Buta

I don't get why everyone associates this one-off as a furry anime. Have none of you seen Ducktales, Rescue Rangers, Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, Looney Tunes, or Tom and Jerry??? They are anthropomorphic animals. Big deal. It didn't focus on anything sexual or anything related to furries. It just so happened that all of the characters were animals.
I really liked this one-off. I wish they would have made a series for it because I enjoyed the characters and wanted them to develop more. I was engaged in the story even though there wasn't really much to go off of. The animation is enjoyable as well. ... It isn't the greatest thing out there but it wasn't horrible either.
The characters were pretty cliche but that is fine because it worked out. It was more about the relationship that the samurai pig and kid fox were developing.
I would definitely recommend this short to friends and fellow lovers of anime because I enjoyed it so much.

There was a period during the short that I was wondering how long it was going to take to get to the end. Chalk that up to boredom or whatever, but I feel like I was amazed that the short was actually the length of a regular anime episode.

Buta, a wealthy boy is separated from his family and is captured for his treasure. Through some silly occurrences, a samurai working with the pirates were forced to make a deal with the said kid to retrieve a treasure map.

Similar to Sword of the Stranger in terms of the relationship between boy and samurai fighting off against their fate but with Human like Animal Characters. Potential is there but for me there just isn't much to go on in terms of the overall message.

Seems mixed in theme but what can you do with just 24 minutes for a story like that. In terms ... of positives animation, sound, and design aesthetic is its strong points for sure. For that, so far the weakest of the 4 but by no means bad, but is cluttered which is not the story's fault but. As a whole, Was entertained for the animation but that is pretty much it, the substance is not something this has in terms of message or story.

Yeah, you really can't force a heartwarming story. Could be due to the length. That's why this short movie fails for me, even though it had all the makings for a good story/my favorite tropes:

1. Morally gray, anti-hero only cares about himself until he finds something, cute, plucky kid he begrudgingly protects.

2. A mixture of bumbling and competent villains

3. Ninjas and/or samurai

SN: The fox boys' voices are annoying to me. Too cutesy.

Overall, this is the equivalent of a children's' Saturday morning cartoon. No real character development but cute animation and a seemingly fun story (though I was pretty bored). Again, I think if this had ... a longer format, whether an anime or full-length movie, it would have been more compelling.