Flag is a pretty unique venture. It's researched reasonably well, and is set in our world. The world with the laws of physics and politics. More interesting than the reality-based content though, is the form. This show is set entirely within the eye of the camera.
When we're not watching the narrative through a lens; we're seeing photos or computer displays. There is no scene set outside of the camera, and that in itself is a bold creative choice, although it is stretched very thin, in that we have to assume these people are such camera junkies they take them everywhere
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and never turn them off, no matter what they're doing or where they are. It's a bit too much to accept, but the directorial concept is so cool that you just shrug off any unrealistic scenarios and run with it.
The story follows the main protagonist, and her friend's reflections of her actions at the same time. The pacing between their stories as a result is well balanced, as just when one avenue of narrative is reaching its end or becoming stale, another picks up the slack. The story's focus on the UN's 'peacekeeping' of a war-torn country is more developed than it has any right to be. We see bureaucracy, politicking, soldiers dealing with killing, and more importantly the feelings of photographers capturing war and their place in it all. I don’t think this anime raises anything more powerful than the case of Kevin Carter's infamous photo in Sudan, but it does try.
The animation for the show is very well done, it always looks good and the whips and pans from the camera P.O.V are very smooth and natural-looking. But this anime is a sad case of so much effort put into research and attention to detail that they forgot about the importance of narrative. But more about that below.
Flag always runs the risk of wallowing in self-importance; the music being a major fault here. Full of bombastic cinematic score in the vein of Lisa Gerrard, with Middle-Eastern lady wailing in pain, it's all very trite. Just like the majority of photos. Yeah, for a show revolving around photography, having it populated by generic and clichéd-as-hell photos really doesn’t do it any favours. You've seen them all before: soldiers and kids, animals and destruction, and you could say that the anime is just using the clichés of the medium to tell its own story, to give it context, but cliché is cliché, unless you're commenting on the cliché itself, then just don’t use it. There are some photos that are good though, mainly the infamous photo the entire show is about.
Ultimately though, is this show entertaining? Does it maintain your interest? Does it captivate you? It didn’t for me. Maybe others will love it, but I have to admit I was bored a lot of the time by the constant 3D maps of digital terrain and preparation for military assaults. Hardly what I call entertaining. Michael Mann's The Insider is about a tobacco whistleblower; there's a lot of talking and meetings in that film, but it’s engrossing, you're on the edge of your seat; you're captivated by what's happening to the characters. In Flag there's a whole bunch of talking and meetings but the narrative is like an afterthought, it’s like the script has been fitted around the concept, instead of the concept decorating the script. There's no drive, no momentum, even though the first half is building up to an assault, there's no sense of urgency, not when every scene transition is via a computer desktop mouse cursor clicking on random files. (which gets old very quickly)
If the anime's purpose was to be like a documentary, it fails even more, as this isn’t a documentary about anything actually occurring in the real world. We have a quasi-Tibetan like scenario here, but its all fiction. If the anime-makers were bold enough to actually focus on a real event, Iraq, Afghanistan, take your pick, and provide their own view on it, then I would find it engaging, but otherwise the anime takes the safe route and doesn’t stick its neck out on anything. Just universal themes of war and media, which isn’t bad of itself, but when it consists mostly of dry lifeless dialogue and 3D maps, it’s hard to find anything compelling to latch on to.
There's only one moment where all the aspects of this show come together and work properly, and it’s very late in the series in the 12th episode where a conflict is being filmed by the main two characters, and it feels alive, full of purpose and direction, emotion and drama.
No matter the faults of the show, it’s different and I always applaud that. There is the chance that it will inspire kids and teens to pick up a camera and find a career out of it. A shame the brilliant animation was wasted on a muddled tale with no backbone.
Alternative Titles
Japanese: FLAG(フラッグ)
Information
Type:
ONA
Episodes:
13
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Jun 16, 2006 to Mar 2, 2007
Producers:
Aniplex
Licensors:
Bandai Entertainment
Studios:
The Answer Studio
Source:
Original
Duration:
24 min. per ep.
Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
Statistics
Ranked:
#35782
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#4651
Members:
21,615
Favorites:
76
Available AtResources | Reviews
Filtered Results: 13 / 14
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Your Feelings Categories Jul 21, 2008
Flag is a pretty unique venture. It's researched reasonably well, and is set in our world. The world with the laws of physics and politics. More interesting than the reality-based content though, is the form. This show is set entirely within the eye of the camera.
When we're not watching the narrative through a lens; we're seeing photos or computer displays. There is no scene set outside of the camera, and that in itself is a bold creative choice, although it is stretched very thin, in that we have to assume these people are such camera junkies they take them everywhere ... Nov 1, 2008
To us foreigners, it perhaps can't get any more Japanese than Flag: in essence, this series is about two Japanese and their cameras.
Set in the near future, in a fictional nation that very strongly looks as if it should be positioned on the India-China border, somewhere in the Kashmir region, Flag recounts the story of the civil conflict that crippled said nation and of the UN sponsored peace talks following a photograph (containing the Flag the series is named after) that became a powerful symbol of cooperation between the parties involved. It follows the photographer of said photo, who is officially installed as reporter of ... Feb 8, 2018
Plumes of smoke rise out of New York City's skyline as three soot-covered firefighters hoist the American flag out of the World Trade Center's rubble. Political tension pervades Tiananmen Square; pedestrians look on with bated breath as a man turns himself into a human blockade, denying passage to a line of tanks. A devoted monk sits in a meditative position in the busy streets of Saigon, consumed by a raging fire, silently protesting as civilians and civil servants gather around. At the end of World War II, a sailor embraces a woman, locking lips in the middle of Times Square amongst officers and citizens as
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Jan 4, 2013
There's this old saying: “You can't polish a turd.” Someone (probably a grandparent; it's hard to beat cranky old people in the “brutal honesty” department) relayed that valuable piece of information to me at some point in my young life, and I've found it to be a crude but immutable truth, in art and fiction as much as in anything else. The best way I can describe Flag is to say that it's a great example of attempted turd polishing. It boasts a unique visual presentation and some downright incredible animation, but at the end of the day a weak narrative, poor cast, and muddled
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Sep 9, 2010
This anime had a good concept but terrible execution. I wanted to review it for a long time so here it is. There's spoilers in this review BUT you'll be warned beforehand and you'll be glad I spoiled it for you LOL! This anime was so misleading and bad that I just had to review it for you to save you pain and time.
Basicly there's some kind of war going on in some kind of 3rd-world country and some kind of war journalists (I think they are Japanese but that doesn't matter) go to this country to get pictures because that's their job or as ... Jul 18, 2011
If there is one thing that should be immediately praised about the anime FLAG is its daring approach to the animated medium. The entire story, revolving around two photo-journalists in a fictional war zone that resembles the middle east/south-east Asia, is seen through either their camera lens, cameras of vehicles, or sometimes someone else's camera. This approach while certainly unique requires a certain level of suspension of disbelief though. You have to believe that every living moment of this series that they have their cameras opened and pointing at people, but nonetheless, for those interested this suspension of disbelief should be trivial and come rather
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Oct 12, 2011
Being a fictional documentary of sorts in depicting hostile tensions between terrorist factions and the UN military to try establishing a peace treaty in a small country, Flag did enough to impress me in its 13 episode run. It offers a unique and original narrative style by showing pictures and the point-of-view from the video cameras of two photo-journalists as they cover the mounting tensions of a terrorist faction's plot to hijack a peace treaty signing and try driving their country into civil war from stealing a flag that was symbolic of the desire that many of the people in the country have in wanting
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Apr 27, 2010
A new "real robot" show from the creator of Dougram, VOTOMS and others is always a nice proposition and in my opinion FLAG doesn't disappoint.
It uses a pretty unique viewpoint, with every moment shown not from the perspective of a narrator, but instead from that of the characters. Be it a camera, a gunsight or a radar screen, you're seeing what the characters see. It makes the combat a lot more visceral than even the most hard sci-fi real robot shows, because you're on the ground and seeing the fighting right there. An early skirmish in which the lead mech engages a small insurgent force ... Jun 12, 2019
FLAG is an ONA from mid '06 to early '07. It was handled by The Answer studio. That's right, the studio behind Golgo 13. It's also an original work. So, that'll be interesting.
Story: Our narrative takes place in a fictional war torn country named for a yoga pose. A young photographer named Shirasu Saeko manages to capture a strong moment of hope in a brilliant photograph. This results in the flag in the photo becoming a symbol of peace. There's just one problem, it gets stolen. Shirasu is chosen to work with UN's special forces in their efforts to scour Uddiyana and regain the flag. The biggest ... Sep 18, 2016
"The camera has been watching."
"The countless acts of human folly and brutality on countless battlefields..." "The camera has been watching." I have recently seen the series a second time, ten years after I watched it originally. I remember the series growing very slowly on me, ending with a big twist. By the time I watched it the second time, I matured a bit. I have noticed a lot more nuance than the first time, despite the ten year gap. I laughed and I cried when watching the show both times. I can recommend it even to mature viewers who have no contact with anime as a medium. This ... Dec 28, 2013
finished flag yesterday and i have one thing to say it was a masterpiece made by the same director of armored troopers votomos ,Gasaraki and Fang of the Sun Dougram Ryōsuke Takahashi :
-the plot and characters : the story is about a tow free journalist Shirasu and her senpai that where involved religious conflict in udeiana , with UNF trying to stop this conflict in this mess shirasu takes a picture of a flag that later becomes the symbol that created a road to peace in that country , that about what i can give as summery for the plot without spoilers , the plot ... Aug 26, 2016
Flag is a wonderful piece of art that does not fail to deliver on its premise. The art is wonderful and fresh, while the characters feel incredibly realistic. It stumbles rarely over its narrative and creates an engaging atmosphere that drew me in at the very beginning.
There definitely are times when the sound seems out of place (subbed), but the scarcity of music provided excellent breathing room for the characters and the use of photography throughout the series. As more of an aesthetic complaint, the intro did not seem to fit with the tone of the show entirely, but I would be hard-pressed to ... Aug 19, 2018
This series was pretty perfect. The character development was deep but neither melodramatic nor overextended. Every scene feels like the dialogue means something. The contraposition of military and philosophical warfare concepts was very well-done. Also, the way they imagined mechs is both realistic and imaginative at the same time. If you're looking for an anime which really delves into a nuanced understanding of military, politics, character, and technology, FLAG is right up your alley. I feel like this is an underwatched and underrated gem of anime, and will recommend it highly to anyone who likes anime of any kind,
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