Guskō Budori no Denki

Title:Guskō Budori no Denki
The Life of Budori Gusuko
グスコーブドリの伝記
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , , , , ,
Notables: R1 License - Sentai Filmworks (ADV)
Guskō Budori lives a happy life with his family until a radical weather change brings misery and hunger for a long time to his hometown. Budori must then enter a journey that leads him to a big city where he ends up studying volcanoes.
(Summary Courtesy of Anime News Network)


100-minute film that premiered on April 4, 2012.
Animated by Tezuka Productions.
Licensed by Sentai Filmworks.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 9 9 8 7 7 Ggultra2764 [series:3540#1552]
The Life of Budori Gusuko is an animated adaptation of a children's novel of the same name from famous Japanese writer Kenji Miyazawa in its focus on the titular character finding himself growing up through different professions since the loss of his family as a child. Much like Miyazawa's famous work Night on the Galactic Railroad, this film uses Budori's journeying as a framing device to depict the different professions that the character learns of and all of them connecting to similar tragic circumstances that affected him as a child that eventually lead him to make a life-altering decision to prevent similar circumstances from affecting those he comes to know from his volcano research work. While the individual stories depicted about humanity's alterations on nature to persevere are solid in their explorations, the use of a framing device did not work as well for this film compared to Night on the Galactic Railroad as that film allowed viewers to be immersed in the train travels of Giovanni and Campanella before its shocking plot twist came about, while the attempt of a framing device here did not work as smoothly.

Presentation-wise, Budori Gusuko is a beautiful film to see in action sporting gorgeous scenic shots, effective use of special effects like the mysterious spirit that Budori encounters, and fluid movement from characters and objects. As an added touch, characters in the film are drawn as anthropomorphic cats as a homage to the design choice made from the 1985 animated adaptation of Night on the Galactic Railroad.

While the use of a framing device offered hiccups for the film's storytelling, Budori Gusuko still made for solid storytelling in exploring our titular character's journeys into adulthood before making a fateful decision based on his life experiences. If you enjoyed Night on the Galactic Railroad and enjoy Kenji Miyazawa's works, you might get enjoyment out of seeing this film.

Last updated Sunday, June 10 2018. Created Sunday, June 10 2018.

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