Ojiisan no Lamp
おぢいさんのランプA boy finds a strange object while playing hide-and-seek. His grandfather tells him the story of his own youth, and the important role the old lamp played. This story is about the modernization of Japan and the changes that came with it.
Reviews
eokon - 2014-11-06 17:09:10
Grandfather's Lamp is a short film about man who discovered couldn't not adjust to the modernizing of Japan. The story does not the potential that it had. I can't say more than that. Seems like budget was a problem here,
mann.moses - 2013-05-22 09:19:55
Young Animator Training Project/Anime Mirai short reviews: Part 1/12The first, and many people argue the best, of the young animator training projects. It has the highest ranking on MAL anyway. It tells the very human story of a guy who followed his dream and started up a lamp business, only to see it crumble in the face of new technology. The tone is perhaps a touch on the maudlin side, with a lot of “oh gosh aint this sad”, but it does an excellent job of humanising the story. The man’s transition from childlike wonder at the lamps to a successful business family man is well paced and does a good job at making us empathise with the character, which is why I don’t feel too down on it getting all maudlin towards the end. They earned that through good storytelling. Ojisan himself perhaps isn’t the most memorable character, but the story is built around him having the standard reactions to these events, so we feel the same pain he does as we’d do the exact same things in those positions.Verdict: Watch
koss.tyrel - 2013-05-18 10:39:35
Times are constantly changing; old technologies are continuously being replaced by new. Sometimes though, it's not easy to let go of something outdated, especially if it has played a central part in one's life. In essence, this is what happens in "Grandfather's Lamp", when an aged protagonist Minosuke tells his grandson about the role lamps played in his life.Being one of the 2010 Young Animators' Training Project, the artwork has a simplistic beauty about it and seems to have been done with great care. The shading of the eyes is a little weird - they have these dull colourings that are often used in other anime to indicate a lack of consciousness or control. The background music is also very good, gently supporting the quieter moments and weighing in and enhancing the key ones. Judging technical aspects of an anime really isn't my forte though, so I'm gonna quickly move onto the other stuff. :PThe first part of "Grandfather's Lamp" is about how Minosuke, as a boy, came across lamps being sold at a shop in a time when such things are a rarity in Japan. Fascinated by this new technology, Minosuke decided to start selling them in his village, eventually growing up and expanding his enterprises into the city. For a long time, life was great; his business thrived and he started a family with his childhood crush. So far so good. This part of "Grandfather's Lamp" is mostly calm and peaceful, a part that highlights Minosuke's delightful enthusiasm for the lamp, and how it was the foundation to all that was good in his life.The second part of the tale shows Minosuke's lamp business becoming obsolete; electric lighting started to appear as Japan continued to modernise. Even though Minosuke embraced the technology that was the lamp, he was reluctant to show the same attitude towards electric lights, and did not want to abandon the lamp business his life was built upon. On paper, this had superb potential. It could have been a great story about Japan's modernisation and Minosuke clinging on to the past. Instead, "Grandfather's Lamp" fell on its face in this second part, as it went for impact and drama with a subject that should have been treated slowly and with subtlety. After all, it's not like the adoption of new technology happens over night, and the point where it was treated as such, when Minosuke somehow only discovered electric lights when he was surrounded by them, is the point where the story started to fall apart.It gets worse. Minosuke's resentment eventually drives him to ridiculous actions that were made more ridiculous by the "Higurashi"-esq dramatisation, and his eventual enlightenment was delivered with all the finesse of an elephant burglar. It seems almost surreal when compared with the quiet, slice of life nature of the first half. Towards the end, as Minosuke finally came to terms with the inevitable and went about preparing for it, there was one breathtaking moment when the gorgeous visuals combined with the swelling music to form a beautiful, poetic scene, but even that was quickly marred by more silliness.In the end, with its vast potential and solid technical aspects, "Grandfather's Lamp" turned out to be only decent. With better screen writing and direction, it could have been so much more. It just feels like the effort that's obviously been put into the animation is lacking elsewhere.