Japanese Animation and New Media
Week Eight: Chapter Thirteen: Multiple Frames of Reference
The scene in which Sansom, Marie, and King flee from Gargoyle’s giant crab-claw robot plays humorously on relative movement and our sense of a frame of reference for orientating action. They jump in a boxcar, and as soon as they shout ‘lucky’ and think they have left the robot behind them, the robot races past them and blocks the path.
It looks as if we are doing to crash into the robot, but then suddenly our view shifts. The view of motion in depth (cinematism) was just a passing frame of reference. In fact, the track has a curve in it, and the viewing position swings right. We see the new frame of reference.
Just when it seems that this frame of reference leading away from the robot is the correct one, it turns out to be just another error. An aerial way shows that the track loops back to the robot after all.
Finally, in an amazing demonstration of strength, Sansom throws a boulder from the boxcar at the robot. They think they’re safe as they speed between the robot’s legs, but this view is subject to a sudden change. Now the boulder is in their path, and the cinematism of their viewing position suggests an imminent crash.
