![]() It’s also unclear whether the other human characters are aware of them as he is. It’s ambiguous whether Gauche is personally familiar with these animals. When the talking animals appear, one after another, it’s all presented as just a matter-of-fact part of everyday life. One scene, original to the film, depicts Gauche and his fellow members of the orchestra performing the background music to a silent film. Takahata is careful to establish the film’s setting in prewar Japan, more so than the original story did. And that’s not an incidental choice – the entire story is about the power of music to change us, if only we could just open our ears and be receptive to the world. The viewer is immediately taken into a magical, dreamlike world, just from the power of the musical score alone. Gauche opens with shots of a rural town as torrential rain pours, grounding the film’s setting in the mundane even as the Beethoven soundtrack takes the fore. In Gauche’s case, it’s Takahata’s careful juxtaposition of the realistic and the fantastical that comes through most strongly. He does take charge with the script work and storyboarding, though, so most of his works have his distinct vision stamped all over it. I suppose the credit for that scene should really go to the key animator Saida Toshitsugu unlike most anime directors, Takahata doesn’t actually draw himself. This entire sequence with the overreacting cat was the most memorable part of the film Probably the most interesting thing about Gauche is how expressive the animals in particular are and how the natural world seems to come alive even with limited animation. Animals are definitely Takahata’s strongest suit as a director. It’s got more in common with Pom Poko, which also features animals as human-like characters. Gauche is as far from a soul-crushing war drama as you could get, though. For those of you who don’t know, Takahata was the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, and his impressive directorial record includes Grave of the Fireflies, arguably Ghibli’s most emotionally powerful film. Originally, I wasn’t going to discuss Gauche the Cellist, but as soon as I found out Takahata Isao directed it, I just had to give it a whirl. Part of this has to do with how they’re movie-length adaptations of short stories, but I also think these directors have a genuine love and admiration for Kenji’s writing. The adaptations of NotGR and GtC are as different as night and day, and both of them add their own particular atmosphere to the original tale. One thing I really enjoy about anime based on classic literature and children’s tales (as opposed to manga, light novels, etc.) is that you can see the director is a lot more willing to inject some of his or her own personality into the adaptation. ![]() ![]() Yes, they’re around thirty years old now and they’re both “slow” and hard to get into, especially when you’re used to the shiny new stuff, but I think they’re well worth any anime fan’s time. If there are any two Kenji adaptations you should watch, it’s Night of the Galactic Railroad (1985) and Gauche the Cellist (1982). (If you want to know why you should care about Miyazawa Kenji, I covered the background and context in my last post.) ![]() Today, I cover two of the most highly acclaimed anime adaptations of Miyazawa Kenji’s stories.
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