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I'd appreciate any help identifying this animated film.

The main portrayal is of an island society that hunts huge whale-like
creatures, using boats and harpoons. When a member of this society dies, he
tumbles down an immensely deep hole, where he undergoes reincarnation into one
of the whales.

This film was from Japan and I saw it in the early 1990s, I think, on a VHS
collection from some animation festival or other. It was in color and I do not
remember there being any language in the film.


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identification-request
Island society that hunts huge whale-like creatures


You very likely watched [Macross Dynamite
7](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macross_Dynamite_7):

> During his journey, he stops on a planet named "Zola", which is inhabited by
> a race of humanoid marsupials called the Zolan. While staying there, he
> becomes involved in a battle between **galactic space whale poachers** and
> the Zola Patrol (Zola's equivalent of a police force). After being injured,
> he is taken into the care of a young Zolan girl named Elma Hollie, who has a
> sister, Liza, that works for the Zola Patrol. Her father, Graham Hollie, is
> also a whale poacher. Graham and his wife Maria Hollie, a very popular
> singer on Zola, would go hunting whales in their Valkyrie, and Maria would
> also sing to the whales while they hunted. However, Maria lost her life and
> Graham lost an arm after encountering the legendary Great White Galactic
> Whale. After the event, Graham swore revenge on the Great White Whale for
> taking his wife and his arm and **underwent Macronization to become large
> enough to take it on**.

It's not exactly reincarnation. But it's close. The OVA was released between
'97 and '98.


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I believe [**Skywhales**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skywhales) is what you
are looking for. It is a British animated short film in 1983 directed and
written by _Phil Austin_ and _Derek Hayes_ , and it is included in the
_British Animation Collection Volume 1 DVD_.

You can view this animated short on
[Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ6qw1nh0tA).

A scene during the hunt, where the main character flew towards the skywhale
and stabbed it with a harpoon.

![5:45](https://i.stack.imgur.com/P7hZY.jpg)

The scene where everyone returned from the hunt. You can see a bunch of flying
ships anchored on the port.

![6:46](https://i.stack.imgur.com/IkUXS.jpg)

The main character died and went to throw himself down a hole inside a
building.

![7:59](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DE0cq.jpg)

As he dropped down the hole, he turned into cocoon, then emerged from it as a
skywhale.

![8:52](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZHUOh.jpg)

The characters in this animated film speak some sort of nonsensical language.
You probably mistook it for Japanese.


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2015-03-28T04:46:18.367
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Here is the short:

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ6qw1nh0tA>

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skywhales>

Regards.

Leopoldo Zambrano Enríquez.


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