As one of the three gods of IG, Okiura is a representative of the realistic performers. His paintings and performances focus on realistic and smooth, and he is called a person with a 3D computer in his head. In the early years, he served as the original painter in works supervised by Takahashi Ryosuke such as "Armored Cavalry". Later, he served as the original painting in Oshii Mori's "Mobile Police Tokyo Destruction" and "Mobile Police Peace and Defense", and Otomo Keyang's "AKIRA" and "Old Man Z". In 1995, he served as the painting supervisor, storyboard and character design in "Ghost in the Shell". In 1999, he was the first supervisor in "Wolfman". This work has won a lot of awards, but since then, Okiura has never directed animation works, and painted original paintings everywhere, such as "Metropolis", "The Gate of the Cowboy Paradise", "Delusional Agent" from the outside agency, and some works from our agency. "The Last Vampire", "Mikasako" and so on.
In 2004, after acting as the drawing supervisor and character design in Oshii Mori's "Innocent", President Ishikawa proposed the original planning proposal of [Girls and Monsters], which aroused Okiura's interest, and personally supervised the script and mirroring, from 2004 to 2011 It took 7 years to make "Letter to Peach". This work is different from the grand worldview and dark tone of the Oshii Mamoru animation inherited from its predecessor "Wolf", but it is a funny animation that combines realistic everyday life with fantasy comedy.
In his early years, Okiura had seen a surrealist movie "Alien Adventure". The setting of Uncle Earth and Uncle Alien left a deep impression on him. If it were changed to the story of a Japanese girl and an uncle Should be pretty good too. With this idea in mind, Okiura wanted to make funny healing animations from the very beginning, and took the theatrical version of "Little Trouble Chie" supervised by Takada Xun as his goal. "Little Trouble Qianhui" was released in 1981. It is a healing masterpiece that tells the daily story of the protagonist, the little girl Qianhui and her family. With the theme of the girl and the uncle monster, I also wanted to tell a story about family love, and the original plan already wanted to use the island as a stage. Okiura's ancestors all lived in Setouchi, and he himself once traveled to the Seto Inland Sea after the production of "Wolf". At that time, he left the idea of trying to make it in his heart. Therefore, the stage setting of the story is placed in the Seto Inland Sea, where my ancestors once lived. The combination of the three gave birth to the script of "Letter to Peaches".
After arguing with his father, he said, "You don't need to come back." As a result, the father died in an accident in the marine survey team. The guilty daughter Taozi took her father before she could finish writing, and only wrote a letter with the words "to Taozi". , accompanied his mother to Shioshima in the Seto Inland Sea to live with his uncle and aunt. The mother is busy looking for a job, and Taozi, who is far away from Tokyo, has both guilt for her father and is unable to integrate into the life on the seaside island. Whether it is to her uncles and aunts, and the children of the same age on the island, they are all indifferent. One day, I found out that there are three monsters in my house with slightly hideous appearance: the big and big Ayan, the second shrewd ghost Achuan, and the third one is dementia and cute Adou. In getting along with the three youkai, Momoko's heart is gradually opened. But a misunderstanding caused Taozi and her mother to misunderstand. On a stormy night, her mother suffered from asthma, and the anxious Taozi didn't know what to do. The true origins of the three monsters were also revealed that night...
In this work that combines realistic everyday life with fantasy comedy, it is not so easy to cross the bridge in the typhoon, the monsters are not so powerful, and the teenagers do not have any hidden nirvana. In the 120min video, the first 60min mainly talks about peaches and monsters, and the last 60min talks about the reconciliation between peach and his parents. In the first half, Momoko's attitude towards youkai has changed from hostile to harmonious, and she has become less gloomy and indifferent. In the second half, Taozi found out that the three monsters could bring letters to the deceased father, and with the help of the monster barrier, he found a doctor to treat his mother. (The blue words can be deleted if spoilers are revealed) Fetters and growth have always been the evergreen themes of anime. The fetters of family affection make Taozi unable to let go of the knot. With the help of monsters, the fetters of family affection allow Taozi to open her heart and complete it. After reconciling with his parents, he grew up as a child of the island. From Peach's point of view, this film is through the reconciliation of the father and the reconciliation of the mother to complete his growth. From the father's point of view, it is watching the growth of the peach. Supervisor Okiura said that he wanted to show his father's gaze through the entire work. Although these scenes did not exist, it would be good to see this kind of gentle gaze after watching the entire film.
Okinura, known as "the last hand-drawn animation of the 20th century", also used a lot of 3D scenes in this work. The ship at the beginning, the orange forest during the battle with the wild boar in the middle, and the monster barrier at the climax at the end all used 3D special effects. . Okiura said that there was no CG department in the company during the production of "Wolf", and he couldn't use CG if he wanted to. Although the sense of incongruity brought by CG makes me not very used to it, it is better to use 3D in scenes where painting is too time-consuming. When expressing a natural scene like the orange grove, Okiura was worried about whether it could be achieved technically. Frequent discussions with CG directors and repeated simulations. Although it wasn't as smooth as expected, it still came out perfectly.
The uncle monster is another highlight of this work. In the early years of Toei's "Journey to the West", Sha Wujing's design inspired the design of Chongpu. I talked about the deep impression of "Alien Adventure" on Chongpu. Taking the yellow table paper picture book that was popular in Japan in the Edo period as the motif, it was originally created by Okura, and Ando refined the character settings of the three uncle monsters. Although the three monsters are visually scary, they steal things, are greedy and fear death, and have funny lines and funny lines. The climax part becomes a righteous partner who comes to help Taozi. Match ah. In the actual painting process, Okiura himself would think, "If it was Mr. Yasuo Otsuka, how would he describe Ayan?" But because of the realistic painting, there were three slightly hideous monsters. The audience was just as frightened as Peaches when they first appeared on the stage. There are surreal monsters in the realistic daily life. These three monsters contracted most of the laughter of the film and formed this fantasy comedy in the realistic daily life.
The voice actors and characters in this work are also very suitable. The monster boss Ayan is the Japanese national treasure actor Nishida Toshiyuki. The production team was worried when they sent out the invitation to Mr. Nishida, but he did not expect that he readily agreed. Very professional during the recording. The role of Momoko's mother, Ikuko, was initially determined. Okiura once saw Miss Yuka appear on Mr. Shimura's TV program. She tied her hair in a ponytail and wore the exact same clothes as Yuko. It was really similar. He also listened to the radio drama that Yuka participated in before. Although he had heard it before, he didn't know that the voice belonged to Yuka. When he listened to it again, he felt that it was indeed Yuko's voice. And the voice of the protagonist of this work, Momoko Miyama Karen, in the live-action movie "Cherry Maruko", Maruko's good friend left a deep impression on Okiura. Although 10 people auditioned for Momoko's role, but in the end he chose Meishan. As for Achuan, who is matched with Yamaji Hiroshi, I will hide my face and say nothing. . I hope that when Shansi has a child in the future, he won't tell him that his father has played such a fanciful role. .
Realism, as IG and Okinura's best performing method, is vividly shown in this work. It can be said that it is almost the same as the real scene. The street scenes of the seaside town and the scenes such as mountain climbing and overlooking the sea are all similar to the popular scenes in recent years. Japanese movies are the same. Is the narrow but sloping street the same as in "Haijie Diary"? Does the view of the sea that the trio of Peach and Youkai look at from the mountain top reminds people of the mountains and misty mountains that the protagonist looks at from the top in "Nah, Nah, God Goes to the Village"? It is precisely because of the solid realistic daily life that the audience can easily feel a sense of substitution, and the surreal scene where three monsters appear is also firmly grounded, and there is no sense of incongruity. Therefore, if you are used to watching Oshii Shou's dark and depressing children's shoes, you can read "Letter to Taozi". The uncles of the original team can not only make cold-blooded wolves, but also make warm-hearted uncles. If you like this kind of Japanese healing style with a soothing rhythm and delicate texture, this work is also a must-see masterpiece.
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