Goshu, the cellist

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Anime movie
title Goshu, the cellist
Original title セ ロ 弾 き の ゴ ー シ ュ
transcription Serohiki no Goshu
Country of production JapanJapan Japan
original language Japanese
Publishing year 1982
Studio Oh! Production
length 63 minutes
genre Fantasy
Rod
Director Isao Takahata
script Isao Takahata
production Koichi Murata
music Michio Mamiya
synchronization

Goshu the Cellist ( Japanese セ ロ 弾 き の ゴ ー シ ュ , Serohiki no Gōshu ) is an anime film from 1982 based on a story by the Japanese poet and writer Miyazawa Kenji . For directing and screenplay was Takahata Isao responsible. The film is about a cellist named Goshu who, with the help of animals, becomes a better musician.

action

Goshu plays the cello for the local orchestra, but is often admonished by the rather strict conductor; sometimes the game is interrupted because of him. This drives Goshu to practice regularly at home in his little hut outside the city. He thinks of his role model Ludwig van Beethoven . A cat comes into Goshu's hut from the garden and wants Goshu to play him something on the cello. Annoyed by the unexpected intrusion of the talking cat, he plays the cat a play called "Hunt for the Indian Tiger". The cat is frightened by the wild music and wants to flee the house, but can no longer control itself because Goshu's music seems to be controlling it.

After the orchestra rehearsal the day after the strange "cat incident" something similar happened. A cuckoo comes to Goshu and asks him to make music with him. Little did Goshu suspect that practicing with the bird made him better and better at handling the cello. Goshu nods after the bird is gone and is late for the rehearsal the following day. There he gets the advice from the conductor to pay attention to his sense of rhythm. And the visits of the talking forest animals in Goshu's area don't want to end, because in the evening a tanuki (" raccoon dog") appears at the cellist's. With two small drums it beats the beat to Goshu's cello playing. Like the evening before, this encounter lasts almost until morning, and Goshu falls asleep.

In the evening Goshu plays his cello again, which many animals listen to outside his hut. And again the musician falls asleep. His sleep is disturbed by a mother mouse and her child. She explains that her child is sick and that it needs to be healed by Goshu's cello, just like the other animals around him. His music helps the animals to recover. In fact, the mouse child is alive again after a Goshu concert. He feels sympathy for the two mice and gives them a piece of bread, which they accept with emotion.

Finally, the big performance of the orchestra in which Goshu plays is coming up. The conductor and his musicians enchant the audience with an excellently played symphony. An encore is required, whereupon the conductor, who was moved to tears of joy, unexpectedly sends Goshu alone on stage. He thinks that people are laughing at him and wants to wipe them out with the “hunt for the Indian tiger”. Against all expectations of Goshu, the piece that scared the cats at the time turns out to be an enthusiasm for the audience and the other members of the orchestra. The encounters with the animals have improved his cello playing time and again. After the successful concert, there is a festival that leaves Goshu at sunset.

Production and publications

The 63 minute long film Goshu, the Cellist was made at the Oh! Production . Isao Takahata directed and wrote the screenplay. The responsible producer was Koichi Murata. Takamura Mukuo was the artistic director and Shunji Saida was responsible for the character design . Michio Mamiya composed the music, and music by Ludwig van Beethoven was also used.

The film premiered in Japan on January 23, 1982. It was later released on DVD in Japan, including with English subtitles. Outside of Asia it was released in France - under the title Goshu, le Violoncelliste on Les Films du Paradoxe 2002 on DVD - and in Spain, as well as in Germany, where the film was broadcast several times on the TV channel ARD in the 1980s . Furthermore, Taurus released a VHS cassette with the film in 1985 . This German version was 5 minutes shorter than the original. The film later appeared as a bonus on the DVD version of Anja and the Four Seasons . International titles were also Gorsch the Cellist and Gauche the Cellist .

synchronization

role Japanese voice actors ( seiyū )
Goshu Hideki Sasaki
cat Fuyumi Shiraishi
cuckoo Kaneta Kimotsuki
Tanuki Kazue Takahashi
Mouse mother Akiko Takamura
Mouse child Keiko Yokozawa
conductor Masashi Amenomori

reception

In 1981 the film received the Ōfuji Noburō Prize at the Mainichi Film Competition . Oliver Armbrust calls the film one of the weaker works by Isao Takahata. Although character design and music are convincing, the animation and backgrounds are kept very simple and offer little for the eye. Despite the cute animals, the story is not very humorous, "unspectacular and somewhat uneventful". The anime babbles in front of you until it's suddenly over. It is still nice to look at and recommended for collectors anyway, but not a must for everyone else.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy: The Anime Encyclopedia. Revised & Expanded Edition . Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley 2006, ISBN 978-1-933330-10-5 , pp. 245 .
  2. ↑ Goshu, the cellist. In: www.tomodachi.de. Anime no Tomodachi, accessed January 7, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b Oliver Armknecht: Goshu, the cellist . In: Film-Rezensions.de . March 14, 2016 ( film-rezensions.de [accessed January 7, 2017]).