"It's war, even inside the dragon's mouth."
Gainax is effectively dead. Imaishi led an exodus of its best animators to Trigger. Hideaki Anno and his protégé, Kazuya Tsurumaki, took the golden goose of Evangelion to Khara.
It's there that Tsurumaki (FLCL) directed this 90-minute NHK special that recalls Gainax's classic era — an adventure in a thoroughly crafted world of Shinto-Buddhist spiritualism and an alt-WWII that together evoke a familiar, nostalgic nationalism. Within that, a meditation on war, pacifism and death. There's also a perky Gainax girl with a "ko" name.
Dragons are mighty, flying isles of the afterlife, ferrying the spirits of the dead through their teeth. "Dentists", like priests, purify the holy grounds. Turns out there's a lot to purify in a time of war. When one young American soldier is reborn inside a Japanese dragon, he joins the dentist tribe who protected him from interrogation. But in this era, dragons are also impenetrable flying fortresses. The sacred is militarized, and the battlefield beckons even in purgatory.
I suspect much Japanese culture flew over my American head in Ryuu no Haisha, but like other classic Gainax anime, there's a density of world-building and action to hold my interest and even engage my thoughts after the credits roll. Little advertised, this will likely evade the radar of otakudom, but it deserves a look.
As expected, the venerable Megumi Hayashibara plays a character, which adds to its nostalgia value. Her presence in anything these days seems to denote a "serious anime production", and Ryuu no Haisha certainly qualifies.
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