Japanese independent indie animation has many great giants, shoulders on which we all stand upon. One of these greats is Masaki Okuda, whose take on various themes of childhood and growing up takes bizarre turns through his unique filmmaking lens.
As the Cartoon Brew says in their review of Gum-Boy “through a creative and non-literal use of animation that marries the fluid grace of a watercolor style with frenzied use of camera and cutting. Okuda’s mastery of film technique, narrative and visual style elevates Gum Boy beyond the average student film, and for that matter, the average professional short film as well.” I believe this illustrates Okuda perfectly.
Themes previously mentioned consist of childhood and something everyone experiences at least once: ostracization. This particular theme is the main lens through which we watch Gum-Boy. Gum-Boy is Okuda’s 2010 hit student film. The frenzied camera cuts, along with the blur of beauty that is his watercolor frames add up to an incredible student film. stylistically, you can see his frame boils in many other of his films not just in Gum-Boy. A film he was commissioned to make for the 2011 exhibition Art Path, called Count Down also includes these frantic frames. often flipping between one or two slightly different drawings to make this effect. This style works well in portraying the particualr intensity of the emotions featured in Okuda’s works.
while his work does not have a distinguishable cultural impact it reminds me of the type of animation that erupted out of the production of Dragon Ball. In particular, in scenes that show the intense power of the characters, the same frame boil can be seen similar to Okuda’s work.
An anime series I admire for its creativity and world-building is one I have only just started but have fallen in love with. Vinland Saga tells a dramatized version of a Viking story of revenge, and I love it. The animation and FX are particularly well-made.
sources
http://masakiokuda.com/en/profile/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland_Saga_(manga)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Ball
https://www.cartoonbrew.com/shorts/a-gum-boy-by-masaki-okuda-77199.html