[Edit G subculture bookshelf] 11th "COCOLORS" work Consideration and trivia for viewers who are squeezed into the mystery of the world

Special Feature / Column November 22, 2021 (Monday) 19:00
[Edit G subculture bookshelf] 11th “COCOLORS” work Consideration and trivia for viewers who are squeezed into the mystery of the world

The middle-length movie “COCOLORS” of Kamikaze movie is exclusively distributed until November 25 at “Cinema Movie.com”, an online movie theater operated by “Movie.com” (https://cinema). .eiga.com/titles/301/). I personally interviewed him during the production because of the relationship, and at that time, I was involved in a mysterious way, such as introducing the woodblock painter’s father to the production staff for reference to the details of the work with the woodblock print as a motif. For this work, I was in charge of writing a special page and a movie review along with the distribution of Cinema Movie.com.
[Special feature] The gem of dystopia science fiction created by the animation studio with the company motto “Compromise is death”
https://eiga.com/movie/88088/special/
[Movie review] The growth story of the “Kuzu hero” who moves forward with negative food in a world without hope
https://eiga.com/movie/88088/critic/
Blu-ray sold for a limited time is not currently available, and this distribution is a valuable opportunity to watch the work, so if you haven’t seen it, please take a look. At Cinema Movie.com, you can enjoy your work for 48 hours after the first viewing. If you settle the viewing fee of 1000 yen by November 25 and start viewing on the 25th, you can watch until Saturday 27th.
If you have already seen “COCOLORS”, you may have noticed that there are many elements in this work that are not clearly stated. With reference to Toshihisa Yokoshima’s remarks in interviews and stage greetings, and the texts of related booklets such as the booklet included with Blu-ray, I tried to summarize the mysteries of the work world hidden in the work and the points in the production in my own way. .. It’s a word that I don’t really want to use, but it’s a so-called “spoiler” full-blown content, and I’m assuming that it will be more enjoyable for those who have already seen “COCOLORS”. It should also be noted that this consideration is just one of the interpretations, not the “correct answer” to read the work. I hope you read it on the premise that what the viewer feels or imagines is more important.
■ Who are the Aki? -The reason for the existence of the underground world
The world view of “COCOLORS” is explained in a hurry with the opening title drawn with stylish images of black and yellow along with staff credits. Harmful bacteria cover the surface of the earth due to the eruption of Mt. Fuji, and human beings who cannot live on the ground seek a new world underground. There, Aki and others are artificially created cultured humans who supply new energy, and they are called “power generation bodies” by humans. The underground facility where Aki and his friends live is named “15th Electric Shell”, and it can be imagined that there are other similar facilities.
The booklet included with Blu-ray contains a text entitled “Ki-duk’s Diary”, and the back setting of the work is revealed to a large extent together with the terms such as “power generation body” and “15th electric shell” mentioned above. ing. It is also written that “the power generation body discharges the energy solution to the outside of the body by reacting with electronic bacteria”, and Ki-duk, the only human being in the work, was studying the power generation body as a human manager. ..
Aki who are not humans are like silk moths that are boiled and killed in order to take raw silk, and the reason for their existence itself is set to be unhelpful. It was judged that this setting could not be explained by the scale of the second part, and it seems that the opening was made with the intention of wanting you to feel the atmosphere alone. The author himself was able to understand the meaning drawn by reviewing the opening title after listening to Director Yokoshima’s teach-in.
■ Relationship between Ki-duk and Fuyu
At the second recovery festival, Fuyu stands next to Ki-duk, who makes a speech on the Shintai, and it turns out that he is a special person among the boys wearing masks. Also, even after Fuyu’s physical condition became ill, Ki-duk seems to be particularly aware of Fuyu. In “Ki-duk’s Diary”, the past when he lost a 12-year-old child is spelled out, and he confesses that the power generation body incorporating the child’s gene is Fuyu.
It can be seen that Ki-duk, who is about to lose his own child twice, is trying to entrust Aki with the end of Fuyu by superimposing himself on Aki and watching the escape of the two.
■ Colors that are being lost, hearts that are being regained
In this work, as the story progresses, an attempt is made to lose color from the work. The colors gradually disappear from the colorful appearance of the first collection festival, and at the end it becomes a world of almost monochrome and the ending is reached.
While the color is being lost from the world, Aki, who has lived by inertia, regains her heart by acting with Fuyu. The sky I saw on the ground that I had a hard time arriving at was nothing but gray, but when I saw Fuyu’s smiling expression, Aki exploded her emotions at once. If you think of it as Aki’s growth, this work is not a bad end, but a good end where you can see a line of hope in despair.
■ Organic underground world that imitates the human body and “visiting the womb”
The underground world where Aki and his friends live is depicted with an organic image that imitates the internal organs of the human body, with the pipes that go underground being blood vessels and the large bulging part in the center being the heart. It seems that this is because the residents in the basement cannot feel the body. On the contrary, Ki-duk’s laboratory, where Fuyu and Shu are housed, is depicted with an inorganic image based on white.
The underground world is designed with a structure that looks like an inverted human body, and the funeral home at the bottom of the basement where Shu’s body is buried looks like a skull and cervical spine when turned upside down. Based on that idea, the route that Aki and Fuyu escaped to the ground is the “womb tour” (passing through narrow and dark places such as sacred sites and caves, which was also seen in Hayao Miyazaki’s “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea”. It can be considered that it was one of the Buddhist practices of being reborn.

Upside down, background art of the funeral hall square (from “COCOLORS” art book, page 106)
See larger image
■ “OK” message pressed with three fingers
Immediately before reaching the surface of the earth, Fuyu drops the whistle in the middle of the escalator. To inspire Aki who couldn’t move forward, Fuyu pressed Aki’s back tightly with three fingers. As explained in Aki’s monologue immediately after the opening title, the meaning of the sound made with three fingers is “OK”. It is a production that conveys a message with a casual gesture, and the moment when the hearts of Fuyu and Aki communicate with each other without using words or sounds is beautifully depicted.
It was about the third time I watched it that I noticed this production while writing it as awesome (?). At first, it was shaken firmly, and it should have been a depiction of the whole body for the creator to the extent that Fuyu was using a whistle for this, but I did not notice it for a while, so maybe there is the same person. As soon as I wrote.
■ Shin-Ochanomizu Station and skyscrapers in Nishi-Shinjuku
The escalator that Aki and his friends climb to get to the ground is based on the escalator at Shin-Ochanomizu Station. You can see the plate that says “Shin-ochanomizu” where the escape from the underground facility is stippled.
Also, in the scene where the silhouette of the ground surface seen at the beginning of the opening title and the “sky ghost” inserted in the conversation between Aki and Shu destroy the ground, the skyscraper “Mode Gakuen Cocoon” with an impressive curved form You can also see the building that looks like a “tower”, and it can be seen that the area around Tokyo and Nishi-Shinjuku was also referred to.
■ Origin of “COCOLORS” “Amanatsu”
Kamikaze Doga and Director Yokoshima released a short film “Amanatsu” of about 14 minutes in 2009, and it is now released on the company’s YouTube channel. This is also an original work produced independently, and depicts the journey of a girl Amane and a robot who wish for the “end of the world” in the near future.
The relationship between the girl and the silent robot is reminiscent of Aki and Fuyu, and the depictions and impressions after appreciation are similar to “COCOLORS”. Director Yokoshima himself recalls in the Blu-ray booklet, “I noticed that there are many elements like the prototype of” COCOLORS “in terms of content …”.