I just got back from the cinema, where I watched a cartoon film – Persepolis – which covered the youth of a (real life) girl in post-revolutionary Iran. OK, so this was a small cinema, nearby the local watering hole for arty wankers and the like, but the place was packed. I was reminded once again, as once of the legion of ‘anime via Miyazaki’ types, of that strange coexistence between your regular hardcore cinema fan and this many faced little subculture.

The moment when I started this train of thought came with a start. A spectacularly awful amateur rendition of Eye of the Tiger which reminded me of Kurenai episode 6. Where that was a gleeful theatrical moment, this was choreographed like a pop video, with rhythmic dance moves. It was like the very essence of crap karaoke had invaded my eyes. It was thus totally different from the aforementioned slice of silly, but it tripped a mental connection anyway.

I became conscious of the rows of people watching. Where the fans of newly screening anime commonly share their experiences, or at least lurk on forums where other people do so, we had all gathered to see this woman’s life in this cramped hall. We were all right by each other, could hear the individual voices of people as they laughed in the darkness, taller members of the audience tried to fit their legs into the cramped space without touching one another. We would never speak to one other.

Obviously most of us would, outside the cinema – at the very least via personal communications, contribute to a colossal overarching discourse regarding the film going on amongst the people who care. I guess somebody in there had a film blog. The thing is, this overlapping subculture I belong to has such different architecture.

Anyway, no real point to this post. But animation, animation in and of itself, is great. Really, I can’t get over the dearth of quality available Western animation. A crowd of open-minded film fans collected together, and few of these people will ever see Haibane Renmei or FLCL or any of these superb examples of a craft, the craft of animation, whose qualities they surely respect. I mean, I guess I could talk to these people, and lend them my DVDs. It’s a pity, that’s all.