Mamoru Hosoda is a director that has garnered quite a bit of attention over the past few years thanks to some of his films such as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Wolf Children and most recently, The Boy and the Beast receiving significant amounts of critical acclaim. Many have even dubbed him as the next Miyazaki… whatever that’s supposed to mean.  Although there is definitely much to talk about when it comes to Hosoda as a film maker, there is another incredibly interesting part of his career that is seemingly overlooked, his work as an episode director. Right after Hosoda finished college he started working for Studio Toei on Digimon Adventure as well as the Digimon movie. Although most of Hosoda’s early work was as an episode director he was adamant about his desire to work on films and that sense of ambition is reflected in all of his work from this period. Hosoda’s episodes in shows like Ashita no Nadja and Ojamajo Doremi are widely considered to be some the best in their respective anime and for good reason. In today’s video I’m going to shine a spotlight on one of these episodes, Ashita no Nadja 12 in order to break down exactly what makes them so great. So without further ado, lets just jump in.

Before we dig into the episode itself let’s get a little bit of context out of the way.  Ashita no Nadja is about an Orphean girl who joins a troupe of traveling entertainers and goes around Europe in search of her long lost mother. Although Nadja has a sizable cast, Episode 12 focuses on only 3 characters in particular. Nadja, our orphaned protagonist, Kennosuke a Japanese boy with an affinity for machines, and George the macho leader of the bunch. Previously in episode 4, George received a map to Jeanne d'Arc’s treasure from his friend in England. Now that the troupe has finally reached Lorraine France, the destination of the treasure, George is ready to set out on his expedition. He swiftly puts on his Indiana Jones hat and invites Nadja and Kennosuke along on his quest. At first the two kids are skeptical of the proposition but are soon buy into the excitement with the hopes of getting filthy rich. From the very beginning of the episode its made clear that all three characters have their own motivation for finding the treasure. Nadja wants it so that she can send money to the orphanage that she was raised in, a seemingly noble motive until you realize that she just wants to be praised by her peers and old caretakers, Kennosuke wants the treasure so he can afford to build himself a state of the art automobile which he plans to use to pick up chicks, namely Nadja, and lastly George being the manly man that he is simply sees an intrinsic, romantic kind of value in treasure hunting and does it for sport. As the crew’s quest for treasure commences, it becomes clear that the whole thing is a scam set up by the local town to attract tourists. The map leads Nadja and Co. to a vegetable stand run by a shady looking guy that’s willing to give them the next part of the map, if they buy his cucumbers. The second map only servers to lead them to a more absurd bumpkin with yet another map for sale. In order to try and justify continuing on their quest each individual character elevates their fantasy of grandeur to an increasingly ridiculous level.  Around the half way mark Nadja’s crew meets a mustachioed man that’s willing to guide them directly to the treasure, for a fee of course. The suspicious figure brings the trio to a series of obstacles that conincidently require one of the three’s ability to get through. By the time the group reaches the third and final obstacle, a steep cliff, everyone is exhausted and the mustache man is in a state of shock, not having expected Nadja’s party to make it this far. He points to Nadja and asks her what special talent she possesses that will get her past the cliff to which she responds (play clip). I’m not gonna lie this gag was so well timed, it had me laughing for a good five minutes. With no easy way to get up the cliff the three run at it with brute force. This is the climax of the episode with everything that has been built up so far coming to a boiling point. They lose their grips and fall only to drag themselves back up, driven purely by their bloated fantasies. In an interview on anime news network Hosoda said “Personally I like characters struggling for life energetically” which you can really see coming out in this scene. Personally it had me sweating and laughing. Once they reach the top all that’s there for them is a field of lilies, grown from the seeds that Jeanne planted hundreds of years ago. After taking in the scenery the three return home feeling satisfied. There are a lot of things that work to make episode 12 one of the most satisfying in Nadja, but I think the most important is structure. There is a gradual progression of expectations leading up to an exciting peak which we’re gently let down from through the conclusion. This episode also has a distinct rhythm to the way it unfolds. Everything plays out in a series of threes. There are three characters going on a treasure hunt, three obstacles, three locals with three maps, three cut always to the rest of the troupe going about their daily activities, and so on and so forth. This steady pulse works to keep everything moving along at a comfortable pace and allows for the climax and conclusion to have emotional weight. Past the structure of the episode itself the character animation which has more emphasis put on it in this episode than it does at any other point in the series. All the little touches here go a long way, the silly and expressive facial expressions and attention to making sure the cast’s stature and movement matches their emotions helps some of the gags hit their mark which elevates this episode past what it could have been otherwise. This reliance on character expression is a big pattern throughout Hosoda works, and the Nadja 12 uses it to a comedic effect, conveying how the cast responds to some of these absurd situations, as well as for a more melancholic one as seen at the end of the episode. What impresses me most about this episode is just how much effort was put into every tiny story beat and interaction to make sure everything flowed together effortlessly. (to be continued)

Hosoda’s work in Ojamajo Doremi Dokkaan is very different from episode 12 of Nadja, at least when looked at in the context of their respective anime. Where the Nadja episode is light hearted, comedy driven, and not particularly important to its anime’s overarching plot Doremi 40 is heartfelt, wistful, and one of the most important parts of the series. Unfortunately it’s impossible for me to condense why the episode is important into this script since in addition to essentially spoiling the series it would take at least 4 pages of writing to explain (I know because ive tried), this shit is incredibly dense and I. Regardless even without the context there is a lot for us to pick apart with this episode. Dokkaan 40 takes place at the tail end of Doremi’s 200+ episode run and has our protagonist at a cross roads in her life. Beginning to realize that her remaining time hanging out with her friends is growing short, Doremi tries out a new path on her own, reflects on her weaknesses as a person, thinks about what she wants to do with her future, and begins to consider some of the difficult decisions she needs to make in the coming episodes. What blows me away with this episode is just how ever single scene visually conveys the internet state of Doremi as a character. At first things are treated with an aimless melancholy as Doremi wonders through town, her face never faces the camera and her image is distorted through various lenses and shadows. Later on in the episode when Doremi is in a state of anxiety the desolate town takes on an unnerving light the familiar begins to feel distant and the odd unnatural cuts during these scenes add to the sense of discomfort. In his films Hosoda likes to work with the idea of two contrasting worlds, in Summer Wars and Digimon it’s the real world and the cyber world, in Wolf Children it’s the city and the suburbs and in Doremi it’s the familiar path and the alternative. When asked about this two world dichotomy in an interview, Hosoda responded with “Usually, people tend to see someone on the surface and think that that’s who that person is. On the other hand, there are a lot of people who think that what is on the outside is a complete falsehood, and that their true self is what’s on the inside; their public face is a fabrication, and what they really feel is actually who they are. However, I think both of those approaches are mistaken. I think the inner and outer aspects of the self together make one person”. At the end of the episode Doremi is forced to make her decision and in all honesty she’s not sure whether or not she did the right thing