Ranked #1011

Ani*Kuri15

15 animation personalities of different anime studios are given 60 seconds to animate something and were compiled into this small movie called Ani (Animation) Kuri (creators) 15. These shorts were shown between commercials in NHK channel and it's other channels.

- The Hidden Princess /"Princess Onmitsu" (Mahiro Maeda: Gonzo) - 6.3
Regular animation here and a cute story based on anime most used themes. A little princess turns into a magical girl and defeats a power rangers like villains and the final boss with the help of her doll.

- "Gyrosopter" (Ranji Murata: Gonzo; and Tatsuya Yabuta: Gonzo) - 5.6
Yoy can feel Range Murata in it even though it was fully made in 3D. This doesn't had a story so to tell. It showed the so called Gyrosopter and a a girl looking at the water reminiscing about.

- Amusement Park Kiss /"Wandaba Kiss" (Atsushi Takeuchi: Production I.G) - 7.0
This one was pretty good, the animation well done and it was pretty effective, it was perfect for the movements required at a amusement park .

- Beyond the Tears (Akemi Hayashi: Gainax) - 6.8
This one was more like a music clip, showing a girl near a window crying and remembering perhaps a friend and happier days of the past.

- Project Mermaid (Mamoru Oshii: Production I.G) - .7.8
Oshi's done it again, whenever he does something short these days he goes into this direction. He presents us with a very modern approach of an animation even converging with real pictures of a woman to do the mermaid. It ends becoming a pretty good short movie. And the actual last two seconds of it, makes you want to learn more about that story.

- Frolicking /"Okkakekko"(Michael Arias: Studio 4°C) - 6.0
The most weird so far. We see a big green field with children happily playing on it, but then there appears this big robot like the Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky robot, walking around. A child stares at it without fear as the other children runs along with it.

- "Good Morning" (Satoshi Kon: Madhouse) - 9.0
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This one was an excellent piece from Mr. Satoshi Kon. It deals with the process of fully awaken in the morning.

- "Supaatsutaisa" ("刺客來搜山了"?) (Tobira Oda; and Yasuyuki Shimizu: Studio 4°C) - 8.4
This one is animated in basic sketch like black and white. Despite being so simple, it is a huge fun. It is shown to the viewer like it was some scenes or episode in the middle of a samurai story about this colonel that lives in the mountains with his pets but must leave everything behind because he's being targeted. It was a very funny short.

- A Gathering Of Cats ("Neko no Shuukai"?) (Makoto Shinkai: Comix Wave Film) - 8.3
Very good Shinkai short. It's about how a cat gets fed up about the humans always stepping on his tail and eventually does a "gathering of cats", where all the cats in the neighborhood assemple together and take revenge on humans. The next day, it happens all over again.
This was very different from what shinkai usually does, but not less good.

- Alien Invasion - Hiroshi's Circumstances /("Uchujin Raikou Hiroshi no Baai"?) (Shōjirō Nishimi: Studio 4°C) - 7.8
Very nice short, with a little robot distracting a guy on his desk when this one was calmly reading a manga, it looks like the little robot is playing with the guy. The character design here is like Mind game.

- Yurururu ~Daily Chapter~ "Yurururu ~Nichijou Hen~" (Kazuto Nakazawa: Studio 4°C) - 8.0
A guy is trying to animate a scene in it, and you actually see the drawing being born and process of it. You also see the guy, well not see but it's more like in first person animation. see the guy also going to the bathroom and in the return trying to play a joke on a co-worker by messing with the keyboard that the co-worker was typing (I found that scene hilarious, because I usually did the exact thing too). In the end you see the animation complete.
Interesting point is that he has the drawing upside down.

- Project Omega (Shōji Kawamori: Satelight) - 7.9
It's Kawamorui time so you can expect mecha here, even if it's a one minute mecha anime. A comet is about to collide with earth, and when the announcer of NHK news announces that the colliding point will be NHK there are measures to be taken. The whole building of NHK transforms into a huge mecha to stop the comet, the problem is that it needs more power.

- Heat Man ("Hyotoko"?) (Yasufumi Soejima: Gonzo) - 4.0
Another total CG piece here.
A group of Native attacks a beast, or whatever it is. total CG in Gonzo vein, the worst of the bunch.

- Attack of The Azuma Area #2 (Shinji Kimura: Studio 4°C) - 7.0
CGI animation again but done differently. This one was fun. Three little alienes arrive on earth to conquer it, when they approach someones house speaking of their plans of conquer throught he intercumunicator, the person on the other side just tells them that she doesn't need it, confusing them by some seller.

- Sancha Blues (The Aromatic Tea) Blues" (Osamu Kobayashi: Madhouse) - 8.0
An record store owner watches their supposed clients coming to his store but most of them don't buy anything for the store owner sadness.

Some directors were able to accomplish their tale or their message in it's 1 minute story, but some weren't able to do it, afterall, it's pretty difficult to come up with a finished product in only one minute.

It was a great watch never the less.

Rate: 8.0/10 very good stuff. read more

Feedback is appreciated so please press the little Helpful or Non-Helpful Button on the Bottom. Thank You ^_^!

I don't know if this review will be of any help because it is really hard to judge and there is no exact score you could give on this special (except overall and enjoyment).

There is no story whatsoever in this entire thing (obviously if you read the synopsis), all (15 to be precise, obvious again) the scenes are just random bits created by different studios all compiled into a 15-17 minute special.

The main thing you should know is that the style varies in every clip dramatically and there are so many different techniques, art, genres, "everything", etc... is just different from the other making the special a great watch for all types of viewers because the style that a viewer prefers is most likely to be there (even if its only a 1 min. clip).

Well, I don't know about you but for me this was a great watch and I would highly recommend watching this.

Overall and Enjoyment Score: 9

Oh, and if you were wondering my top 3 clips were:

1-Kazuto Nakazawa (Studio 4°C; First Unit Director, Kill Bill Chapter 3: The Origin of O-Ren from Kill Bill: Volume 1) - "yurururu" ~Nichijou Hen~

2-Makoto Shinkai (Comix Wave Film; Director, The Place Promised in Our Early Days) - Neko no Shuukai/A Gathering of Cats

3-Satoshi Kon (Madhouse; Director, Paprika) - Ohayō/Good Morning

Hope you found this review useful ^_^!

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