Maihime
舞姫A lonely exchange student meets and falls in passionate love with a dancer. A girl who falls into madness when she learns her lover is going home to make his life. The wanderings of youth on the stage of 19th century Berlin. The legendary novel of Meiji writer MORI Ogai, “Maihime (dancing girl)”, adapted by Ga-nime “School Girl” producer OKU Shutaro who shows us his illustration talent and appoints Ms FURUYA Akisa for the booklets, slide shows, and animation of this Ga-nime. Over the background of a foreign country, we discover all the pathetic, poetic feelings of this elegant story as the wind of fresh artistic images brings it to life. (Source: Toei-Anim.co.jp)
Reviews
bmayert - 2015-07-20 19:40:55
This short is apart of Toei Animation's Ga-Nime series. It was an experimental project that often combined stories from literature with the style of a specific artist.
Maihime is an adaptation of The Dancing Girl, a famous short story, set to still illustrations. The tone and feeling of this retelling stays true to the original piece of literature. It stays very faithful to the story with very few changes. As a result this work moves slowly and creates a dreary atmosphere.
The visuals are distinctive but the lack of animation makes this feel more like a narrated picture book or slideshow rather than an "anime".
Overall, this is a quaint adaptation but you should really only look into it if you have interest in the original short story since it doesn't add enough to it to stand on its own as a separate work.