Being one of the 2010 Young Animators' Training Project, the artwork has a simplistic beauty about it and seems to have been done with great care. The shading of the eyes is a little weird - they have these dull colourings that are often used in other anime to indicate a lack of consciousness or control. The background music is also very good, gently supporting the quieter moments and weighing in and enhancing the key ones. Judging technical aspects of an anime really isn't my forte though, so I'm gonna quickly move onto the other stuff. :P
The first part of "Grandfather's Lamp" is about how Minosuke, as a boy, came across lamps being sold at a shop in a time when such things are a rarity in Japan. Fascinated by this new technology, Minosuke decided to start selling them in his village, eventually growing up and expanding his enterprises into the city. For a long time, life was great; his business thrived and he started a family with his childhood crush. So far so good. This part of "Grandfather's Lamp" is mostly calm and peaceful, a part that highlights Minosuke's delightful enthusiasm for the lamp, and how it was the foundation to all that was good in his life.
The second part of the tale shows Minosuke's lamp business becoming obsolete; electric lighting started to appear as Japan continued to modernise. Even though Minosuke embraced the technology that was the lamp, he was reluctant to show the same attitude towards electric lights, and did not want to abandon the lamp business his life was built upon. On paper, this had superb potential. It could have been a great story about Japan's modernisation and Minosuke clinging on to the past. Instead, "Grandfather's Lamp" fell on its face in this second part, as it went for impact and drama with a subject that should have been treated slowly and with subtlety. After all, it's not like the adoption of new technology happens over night, and the point where it was treated as such, when Minosuke somehow only discovered electric lights when he was surrounded by them, is the point where the story started to fall apart.
It gets worse. Minosuke's resentment eventually drives him to ridiculous actions that were made more ridiculous by the "Higurashi"-esq dramatisation, and his eventual enlightenment was delivered with all the finesse of an elephant burglar. It seems almost surreal when compared with the quiet, slice of life nature of the first half. Towards the end, as Minosuke finally came to terms with the inevitable and went about preparing for it, there was one breathtaking moment when the gorgeous visuals combined with the swelling music to form a beautiful, poetic scene, but even that was quickly marred by more silliness.
In the end, with its vast potential and solid technical aspects, "Grandfather's Lamp" turned out to be only decent. With better screen writing and direction, it could have been so much more. It just feels like the effort that's obviously been put into the animation is lacking elsewhere.
