Anime Roulette #3: Chronus

When I started this blog, I didn't necessarily intend for it to focus on one terrible thing after another. It's no surprise that I'm a fan of terrible things, but hey, I'm a well-balanced guy, I like awesome things too! But when looking over the posts thus far, I came to the horrible realization that THE BEST THING I'VE TALKED ABOUT SO FAR IS THE FUCKING STAR WARS PREQUEL TRILOGY. You know, these movies.

Yes, this clip is so important that it needs to be featured in two of my posts. Anyway, I realize I'm probably overdue for talking about something good for a change. So I was pleasantly surprised when, as I chose a new movie for Anime Roulette, I actually landed on something pretty cool, a short film from 2014 called Chronus.

Chronus is one of the entries in something called the Young Animator Training Project. This is a cool project, funded by the Japanese Government's Agency for Cultural Affairs, that helps train new generations of leaders in the anime industry by giving them the opportunity to create cool little short films. In a sense, it's an ongoing anthology film bankrolled by the government. Chronus in particular was animated by the guys at Studio 4C and directed by Naoyuki Onda - this is a guy who's been around for decades, working on animation and character designs on everything from the To-Y OVA to the new Berserk film trilogy, but this is the first time he's actually been given the opportunity to direct a project of his own.

Giving a basic plot synopsis, Chronus kind of sounds like a rip-off of Bleach: we have a guy named Makoto, who, for some reason, has the power to see grim reapers. This more or less means he's able to see who is going to die before they actually die. Such a power necessarily means that death more or less follows him everywhere, which can lead to some unintentionally funny visuals.

Look in the corner. I feel horrible for laughing at this, but I can't help it.

While many people would probably break down by being unable to escape death, Makoto develops into a kind of stoic: since he's unable to do anything to control death, he more or less stops caring and just lets it happen. This, as can be expected, gives him a rather cold disposition, for better or for worse.

Aside from Makoto, the other major character we're introduced to is his childhood friend Hazuki. While it's implied that the two were fairly close as children, at this point in their lives, Hazuki has done quite a bit of personal growth - she's being actively recruited by NASA (even though she's still in high school - honestly, this seemed a bit more unbelievable than Makoto's ability to see grim reapers) and, most importantly, she's casually seeing a college guy. Even our stoic hero isn't able to keep his cool while thinking of Hazuki dating an older guy.

The bathtub: the best place to let out your bitterness.

We're given a scene of our two heroes having a long discussion - their first, it would seem, in a fairly long time. We see just how far the two have drifted - the two used to hold hands when they were kids, but hand-holding is now discredited as childish and embarrassing. More than anything, we see that the two of them are now living in two very different worlds - we hear so much about Hazuki's accomplishments but next to nothing of what's going on in Makoto's life.

I was, at first, somewhat at a loss regarding why the movie is called Chronus (the name comes from the Greek personification of time), but after watching this scene, I think I have a better idea. Because of his curse, time has more or less stopped for Makoto. Not only does he not see the point in intervening with regards to death, but that seems to have carried over to all other areas of his life as well - he has no prospects, no dreams, no thoughts of the future at all. Hazuki, in opposition, is living a full life in the present and has her future more or less fully mapped out ahead of her. She has seemingly infinite time - Makoto has next to none.

This makes what happens next all the more ironic. While it doesn't seem like Makoto can survive for much longer given his attitude, it turns out that one of the grim reapers has targeted Hazuki for premature death. In what seems like an instant, the girl falls into a coma, with her prospects for survival growing smaller and smaller. Suddenly, Makoto needs to make some tough decisions - if he continues on his stoic path and refuses to speak truth to the power of death, his childhood friend and love interest is going to die in front of him. His tough exterior actually crumbles instantaneously when faced with the prospect of death.

This is the real heart and soul of Chronus, and I was surprised it went in the direction it did. After thinking it was going to be some sort of meditation on fate and death, it rather suddenly shows its true colors: it's a love story, and a story of personal self discovery using death and fate as the impetus for growth. This, perhaps, makes the story more simple (or in the eyes of some, gasp, more typical), but honestly, I think it was a good decision. At only 30 minutes, I don't think there was enough time to develop the story into some in-depth examination on death. However, there was just enough time to turn it into a rather surprising story of young love.

If there's one thing about the story I didn't like, it's the ending, and how long it took. There's one scene in particular where Makoto is forced to travel through this spirit world in order to reclaim Hazuki's soul.

It's a cool looking scene, but honestly, we more or less know what's going to happen at this point, so there isn't much point in drawing it out for as long as they did. That just serves to take away from the natural suspense of the plot. In any case, it's a minor point, all things considered, and can perhaps be chalked up to the fact that this is Naoyuki Onda's first film.

With regards to the look of the film, it's honestly relatively simple, some may even say minimalist. This makes it someone in opposition to the metaphysical and supernatural aspects of the plot. Perhaps this was a way of focusing our attention where it really matters. Even though there are ghosts and portals to other worlds all over the place, at it's heart, Chronus is a down to earth story of love and self discovery - to give it some sort of ultra-stylish aesthetic (kind of like Bleach, honestly) would make it feel like something it fundamentally isn't.

Though it isn't my favorite thing in the world (honestly, I wasn't expecting it to be, anyway), I walked away from Chronus liking it a lot more than I assumed I would. One of the reasons I like anime anthology films is because they're able to tell so many different kinds of stories, and so many of them are able to give you something surprising. Chronus is both able to surprise you and do a good job at telling a conventional story, which is a fairly rare combination. If this is the kind of talent the Young Animator Training Project is churning out, then the anime industry will be in good hands for years to come.