Looking for Inspiration - Part 1 - Diving into Anime

empathy and humanity amongst the quirky

Hi, I’m Jeannette, one of the authors here at the Armchair Alien. We got together and schemed, then decided, then planned. Over the next little while, we’re going to pull back the screen and prove that humans are running the show—and in the process, hopefully you’ll get to know us a little bit better.

First off, I’m going to discuss inspiration.

I try to cast a wide net to find inspiration. Everything I get exposed to gets added to an internal ‘compost heap’ (this isn’t an original idea to me, but I’ve seen it so many places now that I don’t know it’s original source–for me it probably came from The Artist’s Way which I read back in the 90’s, or maybe from here). As long as I keep my compost heap well stocked, ideas trickle out the bottom. But sometimes, inspiration comes from unexpected sources.

My daughter recently talked me into spending an evening watching an anime movie (she’s deeply into manga and anime at the moment). I viewed it as an opportunity to sit and knit and zone out for a while. Turns out I was very wrong about the zoning out part. The movie had a rich, complicated story, full of empathy and humanity amongst the weird.

The movie was Spirited Away and it’s fabulous—and well recognized as such since its release in 2001.

The story follows a 10-year-old girl named Chihiro Ogino, who becomes trapped in a supernatural world after her parents are turned into pigs. Chihiro finds herself working in a mysterious bathhouse, a place where spirits and supernatural beings gather–including soot sprites (which are awesome).

To save her parents and find her way back home, Chihiro must navigate this strange and dangerous realm. 

The hand animation is stunning–rich and delightfully quirky. It has an overall feel which I don’t get from digital animation. I’d fit this one in with the stop-film animation of Isle of Dogs or Marcel The Shell With Shoes On. There’s something organic about these movies that draws me in.

We’ve since gone on to watch two more anime films—Kiki’s Delivery Service and My Neighbour Tortoro (worth it alone for the cat bus! Did I mention the cat bus?) and we plan on watching even more.

Despite being targeted at children, these movies tackle complex human issues in humane ways right beside the fantastical and quirky–something I’d like to develop more of in my own writing.

But before I get back to writing, here's a clip of the both ridiculous and fantastic cat bus:

Let us know in the comments, what are some of your unexpected inspirations?

And stay tuned, a new story is starting next week along with Part 2 of Looking For Inspiration. Don’t miss a thing, hit the subscribe button now.