Nature
is dangerous and mysterious, but that makes the wild outdoors the perfect
setting for coming of age rituals. Amid snowy forests and steep mountains,
callow youths will either grow up quickly or die trying. There is also an
element of karma in play for the nameless protagonist of director-screenwriter-animator
Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s short film Shishigari, the first production of
Oshiyama’s new animation house, Studio Durian, which screens during the
2019 Fantoche International Animation Festival, following its world premiere at
this year’s Fantasia.
The
somewhat under-sized but resourceful lad bears a striking resemblance to the
young hero of Isao Takahata’s Horus, Prince of the Sun. In fact, both
films rather freely traffic in Nordic-Slavic-Pagan imagery. In this case, the
youthful hunter is just a common lad, but in his world, survival is an
extraordinary achievement.
Over
the course of the 17-minute film, we come to suspect somewhat fantastical thing
are afoot, but in most cases, Oshiyama maintains an ambiguous uncertainty.
Regardless, the perils the young hunter faces are very much of our world and
totally lethal—as in avalanches and big-horned rams (or something similar).
Oshiyama
is already well-known for his work as an animator on Studio Ghibli and Studio
I.G films, but he really announces his independence with a bang here. Visually,
Shishigari is striking in a primal, archetypal stones-and-skins kind of
way. There is a lot action, but the narrative is driven by a higher
spirituality.
It
is easy to envision how Shishigari could be expanded into a
feature-length film. At its current running time, the short film would also pair
up nicely with features like Horus, Princess Mononoke, or Nausicaä of
the Valley of the Wind, if programmers are allowed to mix and match from
the two animation studios. Regardless, anime fans will absolutely want to see
it, because it should be the start of something big for Studio Durain. More
importantly, it happens to be a really cool film. Very highly recommended, Shishigari
screens this Wednesday (9/4) and next Sunday (9/8), as part of this year’s
Fantoche, in the land of neutrality.
