100-Meter Dash Review – Captivating Animation of Young Athletes in Search for Mind-Body Elevation
Plenty has been written about the art of running, a healing activity with potential for cathartic release. Within the context of competitive games, though, the pressure of competition can lead athletes to forget of this fundamental aim. Reimagined from the eponymous manga, Kenji Iwaisawa’s mesmerising anime looks beyond prizes and accolades to examine the existential drive that spurs an athlete’s ambition.
Plot Overview
100 Meters follows Togashi and Komiya, childhood friends whose career trajectories separate when they turn professional. Previously the quickest elementary student in Japan, Togashi assists the less confident Komiya with the basics. As the duo progress into their adolescence and adulthood, Komiya consistently improves up the leaderboard of top athletes, while Togashi is mired in a rut; both struggle with fears and doubts. Covering more than 15 years, the narrative tracks their internal hurdles, revealing the difficulties of an competitor’s existence, caught in a pattern of societal observation, performance expectations and endorsement requirements.
Creative Merits
Perhaps it’s due to the base story, but the movie’s approach to these complicated problems is rather superficial; repeatedly, a protagonist’s uncertainties just vanish after a lengthy conversation with a peer or a senior. But what the film is deficient in plot refinement and pacing, it compensates for in dazzling visuals. Using trace-over animation, in which cartooning is traced over live-action footage, the feature creates exquisitely intricate running sequences. The athletic effort of a race is clearly shown, and the suffering and elation of contests are engraved on the protagonists’ forms.
Memorable Moments
One particularly momentous race finishes in the storm, with sheets of monochrome brushwork that immerse the screen. Apart from conversation, these bursts of creative mastery encapsulate the quasi-enlightened elation the animation aims to inspire.
The 100-Meter Anime is released in Britain from November 16.
