Anime Review: Le Portrait de Petit Cossette

♪♫♪ ...Keep bleeding, keep keep bleeding in love. ♪♫♪

The whole experience of watching this anime for me was, in one word, disturbing. Yet, with all of what didn't seem right, I loved it.

Le Portrait de Petit Cossette (コゼットの肖像) Kozetto no Shōzō Number of Episodes: 3 Directed by: Akiyuki Shinbo Studio: Daume Released: April 11, 2004 Soundtrack: 18 tracks by Yuki Kajiura

Rating:

I usually watch popular/mainstream anime because they're easier to come by. But because this one had been in my list of recommendations for so long, I picked-up Cossette. It is a first for me to watch a gothic anime despite my love for creepy things. However, it surprised me of how amazed I was with the atmosphere of the story.

Le Portrait de Petit Cossette is about Eiri Kurahashi and his obsession (or love, as romantics prefer) to a  female ghost, who, he believes, is haunting a wineglass in the antique shop he works in. There, he sees the girl's life unfold as if it was the present. Eiri later finds out that her name is Cossette d'Auvergne. It later becomes more obvious that loving Cossette is not so simple. The soul of her former fiance and beloved, the artist Marcello Orlando, is linked to Eiri's soul. This should've been a cause for celebration. Unfortunately, it isn't... because Marcello was also Cossette's murderer.

Some argue that the art is ugly but I was left admiring it. My favorites were the scenes where they played with the angles and the light and shadows. I kept thinking of how awkward the flow of characters' movements were at first. But as I took in the story, I realized the style was most suitable.

The way the intensity of emotions (as in the grudge and obsession) are presented left me in awe. I didn't find them overly done because those emotions are excessive by definition. I couldn't get enough of the psychedelics.

If there was anything I loved more than the art, it was the music/sound effects. It set the whole mood perfectly. I smiled when Cossette sat down and the whoosh of her skirt was heard. I swooned over the ballad and the ending song.

“Right now,
I want to thaw your heart
With pain instead of gentleness”
--Jewel

The only thing that held back a heart was the Character-ensemble. Well, the story is simple so there's no room for them to do anything more interesting. I even hated Shoko in the...nevermind. I didn't like her ever. As tragic as the plot is, the anime is something that could've occupied only two days of your life. So beyond the Eiri-Cossette relationship,substance from the other characters might have been confusing. The anime centered on Eiri and Cosette's interaction and everything else was paid little attention.

Maybe I didn't rate Le Portrait de Petit Cossette the way I ordinarily rate anime. I thought of it like a short poem, organized so right that even if it might have been written in broken cadences or without real rhythm, I can't help but say it's beautiful.

Well, Cossette isn't for general audience with all its blood and semi-nudity. It's also not for when you're impatient and looking for some life-changing story. But if you're looking for something haunting and different, this one will do more than satisfy you.