Fate/Grand Order’s new memorial movie was phenomenal, but it wouldn’t have been the same without its director, Hiromatsu Shuu.
Highlights
- Fate/Grand Order’s “Memorial Movie 2023” is a celebration of the franchise and showcases the talents of director Hiromatsu Shuu.
- The short film impresses with its detailed animation and the emotional narrative it conveys.
- The collaboration of animators from around the world highlights the international shift in the anime industry and the blurring of borders in animation styles.
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It’s been eight years since Fate/Grand Order first debuted and with each passing year, there’s more to celebrate, but this year’s “Memorial Movie 2023” might have gone above and beyond. It’s as much a celebration of the entire franchise as it is one property, and beyond the purview of Fate, its sheer beauty has reignited interest in the movie’s director, the talented Hiromatsu Shuu.
Hiromatsu Shuu is a pen name for Chinese animator Zhou Haosong, who has risen to prominence in recent years working on both Japanese anime and Chinese donghua. He’s one of a rare breed of animators whose versatility and sense of style lend themselves perfectly to music videos or opening sequences, where an ungodly amount of detail can be poured onto the screen.
“Beyond the Tale”
It was hard not to get excited about Fate‘s new anniversary project because it was being hyped up for weeks. There were tons of short but tantalizing teasers featuring one popular Servant from each class and a triumphant new track by Hana Hope titled “Flowers,”. It was all building up to a full release during FGO Festival 2023, and it certainly did not disappoint.
Beyond simply being a collection of pretty fight scenes and familiar faces bathed in a particularly flattering light, Memorial 2023 conveys quite a poignant narrative throughout. It hones in on the very concept of heroic spirits and the significance of bringing them back to life in a way that few entries in the Fate Series have achieved with such earnest emotionality.
The bridge of the song depicts the Heroic Spirits lost and adrift in an abyss as their legends linger in a world that’s constantly moving forward, advancing but also destroying itself. The folly of humanity is on full display, but when a hand reaches into that abyss and out to Saber, the tone shifts completely. It becomes a celebration of the human spirit that derives so much glee from depicting the resurrection of these myriad legends.
Why It Works
Hiromatsu Shuu directed the almost 4-minute short film at Japanese studio CloverWorks but with a positively stacked animation team from across the globe. What might strike viewers first about the movie is the sheer level of detail, a common appraisal of Fate‘s animated commercials. With such a short runtime, it’s a lot easier to justify putting an ungodly amount of effort into a cut that might be only three seconds long.
In a directorial capacity, Shuu has been compared to the likes of Shingo Yamashita, an animator with a very similar approach to realism and expressionism. If Yamashita’s name isn’t familiar, his work certainly is. Yamashita directed the openings for Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1 and the opening for Chainsaw Man, which share many of the same qualities seen in Shuu’s work.
Shuu’s style can be hard to pin down, especially depending if one looks at his work on TV versus on OP’s/music videos. His character animation – while always expressive and dynamic – can be highly realistic sometimes, while incredibly abstract at other times. For example, see his recent opening for Biao Ren: Blades of the Guardians or his opening for 2021’s Spare Me, Great Lord which went viral at the time.
The events work can be so dazzling that it can be downright trippy and there’s an abundance of slow-motion, which itself feels like a flex considering how expensive that can be. Additionally, the composition and framing can evoke a hand-held camera feel, which in conjunction with the realistic character acting and sweeping camera angles, gives off a surreal, dreamlike look. Even just the way hands are animated can convey a lot of emotion with the slightest movement.
Shuu also worked on Ousama Ranking #21, the episode helmed by Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 director Shota Goshozono, and was particularly active on Studio Nut’s Deca-Dence. More recently, Shuu directed Chainsaw Man ED #5, which offers a demonstration of his versatility far more comparable to his directing on FGO Memorial 2023.
The International Shift In Animation
There has always been a passionate – though seldom constructive – debate on what is and is not anime, linked to a sense of national identity with certain styles. Yet, over the past decade, more and more animated works have blurred these lines as foreigners have become a part of Japan’s animation industry – and contributed handsomely at that. And vice-versa, animators from Asia have contributed to and inspired new works across the globe.
As time goes on, the differences become less defined by borders and more by vibes. Animation-savvy viewers might be able to discern qualities that feel distinctly South Korean, Chinese, or Japanese, but shows like Netflix’s Castlevania aren’t explicitly tied to any one country. There’s a heavy Yoshiaki Kawajiri influence, but the animation team is as diverse as it could get. It’s not as though anime hasn’t been outsourced to China and Korea in the past.
It’s here that Hiromatsu Shuu – and furthermore, much of the creative staff behind FGO‘s Memorial Movie – come into the picture. It is a phenomenal piece and one which featured a lot of Chinese animation talent alongside artists like French animator Vincent Chansard or Nigerian animator Gabriel Ugbodaga.
With the international boom in anime that the community has relished over the past decade, it has been accompanied by a push for greater recognition of animation as a whole. Fate/Grand Order‘s Memorial Movie 2023 is just one example of excellence in animation with an increasingly international staff. It wouldn’t be the same without Hiromatsu Shuu, a director whose mesmeric expressionism and vision for composition will surely go on to influence the industry further.
Fuente: successacademy.edu.vn
Categorías: Anime
