By Dustin Cabeal

Animated movies from Japan tend to be amazing from a story and film perspective. Not because I’m biased, while I do love animated films in general, I will always prefer 2-D animation. No, the real reason is that it is 2-D animation and the bulk of the world has moved on from caring about the art form. It’s a shame, but because of that stories like In This Corner of the World aren’t held to the same storytelling restraints that most films are nor are they pigeonholed into tropes like anime. Simply put, Is This Corner of the World only works in this format because it’s allowed to create a new storytelling narrative that doesn’t rely on the three-act structure or any other structure that you’d associate with Japan.