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+===================
+ Giovanni's Island
+===================
+:CreationDate: 2015-03-08 16:16:25
+:Id: anime/review/giovanni-island
+:tags: - anime
+       - review
+:rating: 3.5
+:original: http://www.easternkicks.com/reviews/giovannis-island
+
+This is a story of death and loss and friendship and of life carrying
+on. It's a restrained depiction of the effects of war and
+occupation. It's about the power of dreams and imagination.
+
+Japanese people on a boat nearing the island of Shikotan, off the
+north-east coast of Hokkaido. It's the first time since the late
+forties that they're allowed to go back to what used to be their
+home. Two of them reminisce of the events of that time.
+
+Jumpei and Kanta are about 10 and 6 when the Emperor broadcasts the
+surrender of Japan: they may not understand the full impact of that
+event, but they know that their life is going to change. Their father
+is the chief of the island's defence force, but not actually military:
+in Jumpei's words, he's the head of the fire brigade. He loves Kenji
+Miyazawa's novel, "Night on the Galactic Railroad", and the children
+have read aloud from it since they learned to read. Jumpei and Kanta
+often imagine themselves as the characters in the book their names
+were even chosen to resemble: Jumpei for Giovanni, Kanta for
+Campanella. The novel was also their dead mother's favourite, and its
+message that the souls of the dead get transported to the sky to
+become stars has helped all of them to cope with her loss.
+
+With the end of the war, comes the Russian occupation. Soldiers come
+to the island, occupy the houses and the school, take away the
+soldiers. A difficult co-existence begins, but while the adults of
+each nation are suspicious and resentful of the others, the children
+do their best to be children and forge friendships, across the
+barriers of language and status. We follow in particular the story of
+Jumpei and Tanya, and how they cope with the upending of both their
+worlds.
+
+Giovanni's Island carefully avoids demonising the invading forces,
+without discounting the effects they had on the lives of people who
+had little or nothing to do with the war. Narrating everything through
+the point of view of children allows writer SUGITA Shigemichi (杉田 成
+道) to show clean, raw emotions but also avoid tearjerker tropes. The
+animation seems to be a mix of computer-generated backgrounds and
+hand-drawn characters, which is a bit jarring at times.
+
+There's no way this movie won't be compared with Grave of the
+Fireflies (1988, director TAKAHATA Isao, Studio Ghibli): both are set
+in the same period, both tell the story of two young siblings, both
+show the tragedy of war. Although I consider Grave to be overall a
+better work, I can't usually recommend it to people: on the one hand,
+it's extremely tragic; on the other, Seita's behaviour is upsetting
+and borderline criminal. By contrast, Jumpei's and Kanta's story is
+full of hope, and none of the characters (not even the Russian
+soldiers) are shown as malicious or homicidally stupid: Giovanni's
+Island goes into my list of recommended historical films on post-war
+Japan.