Anju to Zushioumaru

Anju is so much better than its predecessors. You'd expect some slight progression, but thanks to Saiyuuki's blatant incompetence only a year before, it didn't happen. I can feel Takahata's touch in this, always granting his stuff a sense of gravitas, however subtle. It's also vastly superior in terms of presentation, with fluid and consistent animation, clever use of color and texture, and accurate drawing. For the first time Japanese animators fully committed to visual timelessness. Screenwriters also finally realized idealism shouldn't be the norm, presenting a rather tragic story about coping with loss, and such a fitting ending. Even the cuteness didn't feel nearlyas misplaced as in other titles, but rather properly integrated. I genuinely don't understand how this is both less watched and scored lower than garbage like Saiyuuki. This is probably the first good anime and the first case of quality losing to popularity. Most people will keep sucking Hakujaden despite being inferior merely cause it's the first.

To me, this felt like a step backwards even for TOEI movies in the sixties. The animation quality has gone through clear reductions in quality, especially when contrasted against something like Sayuuki. The story is premised to be an interesting tragic tale, but is constantly undermined by ill placed Disney stylized replica animals that have no place in the story and only serve to bog down the narrative. The character designs suffer from a lack of inspiration and there is a return to designs more reminiscent of nascent Japanese animation around thirty years its predecessor than the standards TOEI set for itself in the previousdecade. Unfortunately, the story isn't well fleshed out either and the continuing problems of poorly drafted storyboarding and a bloated runtime continue to persist in these movies. This time around, however, unlike previous works like Hakujaden or Sayuuki, there isn't any gorgeous animation and excellent sound design to elevate the rather tepid material. The more I watch the TOEI movies of the late 50s and early 60s the more I feel that Japanese animation had already taken a turn for the soulless mechanical trope style factory like production cycle that's comes to resemble the modern animation scene. TOEI studios seemed to have hit on a formula of making quasi-historical Disney style feature length animated works at a production level to great success - and in the process the spark of imagination and creativity that propelled the Japanese animation seemed to be stagnating. It wouldn't be until Mushi studios came out with Astro Boy, did we see the first quantum leap in Japanese animation and a true discovery of its own identity, scaping from the clutches of imitation that TOEI is engaging in here. The Littlest Warrior is another movie in the increasingly long line of disappointing "could have been better" Japanese animated films of the era.

While The Littlest Warrior is not a remarkable film, it is certainly a competent work, especially considering the era it was created. This is a family-friendly retelling of the original live action classic "Sansho the Bailiff" (1954). Compared to the former, The Littlest Warrior comes across as diseny-esque in more ways than one. There is an emphasis on animals providing comic relief in several instances as well as a focal point for children in order to hold their attention throughout. While not a bad thing, it did feel a little bit forced and gave the impression that the film had an identity crisis. At thetime of its production, the anime industry was still finding its footing and took great inspiration from Disney productions and this film is clear indication of that. Distrations aside, the film was well paced, had fairly good animation and art direction (even used parallaxing effects with forground elements to provide depth which I imagine was one of the earliest examples to do so in anime). All things considered, this film did an adequate job at adapting a classic tale and is recommended particularily to those who are curious about the origins of the anime industry. Or, if you are huge Ghibli fan like me and are on a mission to watch every film and tv series that Isao Takahata and/or Hayao Miyazaki worked on prior to forming the seminal studio, look no further.

This is the oldest Anime I've watched so far and maybe that's why I expected something much more worse yet I found myself more surprised than I had initially expected. The entire movie gives off the vibe of old Disney movies, only that this one doesn't have a happy ending and instead focuses on loss and tragedy. I found myself feeling for some reasons very nostalgic whilst watching this because it reminded me of old tales I used to read when I was a kid. Would I recommend it? It depends because I feel like this story and (obviously) it's animation would have little tono chances even coming close to some of the stuff we got in the last decade. But you might be pleasantly surprised if you decide to give it a try.

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