Kari-gurashi no Arietti

I recently watched The Secret World of Arriety. The Japanese title is Kari-gurashi no Arietti. The screenplay is written by Hiyao Miyazaki. It is the film adaptation of the “Borrowers” series, written by Mary Norton, where tiny people live amongst humans and borrow necessities.

This movie was already released in Japan in 2010, where it proceeded to win every animated film award there is. The Clock family are four-inch-tall people who live anonymously beneath the floorboards of a suburban home, unbeknownst to the big people who also live there, borrowing simple items to make their home. Life changes for the Clocks when their daughter, Arrietty, is discovered. Although twelve-year-old Shawn is delighted to become a secret friend, his knowledge of her existence threatens the safety of all the little people.

Japanese animator Hiromasa Yonebayashi takes the directorial seat of The Secret World of Arrietty. Best known for his animation work in films such as Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away, he stays fairly true to Mary Norton’s 1952 children’s novel The Borrowers upon which the movie is based. The director invites audiences under the floorboards and into the family’s miniature household equipped with items they’ve “borrowed” from the Big People.

Maintaining their secret world is imperative for their safety and survival. But despite severe warnings from her parents, Arrietty can’t help but reveal herself to Shawn, an ailing young boy who has come to live with his Aunt Jessica. While Shawn intends no harm to the little people, Hara the housemaid doesn’t share his benign fascination with them.

Most people don't know that I am a huge fan of Hiyao Miyazaki and Studio Ghilbi's work. I absolutely love watching anime. It is very different from American cartoons. The first anime I ever watched was when I was about four and it was Sailor Moon. Don't judge me. I use to read mangas too.

I am going to sound like a nerd when I say this, but I took an Anime class while I was at Berkeley. Nerd much? I learned so much from that class. I never knew there where so many genres of anime. Tezuka was referred to as the "God of Manga." The giant robot genre (known as "Mecha" outside Japan), took shape under Tezuka, developed into the Super Robot genre under Go Nagai and others, and was revolutionized at the end of the decade by Yoshiyuki Tomino who developed the Real Robot genre. Robot anime like the Gundam and The Super Dimension Fortress Macross series became instant classics in the 1980s, and the robot genre of anime is still one of the most common in Japan and worldwide today.

I also learned about the Japanese culture, history, Studio Ghilbi and how it affect the different artists' art style and forms. Many of these titles can be described by more than one genre or theme.
Some of the genres that I studied were:

Action (Cowboy Bebop, City Hunter, Lupin III)
Children’s shows (Pokemon, Doraemon)
Magical Girls (Sailor Moon, Card Captor Sakura, Minky Momo, Nurse Angel Lilika S.O.S., Pretear)
Savior from another Dimension (Vision of Escaflowne, Fushigi Yuugi, Magic Knight Rayearth, El-Hazard, Orguss, Heaven War Shurato, Record of 12 Countries [12 Kokuki])
Hero (Gatchaman, Hurricane Polymar, Casshan, Hakaima Sadamitsu)
Sci-Fi (Evangelion, Dirty Pair, Wings of Honneamise, Rah Xephon)
Space Opera (Gundam, Macross, Xabungle, The Ideon)
Fantasy (Record of Lodoss War, Slayers, Aura Battler Dunbine)
Military/ Police (Full Metal Panic! , You're Under Arrest [Taihou Shichauzo], Patlabor)
War (Grave of the Fireflies, Area 88)
Samurai/ Ninja (Rurouni Kenshin, Ninja Scroll [Juubei Nimpucho], The Samurai)
Martial Arts/ Fighting (Dragonball Z, Saiyuki, HunterXHunter)
Ghostbusting (Yu Yu Hakushou, Haunted Junction, Ghost Sweeper Mikami)
Comedy (Ranma ½, Urusei Yatsura, Dragon Half, Excel Saga)
Romantic Comedy/ Soap Opera (Kima)

I have watched most of these anime. I also watched Astro-boy, Totoro, Sazae-san, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Akira, etc. These anime are fun to watch. However they are also a learning tool. The Japanese made these anime to teach their young about their history, culture, and ramifications about what we are doing to the world (especially about war, our depletion of natural resources, etc). I love analyzing the messages and symbolism from these anime. All of these anime have powerful messages about society, humanity, nature, the future and our reprecussions with reliance on machinery. Some topics have been about co-existing with nature like in Princess Mononoke. It's amazing how some of these anime are from the 60's and 70's; however, the themes and topics are relevant today.

One of the reason why I wanted to watch The Secret World of Arriety is because I wanted to figure out the underlining themes and message behind the film. It's really touching in the film when Shawn told Arriety that he is dying and that he didn't care anymore. Arriety told him that he have to have hope. The Borrowers are the ultimate recyclers, surviving on what we throw aside, taking only what they need to survive. They walk lightly on the earth. By comparison, Shawn, despite being full of good intentions, partially destroys the Borrowers’ home when he tries to give them a gift and makes their home much easier for the housekeeper Hara to find.

Nothing in Arrietty is painted in absolutes. Hara may be the vilain of the piece, but she is definitely a vilain who views herself as the hero. She does not want to hurt the Borrowers, merely to capture them. She simply lacks the empathy and imagination to understand that being captured and caged is a fate worse than death to a natural creature like a Borrower. Shawn was suppose to die, but he didn't. He would come back the summer after, but he doesn't see Arriety ever again.

The ambiguity of the Borrowers’ place within nature is illustrated by the moment when the raccoon stares at them and then moves on by. The Borrowers live in a dangerous world where death could come from any direction at any time. The price of being part of nature is living with that danger all the time.

Of course, living in a world where the raw edges of nature have been smoothed and civilized away is no guarantee of safety. Arrietty’s life may be more dangerous than Shawn’s, but she knows how to live while the sickly Shawn is so obsessed by his own mortality that he is blind to everything else around him.

Embracing nature has its costs, but then so does trying to enslave it. Mastering nature brings protection and control at the cost of truly living. Becoming one with nature means surrendering safety and control, but brings with it the gift of truly being (like Arrietty) part of Gaia.

xoxo,
Kat