Plastic LittleThe Nineties were an exciting time to be a teenage boy. Japanese animation had found its footing a decade before and was becoming more widespread. Devoted fans and conventions were sprouting up, and all manner of content was being localized to appeal to this audience. Enter Plastic Little: a sci-fi action adventure with absolutely gorgeous animation, lots of elaborate set pieces, and a generous amount of nudity featuring the attractive protagonist, Tita, and her newfound friend, Elysse--something that would later be referred to as "fan service". Though attitudes may have shifted, and the audience for anime has broadened, Plastic Little is emblematic of this medium in the time in which it was made and for its targeted fanbase.
|
|
Since the Nineties, anime has become an absolute behemoth, with fans of it spread far and wide. It's important to reiterate that this wasn't always the case. In fact, anime was very niche decades past--alongside comic books and tabletop role-playing games, both of which have also enjoyed more widespread fandom since then. Just as it is with contemporary attitudes toward movies from yesteryear concerning depictions of race and gender, anime like Plastic Little regrettably ends up being remembered first and foremost for its (admittedly gratuitous) nudity, so let's get that out of the way first. At a scant forty-seven minute runtime, Plastic Little barely qualifies as a feature film, yet it does manage to cram in a (relatively complete) story into that time, one that moves very fast on the whole. There is, however, a bathhouse scene a mere eight minutes into the story-- one that comes practically right after Tita saves Elysse from being kidnapped by the villainous Commander Guizel, who wants to kill her after obtaining the password for her murdered father's research. Sure, the scene could have been eliminated from the plot, as it is nothing more than a blatant excuse to animate jiggly breasts in a steamy bathhouse--one that is bizarrely both built into Tita's cloud ship and resembles a tea set. (?!) Plastic Little prominently features character designs by the acclaimed artist, Satoshi Urushihara, and it's obvious that the movie was made solely to put his luscious and enticing designs front and center. Urushihara's work has graced everything from video games--like the "Langrisser" and "Growlanser" series--to other manga and anime--some of which is of a far more salacious nature than anything even hinted at in Plastic Little. In fact, save for a few scenes that are present solely to titillate red-blooded young men--again, the target audience for Plastic Little--there is very little objectionable content in the movie. (Unless you count its unstructured plot, but I digress.) Whether a result of its English dubbing or not, there is practically no foul language at all in this movie. None. Compare this with any mature-rated show on Netflix, for example, and you can really notice this. This in and of itself almost lends a youthful innocence to Plastic Little. Combine this with relatively few scenes of graphic violence and you have a movie that, if the nudity were edited out entirely, would be altogether suitable for young teens as a "Saturday morning cartoon". But that brings us once again back to the time in which the film was made and for whom. To be honest, the titillation serves to energize the intended audience, and the rest of the action set pieces that follow are meant to sustain what is essentially a massive sugar rush from start to finish, where slowing down means losing the audience's attention.
The story of Plastic Little--such as it is--concerns the young captain of a "pet shop" vessel, which sails through the clouds of a planet whose land masses are held aloft by anti-gravity belts. Strangely, we never see Tita or her varied crew do any capturing of any "cloud whales" or the like, and I find it very strange that their ship is outfitted with significant military ordinance--like missiles--which would be of questionable use in their line of work. Elysse's father was apparently working on some kind of override for the anti-gravity belts for a faction of the military spearheaded by Guizel, who wants to destroy the land masses for some unclear reason--possibly holding the planet hostage, I suppose. He kills Elysse's dad as they are escaping, leading to the manhunt for the young girl. Tita--who oversleeps all the time, I guess--is out picking up lunch when Elysse collides with her. Some have suggested that there is a romantic attraction between them, but I find this doubtful. Tita later explains that she saw something of her own pain in losing her own father in Elysse's eyes and from there, Tita felt bound to help Elysse escape Guizel's clutches, despite the protestations of her crew. All of this builds up to exciting action set pieces of increasing scale, even if Tita's "strategies" in overcoming the overwhelming might of Guizel's military is of dubious quality. But logic isn't half as important to enjoying Plastic Little as an appreciation for the jaw-droppingly pretty animation that saturates every cel of it. There are gorgeous effects for the time--like shafts of prismatic light added to some scenes--that make enjoying even the comparatively quieter moments in Plastic Little akin to looking at a beautiful gemstone. Whether your appreciation for the artistry of the film is diminished or not because of the fan service is up to you. To say that Tita and Elysse are "objectified" is reductive. The same can be said for virtually any form of entertainment where a character or idea is served up to represent something more than it is, or to satisfy a need in its audience in spite of--or at the expense of--the story. This encompasses everything from pornography to politics to tokenism; all are essentially the same where objectification is concerned. (I find it interesting that contemporary attitudes toward nudity--the kind found in movies like Plastic Little--seems almost prudish, while offensive language and violence get a free pass.) Ultimately, enjoying Plastic Little should come from an appreciation of the art (since the plot is nothing to write home about), and from setting aside modern opinions about what people should (or should not) be allowed to enjoy.
Recommended for: Fans of a luscious, detailed work of animation, one that admittedly panders to the sensibilities of teenage boys with its liberal screen time ratio of nubile young ladies. Plastic Little has earned a reputation for its fan service that is overstated, especially when it is compared with so many other anime titles with far more egregious amounts of sex and violence. (Wicked City, anyone?) Nevertheless, its flimsy story is merely a justification for the viewing pleasure, and Plastic Little may be best appreciated as a relic that represented a key time and place in the history of anime.
The story of Plastic Little--such as it is--concerns the young captain of a "pet shop" vessel, which sails through the clouds of a planet whose land masses are held aloft by anti-gravity belts. Strangely, we never see Tita or her varied crew do any capturing of any "cloud whales" or the like, and I find it very strange that their ship is outfitted with significant military ordinance--like missiles--which would be of questionable use in their line of work. Elysse's father was apparently working on some kind of override for the anti-gravity belts for a faction of the military spearheaded by Guizel, who wants to destroy the land masses for some unclear reason--possibly holding the planet hostage, I suppose. He kills Elysse's dad as they are escaping, leading to the manhunt for the young girl. Tita--who oversleeps all the time, I guess--is out picking up lunch when Elysse collides with her. Some have suggested that there is a romantic attraction between them, but I find this doubtful. Tita later explains that she saw something of her own pain in losing her own father in Elysse's eyes and from there, Tita felt bound to help Elysse escape Guizel's clutches, despite the protestations of her crew. All of this builds up to exciting action set pieces of increasing scale, even if Tita's "strategies" in overcoming the overwhelming might of Guizel's military is of dubious quality. But logic isn't half as important to enjoying Plastic Little as an appreciation for the jaw-droppingly pretty animation that saturates every cel of it. There are gorgeous effects for the time--like shafts of prismatic light added to some scenes--that make enjoying even the comparatively quieter moments in Plastic Little akin to looking at a beautiful gemstone. Whether your appreciation for the artistry of the film is diminished or not because of the fan service is up to you. To say that Tita and Elysse are "objectified" is reductive. The same can be said for virtually any form of entertainment where a character or idea is served up to represent something more than it is, or to satisfy a need in its audience in spite of--or at the expense of--the story. This encompasses everything from pornography to politics to tokenism; all are essentially the same where objectification is concerned. (I find it interesting that contemporary attitudes toward nudity--the kind found in movies like Plastic Little--seems almost prudish, while offensive language and violence get a free pass.) Ultimately, enjoying Plastic Little should come from an appreciation of the art (since the plot is nothing to write home about), and from setting aside modern opinions about what people should (or should not) be allowed to enjoy.
Recommended for: Fans of a luscious, detailed work of animation, one that admittedly panders to the sensibilities of teenage boys with its liberal screen time ratio of nubile young ladies. Plastic Little has earned a reputation for its fan service that is overstated, especially when it is compared with so many other anime titles with far more egregious amounts of sex and violence. (Wicked City, anyone?) Nevertheless, its flimsy story is merely a justification for the viewing pleasure, and Plastic Little may be best appreciated as a relic that represented a key time and place in the history of anime.