Slightly based on a true story, Giovanni’s Island is a 2014 multi-award winning animated film by Production I.G. and Warner Bros, directed by Mizuho Nishikubo, written by Shigemichi Sugita, and featuring key animation by Shinya Ohira (you know, that guy that did Ping-Pong and Redline and Tekkon Kinkreet and Akira, etc.). In the months following the end of World War II, Japanese residents on the small rural isolated island of Shikotan (in the Kuril Islands, an archipelago to the northeast and east of Hokkaido and Sakhalin Island respectively) are surprised when Soviet troops suddenly seize the island, kick the Japanese out of their homes, and slowly horde Shikotan’s food supply. Junpei and Kanta Senou, the carefree train-loving sons of the island’s Japanese military commander are confused by the occupation and the adults’ varying methods of dealing with their current situation.
One day, after the Senou family is evicted from their primary living quarters and a Russian family moves in, the boys develop a friendship with their new neighbors’ daughter Tanya despite the language barrier, and a romance starts to bloom before it gets abruptly cut short when the Shikotan Japanese resistance methods are figured out by the Soviet’s island leaders. Rather quickly afterward, Junpei and Kanta get separated from their father and the Japanese on Shikotan are rounded up and shipped off the island to the Soviet-controlled territory, where they are instructed to work in internment camps while they await safe passage back to the Japanese mainland. All the boys want is to reunite with their father…but they’ll have to risk their lives to do so.
Giovanni’s Island can at times be overdramatized (mostly on behalf of its flashback, childish narration and occasionally uneven pacing) but I’ll be damned if the core of the tale doesn’t make this film one of the most heartwrenching and gripping stories in anime this year. The character movements are phenomenally freeform (again, I point you to Based Ohira) and are accompanied by beautiful mood-setting backgrounds that despite the rare instance of some off-putting CG early on get nailed in every major scene. The dialogue is spectacular too; the children’s lines are naturally naïve without coming out too cutesy and it’s also worth noting that the Russian characters were voiced by first-language Russian speakers which helps the film retain a sense of culture clash realism. Because the portrayal of events is as then-11 year old Junpei remembers them, the absence of detailed overt political discussions is excused too. In fact, I’d say this keeps the film from straying too far into the war’s atrocities, instead keeping it focused on the universal themes of hope, perseverance and family.
I obviously recommend this to anyone who hasn’t seen it, but to maximize your experience, I would suggest you learn a little about Kenji Miyazawa’s
Night on the Galactic Railroad if you don’t know about it already; it’s a children’s book considered a classic in Japan, and not only is it featured in-film as a favorite story of the Senou family, but Giovanni’s Island as a whole also parallels it in many ways. Hell, the lead boys were named after Railroad’s main characters (Giovanni = Junpei, Campanella = Kanta) and the stories are even partially set in the same approximate location, so you’ll likely get less out Giovanni’s Island if you don’t see the symbolism and allusions between works. It also wouldn’t hurt to brush up on your World War II history and
the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese relations over the Kuril Islands, especially because of all the conflicts we attribute to WWII, this scuffle between nations went largely unnoticed, despite the fact that political tensions continue over the islands to this day.
Anyway, it’s personally my favorite anime film of 2014. If you haven’t seen it, sit back and have your heart ripped out by this crushing story. If you have seen it, let’s discuss.
Damn, I really hope there are no typos in this shit.
