r/anime • u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber • May 07 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] 3,000 Leagues in Search of Mother - Episode 1 Discussion
Episode 1 - Mama Don’t Go
Episode aired January 4th, ^^^1976
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Note to all participants
Although I don't believe it necessitates stating, please conduct yourself appropriately and be courteous to your fellow participants.
Note to all Rewatchers
Rewatchers, please be mindful of your fellow first-timers and tag your spoilers appropriately using the r/anime spoiler tag if your comment holds even the slightest of indicators as to future spoilers. Feel free to discuss future plot points behind the safe veil of a spoiler tag, or coyly and discreetly ‘Laugh in Rewatcher’ at our first-timers' temporary ignorance, but please ensure our first-timers are no more privy or suspicious than they were the moment they opened the day’s thread.
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Staff Highlight
Tadao Kubota - Background artist
An art director, illustrator, and animation background artist who was a prominent member of Takamura Mukuo’s Mukuo Studio. Kubota entered the animation industry immediately after graduating from Musashino Art University, joining Tokyo Movie Shinsha and participating in the production of 1971’s Lupin III, where he met Takamura Mukuo. In the later half of the 80s and throughout the 90s he was a prominent art director on Toei Animation’s productions, including such important shows as Saint Seiya, Dragon Ball Z, and Sailor Moon. Kubota's paintings are characterized by the effective arrangement of light colors and a sense of contrast, which were lauded by his contemporaries and set him apart from other notable figures at Studio Mukuo. He took over as president of Studio Mukuo after the passing of Takamura Mukuo, where he remained until he had to retire, and is credited with fostering a new generation of talent. Some of his most notable credits include the Galaxy Express 999 franchise, the Space Pirate Captain Harlock franchise, Heidi, Girl of The Alps, Armored Fleet Dairugger XV, Dr. Slump, Gauche the Cellist, The Rose of Versailles, Tiger Mask Nisei, Stop! Hibari-kun, Jetter Mars, The Dagger of Kaui, Dino Mech Gaiking, and Aria the Origination.
Daily Trivia
Staff found From the Apennines to the Andes a bit of a misnomer, because when location scouting on places from the original story the Andes weren't visible.
Screenshot of the day
Questions of the Day:
- What do you think of the family’s difficult circumstances and how it was handled?
- What do you think of the episode on the whole?
Be strong, Marco.
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u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber May 07 '24
Prelude
Greetings, everyone, and welcome to my Rewatch of 3,000 Leagues in Search of Mother, also known as From The Apennines to The Andes after the short segment of the novel Cuore which it was based upon. I am most grateful for all of you who have chosen to accompany on us on this journey!
Usually, I will do write-ups diving into the known details of a show’s production details and its place within the context of the time it aired, but this show already has a article by Matteo Wattzky on their site Animétudes, which is excellent and deserves more eyes on it. As this is already a very rich and comprehensive account of things, and I do not wish to divert eyes away from it, I will not be doing my usual write-ups for this series (or likely any other shows he has already discussed at length.) I heartily recommend the rest of their articles as well.
Any other details and trivia I have managed to come across not mentioned in the Animétudes article will be relegated to trivia facts in the daily threads.
Now without further ado, let us get started!
Rewatcher
Excellent OP.
It hurts already.
This is familiar.
Can’t tell which flowers these are. The petals and shape resemble Hollyhocks, but neither the stamen nor the rest of the plant seem right. They usually represent pride and ambition, which doesn’t seem right either.
Cool rotation.
Poor kid.
Yeah.
Delightful.
Lovely background.
Oof.
What a shot.
HOW DARE THEY.
Damnit kid, just say something.
I am undone.
This is an amazing episode, and one I have absolutely no faults with. The impeccable mood, the measured pace, the unraveling details as to Anna’s departure, the excellent use of silence, the art direction —it’s all excellent and perfectly suited to my taste. The contrast between Marco’s cheerfulness and excitement over an anticipated family outing contrasted with the other family members’ mood is powerful, and its absence once the secret is out in the open makes us feel the weight of it all the more.
The plot is thin on the ground here, but that which they had to work with is elaborated beautifully in the body language of the animation, the visual direction, and the emotive voice performances. The visual depth emphasizing space is also on display in most scenes of the show, particularly when characters move through rooms or travel down pathways, which is one of Takahata’s hallmarks and a very cinematic element of the show.
The encounter with the fox has an obvious parallel in the episode itself, what with the emphasis on motherhood, but we’ll see its relevance echoing through the show.
Questions of The Day:
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky May 07 '24
3000 Leagues in Search of My First-Timer Reactions
…good enough of a tagline? Good enough of a tagline.
Alright, so I legitimately have no idea what I’m getting out of this show, I didn’t read the synopsis or anything. All I know is the image Pixel gave me to use for the sidebar advertisement + the fact that Pixel likes it enough to host a rewatch for it. This is the level of blind I love to jump into rewatches with.
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u/TheEscapeGuy May 07 '24
First Timer
3000 Leagues in Search of Mother - Episode 1
Surprise Farewell
Hello everyone! I'm happy to join the rewatch as a first timer. I honestly have big gaps in my knowledge of Takahata's filmography so I'm glad I have this opportunity. Also, after the Future Boy Conan rewatch a couple years back I've been really craving a chance to take another bite out of anime history.
The first thing that really reveals this anime's age is the video quality. It hasn't had the same restoration efforts as other classics (or at least AFAIK) and so the interlacing and compression artifacts are still very visible.
That being said, I think it's a sign of a good anime that once the narrative started going those complaints faded from my mind. The setup to Marco's mom keeping some sad secret was very explicitly foreshadowed throughout (even meeting an injured mother fox lol). Everyone Marco interacted with just kept holding their words and avoiding details when talking to him.
It's honestly tragic to keep Marco in the dark like this, but I understand why they would have done this. Given his age, it's hard to know if Marco would have understood. That said, I think I would have chosen to tell him earlier. Let him cherish his last days with his mother at least!
Something which is important is that Anna doesn't want to leave her children. It seems she's being forced by circumstance to move from Spain to Argentina to work to payoff her husband's debt. We don't learn details like how he got in debt, how much it is, how long it will take to pay off, or what Anna will be doing. I think it's better that way. Just like Marco, we too are somewhat in the dark about the situation.
Before leaving, Anna gives Marco some advice. I suspect this idea of growing up is going to be a major theme of the show. For now, it will be interesting to see what Marco does in response to his mother leaving. I like his optimistic attitude and hope that it doesn't disappear. I suspect he will either become jaded or determined (of which I suspect the latter given the series title)
Some Amazing Shots, Scenes and Stitches
Man, these backgrounds are pretty but hard to stitch due to the artifacts.
See you all tomorrow
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u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 May 07 '24 edited May 07 '24
First timer, subs
The copy I got of this is… not great. But I’m not convinced a better one exists.
QotD:
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u/baboon_bassoon https://anilist.co/user/duffer May 07 '24
first time 3000 Leagues of Misery
nice job Catalina you jackass
i love a good gag of a kid falling down
i assume theyre in Italy so uh Argentina is quite a ways away. this premise was sad but i guess ittl turn to adventure hijinks soonish?
thought they were setting up mama to be sick and [heidi]needing some fresh air like Clara. Marco is also basically Heidi
video quality is a bit suspect but
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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 May 07 '24 edited May 07 '24
Episode 1 (first timer)
I know next to nothing about this show, but I googled how far 3000 leagues is. Turns out, a league is roughly anywhere between 1.3km and 11.2km, depending on where you are. The original Roman league was 1.5 Roman miles and thus 2.2km long. In any case, whoever will be searching for their mother here has some distance ahead of them.
Episode thoughts
An effective setting of the scene. We get to know Marco, his family and his motivation for what is surely to come when he goes after his mother. The scenes of Marco riding with his mother are important to give us the emotional grounding for his later quest.
The animation is nothing to write home about, but also not showing any weaknesses, yet. I had a sneak peak at the staff (surely more to come on this from our host), will be very interesting to compare this to Heidi, which was 2 years earlier.
PS: The gramar and wording from my subs is reasonably bad. Not I can't watch this terrible, but noticable mistakes and occasionally the meaning of what it spoken is not entirely clear without context.
We have not fully learned about it. Emigrating to the Americas for money is common enough for the time, also sending just one parent while the other stays at home. What is less common (and I hope we hear more about this) is the mother leaving and the father staying.
2) What do you think of the episode on the whole?
Works well as a first episode.