's dad, just like she said she wouldn't go out for more than a year without going to school. This time, too, she caught a bee and threw it into Yuda's clothes when he wasn't paying attention.
He was about to transfer to the stage to speak, but suddenly he fell to the ground. This is the result that The Flower did not expect. Listening to her classmates say that "being stung by a bee is going to die, convulsive death", she subconsciously thought that Yuda was dead, "killed by herself", but she never thought of contacting him, if she went to inquire about him.
It wasn't until Alice's appearance that she bravely took this step, but unfortunately the result was the most hurtful.
"You put the bee on my back, it hurts so much that I can't forget it for the rest of my life." Yuda didn't know her mind, and from beginning to end she was the only one who lived in the past, immersed in her own imagination. So in the end, she still chose to immerse herself in what she thought was happiness. "This is a confession of love, and the pain makes him never forget me for the rest of his life."
Boys and girls, completely different dialogues, enough to show the sourness of the crush and the loneliness of the girl's feelings, this is not youth, what is it, the youth without the male protagonist, it is more worth recalling, let people grow up quickly.
Flower walked out of the house and went to school with Alice.
This story is actually very similar to "Love Letters", the only difference is that the object of the crush has changed.
In "Love Letters", Fujii Shu likes Fujii Tree, but the female Fujii Tree does not know it. After the death of the male protagonist for many years, the female Fujii tree discovered this secret, so the audience experienced the romance of love and the helplessness and sourness of two people missing.
"Flower and Alice Murder" is that Hana likes Yuda, but Yuda does not know, and in the end he does not know, he did not participate in the growth of the heroine.
Therefore, the audience only experiences the sourness of the crush, their own sentimentality about youth, and their perception of growth.
I have to say that when Iwai Shunji deals with the emotions of men and women, the details are in place, and the emotional release is also properly handled, which makes people have different spiritual experiences.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Alice's youth, dreams and freedom</h1>
Alice's story is more bitter than the flowers. Mom and Dad divorced, their lives were tight, and they were forced to give up ballet. Although absent from her father's love, she is more mature than a flower, knows what she wants to do, knows what she wants.
She talks and acts like a mother, obviously a junior high school student, but it seems that she is already an adult. She is very casual, the whole person is very lazy, the relationship between classmates, but also calmly faced, is a girl who does not let people worry.
She is optimistic, positive and cheerful at every moment, in other words, a big grin, a bit of a fool's feeling. Go out and take out the garbage, and jump and jump, and the dance steps start from scratch. I fell down the stairs of the flower house and had to lie down for a minute before getting up. When you wake up and find that the flowers are missing, you will chase the car with a low head, thinking that the flowers have been swept into the bottom of the car...
The more this happens, the more painful it becomes.
Hearing dad say that the waiter's hands are "really white", she would retort with a sentence of "domestic flowers do not have wildflower fragrance". When Dad leaves in a car, he will run and chase the car. Her relationship with her father had always been like this, one kept moving forward, the other kept chasing.
Even if you catch up, you don't speculate for more than half a sentence. And when I went to see my father, I dressed very maturely and had a feeling of pretending to be mature. Growing up, her father was absent.
The director did a detail in this place. Alice chased Yuda's father for a long time in a car, but was later told that she was chasing the wrong person.
Later, she ate with the old man, sat down to talk, walked on the road together, swung together... This is not what Alice and her father should do.
Man Man believes that this paragraph is actually a compensation for Alice's father's absence, borrowing the story of the grandfather to show her desire and desire for father's love, so Alice follows the grandfather with confidence throughout the whole process, and will take off her clothes to fan the wind for him when he is tired. Strangers have yet to do this, and it is highly likely that Alice has automatically assumed the role of daughter.
This is also youth, a youth in which a family is incomplete, but love is complete.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > school bullying, but also belongs to the ghost story of youth</h1>
In addition to telling the story of love, friendship, and expressing warmth and healing, school bullying is also mentioned in the work.
The aforementioned Mutsu was actually a victim. She was not only bullied by boys, but also by women's gangs, and was once so scared that she wanted to skip school.
Borrowing from the "Yuda Incident", she made up lies, self-directed and acted in the story of Judas and his 4 wives, and pretended that she was possessed by Judas, frightening and peeing on the "campus hunter" and "Ghost No Yuya" who bullied him, so that his prestige was swept away, and he was scolded as "Waste Wood Man" and "Nest Waste". Later, he directed himself and performed an exorcism ritual.
The girl who bullied her before also became her subordinate...
It's a way for her to escape bullying in schools.
When Alice first entered the class, she was also isolated because she sat at the table that was cursed by Judas, and she was hated by the girls in the class, and bullied by the boys...
As the nest bag waste said: "Bullying, is to feel that the other party can not fight back, so that you can be at ease to bully." 」 Therefore, Mutsu rebelled, and So did Alice, and they avoided being continuously isolated and bullied.
Although this passage is not long, it is enough to point out the theme of "opposing bullying in schools", and expresses that "when you are bullied, you must stop resisting and cannot be bullied." The more patient they are, the more fiercely they bully" view.
Man Man felt that this point unfolded very well. There is a prank in the story of youth - a bee in the clothes, but once the "convulsive death", this becomes a crime.
The same is true of school bullying, which seems to be the self-esteem and comparison in the youth story, but if it causes physical and psychological harm to the other party, it is no longer a joke, but a violation of law and discipline. You have to say no to school bullying!
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > rambling</h1>
Although the story is not long, only more than 90 minutes, there are many philosophies and connotations hidden in the story, so that the audience can feel empathy and recall their youth stories.
The road we walked together, the silly ones we played together, the two who committed crimes together, recall, these are precious youths, and they can never go back. Whether it is a sour crush or a beautiful friendship, it has become a passing cloud.
In addition, this anime work uses image tracing technology and 3DCG technology, even if the painting style is a little weird, but many small actions and small details of the characters are still displayed, allowing people to see the fine plot and delicate emotions.
Leaving aside that weirdness, what you see is smooth movements and a more human, grounded acting show. This is even better than the protagonist acting skills of domestic youth idol dramas.
The art director of this work is Takiguchi of "The Garden of Words and Leaves", and his strength is naturally very strong. And according to Shunji Iwai's interview clip, the background of the watercolor painting is basically presented in a complete painting.
If you don't like its style, look at it as a live-action movie, and you'll find that it's not obtrusive at all, because all the action settings are live-action interpretations.
It's all very real emotions, very real actions!