Crayon Shin-chan: Fierceness That Invites Storm! The Battle of the Warring States

A stone in his hand drops Shinnosuke into the year 1574, where he saves the life of Matabei, a samurai commanding the army of a small province. A film that begins with the jokes of a five-year-old cartoon character walks straight into the wars of the Sengoku period. It is not interested in the rules of time travel. It is interested in how immovable the past is: Shinnosuke can meddle in history but cannot change its outcome. The series' usual gag logic gives way to a real sense of loss, and the ending refuses to behave like a children's film. The form supports that. The battles are staged with the seriousness of a period drama rather than cartoon exaggeration, and this is the first film in the series produced entirely with digital animation. Keiichi Hara directed, and after its release on 20 April 2002 the story got taken up again in Japan: in 2009 Takashi Yamazaki remade it in live action as Ballad: Song of a Nameless Love, with Yui Aragaki in the lead. A Crayon Shin-chan screenplay was remade as a live-action period film. Who it is for: viewers who want an anime that works without knowing the series and ends in tears, and anyone who likes period drama. Who it is not for: anyone with no patience for Shinnosuke's crude jokes. The film does not drop that humour; it just puts something else on top of it.