Chiisana Eiyuu: Kani to Tamago to Toumei Ningen

Have studio Ponoc finally escaped the shadow of Ghibli, and become their own studio with something worthwhile to contribute to the world? Nope Kanini and Kanno Studio Ghibli fucking died. After years of Miyazaki retiring, then coming back, over and over again, somebody finally told him that it was time to move on. Unfortunately for the sake of the many, phenomenally talented animators, Miyazaki insisted that if you didn’t create a film exactly the way he told you to, then it simply wasn’t good enough to make the final product. All of this information is forgotten when people mention that studio Ponoc came from ex-ghibli animators. These people undeniably have the talent required to make a movie that, at a surface level could easily be mistaken for a Ghibli film. Unfortunately, after years of being told that they are only valued for their talent as an animator, and having their originality be stripped away from them, the Staff at Studio Ponoc completely lack any of the leadership qualities necessary to make a Ghibli-worthy narrative, to match the Ghibli aesthetic. Inconsistencies plague Kanini & Kanno. At times it can be beautiful, at others you get the ugliest CG fish ever created. At times the characters can be charming, but then you remember that some dumbfuck had the stupid idea of making everyone speak Pokémon. If Mary and the Witches Flower showed us that the studio has the talent required to make a Ghibli film, but may have been misguided in their narrative delivery, Kanini & Kanno shows a studio unwilling to learn from it’s mistakes and unwilling to risk daring to leave the shadow of its parent company. When one of the notes I took while watching said “Who cares?”, you know that the film has completely failed at delivering the quality one would hope for from a film that can look this good. 4/10 Life Ain’t Gonna Lose Life Ain’t Gonna Lose immediately improved my opinion towards the lack of leadership within Studio Ponoc. Finally, the changed art style shows a studio with animation talents beyond simply emulating what came before. It shows a director, hungry to make a name for himself, that understood that super-detailed animation simply wouldn’t work with the short-film he was trying to create. It’s the narrative of the film that truly made me pay attention to a director that has proven his talents, and also that he can make a really fucking terrible movie (Ni no Kuni). First of all, the characters can say more than each other’s names so now I can see them as people and actually care about the struggles they go through, regardless of how mundane they might be. The film revolves around the relationship of a boy with an extreme egg allergy, and how his mother tries to help raise him to overcome, what the film clearly presents to be a disability. I won’t say anything more than that because it’s so short, but trust me when I say that it’s worth your time to check it out. Not many films can make me feel anxious from watching a kid eat ice-cream. 9/10 Invisible This film is surprisingly dark when you consider who made it, and what it’s being packaged with. It follows an invisible man getting ignored to the point of what I can only assume to be a mental breakdown. Honestly the film is really depressing, not sad, just depressing. Like Jesus, imagine living everyday of your life, knowing that most people ignore you, that nobody cares about you and that you are just one of several billion completely replaceable human beings. Living a life completely aware that you’re nothing special. What a horrifying existence that must be to live in? … 7/10 Overall – 7/10 This Review is actually the script to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPhxb6j9PgI Check that out and subscribe to the channel if you want to see more reviews like it.