I’ll be the first to admit that (especially once you reach my age) you have to wade through an awful lot of cr@p in animedom to find what’s good – and even then people’s ideas of what’s good or not can differ (some friends still raise an eyebrow at what I consider good… well, watchable anyway, but that’s a seifuko thing – there, I said it.)
However, every now and again, the world of anime throws up a gem. Strangely these often tend to be obscure and little-known outside (and sometimes even inside) Japan – probably because they haven’t appealed to the thousands of fanboys and -girls out there, like other more mainstream (and dare I say brainless) shows.
Such a gem is The Diary of Tortov Roddle…
It sounds a bit like the title of a Franz Kafka novel and in its overall bleakness and almost spartan animation it could be in a way. Strangely, for a little-known gem like this, it’s also a fairly recent offering – airing during 2003. It’s also incredibly short – each episode lasts barely 3 minutes, yet what an amazing 3 minutes it is.
We follow Tortov Roddle as he journeys through a bizarre land, on the back of a pig, that looks like it escaped from Dali’s ‘Persistence of Pork’ or something. It’s almost as if he’s wandering through a dream… not quite a peaceful dream, but certainly not one you’re going to wake up screaming from. If I had to compare it to anything, think Kafka meets Dali meets Don Quixote meets Albert Hoffman.
It’s essentially a silent film, with any conversation being provided via flash-cards… maybe 3 lines of dialogue per episode, with an equally sparse soundtrack provided by the gifted Kenji Kondo. The animation is simple 2D graphics layered over painted paper backdrops, but it’s effective. I’m not 100% sure what else to say (I’m a facts and figures kind of guy rather than feelings), so maybe I’ll leave it up to a couple of screen captures to tell the rest of the tale. If you’re new to anime, this might not be for you, but if you’re an anime fan, and you’re looking for something very much off the beaten track… you could do worse than spend a few minutes with Tortov.
