Arion

1986. Movie. 119 min. Historical fantasy. org Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (manga). dir Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. scr Akiko Tanaka, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. mus Joe Hisaishi. des Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, Hidetoshi Kaneko. -bc

The son of a god gets embroiled in a brutal war between the gods of Mount Olympus in this stunning spectacle of the ancient world, notable for the kind of large-scale battle scenes rarely attempted in anime.

In ancient Greece, a young boy, Arion, is thrust into a war among the Titans after he is taken from his mother, Demeter, and raised by Hades in the Underworld. After a decade, he goes out into the world with a special sword given him by Hades to find his father, Poseidon, the God of the Sea, and go after Zeus, the brother of Hades and Poseidon and their sworn enemy. Arion is captured by Ares and Athena just as they are preparing for a war with Poseidon and is taunted by their brother, Apollo. A mute serving girl named Lesphina, who is coveted by Apollo, takes care of Arion and helps him escape with his boy sidekick, Seneca. Arion is captured, along with Seneca, by Poseidon’s men and is reunited with the father who abandoned him. After Poseidon’s forces successfully rout Athena’s army, Arion has a series of violent confrontations with Ares, Athena, Apollo, and Hades, resulting in some deaths and a curse bestowed on him by Hades. Arion, now suffering from delirium, clashes with Poseidon and is soon on the run from his army. In the resulting confusion, Athena’s army rallies and defeats Poseidon’s forces and they march triumphantly back to Zeus and Mount Olympus, where Apollo now keeps Lesphina, who is revealed to be Arion’s sister.

Arion meets an old hermit, Lykaon, once the king of Arcadia, who gives him the services of Hercules and a new weapon, the thunder tube, built by Prometheus. Urged by Lykaon, Arion rallies the people of the region to join him in marching on Zeus’ Mount Olympus stronghold. It’s a grueling battle, and Arion’s untrained peasant army gets the worst of it until a giant flying serpent provides some last-minute support and gives Arion and his entourage a ride to the back entrance of the mountain palace. In the course of all this action, Arion meets Prometheus and learns the truth about his background and who he really is.

The film offers a fanciful if endlessly imaginative re-creation of Greek mythology, starting with a splendid array of mythological creatures and monsters, including Hades’ three-headed dog, Cerberus, his multiheaded Hydra, and a Cyclops-like giant named Geedo, who actually has three eyes instead of one. Poseidon’s troops include armies of undersea fish-men who leap out of the water with daggers to attack Athena’s troops stationed on the shore; dog-men who run on all fours and pounce on Athena’s horsemen; and winged bat-men who hurl spears from the sky. The giant winged serpent seen in the final section turns out to be an ally.

The characters include a star-studded lineup of seemingly all-too-human gods and goddesses, some of whom fall into line with most viewers’ picture-book notions of the gods, while others don’t. The blond and radiant Apollo, who floats off the ground and seduces loads of adoring women, looks the part, while the petulant Ares lacks the gravitas and proper accoutrements for a God of War. Athena, on the other hand, is a most impressive fiery redhead, even without her trademark helmet, and commands her troops with an iron hand, fights Arion (and survives), and even dolls herself up to try and seduce Apollo in a sexy Olympian gown that would have made even Aphrodite jealous. We also see the Furies, demon-like goddesses of vengeance who work for Zeus; a character named Hercules who is more of a humble servant with above-average strength than the imposing figure we know from mythology; and a surprise cameo from Gaia, Goddess of the Earth.

Arion himself is a slender, handsome, athletic young hero in the mold of similar Yasuhiko male leads seen over the years, most notably Crusher Joe from Crusher Joe and Hiro from Venus Wars, but also Jiro in Yasuhiko’s manga, Rebel Sword, and, to a certain extent, Amuro Ray in Mobile Suit Gundam, minus the angst. His face has that extra little Yasuhiko detail, a unique cast to the lines, that makes him just a little more expressive than the other characters, enabling the frequent and effective shifts of emotion, from fear and confusion to defiance and angry determination to the occasional tender moment. He’s strong and courageous, but just a little bit vulnerable, too.

The production design favors simpler country and seaside settings as backdrops for most of the action rather than well-appointed Greek cities with majestic temples and public buildings, largely because the film seems to be set in an era well before those cities were built. The Underworld over which Hades rules is little more than a dark, cramped, foreboding cavern. However, the final battle is staged on the slopes of Mount Olympus and inside the massive palace carved out of the mountain rock (as opposed to sitting on top of it, as we would expect from traditional tellings), so there is at least one spectacular setting for a battle.

An influential animation director, character designer, illustrator, and manga artist, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko wrote, directed and designed the characters for Arion, based on his own manga. In his early career, he’d been a storyboard artist (along with Yoshiyuki Tomino) on Space Battleship Yamato, and character designer and animation director on Brave Raideen and Mobile Suit Gundam, both on the TV series and first three Gundam movies. He went on to direct Crusher Joe: The Movie (1983), and then two more productions based on his own manga, the TV series Giant Gorg (1984), and Venus Wars (1989).

Arion is a breathtaking animated fantasy adventure, with the scope of a live-action historical epic and the kind of battle scenes involving large numbers of combatants in constant motion that was not often attempted with hand-drawn animation. Horsemen, spearmen, charioteers, and Poseidon’s packs of hybrid creatures are all fluidly animated, sometimes in the pouring rain, not to mention the fearsome sight of Poseidon’s fleet of warships, with sails full out, bearing down on Athena’s seashore encampment.

For a film about the gods, Arion certainly shows a lot of them getting killed and behaving in other ways uncharacteristic of the legendary Greek gods. Purists among students of mythology may object to this and they certainly have a point, but the film is careful to make frequent references to patricide and fratricide among the original Titans in order to set the stage for another cycle of intra-familial killings. On an allegorical level, one can interpret the conflict of men rebelling against the gods and casting them out of Mount Olympus as a metaphor for that crucial point in human history where humankind really did throw off the yoke of abject obedience to the gods and take charge of its own fate. Prometheus, who defied his brethren and gave fire to mortals, is seen here as the most sympathetic of the Titans and the true spiritual father of Arion.

However one wants to look at the film, as a profound statement about the march of human progress and spiritual evolution or as a rousing adventure film with an exciting story, tons of action, and beautiful animation, Arion remains a unique and distinct work within the field of anime, one of a mere handful of titles devoted to ancient mythologies outside of Japan’s. While the design may pale next to Ray Harryhausen’s work in the bigger-budgeted live-action stop-motion effects masterpieces Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Clash of the Titans (1981), it’s still a worthy and valuable entry among the small number of serious epics based on ancient myths.

There are two major battle scenes. The one between Athena’s and Poseidon’s armies stands out as exactly what an animated battle scene should look like. In the era of digital animation, it seems easier to execute scenes like this, and one can certainly find digital versions of such action in recent anime, including Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, which opens with a sprawling Lord of the Rings–style ancient Pokémon battle. But it’s not the same as seeing hundreds of hand-drawn figures marching, fighting, slashing, and falling in painstaking cel animation.

The score by Joe Hisaishi is as well liked by fans as his more famous scores for Miyazaki. Pieces from it pop up on several Hisaishi CDs.

Arion is one of a number of notable big-screen anime features that have never been released in the U.S. in any form. It has long been an underground favorite.

violence Battle action, swordplay, and some bloodshed, but not too much. nudity Brief female nudity among the women serving Hades and Apollo.