A Traveller's Diary

Legitimately one of my favorite anime, although really not for everyone. The Diary of Tortov Roddle is a series of wonderful, beautiful, surreal, wordless (aside from text from Tortov's diary) shorts, starring the traveler Tortov Roddle and his strange long-legged pig mount and companion. There's not really a story to speak of; the series is essentially a series of short vignettes. Tortov goes somewhere, experiences something odd, and then moves on. What somethings they are, though. The series is surreal, but unlike most uses of surrealism, it's not really symbolic. The surrealism doesn't represent the mind of a character, or the author's opinionof the Vietnam War, it's simply a weird, wondrous world that Tortov is exploring. The series has a very Japanese focus on fleeting moments. The events Tortov encounters aren't big, they're things like a fish jumping out of his coffee cup in a cafe, or watching a cartoon projected on the back of a bear, and once Tortov moves on, they're not mentioned again. This sense of transience, along with the quiet, contemplative nature of the series gives everything a slight feel of melancholy that adds a bit of weight to the wonder. The art is gorgeous, and perfectly suits the series. It really doesn't look like your average anime, instead going for a painterly story book look that's really nice to look at, and suits the dream-like nature of the show. The use of color is also very well done, there's a lot of unified color palettes in the episodes to give things certain atmospheres. It really does feel like a moving story book at times. The music is very nice. It has a kind of French feel, with liberal use of accordion. It's suitably whimsical, and again slightly sad. It doesn't feel particularly prominent, but it's not really meant to. If you don't appreciate an effectively storyless series, or this sort of simplistic wonder, you probably won't like Tortov Roddle. If you do though, you'll probably find it wonderful.

Aru Tabibito no Nikki translates into "A Traveler's Diary." That is exactly what it is, and that is exactly what you should expect. Aru Tabibito no Nikki is the diary of a man named Tortov Roddle. His diary is beautifully simplistic; he writes about what he sees and what he's doing. He writes about what is on his mind. There is no exaggeration. There are no women with massive breasts, there are no chibi scenes or outrageous expressions. This sentence explains exactly what this short is: "Accompanied by his long-legged pig friend, Tortov takes us on an on-going adventure of peaceful contemplation." And what a beautifulprocess that is. It doesn't take hours; it only takes a quarter of an hour to accomplish what many, many anime cannot. This anime is storyless, and yet it isn't. What person's life can really be called an action-packed story? Life is not always interesting. The best parts of life include silence, contemplation, and mental exploration. But, then again, Tortov's story isn't uninteresting in the slightest. It's surreal. It's the picture of an unusual, creative world with flashes into the mind of a fairly normal, thoughtful, and almost melancholic man. In these moments, he is perfectly real - sometimes expressionless, sometimes excited, sometimes surprised, sometimes vulnerable, sometimes not. This atmospheric experience is, in a way, mellowed by an eccentric, beautiful art style and a slightly depressing array of gentle music. Nothing is pushed in your face. Everything is softened and warmed for you, but the story does not become dull. It's as though you are a child being spoon-fed these wonderful, calm musings. None of it dribbles down your lips and chin. All of it is just calmly swallowed, but never really completely digested. And I mean that in the best possible sense. Aru Tabibito no Nikki can only be described as an artistic masterpiece, with pressure on "artistic." Art is subjective; this is the king of subjectivity. How much you enjoy it depends on your current walk in life. How much you enjoy it depends on your mindset, on what you're looking for. Just like a friend who helps you along one day; another day, maybe you're walking down different paths, and that's okay. For me, Aru Tabibito no Nikki came at a time where I needed to be soothed, inspired, and impacted. All of this, it can achieve. So do not just pick this anime up just for the heck of it. Pick it up because you're looking for something more. Pick it up because you're at a stand-still in your life. Pick it up because you just need to relax and feel your sanity again. Pick it up with the right mindset. "What mindset is that?" is a question that only you can answer, perhaps even subconsciously.

A common misconception about animated shorts states that they, bathing in creativity or not, never reach the same heights of storytelling as full-length features. While it's true that there's little room left for plot devices and character development if you happen to have a running time that doesn't even surpass half an hour, I still find this notion absolutely ridiculous. Rather than observing a short film and condemn it based on the lack of things you'd find in a movie, I've always been under the belief that the approach itself needs to be changed in accordance to the running time. Hopefully, viewers who happen tocome across the subject of these pointless scribbles will have their perception of animated shorts changed forever in the beautiful, mesmerizing and absolutely pointless creation that goes under the name: The Diary of Tortov Riddle. Now, visually speaking this little eccentricity plays out exactly like one would expect the incestuous offspring of Tim Burton and Cat Soup to do; character designs tend to be tall and slim; the color palette is muted to the extreme and there are enough semi-artsy oddities to give Yoji Kuji a heart attack. Story-wise though, the atmosphere seems a lot more inspired by Kino's Journey as the protagonist of the film, Tortov Riddle, travels on a pig with extraordinarily long legs, facing various encounters with other creatures as well as experiencing various strange things. His travels are documented in his diary which is shown at certain points, usually at the end of each story. Unlike Kino’s Journey though there are no fables or general lessons in moral to be found. Tortov is merely a lonely traveler whose motivations are never revealed and who seems to treasure his bizarre encounters more than anything else. All in all there are six stories that together create a running time of approximately 18 minutes. These minutes are well spent on beautifully surreal artwork that depicts everything from Tortov's encounter with a mysterious woman to a town hosting a cinema party by projecting an animated movie on the back of a peculiar bear-hybrid thingy. Keep in mind that few of the stories have actual conclusions and there is no continuity to find whatsoever. The best way to enjoy it is to take in the beautiful but simplistic visuals as well as the equally harmonic soundtrack that relies on everything from pianos to more unusual instruments to establish a dreamlike feeling few other movies manage to invoke. The world of animated shorts suffers from an over-representation from the admittedly masterful Makoto Shinkai whose Voices of a Distant Star continues to rightfully mesmerize. However, in recent years it's become quite apparent that there are other creators out there producing shorts that reach an almost similar kind of quality. The Diary of Tortov Riddle was directed by Kunio Katou who later went on to create the Oscar-winning La Maison en Petits Cubet which I also recommend. However, inside the realm of anime shorts, that I have explored somewhat thoroughly, Tortov Riddle stands out as one of the better creations I've seen. It's able to invoke a strange feeling of an almost childlike wonder that makes you absolutely content just witnessing the peculiarities the film exhibits rather than questioning them. Sleep is never an easy thing for me, but after I finished watching this for the second time I fell asleep almost immediately and although I can't remember any of my dreams I'm sure they were quite pleasant acid trips from the fascinating and beautiful world of Tortaria.

“Wonderfully strange.” — Krunchyman I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something about The Diary of Tortov Roddle feels quite exceptional. In the eye of an impartial observer, the six stories may seem a bit disjointed, with no obvious through line or extensive exploration into the character’s psyche. Be that as it may, it would seem that The Diary of Tortov Roddle was not meant to be understood through the narrow prism of human logic, but, more or less, experienced via innate emotions. A placid, visceral viewing experience if there ever was one. The surrealistic approach, along with the imaginative artwork, givesthe impression that the director breathed life into an oil painting. The aesthetic — unadorned, yet bizarre —compliments the critical events quite nicely, imparting a useful “essence” into each story. Furthermore, the use of natural sounds, like the wind blowing in The City of Light or the fire crackling in Moonlight Travelers, feel palpable, as if it were emanating through the screen itself. These noises serve a useful function to enable the viewer to “connect” with the anime on a personal level, allowing the events, like the community gathering or the reminiscing about a past love, feel more impactful. Simply put: it’s a pleasant viewing experience. It harkens to a transient, spontaneous existence, in which exhilarating moments happen fortuitously in a most unexpected manner. We observe, we react, and then we move on — similar to Tortov — to our subsequent eye-opening journey. It may be aimless, it may seem futile, and it may feel positively chaotic; nevertheless, if we maintain an open-mind, we may enjoy ourselves on this haphazard adventure called life, and possibly learn something new along the way. 8/10 — Enjoyment (the rating I used for this review) 6/10 — Overall (the rating I use for my own personal list)