Kick-Heart

I know that director Masaaki Yuasa is loved here on MAL but I was still shocked to see how many 8's and 9's this short by him was getting. Kick-Heart wasn't very good, guys. The short was only about 12 minutes long but I'm still giving it a 3/10. The story is bare bones: a masked wrestler is also a masochist who falls in love with a female opponent because she beats him up. Yeah, it's awkward. Don't watch this in mixed company. He literally gets turned on by watching her slap the shit out of his tag partner. Did I mention their names are ... Masked M and Lady S? S&M, get it!? Ugh, it's so bad. The anime is also pretty gross, like there's a part where M gets stuck inside the fat body of S's tag partner and he sees dead bodies and sludge in the folds of her fat? Kick-Heart features Yuasa's trademark chaotic animation style which I find grating. It was also really blurry and hard to make out some parts. I actually liked the design of Lady S, the fact that she was physically intimidating (part of why I didn't give this a 2/10), but again I just wish she (and the rest of it) was drawn better. Some scenes look like a middle schooler drew them. In the end M throws the match to S but it's ok S still gives the prize money to save the orphanage because *drum roll* surprise twist, S was the new nun at the orphanage the whole time!? Wow, I totally didn't call that twist the moment the nun was introduced!? Wait, hold on. M acts surprised, like he didn't know she was S...so why did he still throw the match if he knew his orphanage needed the prize money? It makes no sense. He literally just agreed to the match because he wanted her to beat him up some more. Again, this is an awkward one. Blech.