Amrita no Kyouen

Nauseating. Hurts to look at. Gave me motion sickness. Sounds good.

Okay, the most glaring issue Amrita no Kyouen has is the animation style. It has this low framerate look reminiscent of a flipbook. It's a very particular style and I can almost imagine how it was made. It looks like a live action performance filmed in front of a green screen and awkwardly keyed in front of the background. Characters sometimes slide around on the ground as they stand still. Then they got some rotoscoping artists to draw over the actors but only on every 10 frames to save time. Finally, any time the camera ... needs to move, add a ton of motion blur. Yeah, it's really hard to look at and unfortunately this might be a hurdle that a lot of viewers are not willing to move past.

It's not all bad though. This anime is actually a sign of improvement. "Amrita" is a prequel of sorts to indie filmmaker Saku Sakamoto's 2018 work Aragne no Mushikago. Sakamoto's techniques have clearly improved since "Aragne", as the uncanny valley inducing 3D models, and vapid characters devoid of any design elements, save for intensely detailed eyes, are not present in "Amrita". Instead, characters have a markedly more pleasing appearance that elicits vague memories of some mid-2000s anime film. The characters' movements are actually fairly lifelike, but it's hard to tell as the low framerate disguises it nicely. And the obvious CGI in "Aragne"? It's only kind of noticeable in "Amrita".

Sakamoto seems to also have ditched the drunken cameraman he hired for "Aragne" or at least got him to sober up a little. The frame only occasionally (rather than constantly) wobbles panickily in all directions as if imitating the eyes of an onlooker who is so terrified that they are about to wet themselves. Alright, alright... Maybe it's supposed to look unsettling. Maybe all these production and design choices that I'm criticizing were used intentionally to set the atmosphere. This IS a horror movie after all, it's supposed to be uncomfortable. And if that was the intention, then it was certainly achieved. But instead of having to turn away from the screen due to the sheer horror of it all, I had to look away to find the nearest trash can.

There is some actual praise to be had for "Amrita" though, and that praise belongs to the sound design. There isn't a musical score, but instead a masterfully woven blend of silence, ambient noise, and rich, lush sound effects. Goopy bodies melting through the ceiling. Footsteps echoing down a vacant, dripping corridor while the crinkling of an unseen threat approaches. A metal wrench clinking against other tools and clunking to the floor. The warm pulsating innards of some disgusting creature. Every single movement, each action is accompanied by lovingly hand crafted sounds, tailored to the specific needs of every scene. With very little dialogue present, the narrative is driven forward almost entirely by the sound design. Simply, "Amrita" is nothing short of a masterclass in sound production.

All-in-all, it's not a terrible film, especially for an independent effort, and there are good elements at play here. Just come prepared with an ibuprofen and a barf bag.