Penguin Highway International Trailer
Summer in Japan has this notion of “summer vacation”, a longest break that all schoolkids enjoys. The game Boku no Natsuyasumi series truly captures that notion, mostly appealing it to adults and their nostalgia towards the break they do not enjoy anymore.
One of the summer animated movie this year was “Penguin highway”, based on the novel of the same name by Morimi Tomihiko. What was interesting about this movie was the fact that it did not involve Kyoto, supernatural yokai nor stupid university students that he tended to include in almost every works of his.
The story revolves around the protagonist, Aoyama-kun, a 4th grader with intellectual passion for his surroundings, and his new research project on supernatural, physics-defying penguins appearing in his town (yes, really, a surreal flock of penguins roaming in a suburb town). The story eventually leads to disastrous climax and very supernatural ending involving his classmates and his research subject, one-san, a dental assistant at his dentist.
As much as I enjoyed watching it, as a summer movie and as a Sci-Fi anime, and as supernatural anime, I found myself not being able to compliment it without a problem. My gut feeling after watching the movie was envy towards Aoyama-kun with a sincere nostalgia than anything else.
What I saw in the movie was not so much a distant story about a weirdo schoolkid, but story of “what-if” of myself 15 years ago. 10 year-old me in a better position who could make a different in the world with his intellectual passion towards his own research.
I do not remember when it occurred, but I had a longstanding interest in insects since kindergarten, from taxonomy, ecology, evolution, and just its anatomy in general. Just like many kids of the age, I had a passion, or almost fetish for knowing deeper in the subject. My first photographic identification book for insects from Gakken was my favorite book. I opened it so many times that it is falling apart. I shared the passion and desire in science and own research with Aoyama-kun.
With many childhood passions, one tends to “grow out of” (I hate this phrase, but that’s how it is described usually) them and the passion dies down as you grow older. I, too, lost the passion for biology. His stubbornness, way he talked to others, his pure passion for his research, and his naive but sincere curiosity all reminded me of past, naive self that once existed. Seeing that boy on the screen was too close to my heart, and reminded me of who I was. It felt almost embarrassing.
Yet he achieved something in his research, and hope for his future research on the most peculiar of the phenomenon. His colleagues, and mentor all provided him with ideal environment for his research. I could not help but feel envious towards his encounter with the phenomenon worthy of researching and his environment. The envy of “I wish I had that 15 years ago.” It reminded me that I wanted to become an expert in a field, like “博士”(expert, same character for Ph. D., but read differently in Japanese) in a field. I realized my childhood dream always had that notion of being an expert.
Even though my interest in entomology faded, the passion for personal research lingered within. The lingering passion somehow found its way into Finnish history research by pure luck and coincidence which led me to Helsinki.
For some time, I had the idea of my life as research project. Whichever direction my life headed, I felt my life revolves around having a life-long passion in research on certain topic. Academically it is history and international relations, at least I know. The other was deconstructing and verbalizing appeal of certain genre in hobby, like yuri, like fanfic, like Shinkai Makoto’s work in my own words. I still feel I should have written my BA and MA thesis on yuri as genre, and I feel this passion for personal research topic would not die down anytime soon.
It definitely comes from the fact that my parents had similar sort of research interest in their own topic, despite both of them choose not to seek direction in academia. Almost entirely unrelated to their profession, yet having intellectual interest in a topic. In a way, I was fortunate to have mentor in their action, just like Aoyama-kun’s father was. As they say in Japanese, “frog’s child is also a frog”, but “otaku’s child becomes otaku in the end”.
The movie “Penguin Highway” works as a usual summer animated movie, and good one at that. But for a ex-“science kid” like myself, it gives the strong nostalgia and longing for their past and peculiar encounter with fascinating phenomenon. The movie raises uneasiness of seeing one’s naive past, and at the same time, reinvigorates the passion that we lost a long time ago in a wholesome manner. Aoyama-kun’s ever-growing passion for revealing the truth about the mystery he encountered gives us hope for the lingering passion that we have inside. Even if that means future Aoyama will become another dumb university students in Morimi-verse(cf. Tatami Galaxy) that I also truly sympathize with (from personal experience, the likelihood of that is pretty high).