Sparks of Tomorrow #1 – Seasonal Specials

Sparks of Tomorrow is an anime that was never supposed to exist. What was promised almost 8 years by Kyoto Animation was an adaptation of Hiro Yuuki‘s 20th Century Electricity Catalogue, a period romance about bringing the revolution of electricity to early 20th century Japan. No staff was ever released for this project but the studio’s preeminent workhorse Tatsuya Ishihara did direct the concept movie they released years later as they reignited their promise to make this story following the arson. In a perfect world we would’ve got that series years ago, presumably led by Ishihara in a mostly book accurate shape. It probably would have been good too. Instead it was put on hold as the studio reforged itself anew in the hands of its surviving leaders Ishihara, Ishidate, and Yamamura. Last year Ishidate would get to lead the first new franchise for the studio in a half decade, City the Animation, a comfortable spiritual successor to Nichijou. It, in my humble opinion at least, is nothing short of the greatest television anime production of all time, just a staggering and complete showcase of everything this medium can do. Every episode is a delight but one stands above them all as objectively one of the most insane feats of episodic animation I have ever seen. I am of course talking about City #5 which was marshaled into existence by the studio’s rising star, resident lunatic, and subject of this breakdown Minoru Ota.

I have already talked about Ota and City #5 at length, I was there at the time of course and how else could I react to his outlandish feat of storyboarding and animation, an episode only capable of existing in the able hands of Kyoani. It was not in fact Ota’s first leadership role, rising star and all, as he had cut his teeth on Tsurune, debuted as a storyboarder on Kobayashi and was entrusted to take over as instrument animation director on Eupho after the passing of Hiroyuki Takahashi. He was rapidly becoming their new animation ace, his episodes were starting to stand out and then finally City #5 cemented him in my heart as their newest genius. At a studio like Kyoto Animation being a genius has its expectations though, one being the inevitable promotion to director.

Kyoani trains animators with the philosophy that all should be capable of directing, it imparts a sense of ownership over their creative craft at every level and has resulted in the studio singlehandedly raising up the greatest directors of their day like it’s a matter of course. Naoko Yamada would almost instantaneously become the greatest of all time but peers like Taichi Ishidate are also kinda a big deal, between the two is shared half of my MAL top 10. With the hustle and bustle of recent years no new series director has risen to ranks in almost a decade, Takuya Yamamura and Tsurune being about as old as the 20th Century Electricity Catalogue‘s announcement. A studio can’t survive forever on just the older generation though, new blood is essential to keep Kyoani’s future alive and finally that has happened.

Sparks of Tomorrow is an anime that could only exist because its director has something to prove. It is not a faithful adaptation of Hiro Yuuki‘s novel anymore and while a lot of the core remains the same the entire surface setting has been considered, abandoned, and built anew. It is downright poetic that instead of depicting a Kyoto of old in his daring debut Minoru Ota instead went the opposite most challenging path possible and rendered it in steampunk steel, rethinking everything possible about the setting. That includes most eye-catchingly the way it has been drawn, a new painterly style unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. To be blunt the closest comparison is Takahata’s A Tale of the Princess Kaguya, the single best art direction in anime history. In that project the canvas was peeled back, edges of white heighten the every frame a painting feel to the art direction in the most delicious way.

Sparks of Tomorrow‘s art, conceived by world designer Takaaki Suzuki and directed by first time art director Mao Takayama is instead an oil painting, one that ripples with the conceptual canvas it was drawn on. This mix of hazy brushes and exact, mind boggling detail makes this maybe the most realistic looking world Kyoani has ever produced, packed to bursting with lived in spaces, fantastic architecture and tons of neat little props. The steam pipes snake over every building, billowing into every space in an invasive and inelegant sorta way, one that makes you understand why an electric revolution could do this world a lot of good. Eventually that is, for now I’m perfectly happy to take in sights that no other anime studio is capable of producing, every static background filled to bursting with machinery and man at a density I’ve only really seen City the Animation and Ghibli the Studio pull off.

Populating this intricate world is this series’s greatest surprise, its downright comic cast and their cartoonish animation. Sparks of Tomorrow is a chipper work, more similar in character to City than the Violet Evergarden I was almost expecting and I love it for that, it burns brightly with instantly buoyant personalities. Kihachi Sakamoto is our protagonist and he’s a prodigy of the electronic field of study, one that belongs to him, his mate aaand oh nope just them. His journey to revolutionize the world is only just beginning and his sparks burn bright but not for long, he’s in desperate need of a new solution  which probably resides in the 20th Century Electricity Catalogue Macguffin his brother once had. His spirits find themselves raised when he meets Inako Momokawa, the clumsiest girl in the world whose only talent is her ability to believe in everything. She is adorably stupid, just a pure hearted maiden whose ability to get inspired by anything happening to her makes for an instantly likeable person who can go bar for bar with the similarly excitable Kihachi. They don’t hit it off instantly with Inako making a right fool of herself while Kihachi unleashes the greatest gab the world has ever seen but the seeds are planted for the episode’s climax where they become the light of each other’s worlds, the sparks necessary for their collective growth.

In between the two stands the self aggrandizing rich boy Yousuke Mizoue, ever surrounded by smoke and mysteriously after the Catalogue too. In a different work he’d cut an imposing figure, in Sparks of Tomorrow he casts a long elastic arm that positions him as maybe the most cartoonish of them all, a totally unserious man whose motivations could very well hide serious implications.

Minoru Ota is a dense storyteller, he loves to accomplish a lot within a very limited timeframe and in this episode he sought to do just about everything. The world gets a grand unveiling, from the theatrical stages and dingy backstreets to live in abodes and workshops. The animation efforts are a nonstop barrage of interesting cuts with a lot of smoky morphing animation unlike anything I’ve seen. The climax with its disturbingly rendered puppet people, the awe inspiring sight of the parade grounds and the cute revolving cute of Inako and Kihachi is one for the ages undoubtedly. The cast also gets a grand unveiling and I do mean cast, it feels like everyone in Kyoto appears. Inako’s friend, Inako’s maid, Inako’s sister, big guy named Kengo who hangs out at Inako’s, Yousuke’s butler and even more get moments to spark an interest in the audience but I don’t know if we had to do all this this week. Episode 1 doesn’t have a single moment to breathe in its entire length, the editing is truly mile a minute and I think there’s a lack of focus in the broad coverage of events, it’s all cute and gorgeous as hell but it doesn’t fully coalesce into a singular feeling or intention.

Minoru Ota is a grandiose man whose sensibilities have rendered his debut in unforgettable colors but I wouldn’t be surprised if future episodes are directed with sharper intent and hopefully more patience. What  Ota did succeed in most was showing off a work unlike anything Kyoani has ever done, something only possible with his new creative vision and as such Sparks of Tomorrow stands as one of the most exciting anime of the year, I simply cannot wait to see more.