Ask John: What Avant Garde Anime Haven’t Reached America Yet?

Question:
What are the avant garde anime series that have been overlooked by American licensors?

Answer:
Due to the nature of anime as primarily a commercially sponsored art, there is naturally some anime that emphasizes its artistic component while the majority concentrates on its commerical aspects. So highly artistic, experimental, avant garde anime has always been a minority, and a large percentage of what exists has been officially released in America. Regrettably, I’m not, and never will be familiar with every anime ever made. There’s too much anime for any single person to ever be familiar with everything. So I can provide a brief introduction to some of the existing avant garde anime that has yet to reach America, but doubtlessly I’ll miss some examples.

Especially in relation to anime, defining “avant garde” is difficult because it’s frequently difficult to distinguish a difference between anime which is “avant garde” and anime titles like Bavi-Stock, Miroku, and B.B. Fish that are just “weird,” and anime titles like California Crisis, Dragon’s Heaven, Gokinjo Monogatari, and Fujin Monogatari that are unique looking but don’t attempt any significant artistic statement. Within the context of this discussion, I’ll define “avant garde” as productions with unusual, esoteric, elevated artistic and literary execution and intent.

The grandfather of all avant garde anime may be Mushi Productions’ 1973 film Kanashimi no Belladonna, an impressionistic illustration of the life of Joan of Arc told with a combination of still images, symbols, and limited animation. While the film certainly exhibits characteristics of anime, it also resembles Western experimental animation.

Mamoru Oshii’s 1985 film Tenshi no Tamago is undoubtedly the best known avant garde anime to have never had an official American release. Angel’s Egg is a deliberately slow paced symbolic and metaphorical fantasy that resembles a cryptic Yoshitaka Amano painting come to life.

Painter Yoshitaka Amano also contributed the character designs for the 1984 OVA Machikado no Meruhen. Despite being overtly a simple romantic story, the OVA spends much of its time in phantasmgorical, artistic set pieces.

The 1990 Ryokunohara Meikyuu (Ryokunohara Labyrinth) OVA is also a love story, albeit one between two young boys, but like Machikado no Meruhen, much of the OVA consists of ethereal fantasy and surreal atmosphere.

The 1985 OVA “The Chocolate Panic Picture Show” is a bizarre hybrid of animation styles inspired by the 1980 film “The Gods Must Be Crazy” and an original manga story by Kamui Fujiwara.

Director Rintaro’s 1987 OVA X Densha de Ikou (“Take the X Train”) shows the director fully exerting his haunting artistic style in a story about a man literally haunted by a ghostly train. The OVA employs a passive, static, and objective perspective that creates a disconcerting, deliberate atmosphere and mystery.

Mamoru Oshii’s 1987 Twilight Q Part 2: File 538 OVA is a surreal and haunting philosophical exploration of divinity and fate. Oshii’s 1989 OVA series Gosenzosama Banbanzai! is overtly a sci-fi domestic comedy. But the series is better described as a slow paced and extremely dialogue heavy stage play rendered in anime form, complete with impressionistic set changes, intentional artifice, and obvious theatricality.

The 1987 TO-Y OVA and 1990 Nineteen OVA are similar in the respect that both extensively use a sleek art deco style reminiscent of iconic American artist Patrick Nagel, in visual design, cinematography, and editing.

Animation studio 4°C has worked on mainstream and conventional anime productions like Spriggan and Steamboy, but the studio’s core concentration is on experimental, avant garde anime. Numerous progressive, highly artistic Studio 4°C animation productions including Mindgame, Genius Party, Eternal Family, End of the World, and Sound Insect Noiseman remain unavailable on American home video.

The independantly produced 2003 feature film Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space is a post-modern, surrealistic observation of the decline of contemporary culture rendered as a sci-fi fantasy in a universe populated by humanoid cats and dogs.

Director Masaki Yuasa’s 2006 Kemonozume television series is ostensibly a conventional Romeo & Juliet themed romance, but one told with strikingly unique animation and an off-kilter narrative style that always stays a half-step ahead of the viewer’s comprehension.

I’m honestly not certain if the adults-only Lolita Anime 1: Uchiyama Aki no Obyoki Aki-chan, Lolita Anime 3: Uchiyama Aki no Omorashi Gokko, and Cream Lemon: Toshiki Yui Best Hit ~ Europe no Inshou OVAs should be classified as “avant garde” or just plain “strange.” In either case, I think that all three of these anime episodes are unusual enough, both in execution and intent, to justify mention alongside other titles on this list.

Short Japanese animation productions including Kujira no Chouyaku ~ Glassy Ocean, Ginga no Uo ~URSA minor BLUE~, Aru Tabibito no Nikki (“The Diary of Tortov Roddle”), and the animation of Koji Yamamura are just some examples of avant garde, art house Japanese animation that’s not always thought of as belonging to the conventional realm of mainstream, commercial anime.

As I mentioned, I’m sure that there are additional titles that I’m either unaware of, or which I’ve forgotten. I hope that this short list simply provides the curious with a starting point for further investigation. Perhaps bringing more attention to some of these works will lead to their eventual official American distribution, but unfortunately many of these titles will probably never get official American release because they’re too old, too esoteric, or too short to be commerically viable in America.