Still, Pompo is just one film. Once its 90 minutes are up, it’s over. What other anime movies can help scratch the itch the film gave its fans? Are there any other feature-length anime films about the highs and lows of creative media? There’s quite a few, surprisingly enough. From the least alike to most alike, here are the anime filmsPompo fans should check out.
5 The Wind Rises
Comparing Pompo to Hayao Miyazaki’s final Studio Ghibli film seems a little odd. The Wind Rises is loosely based on the real-life history of Jiro Horikoshi, a young man who took up designing planes after his near-sightedness kept him from flying them. However, Pompo has been compared to the film in reviews. Notably by IndieWire, who said Pompo “whittle(d) the wounded beauty of Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises down to 90 minutes of feel-good fun”.
So, it wouldn’t hurt for fans to compare the two. Especially as Rises has been praised for its visuals and bittersweet story. Unlike Gene, Horikoshi’s desire to design planes gets twisted. Set in the early 20th Century, Horikoshi is made to design fighter planes for the Japanese govt. He has to navigate his way through them, their Nazi allies, and the war on the horizon to maintain his love for his sick girlfriend Naoko, and his love for planes.
4 Paprika
On the surface, this psychological sci-fi story (psy-fi, as it were) doesn’t have anything in relation to Pompo. It’s about a research psychologist fighting against terrorism through the DC Mini, a new device that lets people look into both their dreams and the dreams of other people. It sounds more like a anime take on Inception than cinema. However, it delves in deeper than that. Paprika would end up being the last finished film its director, Satoshi Kon, would complete before his death in 2010.
The film shows its love for filmmaking in navigating the line between fiction and reality. Where one ends, the other begins, and whether they’re opposites or not. While it’s part psycho-thriller, Paprika is also Kon expressing his own interest and love for films and creative media. His dreams in his cinematic ambitions, and the realities in his finished work. As odd as its premise is, it does get the audience thinking. Still, there is another Kon film that’s more straightforward in its subject.
3 Millennium Actress
Satoshi Kon’s work often covered the ins and outs of media. Perfect Blue used its film setting to tell a slasher story about identity loss and mental strain. His series, Paranoia Agent, talked about the power of urban legends and how they can affect people. Millennium Actress retains the drama of The Wind Rises, while sticking closer to the filmmaking topic.
The film follows famous actress Chiyoko Fujiwara as she relates her life story to TV interviewer Genya Tachibana and his cameraman Kyoji Ida. The two find themselves literally absorbed into her flashbacks, watching her fall for a mysterious resistance fighter in occupied Manchuria, and her career as presented through her different film roles (her jealous, older co-star presented as a geisha drama, etc.) Millennium Actress brings the love of film shown in Pompo, with a bittersweet romance that’ll move even the sternest hearts.
2 Animation Runner Kuromi-chan
This one might be a little hard to find nowadays and is technically a 2-part OVA than a solo film. Yet its subject is perhaps the closest to Pompo in its cutesy art style and filmmaking topic. Kuromi tells the story of an anime fan called Mikiko ‘Kuromi’ Ogura who gets the job of her dreams as an assistant at the anime company Studio Petit. But then things amp up when the director of their big project, Time Journeys, falls sick and names Kuromi as her successor.
Now Kuromi has to help finish the studio’s projects to schedule while maintaining the quality of their previous works. No cutting corners, or animation frames. The OVA did get a DVD release back in the past via Central Park Media, though this was back in 2004. Still, it’s worth winkling out for its charm and influence. Most notably on the next example.
1 Shirobako: The Movie
The original Shirobako anime told the story of five young girls- Aoi, Ema, Shizuka, Misa and Midori- who made their way into the animation business after heading up their high school’s animation club. Through their different talents, they help their studio, Musashino Animation, create two big anime projects. The movie catches up with them a few years later when they have to tackle their biggest project yet: A feature length anime film for cinemas.
Despite Aoi’s doubts about the studio’s resources, they gain a new studio member- Kaede- who helps them make the most of what they have to produce a top-quality film worth of national theaters. The show & film have been praised for their attention to detail and character development, particularly with lead character Aoi. The Anime News Network went as far to say it “brighten(ed) the anime world”. So, in terms of being a feel-good flick about filmmaking with cutesy looks, Pompo fans will find themselves most at home with Shirobako.
More: Anime Films to Watch If You Loved Bubble
