Ai

Many people who go to watch this experimental film are probably expecting an anime. However... This is not an anime... It's a work of abstract art and is in of itself something that you can not get if you don't study art or do not have an avant-garde artistic sense. If you don't understand either of them, don't rate it. It's like trying to get a pop lover to rate the works of Stockhausen. They are two completely different things.

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Story: 8
It's obvious that this is very well crafted. People confuse abstract with complicated ideas, but this is a very straight forward portrayal of love ... and the development of that emotion over time.
The fact that someone can grasp that idea or even convey it without dialogue(plus this being 1962) is quite a big feat. Still... no emotional attachment so you can't really call it a good story.

Art: 5
Judging it by today's art or story telling standard is illogical since this work does not go by any conventional standards. However, there really isn't anything special that I can see in the art. Characters are probably representational of something as is set design, but it's too distant too interpret for me. It gets a 5 since I know it exists, but Kuri failed to make it apparent to anyone but himself.

Sound: 8
The sound is the most fascinating part(and it was not done by Yoko Onno, but instead the experimental composer Toru Takemitsu). To explain what's so fascinating about the sound track is to explain experimental music altogether(look up musique concrete).
More understandable is the reverb and other effects added to the word Ai. This is very much a representation of the situation that the two "characters" are in and in effect tells the viewer the story and the characters emotions.

Enjoyment: 7
This is most subjective, but if you have a minimal interest in avant-garde art a 7 is about right. Hardcore fans will go on to give everything a 10 and most others probably a 1 or a 2.

I'm an art student and as you know, 'art' definition can change in years. Okay, I agree on this isn't a masterpiece but please bear in mind that It was made in 1963. "Ai" is an experimental Japanese animation, a short story about love. Today we watch it and say "Typical story, basic drawing, zero quality" but those days art technology didn't have that many opportunities and story concept not even close to today's percept. So maybe this was a very original story. (And heroine is the very first yandere ever :P)

In addition to all these, I liked "Ai". It's trippy and psychedelic in a ... way, It was an interesting experience to watch it.

Just really, really creepy. If having your mind crawled on by spiders is what you're into, go for it. But with terrible art, terrible voice acting, two plain and stereotypical characters, and a terrible story (was there even a story?), the four-minute-long anime (can it be called an anime?) was almost unwatchable. I counted the seconds.

The best part about this anime? It was only four minutes long. Seriously, I hated it.