Opinion Prone

I finally finished my review for The Sky Crawlers (MAL mirror is here).

I think definitely think it’s one of those movies that I’ll need to watch again to fully appreciate, but as usual, I like to convince myself that I don’t have the time. I will check out that book of concept art from the movie again if I get the chance though — a lot of the environments ended up not being as complicated as I remembered, though the concept art also included a lot of diagrams and floorplans for the outpost and things that might not necessarily have been animated. Funny thing about the animation though, for it being so important that the characters are perceived as young, I never really realized just how young we were really supposed to think they were. From appearances alone, I would place Kannami and Kusanagi anywhere between fifteen and mid-twenties, a good decade of leeway. Behavior-wise, they seemed closer to mid-twenties, I would think, but everyone insisted on their persistent childhood. How young is too young to fight an endless war? Is there really an age where such things are appropriate? When does anyone really stop being a child? I’m not sure whether the age ambiguity in the designs was intentional or whether stylized anime in general has just ruined my age perception permanently. Everyone always looks youthful.