Oscar Anger

I love anime and I love animation. However, you may not know that I am quite into film awards such as the BAFTA's and the Oscar's. So, the nominees were announced today and I'm quite mad to put it lightly. For the second year in a row, an amazing anime film that was widely adored, and has won many animation awards has been snubbed for a nomination at the Oscars. Last year Makoto Shinkai's Your Name became the highest grossing anime film of all time, trumping Miyazaki's Spirited Away which had held the title since 2001 and is the only anime film to ever win the Oscar for best animated feature. And yet, it was completely snubbed, it landed no nominations by any academy. No Golden Globe nomination, no BAFTA nomination, and no Oscar nomination. It would seem as though no academy of film actually knows that there are other anime studios apart from Studio Ghibli that make feature-length animations, as only Studio Ghibli has ever been nominated by any of these companies.

  This year is no different it would seem, as another year has gone by and there is no nomination for A Silent Voice, Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale, Napping Princess, and Mary and the Witches Flower, which were all put in the pot for consideration among the 27 animated features in that pot. I personally am not a fan of Sword Art Online but one cannot ignore that it is a massive franchise in the anime world, that is popular worldwide. 

  Ok, so I'm clearly very annoyed about the fact that Japan is ignored by the academy and its friends. But, what really irks me is that the award is best animated feature, emphasis on ANIMATED. If we are looking at these films because they are animated then surely things like story and character etc. don't matter, and it's the animation that counts right? Which just angers me even more because Japan's animation is another world, and I'm sorry Pixar but out of the nominees Loving Vincent should win because it is outstanding in the world of animation. Even if A Silent Voice was nominated I think I would be rooting for that to win. Japan is one of the only nations to still almost entirely to animate in 2D, anime stands out because of its style alone, let alone everything else. Japan's animation is not just children's fare, yes Pokemon exists but largely it's aimed at more developed minds, so young adult onwards. It deals with themes outrightly that western animation doesn't really touch. A Silent Voice starts with the main character getting ready to commit suicide, it's heavy and touching. They play with these intense themes so delicately, with such care that it never seems out of place or not done well. To think that A Silent Voice and Coco could be in the same category is insane when thinking about the story, but in terms of animation they can fight to the death and it would be
pretty damn close because they are both beautiful in their own way. 

  Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I'm disappointed that three major awards seem to ignore the amazing animation that Japan puts out into the world unless it's Studio Ghibli. And to be honest, even then it's only really Studio Ghibli created by Miyazaki and Takahata, the founders of the studio. Anime has a worldwide reach and yet is ignored, to me that just doesn't seem right. 

Thank you very much for reading my rant, if you have anything to say on this topic please feel free to leave me a comment under this post. I also just want to put it out there that I love animation from all nations, not just Japan but they really are the most snubbed nation when it comes to animation especially when considering how much they put out into the world. Anyway, thank you and goodbye before I restart my rant by accident. 

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