Nobodys Boy Remi or Sans Famille in French is one of the monoliths of classic anime. Coming from the 1970s directed by the prolific Osamu Dezaki and equally prolific art director Shichiro Kobayashi written by famed French writer Hector Malot known also for his sister novel En Famille or the 1978 anime adaptation Perrine Monogatari by Nippon Animation Well known for their adaptations of classic literature under the moniker World Masterpiece Theatre or at the time of its airing Calpis Family Theater. Helmed by two of the greatest studios of their era MADHOUSE and TMS you have a show with so much riding on it that you could only count other anime with the same level of prestige on about two hands. Put simply this anime is critically acclaimed and the question remains whether or not it deserves it. Chronicling a portion of titular character Remis early years this story follows him not quite as a teenager yet upon being sold by a travelling performer and learning to survive as what is essentially considered for the era as an extravagent beggar. Trekking across the harsh landscapes of France with no ensured stability Remi and his master Vitalis are tasked with a simple yet incredibly arduous task To live day to day. Like providing everyone with shelter on a rainy night or having enough bread to split evenly between the entire troupe always moving towards a new destination of aspiring onlookers that are willing to throw you a morsel of financial reprieve. The life of one who performs from town to town is difficult and many people dont look upon you with envy but rather pity. Remi is a sad but endearing story that provides a look into a life that truly isnt a fair one. Remi experiences more loss heartbreak and hardship than most people experience in their entire life in the span of a few years. Melodrama that doesnt happen because it has to but because its inevitable. The journey of life isnt a straight road but a rough pavement filled with potholes. They may appear easy to avoid when looking at them objectively but the human heart doesnt think objectively nor does it allow itself to easily perceive those potholes. So you fall grab on at all costs and do everything you can to climb back up. The question that someone may ask themselves is why continue to be a travelling performer? Why not find a job in a mine or farm or something more stable? What purpose is there in living day to day town to town extravagently scrounging for money off the goodwill of others? Why practice a hedonistic sense of purpose that can very well lead you to a path of obscurity? There are questions that you cant answer definitively and trying to find the answer isnt the goal. Vitalis goal with Remi isnt something you summarise with a sentence to accentuate his aspiration to do so. He wishes to share his love passion and regrets in life to give another the chance to survive in a brutal world willing to cut you down when you least expect it. He desires to teach Remi of life itself and the many kinds of joys that exist within it. The truth that Vitalis offers isnt an objective one but of many truths that he learned through a long hard and fulfilling life. One that allowed him to appreciate and love an aspect to life. Its a commonality for older people to hand down their wisdom to younger generations. It may appear as bothersome presumptuous or out of touch to many younger people but the reason is often because theyve simply lived longer. The older you get the more you realise just how much you can appreciate the sanctity of a satisfied life. And its interesting when you consider that hes the oldest recurring character in the show. So Vitalis brings Remi up to follow his passions but he does so not as a watchful hawk. Remi lives his life with Vitalis upbringing keeping him in check but never to dictate how life should go. Remi always reminds himself of what Vitalis would tell him in his moments of hesitation. Vitalis represents Remis conscience and moral compass. It goes without saying Osamu Dezaki + Shichiro Kobayashi is arguably the greatest pair of old anime. No director understands Kobayashis truly emotive naturistic vision as well as Dezaki does. As someone who popularised so many directing techniques hes able to bring out every bit of Kobayashis potential as a visionary. Its shot composition galore. Despite being 51 episodes this show almost never sees visual compromises in the layout or storyboard. All forms of stylistic and tasteful budget cuts are used to avoid overly complicated animation. Now sure a more modern eye may look at all the still frames and think theyre looking at a slideshow. Despite Dezaki being known for popularising the postcard memory technique among others I would hardly regard anime directed by him as lacking in the animation department. 600https://i.ur.com/ICpnIRe.png 600https://i.ur.com/AFvyTtJ.png 600https://i.ur.com/3lIOfXz.png When you compare a similar show like Anne of Green Gables the most apparent detail in Remi is how lively the animation itself is. Many shows of the era had far less inbetween frames than you may typically see in anime today as animation is considered the most important visual detail for newer anime but Remi manages to have more detailed animation than most TV anime that came out years after it. Part of the impressive nature is how it so cleverly hides the use of reused animation. Unlike say an anime with transformations Remis obviously far more grounded and exists with real world settings in mind. But as long as youre placing these animations within appropriate contexts you can use a completely different setting and you would never notice the same dancing animation is being used. These are treated as you would a transformation or signature attack in other anime theyre the animations given extra attention likely animated on more 2s instead of the usual 3s or 4s in laymans terms its animated more smoothly for the purpose of being reused. It allows any typical animation not reused to particularly pop out with a lot of movement. Now animation is all well and good but the real star here is Kobayashi. No contest. Im not going to speak on all significant anime hes worked on as I havent yet seen them all so its not my place to make declarative statements accounting for general readers but I will say that up to this point in all his anime Ive watched this is my favourite work of his. This is including Rose of Versailles Berserk Windy Tales YKK Castle of Cagliostro and Utena to name the most notable ones I have seen. You could chalk this up to my obsession for rural early/preindustrial settings or if you want a word to search up cottagecore. I know Im biased but I think theres more to it than just that. This does in heavy part credit Dezaki for his incredible sense of constructing a scenario for Kobayashi and needless to say that practically every anime Kobayashis worked on looks great. But theres something deeper more profound to be discovered within this experience to me. Ive watched an interview with Shichiro Kobayashi toco toco ep. 17 if you want to look it up and while many quotes stuck out the one that struck me the most was I love this scenery because there is nothing which cuts to a simple footpath a tree overhanging the pathway shrubbery on the right and the left with a hilly terrain and a man carrying a package with his pomeranian following closely behind. He then proceeds to stop in his place and sketch what I described in his own image. Kobayashi deeply understands the intimacy of art. A landscape portraying a rural footpath isnt just that to anyone it can be heavily nostalgic a pocket of time thats captured forever. It can be sad reminding you of walking your dog during a dark time in your life. It can even bring a tear to your eye in ways you cant describe with logic. Art captures the emotions of an artist and presents itself to the viewer in however way their mind wishes to perceive it. It can reveal emotions you may not have realised you even possessed. Shichiro Kobayashis love of nothing is a love for his surroundings. Landscapes that you pass by everyday. Mountains trees footpaths lakes houses towns of all sorts are pulled from his heart and transported onto paper. Remi is an anime that spends most of its time walking past these places just beyond your bank of memories around the corner of that cliff or beyond the horizon and by god does it show in this series. There are so many still frames in this show that belong in official art books. From the many breathtaking parallaxing landscapes astounding colour palettes that capture the warmth and harsh cold perfectly to the postcard memories that are probably the best and most well utilised Ive ever seen Remi is a visual marvel that not only stands above and beyond practically all anime of its era and a few years following it it represents a pure romance that goes beyond its story and directing. I feel like this is one of the reasons why Figure 17 is another one of my favourite Kobayashi anime his sense and passion for naturalism within art is unmatched in anime which is what gives him the reputation of being quite likely the greatest art director anime ever saw. 600https://i.ur.com/wFtWBNy.png 600https://i.ur.com/V16Tbn3.png 600https://i.ur.com/Orlzmgt.png 600https://i.ur.com/Gx7ngem.png I hate to end this segment on Kobayashi transitioning into Takeo Watanabe cause Ive already established Kobayashi as the undisputed MVP of this show. But no Im not doing this to undermine him at all it just happened that way. While a far lesser name than the aforementioned two Watanabe is by no means a noname and his work on this show is absolutely nothing to ignore. Most well known for his work on Heidi and Mobile Suit Gundam Watanabe has a very distinctive style I believe most whove seen any of his shows would recognise fairly quickly. The use of accordion and mallet instruments in many of his tracks are a definable trait creating a warm European innocence that often comes with the casts of shows hes involved in. Theres a modest optimism a sense of relief that makes you feel comfort in the storys direction. Until the tension rises. Watanabes mastery of stark tonal shifts is his greatest strength. When the music is happy you feel happy. When the music is tense you feel anxious. This is a technique that can be expressed towards many soundtracks but personally Ive always found Watanabe to have an extra element that I cant pinpoint. When youre crying just by LISTENING to Heidi Perrine or Remis soundtrack and remembering the atmosphere you know the music has successfully dominated your emotions. https://www..com/watch?v=0SQP3HiPn8Y https://www..com/watch?v=QpsbRlkDOXk I dont want to forcibly convey a sappy message of this show down your throat. Everyone knows that this anime is sad besides its significantly less depressing when you look at the big picture. Remi rewards your emotional investment. Its not aggressively stomping on your heart and leaving it out in the rain. It may do so occasionally even frequently. But the message and lessons learned throughout Remis journey are a testament to human endurance. This doesnt just apply to Remi but to Perrine which by extension refers to Hector Malot as a writer. Both shows are reminder that people are good deep down. If youre willing to reach out whether youre desperate for a helping hand or not youll learn how valuable a bond between two living beings can be. 600https://i.ur.com/ruEuBRt.png 600https://i.ur.com/6UjTEX8.png 600https://i.ur.com/395lCb7.png I dont think Hector Malot ever intended to have Remi summarised as depressing. The point is to understand how emotionally powerful all beings can be when they lean on each other and put their everything in living. When life is hard you work harder and in turn learn more about the world and yourself. Being a traveling performer isnt about being an entertainer to Vitalis or Remi its about challenging yourself in life in a fulfilling way. Hardship brings growth and growth brings enlightenment. True hardship that comes from living out in the world and getting to experience the best and worst of nature and people. No one can say for sure if enlightenment brings happiness but maybe your own version of enlightenment will bring you closer to it. Remi is a boy who doesnt belong to a predetermined fate because life isnt predetermined. Despite being sold by his adopted parents his life isnt the subject of pure misery. His life is his own to be decided and his sense of purpose is something that cannot be understood until he experiences the pain to value and cherish life. And perhaps maybe when you finally experience happiness even that might not be enough to understand it. There is no way to know how or when youll be truly happy the only thing you can know is to follow your heart at all costs. Your mind may often lie to you and tell you to give up. But your body and soul will always remain intact as long as you cherish yourself with purpose and optimism. Move forward Remi. 600https://i.ur.com/o9DZzb6.png 600https://i.ur.com/SNOiUuH.png