The reality in which Anne lives cannot be portrayed without the use of fantasy - and the reality in which Anne lives cannot be portrayed without the use of fantasy. Watch "Anne of Green Gables" Episode 12 [Nostalgic Anime Retrospective No. 63

This month, February 21, 2020, director Yoshiyuki Tomino's latest work, the theatrical version of "G Reconguista II," "Belli: Shooting Ahead," will be released in theaters. The film in which Tomino participated as a storyboard artist is "Anne of Green Gables" (1979). There were a total of five storyboards under the name "Yoshiyuki Tomino. We would like to focus on the 12th episode, "Anne Confesses.

The Cuthbert siblings, Mashou and Marilla, take care of an orphan, Anne Shirley, at home. Anne is fanciful and over-expressive, and the earnest Marilla is at her mercy, but little by little she begins to open her heart to Anne.
Then one day, Marilla's cherished purple crystal brooch goes missing. Since Anne was the last person to touch the brooch, Marilla suspects that Anne may have stolen it. Anne stubbornly denies her suspicions, but does she really ....... This is the end of Episode 11.
In Episode 12, "Anne Confesses," she confesses the truth to Marilla.

From "Real Anne" to "Imaginary Anne

Anne begins her confession by saying, "I stole the purple crystal brooch. This confession is developed from Anne's dialogue into a concrete recollection.

Anne finds the brooch in Marilla's room.
Anne puts the brooch on her dress in her room and is enchanted.

Up to this point, the picture is the same as in episode 11. In episode 12, Anne's performance of spinning around in front of the mirror is added.
Anne reflects her image in the mirror, wearing the brooch. Then, Anne in the mirror becomes an imaginary figure wearing a crown and a white dress. I thought how wonderful it would be to put on the brooch, go to Idlewild, and act like Princess Cordelia Fitzgerald," she says, explaining that she used the brooch as a tool for her fantasy.

Anne wears the brooch as she walks through the woods known as Idlewild.
Reflected in the water at her feet, Anne wears a crown and dress, just as she does in the mirror.
Anne crosses the bridge over the "sparkling lake. She is also wearing a crown and dress.

In other words, "real Anne" and "imaginary Anne" begin to appear simultaneously in the same frame during Anne's confession, and finally "imaginary Anne" replaces "real Anne". Is Anne's confession something that happened in reality, or is it imaginary from the middle of the film?
Viewers cannot judge whether Anne's confession is true or false, even if it is shown so clearly in the picture. This is because "Anne of Green Gables" has consistently depicted Anne's rambling fantasies and mental landscapes as concrete "pictures" since the first episode. The same lines and colors are used to express both reality and fantasy on the celluloid.

To create a physical reality of "breathless speech

Anne's confession infuriates Marilla, but the story takes an unexpected turn, and Anne is able to attend the Sunday school picnic she has been looking forward to.
When Anne returns home from the picnic, she breathlessly continues to tell Mashou and Marilla how much fun she had that day.
This dialogue by Anne spans the following cuts.

(1) The boat carrying Anne and her friends on the lake at dusk.
(2) Anne opens the door to the house where Mashou and Marilla are waiting for her and comes home.
(3)Anne leaving the dining room, looking toward Mashou and Marilla
(4)Anne changing her clothes and coming back to the dining room
(5)Anne sitting at the dining table with Mashou and Marilla

In (1) through (3), Anne's mouth is moving, but it is not synchronized with the dialogue. Only in (4) and (5) do the dialogues and Anne's mouth movements seem to coincide. However, there is a time leap between (4) and (5), in which Anne, who was standing, suddenly sits down. This means that the dialogue spoken in (5) is only heard by the audience after it is shifted up to (1), and there is no direct connection between the two cuts.
However, consider this. Wouldn't it be more vivid to convey the sense of "Anne is talking selflessly" if a single line of dialogue continued uninterrupted, even though the pictures were not connected?
In order to vividly depict reality, fantasy and leaps in time are utilized. Episode 12, "Anne Confesses," is richly packed with the best elements of a visual work. There are too many more fascinating scenes to list here.


(Text by Keisuke Hirota)