Another year has gone, and I consumed a lot of animation. So let’s talk about it.
It wasn’t an amazing year for the medium, but I don’t think it was terrible. Animation did very well at the beginning of the summer box office, having 5 weeks with an animated film at the top. Zootopia became the 4th billion-dollar animated film in the world box office sphere, and Finding Dory followed soon afterwords. The only film that beat it out in world gross this year is Captain America: Civil War (we’ll see if Rogue One changes this). Box office trends have always had animation beat out almost every individual live-action genre (not that animation is a genre), and this year is no exception with Secret Life of Pets also making a lot of money. Even though Paramount dropped the Little Prince theater release, Netflix picked it up and has helped the films spread a lot. I really enjoy online streaming and video on demand as mediums of consuming entertainment, and I think the Little Prince was a helpful reminder of how cool this can be.
I started really getting into airing anime and simulcasts this year, meaning that most of these year-end posts will likely include anime now. This year gave us a partnership between Crunchyroll and Funimation, and we are slowly seeing the effects of that, and I’m curious to continue to follow it. The anime world blew up with Kimi no Na Wa winning a massive amounts of praise and awards, bringing possibly the years biggest hypetrain. Shelter and The Red Turtle gave us a look into anime companies collaborating with international studios in ways we haven’t fully explored. Hayao “I’ll flip a coin to see if I want to retire or not” Miyazaki landed on heads, so he will be back with Ghibli to make films again later.
For feature films, I either was excited to watch them, or I was instantly put off and didn’t check them out. I have now checked out my fair share for the year on both sides and plan on talking about them. I wish that I had opportunities to watch more short films for the year, because I love how they express themselves. So, I can’t really talk about a lot of those (though I always make sure to check out Award season stuff when it gets released).
Anyway, I want to start with the anime list.
Top 5 Favorite Anime of 2016
Number 5: Space Patrol Luluco
I honestly didn’t have a lot of reason that I should have seen this series. By the time I started this, I had finished putting Kill la Kill on hold for my 3rd time, and still had Gurren Lagaan on hold. I had no other strong connections with Trigger (but did enjoy the first Little Witch Academia a bit), and had only seen Panty and Stocking. I still watched it and fell in love with it’s over-the-top style. This style mixed with it’s crazy story made for a truly entertaining ride. I didn’t feel the weight of the many many Trigger references, but enjoyed how they were portrayed in the story. I liked how they used it’s 8 minute episodes to make time for honest character interactions and fun…ness. It was a short series that got a lot of attention and fairly deservingly.
Number 4: 91 Days
A market like anime that lives off of source material should take a breath every once in a while and make something original. One such example was this year’s 91 Days, a revenge story about prohibition-era mobsters and the workings behind a mob family. It’s a great series, moved forward by Angelo Lagusa’s (who goes by Avilio Bruno) character and backstory. The drama and rhythm of the series immediately had my attention. More importantly, learning about the mob world and how Angelo was going to throw a wrench it had me very interested. I never lost that interest, and for that, this series became one of my favorites to watch this year.
Number 3: She and Her Cat- Everything Flows
I hope with all of my heart that this is not the first time you have ever heard of this series. This may be an anime that appeals to me right now because I’m inbetween adult and childhood, which the Girl (named Miyu) is as well. The premise is fine and all, but what really makes it unique is that it is told from the perspective of her cat. It’s not a direct adaptation of the original Makoto Shinkai film, but instead seems to be a reimagining with more stuff happening (not that timing was an issue for it). This connection between them allows us to see her life in a totally different way than most series end up doing. It’s never hugely played up for anything, instead using development just allow the weight of her issues to play themselves at. I may be horridly allergic to cats, but this series is nothing to sneeze at.
Number 2: Fune wo Amu (The Great Passage)
Please do not let the fact that this show is about dictionaries fool you into thinking this show is bad/boring/bland. It’s a serene slice of life drama about a man who finds his call in life as a dictionary maker and editor. We see snapshots of his life, and how his way with words effects his daily routine. We learn about the importance and art of words in ways we don’t usually get to explore. What I loved about the animation is that even the smallest scenes let the characters move. As a Slice of Life fan, I see so many stagnant bodies that never move during dialogue scenes, but this series showed how subtly we move when we do that. It was a nice touch that heightened the experience of watching the show. It was one of the best Slice of Life produced in a while, and would’ve been my Number One. But if you watch dramas and slice of life, you can likely guess what beat it out.
Number One: Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
A historical drama about the art of performance is a definite plus for me. Add on some of the best character dynamics of the year, with a wonderfully immersive art style, and the show gets even better. We follow two young boys and their journey into becoming modern masters of Rakugo. They face many issues along their way, and have to find themselves and their styles the more they perform and age. The tides of society and entertainment change, and they have to balance it along with the hierarchy and tradition of the art of rakugo. Watching how they have to grow is fascinating because of everything they put into it and how it changes over time. They fall in love, and out of love, and in love again with their Rakugo lifestyle. It circles friendships and effects them in ways that always make you want to watch more. The series showcases friendship gone right and wrong beautifully, and tells the story you never knew you wanted to learn about better than you could ever expect it to. Without a shadow of a doubt, Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu is my pick for best anime of this year.
Top 5 Favorite Feature Films of 2016
Number 5: Sausage Party
This film seems like you either love it or hate it. To be more specific, it’s all the same reasoning. You can imply that I enjoyed the film a lot, if it’s here. I thought that the comedy worked very well for the story it was trying to tell, and I thought the non-subtle social commentary was integrated smoothly (despite how heavy the message was). I was kind of hoping to see more of people experiencing the outside world, but otherwise I liked how the flow of the story went. I was curious about how a theatrical adult animated film would fare, but it seems that it’s getting pretty good. Now I can hope that adult animation breaks into blockbuster territory more, and the possibilities to tell stories will expand.
Number 4: Sing
I started keeping an extraordinarily close eye on Illumination this year. Traditionally, my irrational bias against the Minions franchise makes me want to ignore the studio. But I decided I’d give them a shot this year. Secret Life of Pets looked fine, but then they kept releasing more footage, and I hated what I saw. Sing was a different story, and I decided to go for it when it came out. I loved it immediately. I loved how they prioritized the character backstory, and integrated it into the film. I thought the use of music was good too, not relying solely on modern pop music (which will help it age better, theoretically). There were so many small moments that positively helped the film, so I plan on watching it again at some point and possibly going really in-depth with it.
Number 3: The Red Turtle
This film nearly landed on my anticipated films list for 2017, but then I found it was coming to my local film festival. I saw it and loved it! A gentle dialogueless film with a gorgeous art style that managed to live up to all the hype it was getting. It may not have been the best film of the festival, but it certainly was one of the better films. I said most of what I want to say in that post, so I ask that you check it out. It will get a wide-release in North America soon, so please check it out. It is a film that absolutely hits all the marks that any international animation fan is looking for, and I hope that more people get a chance to see such a fascinating movie.
Number 2: Kubo and the Two Strings
If you must blink, do it now. Laika did it again, after the disappointment that was the Boxtrolls, they have come back in style. I wrote about why I was looking forward to this film, and luckily it was good enough to soothe any worries I had about the current state of stop-motion. I am worried that this film didn’t make enough money in the box office despite being one of the most critically praised animated features this year. The characters were fun to watch, and the journey was even more fun to watch. With a beautiful atmosphere and an ever-evolving (but never unfocused) story, the film continually proves that it is worth the price of the ticket. I am very glad that Travis Knight’s vision was able to come alive as it did. I hope Laika can maintain their high quality films, if this is any indication of what they’re capable of.
Number 1: The Little Prince
Not my most anticipated film of the year, but easily the one I was most excited to watch. I was sad that I couldn’t see it in theaters due to Paramount almost silently dropping the license, but it was truly great to see Netflix pick it up. It finally got released and fulfilled my expectations because it was a good film. But the aspects that made it a good film weren’t something I expected. I first saw it without knowing the source material, so I was honestly just looking for a sweet animated spectacle. I got a sweet spectacle about rediscovering childhood and creativity via the Little Prince story. With beautiful color choices and subtle visual cues to truly create worlds and settings that fit the tone of the story and rocked while doing it. It is a story that can reach everyone with great universal theming and overall sweetness. The film took little time to impress me, and it kept getting better. I feel just as happy with it did as I did with my initial first impression. My initial reaction wanted to call it the year’s best film, and so does my current impression after thinking about it for a bit.
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