As they bask in the evening and wonder where to go next the Raven Haired Beauty is enticed by that evenings book market and the sudden desire to require her favorite book from childhood. The trio strikes off, leaving the crowd of revelers they had gathered behind, for the next adventure. After receiving a 'friendship' punch from the Beauty, the senpai finds him self in the headquarters of a student association tasked with surveilling all of the colleges students, working to ensure they live to their potential and remain obedient members of society. The senpai is enticed to help them with some enforcement actions in exchange for information that may help him curry the Raven Haired Beauties favor. The exact copy she owned of her favorite book is being sold at the market.. The Raven Haired Beauty searches high and low but is unable to find a copy of that book. Instead she retires to a bit of relaxation with her two drinking companies where she meets one of the senpai's friends, an upper classman known as Don Underwear. The Don has been driven mad from a chance encounter with a mysterious beauty the prior year and has vowed that he will not take off his underwear until he crosses her paths again. The Raven Haired Beauty is moved by his declaration of love, rather than at disgust by the underwear thing.
The erotic art collector is in a better mood after his debt was wiped away and asks the senpai to help him procure some new pieces of art from a shadow auction being held that night. He is reluctant to help the man, but he has saved him twice now in situations he became free of pants. the auction is less a sale and more a test of endurance held by non other than the restore Rihaku. He challenges the few brave souls to survive his demonic hot pot for the chance to pick a book from his secret collection for free. He eagerly joins in the contest once he learns the exact copy of the book she owned as a child is one of the treasures up for grabs. Before he can savor his victory all of the secret collection is released back into the Used Book Market by the God of the Used Book Market, to be enjoyed by all instead of hoarded by few.
Before they can determine their next journey the book fair is quickly overtaken by an hastily assembled production by a guerilla performance troupe...the school festival is taking shape as they watching. The spontaneous performance is a story of the sordid lives of the head of the film club (please see Tatami Galaxy for more details on this) and his partner in debauchery, the executive director of the school festival. The main character is searching for person called the Eccentric King and the executive director may know their identity. The performance is unofficial and continues to move through out the area, ahead of the festival committee who are trying to shut it down permanently. .One of her companions has fallen into stupor from either too much drink or illness and the other sends the Raven Haired Beauty on ahead while he watches over her. Something about the presence of the Beauty has made the night stretch on and she heads off to the school festival for the next adventure.
The senpai has set up a stall displaying the copy of the Beauties childhood book in the hopes it will attract her attention, so he can continue his goal of spending the rest of his life with her. Before that can happen his make shift display is ransacked by the Guerilla performance troupe, with the festival committee hot on his heels. They have been cannibalizing unpopular attractions to build their ad-hoc performance spaces. In addition, the committee is tracking a roving kotatsu, offering hot pot as another danger to be stopped. The Raven Haired Beauty finds one of her drinking companions and Don Underwear as the proprietors of said kotatsu. The kotatsu, chased by committee members, is immediately replaced by another Guerilla performance. The Raven Haired Beauty is scouted to fulfill the heroines role on short notice until this performance is also forced to shut down and relocate.
The realize the kotatsu and the performances are related, determining that Don Underwear is the mysterious playwright. They chase him down as the final act draws near, the love scene. The senpai refuses to let Don kiss the Raven Haired Beauty, barging in on the performance. Unfortunately for him the Don retaliates and declares that the entire performance has been to search for the girl he found at the prior years festival. But fate will have something a bit different in store for him and everyone else involved. As the curtains come to a close a cold win sets in and the sickness seems to be spreading rapidly among the crowd. As the Raven Haired Girl helps nurse her sick drinking companion back to health, with the sudden wide spread illness, the other companion suggests she go in search of a mysterious wonder drug as a possible cure for this sudden epidemic.
The Raven Haired Beauty journeys through the desolate streets of Kyoto in search of the medicine, visiting everyone she had encountered through out the night, working to nurse them back to health. Pushing forward, she battles through wiping winds and deep cold, searching for Rihaku, the source of the contagion. She helps beat back his affliction but he tells her there is one that needs her help more than anyone else. He gives her the legendary medicine and urges her to seek out her senpai who is suffering in isolation under the weight of his sickness.
Normally I don't lay out an entire movies plot like this, but the movie is so incredibly disjointed and bizarre that it's really hard to convey whats going on with a shorter synopsis. It wouldn't do it any service. This story, based on a novel, is brilliant and absolutely one of a kind. It is easy to see the production of this film being a pet project for Masaaki Yuasa, given the love he put into adapting Tatami Galaxy, another novel by the same author, into a brilliant TV anime before Science Saru existed. Tatami Galaxy and this film exist within the same universe and there are a few Easter eggs sprinkled through out that connect the two stories. The story follows a cohesive narrative, connecting disparate parts into a larger whole as it progresses. The wonder and magic of the ever changing landscape and the outlandish characters is what drives the story to its unique heights.
The artwork may put some viewers off though as it is without a lot of detail or color variation. The characters are bold and plain with a lot of attention given to their fluid movements and stark design. The artwork is also in line with the esthetic of Tatami Galaxy, further helping to immerse the viewer with in the shared world. As with a lot of things on Masaaki's filmography there is a stylistic choice that eschews the standard of anime, instead reflecting styles more akin to mid 20th century French or Japanese art-house films and animation. with each of his pieces I see, the closer he moves to being my favorite director, striving hard to push aside the amazing modern sensibility of Shinkai or Hosoda.
The film is currently available on disc format and even saw a limited theatrical run in North America a few years ago.
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