Kono sekai no katasumi ni (2016)'s activity - page 2

Fumiyo Kōno's manga, In This Corner of the World, makes for a luscious, charming, and ultimately heartbreaking anime. Suzu grows up in 1930s Japan and comes of age in the 1940s, and since she's from Hiroshima, a sense of dread pervades many parts of the film. For the most part, it's lackadaisical slice of life stuff, and so specific in details, I'm surprised this isn't overtly based on a memoir or the original author's experiences. The vignettes turn from innocent campagnard elements - the hardships and joys of being a woman in this time and place - to tense and eventually horrifying war material, but never abandons its sensual specificity. Some will find the "plot" lacking, but the series of lived moments do amount to a full and rich story. These are things that happened to Suzu (and to other Japanese civilians), things that have shaped her life, that live in her memory. And of course, it's very pretty, sometimes going to an "artist's vision" of things (Suzu's) where anime's capabilities are well used. The pace is slow, but I was rarely ever less than riveted.