cheathamg

I just watched a new anime kid's movie on Netflix called The Imaginary. It's about a little girl and her imaginary friend who are threatened by someone who has lived for hundreds of years by devouring children's imaginary friends. I think kid's movies can be broken into two types. There are Miyazaki's films, which are the best. They were made because they had to be made. They were a compulsive expression of the artistic mind behind them and are not restricted to a juvenile viewing public. Then there are kid's movies that were made simply to be a kid's movie and make a buck from the kid audience. They range from utter trash like The Goonies to okay movies like The Imaginary. It has some good ideas in it and I guess it is worth a watch.

The title of this review tells you pretty much all you need to know about this short film. I guess it is a traditional story of revenge in the samurai genre. There is a backstory hinted at but that's it. It is hinted at but what else can you do in six minutes? It is stop-motion animation and it is very animated; pretty much non-stop action. The artwork makes almost no attempt to be realistic. There is no setting in which the action takes place. If it were being presented in a theater it would be called "bare stage". The characters are so unrealistic as to be called grotesque. All that being said, it is a lot of fun.

This is a Japanese anime but they shot for an international audience by having all the printed material in Western alphabet. It is a slightly sad story about high school kids who are unhappy. What other kind is there? They want to make contact with a teenage ghost who was supposed to have died by suicide. They do make contact but her story is not as simple as they thought. The film is sweet and involving and I recommend it but it's not without flaws, especially towards the end where matters get a little chaotic. As I said, I recommend it, particularly for young people. It is aimed at that audience with a narrative revolving around the difficulties of making your way in a world filled with judgement, frustration and downright cruelty.