🔗 Share this article

Much has been recorded about the art of running, a healing activity with capacity for therapeutic unburdening. In the sphere of competitive games, yet, the strain of rivalry can cause individuals to overlook of this fundamental aim. Reimagined from the eponymous manga, Kenji Iwaisawa’s spellbinding anime transcends prizes and accolades to explore the core impetus that drives an athlete’s ambition.

Plot Overview

100 Meters follows Togashi and Komiya, youth companions whose career trajectories diverge when they turn professional. Previously the fastest grade-schooler in Japan, Togashi guides the less confident Komiya with the essentials. As the pair move through their adolescence and adulthood, Komiya progressively advances up the leaderboard of top athletes, while Togashi is trapped in a decline; both confront anxieties and insecurities. Spanning more than 15 years, the story follows their mental obstacles, exposing the difficulties of an competitor’s existence, locked in a pattern of public scrutiny, result pressures and endorsement requirements.

Creative Merits

Possibly it’s because of the source material, but the movie’s approach to these complex dilemmas is a bit simplistic; frequently, a character’s inner doubts quickly dissolve after a prolonged talk with a peer or a senior. But what the film falls short in story nuance and tempo, it redeems itself with in dazzling visuals. Employing rotoscoping, in which cartooning is traced over live-action footage, the movie produces remarkably precise sprinting scenes. The physical exertion of a sprint is clearly shown, and the suffering and elation of rivalry are imprinted on the protagonists’ forms.

Memorable Moments

One notably pivotal race ends in the downpour, with cascades of charcoal lines that engulf the screen. Apart from conversation, these bursts of stylistic brilliance embody the quasi-enlightened elation the film aims to inspire.

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