“The Girl Without Hands” What the director wanted to depict using the new animation method “cryptokinography”

“The Girl Without Hands” Synopsis

Apple--watermill

A family of three, father, mother, and daughter, lives in a watermill. The water supply has dried up and they are struggling with daily food. One day, a demon appears to his father. He offers to give gold in exchange for ``what lies behind the water wheel.'' Believing it to be an apple tree, the father accepts the deal, and the gold flows into the dry river. Life changes. However, what the devil wanted was what was climbing that apple tree - his only daughter. The father, who does not want to lose his wealth, is cornered by the devil. Her mother was eaten by wild dogs and died. A daughter cuts off both of her arms to save her father from a difficult situation. The daughter, fed up with her relationship with her father, leaves home. The father despairs and takes his own life.

Pear--Royal Palace

A girl who lost her arm goes through the forest in the rain. He tries to eat pears to survive, but he slips and falls into the river. There, waiting for her was a river spirit. The river spirit says that the pear belongs to the prince, and that it is fate for the girl to seek it. The prince accepts the girl as she steps into the royal palace, and takes her away. At the wedding, the girl gets a golden prosthetic arm. Enough food and love. A life without any inconvenience. I also received a child. But then the war began. The prince goes to battle. And the devil acts behind the scenes. She rewrites the letter announcing the birth and makes the king believe that a monster baby has been born. Furthermore, he tricks the gardener into killing his mother as well. A girl runs away from the royal palace with a newborn baby in her arms. I put in my pocket a magical seed from the new world that was secretly given to me by the gardener.

Sweet orange and figs—somewhere far away

A girl who carries a baby and moves from place to place finds a safe place to live while being guided by a river spirit. He throws away his impractical golden prosthetic arm and uses his own arm to plow the land, plant seeds, and live a self-sufficient life. Meanwhile, the prince who lost the war returns to the castle. Realizing the devil's trick, he sets out on a journey again to find his wife and son.

Several years have passed. The girl became a mother, and her son grew up healthy. The prince continues his journey and eventually arrives at his wife's birthplace. What we see there is the figure of a man who appears to be his father who took his own life, a prosthetic arm that has washed up on the bank of a golden river, and both arms that have turned into skeletons. The prince gently swallows the piece of bone. The devil doesn't give up yet. As the prince is finally reunited with his beloved wife and son, the final battle begins for the soul of the girl who is now a mother. At the end of the day, where will the girl and her family end up?

Index

• “Cryptokinography” is a new method for drawing long works by one person.
• Possibilities unique to anime that run wild and wild
• The “female” perspective hidden in the cruel Grimm fairy tales

“Cryptokinography” is a new method for drawing long works by one person.

``The Girl Without Hands'' is a full-length anime created by 44-year-old animator Sebastian Rodenbach all by himself. The original story is "The Handless Girl", a part of the Grimm fairy tale. This fairy tale depicts the turbulent life of a young girl whose hands are cut off by her father due to a devil's plan, and has a strong dark flavor typical of Grimm's fairy tales.

Anyone who knows the common sense of anime production would think that it would be impossible to create a full-length animation by just one person. However, Rodenbach is said to have completed the illustrations for a full-length feature by himself, and in just one year.

sebastian rodenbach

The method that achieved such miraculous speed was ``Cryptokinography,'' which Rodenbach devised. ``Cryptography'' is a word that means a code, but in ``cryptokinography,'' each picture is extremely simplified, and sometimes it is difficult to tell what is depicted. However, when you line up simple drawings and make a video of them, people and animals come to life.

It's obvious when you watch the trailer, but if you're used to watching Disney or Japanese TV animation, you'll probably be surprised at how energy-saving it is at first. The design resembles a quick sketch drawn with a brush, and the lines depicting the main character's "daughter" are not connected, and the colors of her skin and clothes are not differentiated. But the discomfort soon disappears. This is because all the information and movements that director Rodenbach wants to convey are conveyed, and the audience uses their imagination to fill in what seems to be missing. At least the number of colors on the screen allows us to vividly visualize the green and red of the apple tree and the silky texture of the ``daughter'''s body.