Review of Cencoroll

Indie productions aren’t especially common in the anime industry (off the top of my head I can’t name any in fact), and while I imagine it wouldn’t be the most difficult thing in the world for a solo creator to produce a moderately decent slice of life comedy short Atsuya Uki was ambitious in choosing to make Cencoroll a nearly half hour long sci-fi action flick. By all means this is more of a display of technical prowess rather than anything you would watch for a satisfying story. The characters rarely speak — aside from Yuki who I suspect is because they somehow managed toget the wonderful Kana Hanazawa to voice — and things sort of just happen sporadically. Yuki happens to see Tetsu and his creature Cenco, afterwards they’re seen by another boy who happens to be in control of two of those creatures and then they fight for the rest of the movie. Cencoroll makes a blatant rush towards the action, the first quarter is riddled with the kinds of quick cuts between developing scenes that are a staple of indie filmmakers who want to get to the point. As a result there isn’t anything of extreme depth to be found here but it manages to get the job done, and sets the stage for what Uki really wanted to accomplish: showing off his animation skills.

If there’s something that Cencoroll understands it’s the dynamics of movement. Maybe this is really just due to the limitation that obviously comes paired with being a solo project, but movements end up being either snappy or ridged with both being executed logically and in a fashion which is satisfying to the eye. Yuki and Tetsu may not be the focal point of the movie but all of their movements contain a urgent fluidity to them that captures the kind of movement that you’d typically see in action shonen shows like Naruto. It makes sense because generally speaking if they have to move it’s going to be because they have to evade some sort of danger (y’know from the giant aliens they control). This fluidity carries over to said danger as whenever the aliens engage in combat typically their movements will be executed with far more precise fluidity. It differs from the kind of movement that you would see from the human characters because their bodies are fundamentally different, Cenco’s especially as it constantly transforms itself into a variety of different forms. The fluidity compliments their alien bodies which are full of lengthy appendages which would naturally sway and snap as they swiftly travel from place to place. Cenco’s transformations are handled in a similar way as his body morphs like putty into whatever new absurd shape it feels like becoming. As the film progresses the size of the aliens only continues to grow and as a consequence their range of motion becomes more limited and they become more rigid. Again, this follows the fundamental understanding of motion that they had regarding the capture of speed and it creates a far rawer display of power as these gargantuan beasts tower and stumble over the city.

Of course, just as with the plot and characters, placing such a large focus on the visually impressive action comes at the price of the remainder of the visuals. Backgrounds end up feeling a little barren, even for a city the world contains extremely little detail only permitting the minimum to pass as a fitting setting to be destroyed. This kind of aesthetic style isn’t actually that uncommon nowadays in certain shows which choose fully embrace it and use the less refined style as a tool to manipulate the world more freely, but none of that occurs here. Even as we travel inward, as Cenco acts as a shield for his human commanders, the internal structure of the aliens feel a little empty and uninspired only containing generic monocolored walls of flesh. Clearly all of the imagination was allocated towards the aliens and their transformations rather than the world which inhabits them.

Cencoroll is a fairly ambitious technical showcase which demonstrates Atsuya Uki’s creative potential. While the aliens are rich in imagination I can’t help but compare this movie to the kinds of underdeveloped fantasies often seen in children. Ones which are severely underdeveloped in terms of scenario and more keen on elaborately designed monsters who will run amok in the world, destroying everything in their paths. Cencoroll may run for only slightly longer than your typical anime episode but it doesn’t even make an attempt at using any of that time towards telling a satisfying story. Half an hour is more than enough time to get an audience fully immersed into a world, either through direct or indirect storytelling, but instead it rushes past all of that in favor of action. Cencoroll may be an incredibly impressive independent feat, but the sum of its parts don’t measure up to the bar it sets for itself.