Bakemonogatari" uses illustrations as metaphors to make the weirdness more convincing.

Grisaia: Phantom Trigger the Animation has been airing on terrestrial television since September 2019. The character designer/total animation director is Akio Watanabe. Many people may recall "Bakemonogatari" (2009), a work for which Mr. Watanabe was in charge of character design. Here we will take a look back at the first episode, "Hitagi Club Ichiban Ichiban.

Hitagi's fighting style is similar to that of a "crab

The first and second episodes, which are the first and second parts of the series, depict how Senjogahara Hitagi, who has lost her weight to the yokai "Omoshi Crab," regains it with the help of the magician Oshino Meme.
At the beginning of the first episode, Hitagi is down to five kilograms, so when she falls down the stairs, the main character, Araragi Koyomi, is surprised at how light she is.
The "Omoshi-gani" makes its appearance in the second episode, but in the first episode it is only a conceptual entity that is mentioned by Hitagi and Oshino. Since the first episode ends with the decision to exorcise the "Omoshi Crab," of which we have no idea what it looks like, we must somehow make the viewers believe in its existence. But how in the world?

In the first half of the first episode, Hitagi confesses to Koyomi that she lost her weight to a crab, and threatens him with a knife and stapler to keep him from talking.
When Koyomi still tries to engage Hitagi, she holds up a large amount of stationery in both hands, including sellotape, rulers, and compasses, which she has planted under her clothes. Needless to say, the silhouette of Hitagi with her sharp stationery reminds one of a crab with scissors in both hands.
The fact that Hitagi is armed with stationery like a crab is not due to the influence of "Omoshi-Kani," and this depiction itself is also written in the original novel. However, by using a concrete "picture" as a metaphor, the viewer is able to visually perceive the presence of the "crab.

Pigeon feathers are used to express Hitagi's "lightness.

Next, the "lightness" of Hitagi's weight, which has dropped to 5 kg, must also be convincingly conveyed to the viewer.
At the beginning of the scene where Koyomi runs up the stairs, we see several white pigeons clustered around her. As soon as Hitagi slips, all the pigeons fly away at once. White feathers flutter in front of Koyomi as she looks up at the falling Hidagi. And when it catches the hitagi, a flurry of feathers fills the screen. No, it is not exactly a feather but a white koyori in the shape of a fish, but when we consider the description of the dove taking flight, we can safely assume that it is a feather.
But when you consider the description of the dove flying away, it is safe to say that it was feathers. Yes. Can Hitagi's "lightness" be conveyed just by Koyomi's line, "She, Senjogahara, had absolutely nothing that could be called weight at all.　If it were a novel, we would have to trust the description. However, in the film, the feathers must be made to fly up in the air to visually show the movement of the "light" object, otherwise the viewer would not find Koyomi's line, "It was incredibly light," persuasive.

The "girl falling from the sky" depicted in "Laputa

Let us recall the scene in "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" where the heroine Sita falls from the sky and the hero Pazoo catches her. At first, the scene uses a large number of drawings to depict Sita's slow fall, then the cut is changed the moment her weight returns to her, and Pazuzu's theatricality is used to depict Sita's weight.
In other words, the film depicts "lightness" and "heaviness" in the same straightforward manner as a live-action film, using only the movements of the subjects (in this case, Pazuzu and Sita) and the cut to depict the weight of the film.

However, is this not an expression that is subservient to a live-action film?　The original novel of "Bakemonogatari" is written in the first person by Koyomi, and it is hardly a visual story. That is why the idea of extending the abstract expression of language with pictures like a "metaphor" - Hitagi armed like a crab, feathers dancing before Koyomi's eyes, etc. - was necessary in the visualization process. --The idea of "Hitagi armed like a crab" and "feathers dancing in front of Koyomi" were necessary to create the images.


(Text by Keisuke Hirota)