Another Postwar History" Restarted by "In This Corner of the World" [Re-Animate for the Post-Heisei World Part 1

As the Heisei era is coming to an end, the anime industry is also facing a turning point. Where is anime headed now? ......?

Nakagawa Daichi, an up-and-coming critic, has started a series of columns in which he looks at anime works in progress and looks ahead to the "Heisei" era and beyond!

Let's start with a look back at the year 2016.

Yes, it was that summer, still fresh in our memories, when Emperor Akihito expressed his "feelings" about abdicating the throne before his death, thus confirming the end of the "Heisei" era, and a series of social phenomena occurred in rapid succession that, coincidentally, marked a landmark period in Japan's postwar cultural history.

Pokémon GO" was a reimportation of the global boom in the U.S. and other countries, "Shin Godzilla" was a rebirth of the monster king that symbolized the very essence of postwar Japanese emotions as a mirror of reality after 3.11, and "Your Name" was ignited by the support of young people after the summer vacation and became the second highest grossing Japanese film of all time. These hits have been accompanied by a decline in the number of Japanese films in Japan.

While there are fears that Japan's national power is declining and that domestic entertainment is losing ground in all fields, these hits, boosted by the maturity of the 21st century communication environment, have modernized the assets of domestic content since the 20th century, but in different ways.

Was this a signal for the revival of Japanese culture, or was it merely a mere prolongation of life in the face of inevitable decline? Such a big judgment will probably need to be made in later years.

However, by being aware of the world that each of us wants to see, we should be able to find our own way of life that will not be shaken no matter how the times change.

With this in mind, the aim of this series of articles is to decipher the present state of Japanese animation as a means to a post-Heisei era world, and to salvage the materials that will connect watching and living.

Therefore, it seems most appropriate to start this story with a film that continues to affect the reality of those who watched it most profoundly, albeit mildly, in the midst of the 2016 shock.

I am referring to "In This Corner of the World," a film that has been on an award-winning streak since its release in November of the same year and continues to run for an exceptionally long time.

The end of the change in the way of dealing with "that war

If I were to describe the position of "In This Corner of the World" as a "2016 Movie" in a few words, it would be that it is the film that stands out the most for its symmetry with "Shin Godzilla.

If "Shin Godzilla" depicted the structural problems of postwar Japan from the viewpoint of the rulers and the rebirth of a slight ideal to overcome them, "In This Corner of the World" played the role of summarizing the imagination of postwar animation that has continued since the Showa period from the viewpoint of a person living in Japan.

The reason for the symmetrical relationship between the two works is the context in which they depict the "war" as it was experienced by their creators.

It is well known that "In a Corner of the World" (2007), based on the original story by Fumiyo Konno, is a work in the same vein as "Yunagi City, Sakura Country" (2004), which was a success in its own generation and retold the postwar trauma caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in a sensitive manner that is distinct from the dogmatic anti-war material.

In 2005, Shinji Higuchi, the special effects director of "Shin Godzilla," directed "Lorelei" (2005), a special effects film based on an original story by Harutoshi Fukui, who was born in 1968, the same year as Konoho. The plot of Lorelei is a science fiction fictional war story in which a submarine powered by a psychic girl prevents a third atomic bomb from being dropped on Tokyo at the end of the war.

In other words, the generation that was baptized into the postwar subculture started to recount "that war" in their own way while deodorizing ideology in a symmetrical style, and this genealogy continues in "Shin Godzilla" and "A Corner of the World," 70 years after the end of the war. The same lineage was continued in "Shin Godzilla" and "In This Corner of the World," 70 years after the war.

Since the first "Godzilla" (1954), which was originally a continuation of the war films, Japanese special effects and animations, especially those that focused on spectacle for boys, have developed by replacing the motif of "that war," which was difficult to directly entertain as a defeated nation, with a science fiction and fantasy worldview. The development of Japanese tokusatsu and anime was based on the "war" motif, which was difficult to directly entertain as a defeated nation, and was replaced by a science fiction and fantasy worldview.

One of the most significant milestones was the anime boom that began in the late 1970s with "Space Battleship Yamato" (1974), which, as its name implies, placed the battleship Yamato on the side of justice. Since then, many anime series, including "Mobile Suit Gundam" (1979), which directly transformed the twisted worldview of the postwar democracy (Earth Federation Forces) and the former Imperial Japanese Army's sentiment (Zeon Forces), as well as "Neon Genesis Evangelion" (1995)'s "Ayanami" and "Katsuragi" and "Nagato" of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" (2006), have been produced by women who were named after former naval ships. Militarism, which pays homage to the old military, has been a motif that reveals the hidden "true feelings" of Japanese anime.

After the release of "Lorelei" (2013), the taboo was finally lifted and Japanese wars came to be directly addressed in the realm of major entertainment, and since the release of "Fleet This" (2013), the otaku fetish for mecha and beautiful girls, which had remained a metaphor in "Eva" and "Haruhi," has come to the fore. The fetish for mecha and bishojo, which was only metaphorical in "Eva" and "Haruhi," came to the forefront in a naked manner.

Thus, the "fading" of the postwar democratic erection and the direct acceptance of games after the Internet have made the narrative of "that war" in anime and games (especially simulation games, which are easier to express) more "realistic" than ever before. The narrative of "that war" in anime and games (especially in simulation games, where it is easier to express) has been greatly reorganized (whether for good or bad reasons).

From the original work, with its penetrating "one corner" perspective, to the anime, with its insight into "the world."

As mentioned earlier, the original manga "In a Corner of the World" appeared as a successor to "Yunagi City, Sakura Country," which was in stark contrast to these male-oriented spectacles, but the fact that it was set in Kure, next to Hiroshima City, caused an unexpected superposition of fan groups.

In Kure, where the former naval township was located, the Yamato Museum (Kure Maritime History and Science Museum) was opened in 2005 in conjunction with the release of "Yamato: Otoko-tachi no Yamato" to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, dispelling the taboo against the city as a "military city" and attracting a large number of military fans. The museum has become the core of local tourism, attracting many visitors, especially military fans. The museum has become a center of local tourism, attracting many visitors, especially military fans.

When director Sunao Katabuchi came forward with the idea of making an animated film and crowdfunding began in 2015 to raise funds for the production, local supporters, including people from the Yamato Museum, who helped with the location scouting, took the lead and a fan movement grew, involving pilgrims to the sacred site of "This Ship" and other people. The fan movement grew, with the involvement of pilgrims to the "ship's" holy sites.

The anime adaptation by director Katabuchi, who in addition to Isao Takahata is the heir to Hayao Miyazaki, the greatest military fetishist of Japanese animation, is devoted to the "one corner" point of view of the main character, Suzu Hojo (Urano), and presents details of "ordinary life during wartime" in an enjoyable manner. While the main focus was to elaborately animate the charm of the original work, which joyfully depicts the details of "ordinary life during the war," the spectacle side, which clearly shows the backdrop of the "world" of men involved in the Navy, such as her husband Shusaku and father-in-law Entaro, was also relatively strengthened. The spectacle side of the film is also relatively strengthened.

Therefore, the attitude on Suzu's side, which looks at them from a "corner" perspective, emphasizes the nuance of imagining the "world" from the painting ability more than in the original work. This is the minimum transformation necessary for the media substitution from manga to anime, but it is precisely because of this that a critique of the politics that has been a media-theoretical necessity in the history of postwar anime is strongly generated in this film.

This critique is particularly strong in the scene where Suzu, still unaccustomed to being a daughter-in-law, looks down from a hill near the Hojo family's house with Shusaku at the meticulously drawn battleship Yamato entering port. The Yamato is indeed the source of the greatest old military fetish in postwar anime, which becomes definitive in "Space Battleship Yamato.

In this scene, Suzu's reaction to Shusaku's nudge, "That is the best battleship in the world born in the best military port in the East/ Say 'welcome home,' Suzu-san," is only restrained in the very flat panel progression in the original work, leading to the punchline where she falls to the bottom with a silent reaction.

Here we see a glimpse of the basic structure of Kouno's manga, in which an awakened perspective on masculinity and a moment when something hidden within each other is about to surface, a humorous punchline moots the rupture and restores a peaceful relationship.

In contrast, Suzu in the anime version reacts vividly to Shusaku's explanation that there are 2,700 crew members there (during which the camera shifts to a detail on board the Yamato, where sailors are working with hand signals), "Hah~, you cook rice everyday for those people in that and that place!　The laundry is..." He falls down when he stands up unexpectedly with an exclamation that draws him to his own realistic sense of life.

This is a sequence in which masculinity and femininity, or rather "the world" and "a corner of the world," come together, and the original work is reread.

The character of Suzu is imbued with the power of "insight into the world" that is common to the Katabuchi heroine established in his first feature film, "Princess Arete" (2001), in which she uses her imagination to perceive the richness of reality that lies behind her ordinary, casual life.

In other words, "In This Corner of the World" is a film that utilizes the otherness of Kou's manga as a perspective to relativize the fetishism of Hayao Miyazaki and other postwar animators, but at the same time, it is an updated version of Takahata Isao's realism of life.

The Meaning of "Alteration" after the 8.15 Gyokuon Broadcast

This criticality is directly linked to the final message of the film, which is the alteration of the dialogue of Suzu, who lost her right hand after the August 15 Gyokuon-broadcast toward the end of the story.

In the original story, following the monologue, "Justice is flying away from this country," Suzu begins the scene with the flying of the Taegeuk flag celebrating the "liberation" of the Korean people and then says, "...Oh, so you mean that you have been subdued by violence / So you mean that you will give in to violence? That is the true nature of this country / I wish I had died without knowing it either. ......" The spread is drawn as a climax that destroys the feelings of unreasonableness of the "world" that had been held until then.

However, this scene was often criticized by manga readers as a scene that was highly uncomfortable from the perspective of Suzu's character and vocabulary accumulated up to that point, and was reduced to the dogmatism of a postwar "anti-war manga" from the author's standpoint.

In contrast, in the anime, "Our past is flying away. Our past. That which we thought was good enough. The reason why we have been willing to put up with it" is interrupted by a cut from the taiji flag, followed by "...Oh, rice and soybeans from across the sea, we are made of such things. So, do we have to give in to violence? Oh, how I wish I could have died in a daze, without thinking about anything.

Although the meaning is the same, Suzu attempts to universalize the theme in response to the criticism of the original work by thoroughly replacing it with a vocabulary in which she gains insight into the state of the "world" from her own physicality in a "corner".

Conversely, this alteration, by omitting the capitalized concepts of "nation" and "justice," also drew ideological criticism from some left-leaning commentators, who said that it was a militating against the accusation of Japanese war crimes, an attitude that was akin to historical revisionism.

However, this is nothing more than shortsightedness, which only reduces the number of people who will go out of their way to share their anti-war stance. Considering the stance of the film as a whole, this is nothing more than an attempt to reassess "that war" as an event connected to oneself and to help viewers regain their imagination about the "world.

Director Katabuchi has repeatedly stated throughout the film that he wanted the viewers to feel Suzu-san as a "real" person, which is the concept behind the animation. This approach is in line with Fumiyo Konno's attempt to connect the war experience to the reader's "personal life," as she did when the story was serialized in "Manga Action" by making the Showa period in the story coincide with the Heisei period.

In other words, how could a device that relies on the real-time nature of magazine serialization be translated into the media characteristics of an animated film? As a result of this process, Katabuchi was obsessed with recreating the "world" by thoroughly researching the details of life at the time, including meals, cityscapes, wartime processes, and even the weather. All of this was an effort to establish the physicality of Suzu in "one corner".

It is precisely through the accumulation of such persistence that the composition of the film is formed, in which the viewer gains insight into the origins of "in a daze," which was also the perpetrator against the "other side of the sea," which is not depicted on the screen, and realizes the cause and effect of the violence that befell her. The dialogue in that scene should be accepted as a self-reference to such an expressive structure.

The Last Scene Suggests "Another Postwar History

What such a structure of expression results in is not "that war" as a history that has passed, but a will to restart the story that motivates viewers to connect this story to the present and to start a new history by imagining the outside from their own experience.

The greatest mediator in this process was the lead voice actress, Nono. Needless to say, Reina Nohni, who became a national actress for her portrayal of Aki Amano, the main character in NHK's morning TV series "Amachan" (2013), was forced to refrain from performing under her real name due to circumstances that were as unreasonable as "Spirited Away," and was deprived of her name. The reality is that Reina was forced to refrain from using her real name and was deprived of her name.

"Amachan" was a drama that portrayed the Great East Japan Earthquake head-on, and in its final episode, it went through a tunnel connecting reality and fiction.

The casting of Non as a character with such a history suggests that the anime version of "In This Corner of the World" is not merely a reliving of the past war disaster, but also an extension of the disaster experience of 3.11 that the audience living in modern Japan experienced in various ways, and the possibility of experiencing it as "one's own thing. It was even meant to increase the possibility of the audience living in contemporary Japan to the maximum extent possible.

In particular, Suzu's indirect experience of watching the August 6 atomic bombing of Hiroshima from Kure must have inevitably reminded her of the physical experiences of people outside of Tohoku who experienced the tsunami and nuclear accident in a frustrating way.

This range of experience, together with the direct experience of losing her right hand and Harumi, contributes greatly to the rate at which contemporary Japanese people can experience this work as "their own thing.

At the conclusion of the story, Suzu, who lives in a "corner," reconciles with Shusaku, who is centered on the side of the "world. Even though they are unable to mature through the typical vertical relationship of having children with each other, they find temporary relief through the horizontal relationship with their sisters, such as Sumi and Kiko, and the diagonal relationship of becoming the adoptive mother of Yoko, an orphan they met in the burnt-out ruins of Hiroshima.

This may have suggested the possibility of "another postwar history" through the creation of atypical families, which were in fact more diverse than the typical nuclear family that was the norm in postwar Japan.

(continued)

(Text by Daichi Nakagawa)

＜Profile of Daichi Nakagawa

Editor and critic.

Born in Mukojima, Sumida-ku, Tokyo in 1974. D. from the Graduate School of Science and Engineering at Waseda University. He has written various critiques bridging reality and fiction, with a focus on video games, animation, and TV dramas, as well as Japanese thought, urbanism, anthropology, and information technology. He is the deputy editor-in-chief of the culture criticism magazine "PLANETS. He is the author of "Tokyo Sky Tree Theory" and "Gendai Game Zenshi: Bunmei no Yugi Shikan kara" (The Complete History of Modern Games: From the Viewpoint of Civilization's Game History). Co-authored and edited "Shiso Chizu vol. 4" (NHK Publishing) and "Amachan Memories" (PLANETS, Bungeishunju). Participated in Takashi Murakami's anime "6HP" as a scriptwriter and series writer.