Ask John: Is Mind Game the Best Anime Ever?

Question:
Is ‘Mindgame’ really as good as it gets in terms of anime? Would you consider it even, dare I say, revolutionary?

Answer:
I’m sorry to say that I haven’t seen the Mind Game movie yet. I’ve seen a lot of Studio 4C’s productions including numerous episodes of Mahou Shoujo Tai Arusu, Comedy, the Digital Juice shorts, End of the World, Arete Hime, Memories, Spriggan, the NTT Gatchaman 2000 commercials, the Animatrix segment “The Beyond,” and Sound Insect Noiseman, so I can agree that 4C productions are often revolutionary, but I’m hesitant to call them the epitome of anime or the ultimate example of anime. Studio 4C productions are typically wonderfully creative, innovative, and unique, but 4C productions also often use their creativity to disguise their limited budgets.

I think that select films by studios like Ghibli, Madhouse, and Production IG such as Howl’s Moving Castle, Tokyo Godfathers, and Innocence exhibit better animation quality and attention to detail, and more literary and affecting stories than Studio 4C works. Typical 4C productions are effective and impressive because they’re high quality alternatives to our normal expectations about anime. Even seemingly mainstream 4C works like Arete Hime and Mahou Shoujo Tai aren’t really typical anime. They are virtually a reaction to typical anime that are produced within the genre of conventional anime and could not exist without conventional anime. To provide an illustrative analogy, Beatnink and stream of consciousness literature by writers like Lawrence Ferlinghetti and William S. Burroughs is revolutionary, but not usually considered superior to the work of Hemmingway or Steinbeck. The outré films of director David Lynch are critically acclaimed but not commonly thought of as better than films from Spielberg or Scorsese or Soderberg. Revolutionary simply means different or challenging. It doesn’t necessarily mean better.

Mind Game was just recently released on Japanese DVD, so I’m looking forward to seeing it soon. Among all of the other Studio 4C animation that I have watched, I’ve never seen anything that I didn’t respect and enjoy. But when I think of the best animated titles Japan has ever created, I think of the titles that have defined anime by example, not titles that consciously strive to subvert our expectations of anime.