In the Japanese animation industry, director Yasuhiro Yoshiura can be said to be a legendary figure.
When he began to produce animation in college, at the age of 28, he single-handedly supervised the scripting of "Eve's Time", a science fiction masterpiece that has been praised by countless people.
When talking about Yasuhiro Yoshiura, people always like to compare him with another animation director of the same period, Makoto Shinkai, who is more familiar to us.
Today we are going to talk about an independent animation by Yasuhiro Yoshiura that is earlier than "Eve's Time".
<h1>Cocoon of the Cangs</h1>
Independent animation generally refers to animation that is not for profit, but out of the director's personal interests and hobbies and his own desire to express.
Therefore, compared to most commercial animations, independent animations tend to be more stylized and intentional.
Cocoon of the Sky is an OVA anime produced by Rokuka Studios, in which Yasuhiro Yoshiura is responsible for a series of work such as the original case, script, and production.
Through this work, Yasuhiro Yoshiura completed the transition from independent animation to commercial animation.
Released in January 2006, Cocoon is a short 23-minute film.
In the animation, both the surrounding environment and the main characters are dark yellow and have a metallic luster, which forms the tone of the animation.
Among them, the use of montage techniques, the pushing and pulling of long shots, etc., all give people a strong visual impact and create an animation atmosphere like Hollywood blockbusters.
As for the content of "Cocoon of the Sky", it chooses the classic theme of "survival at the end of the world", and the audience can easily feel the real thinking of director Yasuhiro Yoshiura on the fate of mankind.
The story is set in the future —
A future in which the Earth's environment has been devastated. The records that we call history have been extinct somewhere. When we realize it, humanity already exists in this world
This is a monologue by the male protagonist Ula at the beginning of the animation.
From the narration after the male protagonist, we know that because of the destruction of the earth's environment a long time ago, people can only continue to migrate to the dark and gloomy underground, relying on the environmental support devices located at the bottom to live.
The male protagonist works in the restoration class of the Excavation Bureau.
The main responsibility of the restoration class is to repair the excavated records of human life in the past, and to piece together the history that has been forgotten by many people based on various fragmentary records.
As the male protagonist said:
"The reason I'm here is that it's the only clue that I can know about the past."
However, in this tall-looking work, gradually only the male protagonist was left.
Others resigned from the Excavation Bureau for various reasons.
One of the most important reasons is that the more people learn about past life, the more they learn about that green world and the humans who destroyed it, the more they despair of reality.
No one wants to see humanity's own stupidity anymore.
If the goodness of the past causes the present person to feel pain, then it is better if that past does not exist.
"Freedom", "ocean", "sky", "sky", "cocoon"...
Everything in the world has disappeared, leaving only a string of corresponding cold nouns.
Every noun seems extremely ironic.
Even the female protagonist, who has been accompanying the male protagonist, has gradually become estranged from the male protagonist.
Unable to contain her inner grief, she yelled at the male protagonist:
"Dig out all the records and the world can change?"
Even so, the male protagonist still did not choose to give up.
"What's up there?"
He often thinks of it this way, but it is not allowed to go up.
There are no environmental maintenance devices on it, and humans can no longer withstand the environment at the top.
As a member of the people who could not accept reality, the heroine's grandmother insisted on staying in the upper echelons.
Later, she fell from above, and her body fell to pieces.
One day, the male protagonist repaired a new image record.
Unlike previous recordings, this time the image recording is with sound, which is something that has never been done before.
It shows a woman holding a book.
As the restoration work progressed, the truth was gradually revealed:
It turns out that the earth has indeed suffered devastation due to population increases and other reasons, but at this time, what humans live in is not the bottom of the earth, but the bottom of the moon.
Humans have abandoned Earth and have long lived on the moon, the so-called colony.
The sudden truth shocked the male protagonist.
The self-deception of human beings coupled with the fault lines of records has gradually become accustomed to a life in a quiet corner.
They think they have high technology that surpasses the past.
The previous book was nothing more than "a form of text and image recording in physical form", which could not only be recorded once, but also could not exchange information between different books, as is the case with the current book.
More importantly, everyone believes that they still live on Earth, but at the bottom of the Earth.
Doesn't it say that humans originated in the oceans? Now we are back at the bottom of the ocean, but only back to the source of life.
Everyone comforts themselves in this way.
Or more accurately, self-paralysis.
Even the male protagonist, who did not give up his job at the Excavation Bureau, doubted the real reason for his stay:
"Maybe I just want to immerse myself in the record. After getting used to living only in this huge artificial barrier, just to escape from these realities. ”
This time, instead of choosing to escape, he desperately climbed up the long ladder, wanting to see the "rusted" earth with his own eyes.
However, what he never expected was that the earth in the distance that came into his eyes was now glowing a dazzling blue.
It turns out that after a long period of self-purification, the environment of the earth has been restored.
It's just that people living on the bottom of the moon have given up the opportunity to see this scene.
The male protagonist witnessed this scene.
However, before he could react more in shock, the cable of the ladder broke.
Without the role of the environmental maintenance device, the male protagonist floated in the air and died quietly.
The moment he came into contact with the truth, it was also the moment he disappeared.
It all happened silently, and eventually no one knew.
Overall, the anime Cocoon of the Cang is a short, but tragic work.
However, the first 15 minutes are slightly dull, which may dissuade some viewers who like to watch the animation from beginning to end.
But!
After the first 15 minutes of "staying up", from the 16th minute, you will experience what it means to be in full swing.
With the appearance of the Divine Comedy, all the truths poured in and made people dizzying.
The vastness of the universe, the smallness of mankind, the wandering of divinity...
Everything will intensely stimulate your nerves.
The title of the anime, Cocoon of the Heavens, which means "blue shell", refers to the earth.
It's a hopeful ending, as it finally wakes up from its long sleep.
Although the death of the male protagonist has buried the truth again, Yoshiura Yasuhiro still gives hope to this group of weak humans.
The truth will one day be rediscovered.
"People always have things they don't want to change, that's why they keep them on the record."
When will the next excavator appear?
We don't know.
But I would like to believe that he will show up.