Virtuoso, who has worked at ACMI for nearly a decade now, is responsible for programming Essential Anime. The seven-day festival will feature action-rich anime – Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, the newest addition to Hideaki Anno’s Neon Genesis Evangelion series, Boruto: Naruto the Movie and Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’ – juxtaposed against older Studio Ghibli classics, including Lapura: Castle in the Sky (1986), Princess Mononoke (1997)and My Neighbour Totoro (1988).
“They’re pieces of art and the animation’s incredible,” says the Film Programmer earnestly. Virtuoso is a huge fan of animator, writer and director Hayao Miyazaki, the genius behind the beloved Japanese animation company, Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki is responsible for Howl’s Moving Castle, a fantastical adaption of Diana Wynne-Jones’ children’s book with the same title, and Spirited Away, which thrust Japanese animation into the limelight when it received an Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2003.
“It wasn’t long ago that I was watching Totoro again – because I love that film – and there’s this part when [Mei] was on Totoro’s belly and it’s just so innocent. She’s just playing on his belly the first time she met him and he just opened his eyes, then went back to sleep with a yawn. She was just playing there,” and there was nothing sexualised about it, which is an anomaly within anime, where many tropes exist to objectify or belittle women and conflate men’s worth. Examples include the dehumanising tsundere trope, which suggests girls are either aloof or irritable, or love-struck and sweet, robbing them of emotional nuance; and the ludicrous Gainaxing trope, where female characters are illustrated with abnormally large buoyant breasts that are animated to include every jiggle, bounce and sway of each breast.
“There’s an innocence to just think that Totoro is nothing other than a cuddly toy and ‘It’s comfortable and this is where I can sit’. I can just imagine a little kid on their father’s belly doing that. It’s just gorgeous. I just love it and it just makes me feel really warm inside.”
My Neighbour Totoro tells the story of two young sisters, Satsuni and Mei, who move to their father’s country home when their mother becomes ill and cannot care for them anymore. During their stay, the pair befriend their neighbours – a collective of forest spirits, including the forest guardian spirit, Totoro. One day, while waiting at the bus stop for their father to return home, their father disappears. Frightened, the sisters call their new spirits friends to help them find their father and they willingly comply. My Neighbour Totoro is a genuinely tender movie about family, love and friendship. With such storylines, it’s unsurprising that Ghibli films are often played at ACMI.
“I have to say, a lot of the Studio Ghibli titles are screened quite often. We get them requested through our Kid’s Flicks program, which screens on the weekend,” admits Virtuoso. “The number of parents and kiddies requesting titles like Kiki’s Delivery Service or Howl’s Moving Castle or Spirited Away is incredible. My colleague who runs the Kid’s Flicks program checked his email today and there were more requests for other Ghibli titles. There was one request for My Neighbour Totoro and they didn’t know that we were going to screen it next week; and it was a mum doing it for her little girl. It was so gorgeous.”
“I think there’s also been a huge growth in the world in regard to the love of anime and people being more aware of the genre,” continues Virtuoso, thoughtfully. “There’s so many titles to explore, with different magical storylines, as well as sci-fi and fantasy aspects.”
It’s true. For anyone beginner anime-watcher, the vast selection of genres and shows can be slightly overwhelming. Someone could start with current popular series, such as Fairy Tail, Naruto, Sword Art Online, Tokyo Ghoul or One Piece, which is currently up to episode 721. If you’re someone with dark fantasy and horror in your veins, you could begin with Attack On Titian. The highly-addictive manga, which goes by the same name, has sold over 50 million copies in Japan alone and 2.5 million copies overseas. That’s twice the amount of sold copies of John Green’s lauded The Fault In Our Stars. To say that anime and manga is a niche genre, especially with the success of Madman Entertainment stalls at conventions like Supanova and Oz Comic-Con, is a myth.
“Evangelion recently celebrated its 20th anniversary and Dragon Ball Z and Boruto – they’ve had such a small run in cinemas, despite performing so well at the box office. Essential Anime will be an opportunity for fans and people to see them on the big screen, to get away from their TVs and videos and listen to the beautiful music, watch the amazing stories, all in the cinema environment – all the action, all the colour.”
BY AVRILLE BYLOK-COLLARD
