A look at The Summit of the Gods anime film

The subject of climbing hasn’t seen much representation in the film medium of anime. That is, until the November release on Netflix of The Summit of the Gods, a 90-minute French animation with English subtitles. The narrative is set in the early 1990s, before George’s Mallory’s body was discovered. It follows journalist Fukamachi Makoto’s hunt for Mallory’s camera, which could prove whether the English mountaineer reached Everest’s summit before he died on the mountain in 1924. If so, it would mean that the world’s highest point was reached almost 30 years earlier than we thought!
 
The Summit of the Gods is fiction, but it follows Habu Joji, a real-life world-class alpinist who chose to leave the spotlight 10 years earlier. The film highlights some of alpinism’s most captivating elements like the psychology and ethics behind a solo attempt, the rivalries among climbers, and the big question: What does it mean to succeed in the mountains? If the missing camera proves that Mallory reached Everest’s summit, but then he died on the descent, was his expedition a success?
 
Check out an opinion piece with a detailed synopsis here.