Tama Hills and Environmental Consciousness in Japanese Anime Films

In 1994 Studio Ghibli produced Pom Poko, (directed by Isao Takahata) a trippy animated film about a community of magical shape shifting raccoons desperately struggling to prevent their forest home from being destroyed by urban development.  The movie draws heavily on traditional Japanese folklore (especially the reputed power of the raccoon's testicles), but the setting is the 1960's rapid conversion of the Tama hills rural farmland into planned suburbs of Tokyo (called Tama New Town).

In 1995, Studio Ghibli came out with a very different film.  Whisper of the Heart is a realistically-animated love story about a teenage girl who loves reading books, and the boy who had previously checked out all of the library books she chooses.  It was set in a peaceful suburb in the hills of West Tokyo.  Specifically, the Tama hills.

Development of Tama Hills, as depicted in Pom Poko.

Scenes from Whisper of the Heart:

Walking along Tama Hills, above Tama River.

Walking along Tama River, toward Tama Hills.

It is difficult to describe the cognitive dissonance these two films create.  The first, a story of animals defending nature against human development, and the second, a human-centered love story set in that very development.

Tama Hills (Tama New Town), Tokyo.  Yes, those are golf courses on the hills.  There is an amusement park, too.

Map.

The main character, Shizuku, in Whisper of the Heart even composes a song, set to the tune of "Country Road".  She and her friend Yuuoko sing it together.

"Konkuriito roodo, doko made mo
Mori wo kiri, tani wo ume
Uesto Toukyou, Maunto Tama
Furusato ha, konkuriito roodo

Concrete Roads, to everywhere
Cutting forests, burying valleys
West Tokyo, Mount Tama
My home town is a concrete road...

(both laugh)"

(transcribed by Nausica.net)

Teenage lovers from Whisper of the Heart, overlooking Tokyo from Tama Hills.

It is possible to visit many of the locations that were used in Whisper of the Heart.

Young raccoon lovers from Pom Poko, overlooking Tokyo from Tama Hills.

More information about locations that inspired Japanese animated films.

Cognitive dissonance...in a fly?

[diagram from Kravitz lab "boxing flies" work]

A couple hours phenology
on top of the mountain
cumquat in a plastic bag
white butterfly
after half an hour
some bees two? three?
above the valley
two eagles circled and cried
spit out cumquat seed
phenology? or phenomenology
threw the banana peel and i could almost see it
the I almost disappears --> goal

then a pair of big flies, then a pair of small flies
17 chia seeds drying on a pair of trousers
the gel does its job; hardens stuck to the cloth
cotton cloth is also gel
tug-of-war between them (like heat, electricity)
the actual neural decision-making logic of a fly -- scratch scratch it goes
strobe light-like
to investigate the cumquat seed
then shies away behind the bush

nothing here is human-sized
I won't be Ostrich-sized.
A spent caccoon hangs from a dead branch on a live bush
inches above the rocks
ALL life uses DNA. ALL countries trade with dollars.

should i follow the white butterfly? write her down?
if cities are a good thing than free trade is a good thing.
as i leave in the mid afternoon
two butterflies fight or dance
above