Mochibei

At first glance this short film may seem highly disturbing, disgusting, and confusing. However, it is actually a brilliant work of art should one take the time (and have the stomach) to analyze the deeper meaning behind this piece. I had hoped that the music would be a bit more creative. The sudden stops in the work were essential in their positioning of the various facial organs, demonstrating fine artistic choice. That being said, this anime is not recommended for all audiences. Many will indeed be unable to digest its contents and simply be left with a disturbing feeling. Thus, a word of caution: do ... not view unless you are willing to stomach its contents and willing to expand your mind to deeper horizons.

The art, animation and sound design were all rather good. The art is... Gutteral? Grissly? Messy? It's hard to put words to it precisely, but the art is far from the more standard, cleaner art styles preferred in the overall medium of animation and this is incredibly suitable for the feeling this piece is clearly trying to portray. The sound design lends further to this feeling of... Isolation, Despair and Anger the character featured appears to be feeling and displaying.

But I feel this piece lacked any real message or meaning. Perhaps it doesn't need one or it is simply very subtle, either way it's not ... particularly my preference when it comes to these "dementia" genre animations. I rather them have a more clear cut meaning or message to impart, like the dementia animation "Watashi no Kao" or in English "My Face," which appears to implicitly deal with issues of insecurity and self-identity.

Throughout my time looking at Anime movies or any type of animation, once in a while I find something that actually makes me think a little too hard then it probably should. Muchibei is one of those shows. I think one of the reasons why this movie (that’s about 57 seconds long) is rated so poorly on many different anime sites is because people are looking at this as a movie and not as a art piece. So I’m going to take a page out of writing an artist critic instead of an actual movie review. Just a warning, what I’m going to touch base ... on here may be a bit of a trigger to people who deal with mental disorders or are easily bothered when talking about feelings.

There is no story, not really any characters to go through, and not even a background as to what we are watching. The only thing that I had to go on was that they have the Genre listed as ‘Dementia’ (on Myanimelist) which is a genre full of shows that you have to really think on in order to get their message. Shows like FLCL, Tenshi no Tamago (Angel’s Egg), and Revolutionary Girl Utena. It’s a psychological style which means there is some meaning behind it that has to deal with mental disorders, madness, insanity, or even loss of memory. I think what is great about this show is that it seems to be something different to anyone who watches it. Akidearest (an influencer on YouTube) talked about it being a representation of fighting on line with someone, wanting to reach out and strangle that person. It is understandable because her life is online. I on the other hand had a strange feeling like it was pointing out the thoughts and feelings I had whenever I start to have a panic attack or massive depression point. Calling myself a bastard for my mistakes, useless because I can’t do anything right… while pretty much banging my head into the wall just to try and feel something else other then the pain I felt inside… ya, sorry. It gets a bit dark talking about this stuff.

It being dark can also have a lot to do with the artwork that is used in the show. The black background might be a representation of the mind and how empty it could be while having said panic or depression except for the one rather ugly face staring way to close into your soul and yelling at you. The warped perspective that is the mind as it keeps hitting you until you pass out or find some way to deal with it.

There are many other ways you can take this for, Abuse both verbally or physically, dementia itself where you feel useless that you can’t remember something that is right in front of yourself, and slipping into a mad-like state where you just go completely crazy. What is awesome about this movie is that it’s so short and so open that it can speak to your own personal experiences. It doesn’t need a whole 3 hour long animated masterpiece to make you feel something; it just does it even if its just making you feel uncomfortable.

When trying to rate this, that’s the bigger trouble here. I feel like I just have to rate it a middle ground because it’s definitely not for everyone. Some people will find some sort of meaning behind it while others just would want to watch something messed up and not think to hard on it. I also would not go out of my way to go see it again but it was a interesting one time watch.

Basically I found out about this anime short from the great Akidearest on her video "I Watched Anime You Should Never Google" honestly man, it is pretty disturbing to say the least. We see a mixture between Igor and Sloth from the Goonies looking creature, pretty much yelling at us with nasty words for no particular reason.

I have dozens of questions with this short like I would love to see the main reason why the monster was feeling this way. I wonder did Kurosaka Keita really think about that monster being us as humans when it comes to arguing with each other? ... Since it has the dementia tag, can it be to do with a person suffering from dementia and giving us the viewers, a good intention how we feel inside when we see a person having an outburst like that?

Yeah I wish this short wasn't a short like it just didn't give a clear indication of what's going on here. That's why I'm rating it a 6/10.....