Animated live-action
Some new anime has gone back to one of the oldest animation techniques: rotoscoping One of the more unexpected trends in recent Japanese animation is for some titles to use old-fashioned rotoscoping, where live-action film is painted over to create non-cartoony animation. (An American example is Ralph Bakshi’s animated Lord of the Rings from 1978.) The TV serial Flowers of Evil uses rotoscoping to moody, menacing effect, telling a story of teen bullying and obsession in a small town. The feature film The Case of Hana and Alice is far more benign, a kooky comedy-drama in which two teen girls investigate a rumoured murder. It’s a prequel to a live-action film from a decade earlier, simply called Hana and Alice.