Artistic ideals are difficult to live up to. The belief that art, cinema in particular, has the power to accomplish the wondrous can light a fire in the heart, but it often has to be reconciled with compromise… Sacrifice. Especially of the artist, possibly more than they are willing to give up.

In this latest animated feature from director Takayuki Hirao (Death Note, Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack) and animation studio CLAP, we are given precisely 90 minutes (minus bookending credits) of that dichotomy in action. With the help of a loli-fied Roger Corman, because Japan.

The titular Pompo, a child who inherited her grandfather’s film studio, specialises in producing trashy B-movies that are more interested in sex appeal than any kind of ‘prestige’ status. While her statements on the industry range from glib (“Happiness destroys creativity”) to bracing (“Making a tearjerker moving is easy, but making a silly film moving takes genius”), she embodies the almost-childlike idealism required to keep hold of that spirited perspective of cinema. She keeps the film on a tonal path reminiscent of La La Land or maybe even The Comeback Trail, where the harsh reality of the industry is tinted with a rosy glow only found in the world of dreams.

Not that this is entirely her story, though. More so, it centers on Gene Fini, one of Pompo’s assistants, who she gives the opportunity to direct and edit his first feature film. The visualization of his creative process, from constructing how his film looks to the almost DBZ-style Shonen imagery of him at the editing desk, has Hirao and CLAP doing some serious flexing on-screen. The animation here is simply gorgeous, with highly creative scene transitions to show that the production’s admiration for the editing process is more than skin-deep.

As the audience sees Gene and his baggy eyes dart through all the collected footage, first-time actress Nathalie dealing with her own nerves, and Pompo being the epitome of hyperactive anime girl, the goals of Hirao as director and Gene as director-stand-in align: They want the watcher to find themselves in the art. Amidst the shaky but ultimately resonating depiction of ‘Nyallywood’ and its inner mechanics, auteur theory shines through brightest in the film’s larger understanding of cinema as a deeply personal and self-sacrificing practice. It arguably goes further into romanticisation than even La La Land, but as portrayed by these highly relatable characters, it still manages to win out.

Pompo The Cinephile is a child’s dream of making it in the movie business that highlights just how many artistic dreams are themselves borne from what is too often decried as ‘childish’ thinking. Bolstered by a very personable cast, a tremendously quotable script, and visuals to die for, it’s an animated film that should offer entertainment for filmmaker and audience alike.

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