Shashinkan

I have never been this moved in 15 minutes. "Shashinkan" has a very powerful appeal to emotion, and all aspects of the piece gracefully came together in order to achieve this. Its visual and auditory harmony was so strong, it allows the viewer to fully immerse oneself in an enchanting soft-toned story about a passionate photographer and his loyal clients.

As a film that is bereft of dialogue, its music was an important narration device. The story's mood is guided through friendly arpeggios, seamless key changes, and befitting subtle dynamics. Using only a piano, the piece stays true to its semi-minimalist nature. This adds on to ... the beautiful, and sincere tone that "Shashinkan" exhibits.

Its visual expression is very unique and stylistic. The characters have a simple and soft color pallette, and is contrasted by the detailed background, complimented with gorgeous patterns. All the colors are very harmonious, and creates a strong sense of 'togetherness' as a piece. The character design is very charming, and allows the viewer to empathize with them. I noticed myself smiling and tearing up while watching this short film.

I highly recommend "Shashinkan" for sentimental viewers that enjoy visually pleasing short films.

Shashinkan- a beautiful tale of a woman who can't smile. Despite lasting only 16 min. shashinkan was unbelievably heartwarming and brought a tiny sparkle of joy into my life.

The art in this anime is definetly amazing. Fair enough characters don't look particularly anime-ish but when you look at them you can feel all the emotions running through their heads. Backrounds are exceptionaly well drawn and their vivid colours can undoubtedly be called "an eye candy".

There is not much I can write about the story or characters as the movie was too short to highly develop either of them. However makers of this masterpiece have ... done a great job of making an admirable and likeable main character (photographer).

My favourite aspect of this movie is the soundtrack. 16 minutes of magnificent, well-fitting classical music will definetly be hard to forget.

To conclude i recommend Shashinkan to every lover of bitter sweet love stories. If you have quarter an hour and a supply of tissues to spare, you are ready to watch it!

Shashinkan was a 16 minute short I found while browsing YouTube and at first, I was a bit opposed to it because the art style unnerved me. But as I went on, I unearthed the true essence of this short. And while I can appreciate both its narrative and overall storytelling, I can't praise it too much.

For starters, the run time is by far the weakest aspect of this video, everything that happens besides when the young girl is getting a picture goes by so quickly and unmentioned that it simply becomes a faint afterthought. The beginning scene, her mother almost has no place ... in the story until the very end where they use her portrait to steer you in some emotional way.

Same thing with the husband in the military who has no actual standing in providing substance to the plot until they decide to throw in sub-themes of war and loss. I understand the sub-themes are a way of progressing the morale of the picture and I can appreciate it but a lot of the oomph is removed when much of the emotional investment depended upon characters who I was never invested in.

And no, I'm not some robot who didn't take anything away from the short just because of these inconveniences. I couldn't stop a smile from creeping up my face as I watched the final scene because I, in that moment had a sense of relatability. Just like her, perhaps I should smile more, and in general just see the better parts of life. As their town is getting urbanized and less people visit the store, a subtle detail I enjoyed, they are still able to smile after going through what they have gone through.

A powerful and emotional message to be sure, but one that is so barely fleshed out that I really only found myself feeling anything at the climax.



I'm feeling a decent 5 on this one.