Calvin Kemph 🤠’s review published on Letterboxd:
It’s not the movie you love but you love that it exists. In bright waves of animation, the epic movie is translated to an anime style. It doesn’t fully work but it’s worth the attempt. Fans, of course, want a very particular thing, but we are trading tradition for fun anime value at the door. The Animatrix (2003) never got its due.
But The Animatrix was the first DVD I had so I watched it. And I watched it again. And eventually, I grew a taste and nostalgia for it as this primary experience.
When Western media is translated into anime, it will naturally change the shape of the project. What is more embedded in Modern Western Fantasy Culture than The Lord of the Rings? The Matrix? Not much.
Peter Jackson’s trilogy, like the Wachowski’s trilogy, is such a specific thing. Fans of these properties hold onto their symbols and the mythos within them as though they are sacred objects.
Let’s cast away the sanctity of The Lord of the Rings for a moment so that we can see the new animated movie with clear eyes. The Lord of the Rings has been adapted into animation before. We had a Rankin & Bass movie about The Hobbit in 1977 and a Ralph Bakshi The Lord of the Rings in 1978. Both are bespoke takes but especially in Bakshi’s attempt style is outweighed by tomes of substance — the movie cannot get out from under the tremendous weight of the story and essentially tells us the Cliff Notes for the first two books.
The difference with Kenji Kamiyama’s The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is that it extrapolates from a very small slice of the mythology. Normally Kamiyama is a worthy stylist. Rohirrim blends 3D characters against 3D planes. When we think about Ralph Bakshi and we think about rotoscoping, we can understand the means of a style, as the aesthetic fulfillment of a mode of working. Rotoscoping is when you trace over live action elements to create a greater sense of realism in how characters animate.
By blending 2D foregrounds with 3D backgrounds, this creates another mode of working. This hybrid style is also done out of aesthetic purpose, rather than as a narrative-centered construction.
This follows Kamiyama’s normal method of working, which is on Production I.G anime shows for television. It’s a novel idea to bring the director in for a more episodic The Lord of the Rings.
What interests Kamiyama is a side-note from the fantasy fictions of J.R.R. Tolkien, namely the Rohan King Helm Hammerhead (Brian Cox) and how his name and the events of this film lead to the creation of Helm’s Deep. Many reviewers have noted how the movie is a Wiki-type stub page of events surrounding The Two Towers. What these reviews are not factoring in is that a Wiki about The Lord of the Rings is going to be a short novel. The passion of the fandom and depth of lore are seldom matched.
The movie actually center’s Helm’s daughter Héra (Gaia Wise). A rare woman-led moment for the series. So, this is about a pivotal battle that sets some events in motion. Gives a namesake for an important combat setting and awkwardly introduces Gandalf like an MCU cameo, suggesting his battle plan is made from the events of this movie.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is based on the short story “The House of Eorl,” that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote for an Appendix. It’s a footnote, sure, but this small slice of focus proves roughly sufficient for the basis of an anime. As a one-shot made to maintain WB’s use of the license, the movie fills both a financial and an audience-focused purpose. It perhaps sells itself the wrong way. Sure, it’s analogous to Peter Jackson’s series. But really this is a standalone piece of work. It’s an aside that’s a bit of fun and pretty slight that accomplishes what it set out to do. That’s not an exciting result but competence is its own virtue.
