Ranked #4321

Chuumon no Ooi Ryouriten (1993)

This wonderful film tells the story of man verses nature in it's most imaginative and primative state. Reminiscent of more European animation styles than Japanese, this anime had more of a pastel or artistic look to it, much like that of Hedgehog in the Fog, The Man Who Planted Trees or anything by Katou Kunio.

With nothing in the way of real dialog to assist us, this anime used incredible sound effects, music, and it's animation to convey the story and moods to the audience. I found this method to be more successful than if there had been dialog and was excited and spooked the whole time and couldn't wait to see what might happen next! The sound and music in this anime really shine through and make this something very special indeed.

Also, I saw this film raw (which means I could not read the signs properly) and I felt that the lack of dialog actually worked in this particular anime's favor because it required the animators to give more clues through setting, music and gesture rather than through speaking. And while I am curious about what the signs say, I didn't feel as though I missed out on anything because the animators so accurately portrayed what I interpreted the signs to mean by the events in the scene.

Everything from the music, pace and clever use of shadows and setting to the style of animation used or the expressions and gestures of the hunters suggests a suspenceful tone which left me feeling chilled. One of the more interesting choices made by the animators was the sepia toned colour palette that gave this animation an old fashion atmosphere while also aiding its creepiness.

I would highly recommend this anime to almost anyone who loves the medium as an art, and espcially to those familiar with some of the more traditional animation styles or who enjoy a good spooky tale. read more

This short is very interesting, even without any dialogue, can stir your curiosity for what lies ahead. Is artistically sublime and the characters, animals, everything seemed to be painting a picture of the hand that suddenly began to move. There was something missing to make the experience more satisfying, but is artistically sublime.

Based on a short story by Kenji Miyazawa, it tells a tale of two British hunters getting lost in the woods and discovers a strange restaurant. Mainly, it is a situation of Man vs. Nature or hunters becoming the hunted.


Like Angel’s Egg, this short doesn’t have any dialogue at all. I’ll admit that no dialogue did bother me a bit, but I was completely OK with that. Sometimes it takes more than dialogue to do any story right. Once again like Angel’s Egg, it has that eerie atmosphere but this time, it doesn’t give away that it’s haunted. Once you enter the restaurant, the realization of it being haunted will come to you sooner or later.


Instead of the typical Japanese look, the animation has borrowed the European pastel style and it did work……at a few times. For me, it can look very lazy at some times but then again it feels like you are inside a storybook….albeit a short storybook.


However, I’m not judging it by its looks. It did have a genuine eerie look but it worked only 50% at the time. But the music did get frightening for a little time but kind of whimsical at some parts.


FINAL VERDICT: For a 20-minute short, it can be a riveting storybook tale with a few spooky moments. However, it wasn’t much of a masterpiece but I never had any high expectations from it. But I would still watch it.
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