Ame to Shoujo to Watashi no Tegami

Rain the Little Girl and My Letter is a work of an amateur, who just published his work in the net.
He calls himself (帝国少年) Empire Boy.
it's a moving story of a first love of a girl. It's hard to imagine that this story is told by a man... i can't help noticing the similarity to Senkai's "She and her cat". This very rainy scenery returns you to your barefooted childhood. Everything is so naive, that it won't leave you indifferent to the girl's feelings of being offcast.

Unlike most short anime that I've seen, Ame to Shoujo to Watashi no Tegami (The Rain, the Girl, and my Letter) is more narrative-heavy, with its art being second in priority. It puts an interesting twist on the "love confession in a shoe-locker letter" setup, but its subpar art was distracting, and it was too short to convey anything meaningful. There isn't really any subtle symbolism or greater message, but anyone who's ever felt heartbroken over a rejection will probably relate well to our protagonist, and find appeal in her reaction.

Despite some mediocre drawing, the style in which the environments were crafted were unique, if ... only because they seemed so out of place. The conversation in the classroom looked as if the room were afloat, almost like the inside of a flying zeppelin. Most of the story passes in a book store, and if not for the fact that it was, well, lined with books, the store itself had the architectural stylings of a feudal Chinese palace. Even the clock, whose ticking the anime devotes quite a bit of time to, is absolutely bizarre in appearance (looking more like an ancient compass than something that's actually readable). The instrumental track playing in the background contributes to the outlandish setting. Over the sound of clockwork and heavy rain, the music goes from a standard strings piece to a cacophonous mixture of steel pan drums and xylophone.

As previously mentioned, the anime's short length prohibits any sort of meaning, despite being riddled with dialogue. Towards the end of the short film, an interesting character appears, only to contribute little to the story itself. However, this little girl, dressed in a traditional chinese outfit and living out of a suitcase (which seems to have its own sink, bed, dining table, and shelves) could probably have an anime adaptation of her own.

Teikoku Shounen aka Imperial Boy has a very unique and colourful art style that packs a real punch. He's something of a national treasure in my eyes, because his work is just so darn beautiful! The details can be rich and overwhelming in one moment, and then have an "unfinished" quality in the next, because the draft lines of the animation are still showing. Yet somehow [because it is Imperial Boy] all that managed to do for me was add to its charm.

There is an interesting quality to this anime that felt a bit like being inside of a ticking clock tower. I think ... it was the music, which reminded me at times of the Spirited Away soundtrack - it was fluid and whimsical - appropriate, but somehow gave a quality of time passing by.

And like the passing of time, the background animations were cleverly drawn in such a way that they could suggest either a bleakness, due to the dreariness in their colour palette, or when coloured in splendor, a kind of ebulliency - a thirst for what will be!

This is also demonstrated in Imperial Boy's method of creating a world that is familiar in many ways to our own, but with so many new details! Here a unique transportation system or there a bizarre and wonderful timepiece! And of course an overall more colourful setting for the background of our everyday life. In his world, it isn't just a train station or a side walk - it is made of beautiful tiling and glass or stone. There are canal bus still connected to old tram wiring. And the houses remind us not of Japan or America, but of shops in China and old European architecture. And everything is JUST SO STYLISH!

And yet, the people and the animation of them still manages to remain a bit clunky and slap-dashed. Which isn't to say the animation is exactly poor, however there were times when it seemed as though everything were drawn just so and that the characters or people are drawn only as an afterthought. It is an effect that I suspect was done on purpose, particularly when once sees the animation for transportation systems in rain, which are fluid and seamless.

Those who particularly enjoy the spectacular art style of this piece will be qually impressed with Tekkonkinkreet, another anime that Imperial Boy worked on as an original concept artist. His style is extremely apparent in the design of the fictional city of Takaramachi (Treasure Town) and was a major factor in the details.

Speaking of details, while the story is your typical boy-meets-girl in high school fair, once rather nice detail is the way our protagonist deals with this. I found it to be particularly refreshing and I would have loved to have seen a longer film representing her future goals.

In this we only see a fraction of what is to come of her and the major deal-breaker of this anime for me was: IT JUST WASN'T LONG ENOUGH! While we catch a glimpse of the world and our characters, (enter the chorus:) it just isn't long enough for us to get particularly attached to anyone. Despite this, however, the two "main" protagonists manage to be each intriguing in their way and I suspect I would have grown quite fond of them had the anime been longer. The real feeling I got from this anime was: "what will the future bring? I can't wait to see!"

My overall impression of this anime is that the real draw is in the backgrounds, the tiny detail, which isn't surprising given Imperial Boy's own background in concept design. Each scene of this work gives us an insight into the makings of this incredible world, similar in style to Iblard Jikan, the Studio Ghibli short based on the paintings of Naohisa Inoue. We see an interesting school system, new mechanisms for clocks, and a magical book shop. I wanted nothing so much as to walk through this world Imperial Boy has created and experience its secrets. To sit down and have its protagonist spin my a story. And like the works of Kunio Katou, we are left wanting more than we are given and with the hope this is not the last we see of it.

To 'Not Helpful' voters (and you 'Helpful' voters too): Feedback greatly appreciated! ^_^