The Summer Ghost Problem

Greetings from the wayside, readers. I have been absent for a bit. College has been hectic and I've been directing a film that's now about to enter the post-production phase while about to begin production on another film simultaneously. That being said, I still want to talk about one of the year's best anime films.

Summer Ghost is making it very difficult to choose my favourite film of the year with the impact of its 40-minute story that is profoundly affecting and visually stunning.

But its existence is a problem.

It's a disruptive presence that is bound to result in costly yet entirely necessary changes in how anime is approached. A sore thumb in an anime industry that for too long just churned out the same thing again and again.

Naruto (left) and Asta (right).

The constant stream of carbon copies in the anime industry sometimes frustrates me to the point I have to take a break from all anime. It renders me physically unable to watch any anime for a while. It's not that I burst out in an overly dramatic emotional screaming match with myself, but it's more like a silent suffering and mourning of what could've been.

The precise problem with all this is that I can't seem to enjoy any anime that doesn't bother to even try to be original or to at the very least reach for some difference to set them apart. Instead, they're content with making remakes with different character designs that are still following an irritatingly bland and familiar formula for making an anime.

Summer Ghost brings a different problem altogether. Its problem is that it's exactly the opposite of everything I just mentioned. It's original but familiar, not too similar, but not alienatingly different. This film is exactly what the anime industry as it stands, is not doing.

This anime is a sublime achievement in storytelling. In an anime industry so devoid of this type of anime, Summer Ghost brings to the screen an anime with a distinct visual language and a narrative written with care and effort and not for the fan service of over-indulgent, over-commercialised anime content lovers who call themselves "fans".

The director, loundraw an animator and illustrator better known for his work on Josee, The Tiger and The Fish and I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, brings us his first directorial project and what a banger it is.

loundraw describes his style as "lacking detail". The illustration definitely adopts the motto "less is more" which can sometimes do more harm than good, but in this case, it perfectly encapsulates the longing and lacks a life if you will that serves as the thematic basis of Summer Ghost. The simply drawn characters with the almost incomplete colouring really give the film a much more unique visual language than I personally thought it had after seeing it only once. This, I noticed only on my second viewing of the film.

An anime that has enough depth and range that needs to be watched and rewatched to fully grasp is a rarity in today's world, so much so that I can't even recall any anime of recent times that require such commitment from an audience.

"The Summer Ghost Problem" is one that I am more than happy to have. Many will not like this problem, saying that it has no story, no plot or even unimpressive animation. In my humble opinion, I think too many anime fans have become so used to a "bigger means better" approach with regard to the animation of an anime. If it hasn't got a high resolution, fine details into character drawings and big fight or flight moments, it automatically isn't as good as it could've been. I understand that anime is a visual medium like film, but my question is...

When did we start not caring about the story?

Thank you for reading!