Angel's Egg

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This article is about the 1985 original video animation. For other uses, see Angel's Egg (disambiguation).

Angel's Egg
DVD cover art
天使のたまご
(Tenshi no Tamago)
GenreScience fantasy[1]
Created byMamoru Oshii
Yoshitaka Amano
Original video animation
Directed byMamoru Oshii
Produced by
  • Hiroshi Hasegawa
  • Masao Kobayashi
  • Kōki Miura
  • Yutaka Wada
Written byMamoru Oshii
Music byYoshihiro Kanno
StudioStudio Deen
Released15 December 1985
Runtime71 minutes

Angel's Egg (Japanese: 天使のたまご, Hepburn: Tenshi no Tamago) is a Japanese art film original video animation (OVA) written and directed by Mamoru Oshii.[2] Released by Tokuma Shoten on 15 December 1985,[3] the film was a collaboration between artist Yoshitaka Amano and Oshii. It features very little spoken dialogue and a story that is strongly allegorical which has led to many viewers confused by the film's supposed meaning.[2]

Synopsis[edit]

A young girl scavenges a desolate city while protecting a large egg. She encounters a boy who questions her about what the egg contains and suggests breaking it, leading to their brief bonding. The boy recounts a story that sounds like an alternate version of Noah's Ark in which the bird never returned and never existed and the ship kept sailing. The girl tells the boy that the bird did exist, and brings him to a fossil of an angel. Later, the boy smashes the girl's egg while she sleeps, prompting her to look for him and ultimately fall into a body of water, where a large number of eggs appear. After this, the world shown in the film is revealed to have been on top of a shape that looks like the hull of an overturned ship.

Voice actors[edit]

Nezu worked with Oshii once again in Patlabor 2: The Movie[4] and Mako Hyōdō played a supporting role in The Sky Crawlers.[5]

Themes[edit]

"I really liked the Bible when I was a little boy. And when I was a student, at one point I was planning to enter a seminary, but I didn't. Even now, though, I read the Bible sometimes" – Mamoro Oshii in 1996[2]

Angel's Egg touches on themes that are common in Oshii's films, including references to the Christian Bible, the symbolism of dreams, as well as the intersection of dreams and reality. Some of these themes appear in his other works, such as 1984's Beautiful Dreamer.[2] Although some publications have indicated that the film is built on director Oshii's supposed loss of faith in Christianity,[6] Oshii himself has stated otherwise in saying that he was not a Christian, but that he thought quotes from the Bible were cool and had a friend who was Christian.[7]

The misconception that Oshii was a man of faith has its origins in an interview that was likely mistranslated, in which Oshii is reported to say. " I planned to enter a seminary at one point, but didn't." Which is then followed up by the interviewer asking. "Are you a Christian, or do you just like the Bible for its philosophy?" To which Oshii replies. "For its philosophy." In the same Animerica interview Oshii also said. "I'm not a Christian, but I've been reading the Bible since my student days".[2]

Elements from the film are believed by critics to be allegorical, including the girl with the egg that hatches, the man with a cross like rifle, and the ending sequence of the film which does not appear to be a literal series of events.[2]

In a 1996 interview with the magazine Animerica, Oshii stated that he made the film because it had elements that intrigued him, such as "Ruins; I like ruins; I like museums; I like fish; I like birds; I like water... and I like girls." He also stated that ruins appear to him in his dreams.[2]

Production and release[edit]

Angel's Egg was a collaboration between Oshii and Amano.[8]

The animation was produced by Studio DEEN, with Hiroshi Hasegawa, Masao Kobayashi, Mitsunori Miura, and Yutaka Wada working as producers.[citation needed] Oshii and Amano collaborated on the script,[citation needed] and Yoshihiro Kanno composed the music.

Angel's Egg was released in the direct-to-video format on 15 December 1985 by Tokuma Shoten.[9] The 71-minute OVA would later be used as the skeleton for the 1987 live-action independent film In the Aftermath directed by Carl Colpaert. Colpaert's movie occasionally intercuts with footage from Oshii's Angel's Egg with dubbed over dialogue, which does not appear in Oshii's film.

Influences[edit]

Angel's Egg repurposes ideas that Oshii developed for a cancelled Lupin the Third film. Both concepts feature the theme of questioning existence (Lupin's existence in the cancelled film, and the bird from Noah's ark in Angel's Egg), and involve the fossil of an angel[10] Oshii himself said that Angel's Egg was another attempt at the idea[11] and anime critic Ryota Fujitsu [ja] have said that Angel's Egg would not have existed if Oshii had gotten to make the Lupin film.[12] Oshii has also stated that the angel fossil used in Angel's Egg was directly taken from Lupin[13], and that the relationship between the boy and girl is similar to those in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.[14]

Reception[edit]

Angel's Egg did not do well with critics on its release, and Oshii stated that "it kept him from getting work for years".[15] However, it is considered "one of the highlights of 'artistic' anime and [his] career as a director."[8] The allegory and symbolism of the film, as well as the ending, have been cited by critics as a source of confusion for viewers.[16][2] The 1986 edition of Genkosha's Animation Video Collectors Guide commented, "This is animated art rather than story. It could be brought to a Soho gallery theater."[2] Brian Ruh, a critical analyst of Japanese popular culture, stated that it was "one of the most beautiful and lyric films in the animated medium."[17]

Critics note that the film is difficult to understand, with visuals and narrative that is both cryptic, convoluted, and allegorical.[18][16] Jason Thompson writing in Viz Media's online magazine J-pop compared the film's style to Night on the Galactic Railroad while noting that the meaning of the film may be elusive, stating "ANGEL'S EGG stands as an evocation of a mood and world which is powerful in spite of -- perhaps because of -- not being consciously understood."[16]

Helen McCarthy called it "an early masterpiece of symbolic film-making", stating that "its surreal beauty and slow pace created a Zen-like atmosphere, unlike any other anime".[19] In his book Horror and Science Fiction Film IV, Donald C Willis described the film as "a haunting, poetic melancholic science-fantasy film, and–for non-Japanese-speaking viewers at least–a very cryptic one."[1] Willis also included the film in his list of most memorable films from 1987 to 1997.[20]

In an article in Senses of Cinema on Oshii, Richard Suchenski stated that the film was Oshii's "purest distillation of both Oshii's visual mythology and his formal style". The review noted that "Patlabor 2 is more sophisticated, Ghost in the Shell is more important, and Avalon is more mythically complex but the low-tech, hand-drawn Angel's Egg remains Oshii's most personal film."[6]

See also[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ a b Willis 1997, p. 20.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Horn, Carl Gustav (February 1996). "A Director's Dreamscape – The Animerica Interview with Mamorou Oshii". Animerica. 4 (2). Viz Media: 4–5, 18–21.
  3. ^ "天使のたまご" [Angel's Egg] (in Japanese). Stingray – AllCinema Movie and DVD Database. Archived from the original on 21 September 2004. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  4. ^ "機動警察パトレイバー２ the Movie" [Mobile Police Patlabor 2: The Movie] (in Japanese). Stingray – AllCinema Movie and DVD Database. Archived from the original on 10 March 2007. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  5. ^ "スカイ・クロラ The Sky Crawlers" (in Japanese). Stingray – AllCinema Movie and DVD Database. Archived from the original on 2 June 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  6. ^ a b Suchenski, Richard (July 2004). "Mamoru Oshii". Senses of Cinema. No. 32. Archived from the original on 13 March 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  7. ^ 押井守の映画50年50本 [Mamoru Oshii's 50 Films, 50 Years] (in Japanese). Ritsutosha (立東會). 12 August 2020. ISBN 978-4845634446.
  8. ^ a b Ruh 2004, p. 46.
  9. ^ Haraguchi, Masahiro, ed. (10 March 1999). ビデオ編 た [Video Releases: Ta]. Animage Pocket Data Notes 1999 (in Japanese). Tokuma Shoten. p. 130.
  10. ^ 「インタビュー押井守 幻の押井ルパンは『虚構を盗む』はずだった」『THEルパン三世FILES ルパン三世全記録 〜増補改訂版〜』キネマ旬報社、1998年、p.36
  11. ^ 『『スカイ・クロラ』公開記念押井マニア、知ったかぶり講座！ 』Webアニメスタイル/藤津亮太、2008年 「その後で作った『天使のたまご』（85）に、そういうものが全部流れ込んじゃったということはありますね。“天使の化石”を持ち込んで、成立しなかった僕のルパンの復讐戦だったんです」　http://www.style.fm/as/13_special/oshii008.shtml
  12. ^ 『『スカイ・クロラ』公開記念押井マニア、知ったかぶり講座！ 』Webアニメスタイル/藤津亮太、2008年 「押井のフィルモグラフィーを振り返ってみると、もし押井ルパンが成立していたら、少なくとも『天使のたまご』と『機動警察パトレイバー［劇場版］』は存在しなかったといえる。」　http://www.style.fm/as/13_special/oshii008.shtml
  13. ^ 『アニメージュ1985年12月号付録「天使のたまご GUIDE BOOK」徳間書店、1985年　「設定を流用したのは“天使の化石”だけなんです。」
  14. ^ 『アニメージュ1985年12月号付録「天使のたまご GUIDE BOOK」徳間書店、1985年　「こういう人間関係は、テネシー・ウィリアムズの「ガラスの動物園」に出てくるんです。ずっとなにかを待ちつづける女の子がいて、そこにある男がやってきて、それで去っていく。他者に出あって、世界が新しくなる、という話なんですけどね。」
  15. ^ Ruh 2004, p. 51.
  16. ^ a b c Thompson, Jason (1997). "Jason's Picks: Angel's Egg". J-Pop.com. Viz Media. Archived from the original on 19 February 2001.
  17. ^ Ruh 2004, p. 47.
  18. ^ "Lamu: Un Hermosa Expediente". Animedia (in Spanish) (44). Spain: Ares Editorial: 34–35. June 2006.
  19. ^ McCarthy 2009, p. 39.
  20. ^ Willis 1997, p. viii.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

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