The hidden depths and traditions of Japanese animation are poised to emerge further into the public eye as the Locarno film festival pays tribute to the art form.Manga Impact, a retrospective of Japan's comic book and cartoon movement, runs throughout the festival and was the main attraction on Locarno's Grand Piazza screen on Monday night.
The retrospective is a pet project of the festival's outgoing artistic director, Frédéric Maire. Two masters of the genre will go home with special awards as part of the festival's focus on manga anime.
One Leopard of Honour, Locarno's highest prize, was awarded on Monday to Yoshiyuki Tomino. Tomino is known for having taken robot animation to new levels, endowing them with pathos and a dramatic impact never been seen before.
Earlier in the festival, a Leopard of Honour went to Isao Takahata, a grand master of Japanese animation.
Takahata is renowned for his ability to translate older manga traditions into modernity and for opening up its world of graphic prowess, fantasy, mythology and philosophy.
This iconography, with its strong emotional impact, is partly the key to the success of manga and resulted in its winning over Western youth in the 1970s and 1980s.
Willpower
The 1994 production Pom Poko is Takahata's expression of how humankind's destructive behaviour affects the planet. In the film, Japanese racoon dogs, the Tanuki, join forces and use powers of metamorphosis to frighten humans into taking better care of the environment.
In his film, the Tanukis' power to transform enables them to communicate with humans. "They manage to restore direct contact with nature, which is being undermined by modernisation, and serve as intermediaries."
"In Japan, animals are on the same level as human beings," says Takahata.
Man's relationship with nature and faith in humankind are recurring themes in the genre.
The use of robots in some comics and animation serves to highlight the importance of feelings and the superiority of human nature.Humans are able to improvise and adapt while the machines are incapable of thinking outside of fixed patterns.
Manga also reflects other aspects of Japanese culture, such as the strength of the community. Typically, American superheroes are characters like Batman and Superman with extraordinary powers, who act alone and use force. Japanese heroes are often vulnerable teenagers who rely on willpower and a sense of responsibility towards ethics and teamwork.
United States film director Quentin Tarantino is among the fans of manga. His fascination is reflected in his recent Kill Bill films, which include animation and stylistic and narrative nods to samurai culture.
Carlo Chatrian, film critic and curator of the Manga Impact retrospective, is a keen follower of the movement.
Isao Takahata (Fotofestival) Impact
"Manga Impact aims to analyse the impact of these kinds of film on people in general and not just film-makers," he said.
"In some ways, we are the answer. By holding this retrospective, the Locarno film festival and the National Cinema Museum in Turin aim to show that a product of the 1970s that was regarded as primitive and anti-educational at the time, has actually entered our lives in an enduring way."
For Chatrian, the success of Japanese animation is that it has managed to "clarify seemingly complex topics, like death, pain, loss of parents or nature under threat" for younger audiences and is a way of helping young people adapt in society.
Not all of the actors are endowed with superpowers, but all demonstrate willpower as a force, which allows them to overcome obstacles of life.
Overall, its message is a universal one, adds Chatrian.
"Isao Takahata has clearly said despite strong cultural differences, we are all Japanese, American, French. We are the expression of the same human race. "
Françoise Gehring in Locarno, swissinfo.ch (Adapted from Italian by Jessica Dacey)
