🔗 Share this article

Much has been recorded about the practice of running, a healing activity with ability for cathartic release. In the sphere of elite athletics, though, the stress of rivalry can make people lose sight of this fundamental aim. Reimagined from the eponymous manga, Kenji Iwaisawa’s mesmerising anime transcends prizes and accolades to examine the core impetus that drives an athlete’s ambition.

Plot Overview

The 100-Meter Film follows Togashi and Komiya, early-life buddies whose career trajectories separate when they enter elite competition. Previously the quickest elementary student in Japan, Togashi guides the less confident Komiya with the basics. As the pair progress into their adolescence and adulthood, Komiya consistently improves up the leaderboard of top athletes, while Togashi is stuck in a slump; both struggle with anxieties and insecurities. Encompassing more than 15 years, the story tracks their mental obstacles, revealing the challenges of an competitor’s existence, trapped in a cycle of societal observation, result pressures and endorsement requirements.

Visual Highlights

Possibly it’s because of the source material, but the animation’s answer to these complicated problems is somewhat facile; frequently, a lead’s mental struggles just vanish after a extended discussion with a fellow athlete or mentor. But what the film is deficient in plot refinement and pacing, it makes up for in breathtaking graphics. Using rotoscoping, in which drawn art is drawn atop filmed sequences, the movie produces remarkably precise dash moments. The bodily strain of a sprint is visibly evident, and the pain and the joy of contests are engraved on the athletes’ physiques.

Memorable Moments

One notably pivotal race finishes in the storm, with cascades of grey strokes that engulf the scene. More than any dialogue, these bursts of creative mastery encapsulate the quasi-enlightened elation the animation aims to inspire.

100 Meters is in UK cinemas from November 16.