IWAI Shunji

[2015 / Animated feature film / 19th Animation Division Excellence Award]

This is the first feature-length animation from a director widely known for his live-action films. It was conceived immediately after he made the live-action film Hana and Alice (2004), and uses the same cast to tell the prologue to that film: How the characters ARAI Hana and ARISUGAWA Tetsuko (aka Alice) first met. Third-grader Alice transferred to a junior high school and hears a rumor that “Judas was killed by four other Judas in a third-grade classroom” a year ago. Alice gets acquainted with her neighbor, a fellow third-grader Hana who is a recluse living in the so-called Hanayashiki, a place that scares everyone. So begins the adventure of Alice and Hana as they attempt to solve the mystery of the “Judas”, the “world's smallest murder case”. Combining rotoscoping, a technique where the animation is retraced over live-action footage, with a cell shaded 3D computer graphics technique that approaches to the texture of traditional animation made from cells, the film is a comical portrayal of the emotions of young girls living every small moment earnestly with agony and laughter
(1 h. 39 min.)