Cencoroll: Film Review

Title: Cencoroll

Writer: Atsuya Uki

Director: Atsuya Uki

Year: 2009

It is unusual nowadays that any high-budget or television production is the work and vision of one man, and the closest anime is likely to come to this is Cencoroll. This half-hour long film is more or less the achievement of Atsuya Uki, who is said to have largely wrote, designed, directed and animated the film by himself.

As it only last half an hour, it is a punchy self-contained story rather than a sprawling epic, and the film benefits a lot from the restraints that are upon it. Since it has only a short amount of time in which to tell its tale, the narrative moves quickly, but it manages to not feel rushed, perhaps due to the steady and measured pace of the characters. The story follows schoolboy Amamiya Tetsu, who is in charge/owns/controls/has as a pet a strange white monster named Cenco (pronounced Senko). Within a quick burst we are introduced to Yuki, a schoolgirl who, to Tetsu's annoyance, discovers Cenco and insists on making her presence felt. The other main player in the tale is a nameless youth, a boy who is presumably around the same age as the other two, who controls the two other white monsters that inhabit the story, one a giant dimension hopping blob, the other an octopus-thing that can go invisible. Now I am overly aware that as I write this it sounds like a plot synopsis for a piece that is a vapid shounen monster-battler, but in reality this film has more in common with Alice in Wonderland than it does any monster-battling type show (Pokemon, Digimon, Monster Rancher etc etc). Due to the films length, it is difficult to decide what exactly to include in an explanation of the plot, as very little actually happens, and it is the way in which is happens that is the truly engrossing aspect.

Unsurprisingly, since it is primarily the work of one man, the look of the film is fairly unique, but perhaps more notably, it is of an amazing quality. The cityscapes that frame most of the film are strikingly realistic, the smoothness of the urban surfaces setting the scene perfectly. The characters are all oddly offbeat, but not in a way which would require the damning adjectives 'kooky' or 'zany'. There is a rich vein of deadpan running throughout the piece, which works particularly well given the ludicrous occurences within it, such as the existence of huge monsters that do grim battle with one another. That is perhaps the main triumph of the film, a potent mix of both understatement and grotesque exaggeration, with the contrast between the two providing what I'm sure would be described on the BBFC notes as sustained surrealism throughout. A subtle and sure comedic vision helps with this thin-ice conceit, such as in one scene where Yuki's friend absent-mindedly ponders whether she is late because she has a cold, only to cut to the top of a skyscraper where a stoic Yuki is being restrained in the tentacles of the octopus monster. A close up of her face conveys mild annoyance, as though the character herself finds the situation ludicrous, rather than terrifying. The sort of reaction you would expect if a terrorist organisation kidnapped Jimmy Carr. Trusting, of course, Jimmy to stay in his onstage persona, which he could do I reckon. He is a consummate professional. I digress.

Most of the characters have an attitude of mild annoyance, occasionally veering into grumpiness or detached misanthropy. I am unsure whether this only appeals to me because of my own personal tendencies to be a cynical miseryguts, but it is certainly a refreshing thing to witness. Which is perhaps ironic. With the abundance of excitable cheese-wielders that exist within anime, it is somewhat cathartic to watch a genuinely Brooker-esque character work his way through a city fighting with monsters, without the compulsory pro-friendship/following-your-dreams/cheer-up-Charlie messages tacked on the end. The film is good like that, not being overly patronising, or perhaps I have merely become desensitised by too much shounen (silly Gilder, it's for kids). There're no explanatory segments where the workings of the unfamiliar reality are explicitly and limply laid out so any dunderheads watching wont feel left out. The story ploughs on at its own pace, and you, the plucky viewer, are left to keep up and work out the rules as it progresses. That is one of the ways it maintains its unexpected Alice in Wonderland-style surrealism, the abilities of the monsters are a complete unknown; fluid and unexpected, whereas other offerings seek to explain and pin down the powers within it (DBZ's scouter, Pokemon's pokedex) sometimes literally having a character explain, rather than actively showing it.

Another departure from the shounen monster-battlers is the fact that the monsters aren't either incredibly cute, if they are goodies, or terrifyingly fearsome, if they are baddies. In Cencoroll the monsters are ugly, bulbous creatures with lethargic fat eyes and strange teeth jutting out of their pudgy faces. I could have mistakenly thought the screen had turned off and I was being shown a reflection of my own vacant face staring at the screen (self-depracation!). Cenco's transformation ability is fluid and slightly disgusting, and a number of his transformations would be considered cheesy were it not for the dryness of the rest of the film. During battle he becomes a giant staplegun, as well a huge pair of scissors, and his favoured form while attempting to blend in inconspicuously is a mix between a panda a cardboard box and a toy car.

The music, composed by Ryo (from Supercell) is judiciously used, and each piece is fit perfectly to the action occuring onscreen. It is an eclectic offering, with calm, quiet ambience of a talk-heavy scene giving way to urgent haunting choral female vocals that are piercing above insistent drums that manage to perfectly explain that this does not augur well. The soundtrack is equally as adept at portraying the gentleless between the excitement as it is at accompanying the unflinching and unexpected viciousness that occasionally bursts into the story.

Without actually explaining the scene, the film is brought to an end with a twisted conclusion, it is a stange ending that is fairly nihilistic and hopeless but somehow clothes itself in the guise of happy resolution. A short scene after the credits have run leaves the story open ended, which suggests that the creator has further plans for the story, which delights me, as the film is a short masterful offering with a story I am eager to see deleveloped further. Whether this takes the form of another short film, or whether a series arises from this is at this point unknown, but to not explore the tale further would be a grave idiocy, and a travesty of epic proportions. A wonderful film, I implore you; watch it.