Haipa Bei Peng Chu de Nuhai

Haipa Bei Peng Chu de Nuhai (A Girl Who's Afraid of Touching People) is not something I thought I would watch or have any thoughts about, but it had a pretty good effect on me. Whatever the students at the Royal College of Art were trying to do with this, I would say they made a pretty good minimalist interpretive piece of art. I'm kind of surprised this qualifies as anime and is even on this website, but whatever.

That being said, as this is only four minutes long, there isn't much to talk about. The art style is understandably simplistic and vague, leaving some things ... up to the viewer's imagination but can also clearly tell the story that the creators wanted to tell. Color choice seems to be everything here, and contrasting colors have a great effect on the tone and mood the animation wants to covey. The sounds are also half of the experience here, even more than other pieces of media given the simplistic art style that some viewers might have trouble understanding. They do corresponding to whatever is being shown on screen, though, so there is not much room for interpretation left there.

It is hard to understand the story, and this is probably intentional. From what I got, this is supposed to be some sort of representation of depression and suicidal tendencies such as self-harm and self-loathing. However, the few times that words appear on the screen make everything even more confusing. I am sure that there are numerous hidden messages and meanings in this short animation, but most of them must have flown over my head, which the creators must have accounted for.

Overall, while this isn't going to be sticking with you for years, I would say that you should definitely watch this if you're bored and have five minutes to spare. The director, Liang-Hsin Huang, appears to have made multiple similar works, all of which are pretty interesting as well.