The origin of Shimbo's direction is still alive in "Portrait of Cosette!
In this "Nostalgic Anime Retrospective," we trace the history of the past and talk about the latest works.
Currently on the air is "Monogatari: The Last Story," directed by Akiyuki Shinbo. While his recent works "Nisekoi" and "Graffiti" were comedies, the fantastical style of the "Monogatari" series is the quintessential work of director Shinbo.
The work that director Shinbo even calls the "origin" of "Puella Magi Madoka Magica" is " Cossette's Portrait," released in 2004. It is a gothic horror film with three episodes.
Exploring the Roots of "Shinbo's Direction
Is "Portrait of Cosette" really the origin of "Madoka Magica"?
First of all, let me give you a simple example: the antique store where the main character, Nagari, works. The symmetrical composition of the building in the middle of a street divided into left and right is exactly the same as Homura Akemi's house in "Madoka Magica.
The cut in which Nagari's face is captured in an aperture and half of her face is painted in shadow color to give the impression of only one eye is often used in the close-ups of Araragi Koyomi in the "Monogatari" series. Also, the compositions used in the "Madoka Magica" and "Monogatari" series can be found here and there, such as placing an object in the foreground to make it black out, or using a wide-angle lens to place a person in the background. ......
Although I started from the topic of composition, the use of frames painted in one color in the middle of a scene to create a sense of tempo can also be said to have its roots in "Portrait of Cossette.
So, what is the story of "Portrait of Cosette"?
The main character, Eiri, is a college student who is assigned to look after her uncle's antique store. One day, Eiri receives a glass sent by her uncle overseas and is fascinated by its beauty. Suddenly, a portrait of the girl named Cosette is found in the storeroom. Eiri begins to communicate with Cosette, who was killed by the painter, and the two eventually fall in love.
Although there are some flashy scenes along the way in which Eiri transforms into a monster and a psychic woman fights, it is difficult to explain the story. The story takes place in front of Asagaya Station in Tokyo as a model, and the backgrounds are realistic (some cuts are photoshopped). However, without any explanation, the scene jumps to Europe during Cosette's lifetime. Cosette's dialogue is rambling and abstract, abruptly changing the flow of the story.
Is "direction" a slave to the story?
Madoka Magika" was written entirely by a solid storyteller named Gen Urobuchi. <The "Monogatari" series is also faithful to Nishio Ishin's novels and has a very literary story structure. In other words, no matter how many picturesque compositions or how many jumpy cuts are used, all of them are returned to the well-developed world of the story.
The reason why Akemi Homura's house is always depicted in a symmetrical composition is because she is a solitary being cut off from time," or "The insertion of black frames in the conversation scenes between Araragi Koyomi and the heroines indicates the disconnect between him and them.However, this is not the case with "Portrait of Cosette. Similar scenes are repeated over and over again, and the place and time are ambiguous. At the beginning of the story, Eiri and her friends are talking about love at a family restaurant. One of the friends tries to light a lighter, but it flickers twice. Each time, a close-up of the face of a woman wearing sunglasses is inserted. The sunglasses show Eiri and her friends chatting, but she does not appear in the story at all after that. How can we explain this direction?
After the close-up of the woman with sunglasses, a photograph of hydrangeas is inserted. Eiri notices something outside the window. She notices a group of elementary school girls on their way home from school looking at the hydrangeas. The elementary school students react as if they can hear Eiri and the others' conversation, but they have nothing to do with them. What in the world were these elementary school students doing there? What are the pictures of hydrangeas trying to explain? We tend to seek "meaning" in images. We tend to assume that the direction contributes to the "story. However, "Portrait of Cosette" is a work like a prose poem with an ambiguous beginning and end. The reason why prose poems are beautiful is that they have an appealing narrative.
Free from "meaning" and "story," the images are as free as fruit peeled from a branch, and each one is beautiful in its own right. The "Portrait of Cosette," presented in an irregular format of three 40-minute films, is like a painting on a plain canvas. The work is like a painting on a plain canvas, and allows the viewer to appreciate the freshness of the original creative process before the "Shimbo style" was firmly established.
(Text by Keisuke Hirota)
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