Otaku USA e-News staff
December 30, 2013 What’s a good newsletter without an end-of-year list? Nothing, that’s what. We’ve pooled some
of the top minds at Otaku USA e-News to tackle 2013 and reflect on some absurdly specific
categories. It’s how we roll.
Most Controversial Anime
Flowers of Evil (Aku no Hana) subjected its viewers to lots of teen angst, lengthy scenes without
any dialogue, and poetry. But its most controversial element was probably its rotoscoped
animation style, where real filmed actors are painted over in post-production. Fierce internet
wars were waged over whether Flowers of Evil was a ponderous, pretentious mess or an
original, artistic triumph (I’m in the latter camp, fyi).
Runners-up: My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute, aka OreImo, which split audiences (spoiler!)
over whether it was okay for a brother and sister to hook up (it’s, uh, not) and Free!, which made
male Kyoto Animation fans exclaim, “my favorite studio can’t be making anime for girls!”
Most Obnoxious Cash Grab
While I absolutely loved the new Madoka Magica film, the marketing campaign leading up
to it and the subsequent constant flow of freebies enticing return trips to the cineplex were
overkill. While it’s become common for big name titles to offer all sorts of merchandise, Madoka
Magica was literally everywhere before and during the release.
One of the more on-the-nose marketing schemes could be encountered right at the movie
theater. Moviegoers were given free presents for coming out to see the film. Everything from
sketches by character designer Ume Aoki, to cards featuring the characters, and to witch
encyclopedias. These presents had numerous variations, featuring different characters, and
were random, so you didn’t know which one you got until you opened it.
To keep the fans rolling in, these freebies were renewed and rotated weekly. One week you
could get a character sketch, another you could get a card. You can even get a New Year’s
celebration card featuring Mami in a kimono if you catch the film on New Year’s Eve this year
(as of this writing, the film is still in theaters).
This tactic obviously worked; the film has raked in 1,930,000,000 yen, becoming the highest
grossing film based on a “late-night anime,” surpassing K-On! The film still seems to be on a
roll and will most likely continue on playing well into the New Year, perhaps right up to the home
video release.
The Studio That Won 2013
Is, without much of a doubt, Ghibli. With not one but two theatrical releases, The Wind Rises
and Princess Kaguya, both doing great financially and critically, Ghibli has had its greatest year
since, well, the last time Hayao Miyazaki released something.
From here on out, it’s up to Ghibli’s younger generation of filmmakers to man the ship, with
Miyazaki retiring, and the studio has already announced next year’s film, When Marnie Was
There. With at least two directors, Marnie’s Hiromasa Yonebayashi, and the younger Miyazaki,
Goro, with a few decent films already under their belts, Ghibli stands a chance of remaining a
top studio.
The Studio That Lost 2013
Two of the most interesting works of the year (for entirely different reasons) were Evangelion
3.0 and Kill la Kill, both created by studios spun off from Gainax, the studio famed for works
like Honneamise, Evangelion and Gurren Lagann. Meanwhile, Gainax’s sole release this year
was Stella Women’s Academy, High School Class Division C3, a show about a high school
girls’ airsoft club. With much of the talent of that once-great studio now working either at studios
Khara or Trigger, it’s hard not to see Gainax as the loser of 2013.
The Most Wonderful 12 Minutes of Animation
Well, what do you know: that’s the exact runtime of Kick-Heart, the Kickstarter-funded short by
out-there auteur Masaaki Yuasa and a team of just three other animators.
Kick-Heart was an experiment by Production IG, testing whether purely creative, author-based
works still have a place in anime, and fans proved they’d pay for ’em, pouring over $200,000
into IG’s coffers to fund the film.
The result was a truly wonderful piece of animation, a story about S&M-practicing pro wrestlers
that’s somehow an endearing love story. But it’s also a love story between Yuasa, his team and
the joy involved in making (and watching!) animation not focus group-tested or TV network-
approved, but sprung from the pure imagination of one director.
This story originally ran in the 12/31/13 issue of the Otaku USA e-News
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