Objectively speaking, the reason for these "puzzles" comes from the huge amount of information in this film-not only the performance of the image is dazzling, but also the story is full of twists and turns, and the setting is more complicated. This amount of information has exceeded the limit that the author can handle and digest when he first saw it in the cinema.
At that time, the author thought that if "how much input and enjoyment the audience can enjoy for the first time" was used as the benchmark to measure the value of the film, this film had to be regarded as a "failed work". This is because the rhythm of The Story of Rebellion is really out of touch with the routine of ordinary movies.
However, this judgment was quickly refreshed when the author watched the full-production limited-edition Blu-ray disc of The New Rebellion Story of the Magical Girl in the private audio-visual space of My Home.
According to director Yukihiro Miyamoto, the Blu-ray version of this movie "more than half of the total 2,300 shots have been modified", so it is not exactly the same as the version I saw in the cinema. In addition, this limited edition also includes a CD that is quite different from Xiao Yan's performance in the second half of the film.
In the process of watching these two CDs repeatedly, the author's impression of this work began to change. When reflecting on this difference in judgment, the author finds that it is wrong to treat the rebellious story as a "movie" from the beginning to judge the success or failure of the work itself.
What are the characteristics of the works we want to own and collect on CD? The importance of image quality bears the brunt, except that you can watch it whenever you want, and then you have to be a work that can withstand repeated viewing. The Story of Rebellion can be said to be such a work.
By watching this CD-ROM, the author found that this work should not be evaluated as a "movie", but as a "CD-ROM" most suitable for private viewing in one's own home. So the evaluation of this work will be very different. As a "movie", the rebellious story may be a failed work. As a "CD", it is no exaggeration to say that she has completely optimized the expression of animation, one of the iconic works of modern animation.
This is not a movie.
Let's take a look at the book called "The Book of Matter" on the CD of "The Story of Rebellion" (full production limited edition) as the same bundled accessory. In a sense, the interview and other contents contained in this booklet have become the producer's instructions to the audience to "see it this way". What is written here will definitely have an impact on the audio-visual content of the CD, and when the full-production limited edition is considered as a whole, it should even be regarded as a part of the work:
Akiyuki Shinbo (Director): "But this feeling is probably what I felt when I first saw it. Knowing the story structure, you should be able to appreciate the first half of the story more naturally when you go to see it for the second time. I think there is a difference between not knowing a story and knowing it. When you don't know the story, the first half of the story is likely to be seen as the protagonists misinterpreting this seemingly happy world. But after understanding the story, you will feel' this is the case, so this is the case', and the falsehood you feel at this time should gradually fade. "
Yukihiro Miyamoto (Director): "After watching this movie by myself, I found that there is really a lot of information here (laughs). In this case, if you don't go to the cinema several times, you can't fully grasp what is happening in the story, and the audience should be very hard. "
Junichiro Taniguchi (role setting and general director): "I hope that when you watch this movie, you can look back and watch it again and again until you are satisfied."
Mrs. Tsuoka (sound director): "The image performance is really shocking. When you watch it for the first time, you just need to keep your eyes open and follow the video performance until the end. I hope that after you get used to it, you can watch it several times in this step-by-step way, then listen with your ears and then look at the acting level. "
The creative staff of the work unanimously recommended that everyone "read repeatedly". In fact, this work is as they say, and it will be more interesting to watch it several times.
Here we can find that at least when the CD was released, the producers assumed and expected that the audience would "watch" this rebellious story over and over again. Once you start, you can watch Blu-ray or DVD as many times as you want. On the other hand, the viewpoint here can make the audience feel that "you can't understand it without watching it repeatedly", so you can expect the audience to become repeat customers of this work in the cinema, or buy CDs (unlike before, most recent cinemas in Japan adopted the clearance system, and people who want to watch it repeatedly bought tickets every time, which directly contributed to the box office of the film).
In Japan, unless it is quite successful, not all animated films can make a living through the profit of cinemas. And most of them estimate the benefits of subsequent CD-ROM products (Blu-ray, DVD, etc.). ) or broadcast on the Internet, and even sometimes the movie is shown in the cinema only for the propaganda purpose of the film itself (for example, Makoto Shinkai's "The Court of Words and Leaves" is released simultaneously with the CD).
For better or worse, this is the environment in which the work is located. The process of "predicting how the audience will watch and calculating how to make ends meet" will have an impact on the content of the work, which can be said to be inevitable for commercial art. On the contrary, we can even say that the essence of entertainment itself lies in the place where we can gain vitality from this process.
If the author "can't understand" that various elements and redundant information are arranged in the content in the expectation that the audience will listen and listen repeatedly, then we need to pay attention to the functional aspects of the performance to explain it.
The TV version of "The Witch's Circle" is a story that describes the repeated experience of the time period (for various views on why the time period story is popular, see "Animation Survey 30- Animation Survey-Zhihu Column" on the characterization of the time period story). If the TV version adopts this time period in content, the rebellious story is also a work that needs to be experienced repeatedly (expecting the audience).
In other words, the high-speed movement of visual pictures, the excess of metaphors, the complexity of setting and the difficulty of substituting motivation into emotions are all for people to see the "role" of the second and third times.
There is another place where the environment of this work has an influence on the content of the work. Or quote the founder's speech from the "material book":
Akiyuki Shinbo (General Director): "These roles have been accepted by fans, and the producer is very satisfied with them, because this film is to experience this kind of happiness again."
Shinsuke Sasaki (Splitter): "Fans will help us to promote and discuss this work more deeply, instead of our producers talking about it themselves. I also admire it here and am learning from fans. "
What two people here want to express is that the success of the TV version of "The Witch's Little Circle" has promoted the popularity of secondary creation, especially in the form of delusional relationship between characters, and "The Tale of Rebellion" is a work made to realize this sound. In fact, the first half of the story "naked" shows the audience the seemingly "very happy" daily scenes between the characters that cannot be realized in the TV series, which can be regarded as the result of the second creation of the "official" role relationship that seems to be delusional by fans.
The Story of Rebellion itself can be regarded as an "official" secondary creation. Especially after we have repeatedly watched the TV version, the front and back of the theater version and the rebellious stories, it is inevitable that we will begin to be confused about "which story has become what", "what is the relationship between the characters" and "what is the difference in settings".