The Imaginary

Amanda has an imaginary friend. Rudger is a boy only she can see; they play together and invent a new adventure every day. Amanda lost her father and lives with her mother. One day there is an accident. Amanda is taken to hospital and Rudger is left with nothing. Imaginary friends disappear once they are forgotten. To keep from disappearing Rudger goes to a library; other imaginary friends live there and have set up an order of their own. But someone is after him. Mr Bunting catches imaginary friends and consumes them. Yoshiyuki Momose directs. The studio is Studio Ponoc. The source is A. F. Harrold's novel. The studio was founded by people who had worked at another large Japanese animation studio. The matter it treats is being forgotten; the existence of the imaginary friends depends entirely on being remembered. The library section is at its centre and the order established there is shown in detail. Mr Bunting is outside the measure of a children's animation and some scenes are frightening. The animation is hand drawn and the palette changes in the imagined sections. The narrative takes what grief becomes in a child as a direct subject. Its limit is structure; the plot tangles in the second half and the rules are explained late. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese animation and adaptations of children's literature. Who it is not for: some sections frighten small children and the narrative is complex.