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A great deal has been documented about the practice of running, a healing activity with capacity for therapeutic unburdening. In the realm of competitive games, however, the pressure of rivalry can cause individuals to overlook of this primary objective. Adapted from the same-named comic, Kenji Iwaisawa’s mesmerising anime looks beyond awards and honors to examine the existential drive that spurs an athlete’s ambition.

Plot Overview

100 Meters traces Togashi and Komiya, childhood friends whose career trajectories diverge when they turn professional. Formerly the fastest grade-schooler in Japan, Togashi guides the more uncertain Komiya with the fundamentals. As the duo enter their adolescence and adulthood, Komiya consistently improves up the leaderboard of top athletes, while Togashi is trapped in a decline; both struggle with fears and doubts. Covering more than 15 years, the story documents their internal hurdles, laying bare the struggles of an sports professional’s journey, caught in a pattern of societal observation, performance expectations and commercial obligations.

Visual Highlights

Maybe it’s down to the source material, but the animation’s answer to these complicated problems is rather superficial; frequently, a character’s inner doubts quickly dissolve after a extended discussion with a fellow athlete or mentor. But what 100 Meters lacks in narrative subtlety and tempo, it redeems itself with in dazzling visuals. Employing rotoscoping, in which cartooning is traced over real-life video, the movie produces remarkably precise dash moments. The athletic effort of a dash is on full display, and the pain and the joy of contests are imprinted on the athletes’ physiques.

Unforgettable Scenes

One notably pivotal race ends in the storm, with cascades of charcoal lines that overwhelm the scene. Apart from conversation, these bursts of stylistic brilliance embody the quasi-enlightened elation the film aims to provoke.

The Sprint Film is in UK cinemas from 16 November.