krystel61 - 2017-02-20 03:50:11

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you one of the best anime to come out of the Winter 1962 anime season; Ningen Doubutsuen, or “Human Zoo.” (rolls off the tongue easier)

Now, you may be thinking “but [reviewer’s username], this is an obscure piece of trash” and you’re probably right but we need to look at this closer. I want us to understand the history behind this piece.

The first thing we see when we start viewing Human Zoo are the credits. These credits are mostly standard stuff you would expect from a two minute anime that doesn’t have ‘dialogue’ all except for the line that credits “Poem” to “S. Tanigawa.”
If we search further into this; on MyAnimeList the background information claims that Human Zoo is based on a poem by Shuntarou Tanikawa. I guess Yoji Kuri (the director/animator) made a typo in the opening credits.

Honestly, I can’t be bothered to search far and wide for a poem from the dude that matches what we see in this anime. Regardless of whether or not we know the poem that Human Zoo is based on; we know that it was made with the intent to kinda echo the ideas that were present in that poem. We may be able to see this through the visuals and sounds even.

So the credits fade out and we fade into the actual animation.
This first frame consists of four things; a white background, a cage and two figures. The background is white to bring attention to the point Human Zoo wants us to focus on; the two figures and the cage they are in. In addition to the white background, the positioning of the cage also does this; it being positioned in the middle of the frame.

The cage is a constricted area; since the purpose of cages are to keep things on whichever side is favorable. It also creates a frame within the frame, just like how a window would. Since this piece is titled Human Zoo, we can assume this is an enclosure and that we’re looking at it as if we were at a zoo or whatever. Also while I did some research (wikipedia) I came across a brief history on actual human zoos that existed prior (and maybe even during) the creation of this anime. I don’t think that Human Zoo relates to these since they were a ethnic/racial thing and this anime does not delve into that; it doesn’t go to the effort to show the ethnicity of the characters in the cage.

It does show however, in most cases that there is a male and a female character in the cage together. This is assumed from the body shapes and colours used (though this is inconsistent so that assumption is kinda faulty (fun fact though, there was a paper published in 1959 by UNESCO that details the social position of women in Japan, kinda cool if you wanna read 150~ pages but I don’t; also I don’t think that Human Zoo is about that really either maybe a little bit but not really)). Human Zoo cuts between these cages; these cuts a usually preceded by a noise. The first cage shows a figure standing on their two legs; like a human, holding onto a leash that is connected to the other figure who is standing on all fours, like a dog would. The figure standing up normally yanks the leash and the dog-like figure makes a sound. The sounds and stances of each group are different but the pattern continues; it cycles through the groups.

Around halfway through the pattern is broken. The background changes; there are what appear to be cages in the background (are cages supposed to represent our own homes? do we just live in a massive zoo we call “earth?”) as a character with a hat on rides past them on top of another character with a mustache that seems to be acting like a car; the sound tends to evoke that idea. Shortly after it returns to the usual cycle.

The sounds probably mean something but it isn’t anything we can determine; as you know we can’t understand other animals (at least not to the extent we can understand our fellow humans) and I guess in Human Zoo we aren’t actually supposed to be able to understand what they are shouting about because there would be an inherent barrier between us. (or something like that)

So anyway, I didn’t really review Human Zoo, I just kinda talked about it for a while. It is something interesting to look into; on the surface it seems weird and there isn’t too much going on in it. But it is kinda abstract and experimental so you can read into it if you want to. You might found out a bit of history, or figure out how you want to interpret Human Zoo. Like I could say that Human Zoo is a dystopian anime where everyone lives in cages and forgot how to language a long time ago so now they only make grunts to attempt to communicate their feelings.

That is what I like about shorts. They can be weird, experimental and vague like this or tell a story of a lifetime like Furiko. Both are short and they use their limited time so differently.

Not to say that Ningen Doubutsuen is on the same level as Furiko but they show how indie anime director dudes can approach things differently. or something like that (also how far anime shorts have come in 50 years lul)

Anyway, thats all on Ningen Doubutsuen. Its two minutes long why not check out this trash. Its on YouTube.

okunze - 2014-03-23 23:36:50

This was so incredibly boring, I cannot even.

I saw that it was only 2 minutes long, so I knew I wouldn't be wasting a lot of time by checking Human Zoo out. Unfortunately, even 2 minutes is too long. I was expecting some jolting, short little animation, but all I got were markers and a series of odd barks/yelps.

I guess it's just too abstract for my little mind to understand it. I'd rather not understand it, though. Bizarre, and if you really want to watch it, fine, but you're just wasting your time.

dickinson.deja - 2014-03-11 21:27:23

its good