Jason Sondhi

This week’s new short Mimi Carina, is a cute animated tale I stumbled across while checking out Studio 4c’s “Next Genius” promotional contest over on MySpace. There are a lot of promo contests out nowadays, but this one is interesting because Studio 4c is a big name in Japanese animation. Best known stateside for the Animatrix, their newest project is similarly a short film anthology featuring new films by some of the industry’s leading directors, titled (a bit pretentiously maybe) Genius Party. To help promote the Japanese theatrical release of the anthology they sponsored the Next Genius contest, open to fan and independent submissions the world over. Seven winners have now been chosen, but Mimi Carina is my favorite possibly because having just finished the last book, I have Harry Potter on the mind, and the main character here, with her messy brown hair and glasses, bears a passing resemblance to our favorite wizard. The cute witch on a broom who rescues her, and the film’s theme, a brief meditation on death informed by the title’s description Emilie au Pays des Morts , only strengthen this initial appraisal even more.

Mimi Carina is a film informed by anime but different as well. Presumably French in origin, the light, water-colored backgrounds certainly remind one of European- style children’s books, but on the other hand certain sensibilities are unmistakably Miyazaki; the fantastic detail drawn into the pastoral European township as well as the fascination with flight exhibited by the characters for example.

With anime style and aesthetics having increased in popularity and exposure outside of Japan the last few years, it really will be interesting to chart the effect on the medium as new artists the world over who have grown up with these films and images reinterpret anime, informed by their own cultural contexts.