Hizukuri

Link to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wL0TZzcKWE
If this were a ghibli film, people would praise it as a cute little coming of age story where a boy learns to appreciate his father and his father's passion after his passing. In the sterile, war-driven world where he lives, his father's passion lives in the countryside. The difference in locale and even the shift in music from quiet to very alien-like yet upbeat was quite a nice touch too. Much warmer society outside of the war parade/metallic cities.

I'm not sure why they chose to live there/why they won't move though - which doesn't seem to be remotely explained and ... is incongruent with the theme of the show. Still though, 20 minutes isn't a lot of time to explain much in a "show, not tell" style of the show.

It's a charming little story that deals with how children contemplate and adapt to loss - at least that's what I gathered.

Ultimately, I recommend it since it's so short.

So I just watched it thanks to GonpachiroKama posting the link to YT in the comments.

I knew nothing about this, probably like many I bookmarked it ages ago, but literally didn't know anything about what it is. The only thing to go by was the poster picture.

My thoughts are fairly simple, I didn't like it, I thought it's pointless. There are certain rules you have to follow when you make a product. In this case, it's a short film but we get almost zero background on anything, there's no clear beginning and no clear end, there's no explanation or background to the city ... they live in, the war supposedly going on, why it's going on, who's fighting who, like nothing at all, not even a shred of information. Therefore I cannot conclude anything other than this being a total waste of time.