Shizuku

Early animation in America started with Looney Toons and Disney. Disney had a series of early silent cartoons set to music where mickey mouse was a captain of a steam boat. This anime is exactly like that. Every form of animation has it's start, so this film is great to learn how vast different current anime is today. Just like comparing early Disney films to current ones.

The anime's story may seem odd to some but it is in fact an abstract film. Simply meaning it has no dialogue and relys on imagery alone for the plot. It depicts what ... man will do at any costs for water through slap stick humor mimicking American cartoons style of that time period. Okay so that description alone may seem pretty boring but if you're an art enthusiast you may enjoy seeing a different form of story telling with no dialogue.

So if you'd like to see one of the early forms of what anime originated from I encourage you to watch. But in all fair warning this film is more to be appreciated as history/ an art form rather than just for entertainment sake. Don't get me wrong it is pretty fun to watch but if you rather prefer anime with bishies and shojo .... this probably won't be your thing. But if you're like me and enjoy memorabilia from the 60's and 1950s cartoons this is a great.

Overall: 6/10 and enjoyable enough to watch after all it's only 4 min long so don't expect a deep story with character development or anything profound

Story: no plot just slapstick comedy, a guy driven insane trying to drink a couple drops of water

Art: Whimsical and retro, nothing to be amazed at. What you'd expect from a short animation from the 60's.

Sound: Just music and sound effects, no dialogue, quirky. Nothing impressive but not disappointing either. Again, it's 60's quality.

Character: It's just a guy trying to drink a couple drops of water, he shows the range of emotion and personality a gag character in a looney ... toons would. What do you really expect in the way of character development in a 4 minute gag not intended for plot?

Art: What you'd expect from an old 60's animation. A bit jumpy but it does the job.

Enjoyment: 6/10 it was funny what else do you want?

Just say N/A instead of seriously evaluating and scoring these aspects.

edit: rant removed in short this was intended as a gag comedy but other reviewers decided to overly critique lack of plot/character development in a mere 4 minute slapstick comedy, best just give n/a for those aspects.

Story - 3

The story is simple, it is of a man trying to gain a drop of water through comical slapstick. So, as to rate this, I must look to the comedy and think of how good it is and that is, of course, relative. In my opinion it is not that funny at all.

On the flip side, it also shows his descent into madness as he runs out of water. How it is shown visually, I can comment that the pursuit is shown very well. However, I cannot fathom some of the occurrences that occur in what was seemingly a hallucination.

Ergo, it was not ... that interesting in terms of story.

Art - 5

The lack of colour to show the bleak world (as well as it likely being a constraint of the medium of the time) is marvellous. The background is strangely surreal, fitting for the short. The character feels somewhat comical which aligns with the style.

Sadly, it just feels so basic. Like there was not much effort induced in this piece. Ergo, a 5. A good concept, but not the best execution.

Sound - 1

It is a silent film, so has music running only. This music does not fit to the animation in my eyes so is not deserving of anything more.

Character - 2

The character simply has no exposition, however there are hints to his nature. The shoe he wears is nailed, so likely leather. As a result he's a businessman going insane.

So not much on the character front, but there's a hint.

Enjoyment - 3

I just didn't enjoy it. It was boring.

Overall - 3