Even from Takahata, I wasn’t expecting something quite so good. Perhaps it’s because I associate his pre-Ghibli work with Horus and Panda Kopanda, but I wasn’t expecting something so mature. A large part of this is down to the deftly-woven allegorical story on which the film is based, but despite how much the anime industry has grown and developed since 1982, everything here is beautiful, intelligent and warm.
Gauche is a cellist competent enough to be in a professional orchestra in a little town, but whose skills are lacking to the extent that he seems to be holding everyone else back. In the first scene, a rehearsal for a recital of Beethoven’s sixth (wonderfully vibrant animation of the conductor unfortunately rather badly set against two-frame violin tremolo animation) is constantly interrupted for his sake, and it’s hard not to warm to him as he looks so crestfallen after being berated by the conductor. Over the course of the next week and a half, he gets visits from various creatures who ask him favours – teaching them a scale, playing a piece to help them practice, soothing a sick baby mouse (one of the cutest things ever, for not being too cutesy) with a calming melody…Gauche reacts to these anthropomorphic guests in an intriguing way – he interacts with them but retains cynicism, so that we soon realise he thinks he is imagining the whole thing, manifesting his own wishes and fears, or perhaps is being aided by the tricksy spirits of traditional Japanese lore, without any of this having to be said, a nice subtle touch that perhaps limits the appeal for international audiences who may not realise why Gauche is guarded, even cruel.
Not until he performs his recital does he realise that the animals he thought he was aiding were all actually teaching him lessons and helping him. His exuberance, realising this, is impossible not to smile through. Some of the nuanced human animation here is amazing, especially for 1982, but it’s the voice actors (a mixture of veterans (from shows like Doraemon and Sazae-san) and near-amateurs) who really shine. The mouse mother is my favourite, a real old-fashioned Japanese lady, who humbly wheedles and guilt-trips without being unattractive, and whose interaction with her beloved child may seem overprotective but then when you see them playing together, is really touching. The cuckoo, the cat and the little Tanuki are great, too, and the still shot of Mrs Owl really made me laugh.
This short hour-long animation is one of the best I’ve seen, clever, peculiar and charming. Sometime between the seventies and eighties Takahata seems to have gotten more ambitious, artistic and sensitive: though perhaps I’ll have to wait to see Jarinko Chie to really judge that!
(originally written 06.08.08)
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