The Art of a Story About Absolutely Nothing

Well, not technically about nothing… but just more so about a film, series, or any other art piece not having a set conflict in mind. So, with all that said, what does that still exactly mean? Let’s find out.

The typical structure of the normal film fare would include such things as a set conflict and the inclusion of some sort of villain, whether we are made to care for them or not. Now, I’m not as so petty to say that “Nearly every film follows a pre-determined structure!” but I will say that there are some noticeable repeating (but still individually different) parts of a standard story. Every film should be respected in its own right, yes, but there still are some meta-formed workings of a lot of the existing stories out there.

However, some works come along once and while and, while not breaking and insulting (nor even mentioning) the mold, they, in a way, do their own thing. They have a story- yet they have no villain. They are about something- yet they also do not try to throw countless hurdles at its main characters.

For example, let’s take a look at one of my “favorite anime about absolutely nothing” (and one of favorites of all I have seen to date): Wolf Children. This gorgeously-rendered tale of a mother trying to find the best for her two children has no villain or evil enemy our main characters to face, but it still remains as essentially captivating (if not more) than if it would have included such a thing. What it truly is when it is stripped down to its bare minimum, right up to its core, is just a captured time of two (wolf) children growing up and coming unto their own, with their mother doing her own motherly work along the way.

However, for all of Wolf Children’s wondrous endeavors in this field of outsider-labeled “nothingness,” there is no other studio more known for their work categorized under this label none other than one of the most famous of all: Studio Ghibli. I have yet to see even more than three films crafted by this company, but, even then, I can still see just how different it truly is. Though certainly some of its films have large conflict and even some villains put in, two of the three I have seen so far have been far from even being related to those categorizations, one of which includes one of their most beloved- Only Yesterday, a film following a young woman vacationing in the countryside, all the while recollecting on the memories of her previous fifth-grade past. And that’s all it is; multiple switches from the past to the present, and the beautifully-realized emotions within each and every moment. There are no huge time-skips or large timeline expansions (such as in the case with Wolf Children): it’s just a film following one woman’s past and present.

And yet, it manages to be one of the most heart-rending films I have ever seen. It doesn’t need to use cheap tactics or some bombastic plot to utilize this- it just used genuine human emotion, and that’s all there is to it.

Further analyzations into these two respectively brilliant films are for their own separate times, but for now, I think I’ve made my point clear: a film doesn’t need a villain or some huge plot to convey its messages, for, sometimes, all you really need are genuine people to create your own beautiful story.