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A great deal has been recorded about the art of running, a healing activity with capacity for therapeutic unburdening. In the realm of professional sports, yet, the pressure of rivalry can lead athletes to forget of this ultimate goal. Transposed from the eponymous manga, Kenji Iwaisawa’s spellbinding anime goes past awards and honors to examine the inner motivation that spurs an athlete’s ambition.

Plot Overview

The 100-Meter Film traces Togashi and Komiya, childhood friends whose life paths split when they enter elite competition. Once the fastest grade-schooler in Japan, Togashi guides the less confident Komiya with the basics. As the twosome move through their adolescence and adulthood, Komiya progressively advances up the leaderboard of top athletes, while Togashi is trapped in a decline; both confront fears and doubts. Spanning more than 15 years, the story tracks their psychological barriers, exposing the difficulties of an competitor’s existence, caught in a pattern of societal observation, result pressures and commercial obligations.

Visual Highlights

Perhaps it’s down to the base story, but the movie’s approach to these complicated problems is a bit simplistic; frequently, a character’s inner doubts just vanish after a lengthy conversation with a colleague or elder. But what the film is deficient in story nuance and rhythm, it redeems itself with in breathtaking graphics. Using rotoscoping, in which cartooning is superimposed on filmed sequences, the film produces exquisitely intricate sprinting scenes. The bodily strain of a race is on full display, and the suffering and elation of competition are imprinted on the athletes’ physiques.

Unforgettable Scenes

One especially significant race concludes in the rain, with torrents of charcoal lines that immerse the screen. Apart from conversation, these flourishes of stylistic brilliance encapsulate the quasi-enlightened elation the animation aims to provoke.

100 Meters is showing in the United Kingdom from the 16th of November.