Momotaro, Sacred Sailors Review

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ian Wolf
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The “black ships” is the term used by Japan for western vessels entering Japan when the country had shut its borders, and in the film the black ship is portrayed as a pirate ship.
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Well, "entering Japan" against Japan's own wishes to force trade with them under threat of destruction, so I think that depiction may be fair. It may even be referring to the fact that Japan's entry into WWII was largely caused by trade sanctions, drawing parallels between the Westerners of the 19th Century who forced Japan into a disadvantageous trading relationship and those of the 20th Century who then cut off trade with Japan to stifle their political and military aims. Not that any of that is an excuse for the way Japan was behaving in China (which is what caused the sanctions) but just to put it in some political context.

And I think anybody is likely to depict the enemy as dehumanised caricatures in wartime - Ours and the Americans' propaganda did the same to the Japanese and the Germans, so I'd expect that. I think the major thing that does still disturb me somewhat is how casually such propaganda encourages kids to think of it being a great thing to give their lives in military service and making war seem like a fun game, something which sadly to an extent still goes on with military recruitment even in countries where we have volunteer militaries.
 
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I largely agree with all the view points that have been put forward. Propaganda is par for the course on both sides of any conflict, but a film made for that purpose can still be a masterpiece of cinema - Battleship Potemkin for example. There are also many examples of other Soviet films that are required to put forward a nationalist view of some description that nevertheless manage to elevate themselves above being mere propaganda.

Momotaro is no masterpiece, but it is an essential historical artefact - one that I would have liked to have been presented alongside more than one other example of early anime for contextual purpose (though I'm sure the accompanying book will aim to do likewise). I have a feeling that it's not going to sell like hotcakes, but I do hope that AL release other early anime features. A Toei Doga box set would be a dream; for my money the first anime masterpiece is The Little Prince and the Eight Headed Dragon which has its 55th anniversary this year.
 
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