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| # | Anime Title | Score | Type | Progress | Tags (reset filter) | Started Date | Finished Date |
| 1 |
Yokoo's 3 Animation Films
The first two shorts have a vibrant visual style and make reference to popular culture/advertising of the 60s. Pop art. Good sounds.
The third, where this collection really shines, is much darker. Fantastic aesthetic, brilliant music. Primitive, disorienting, uncanny, unsettling. What do they mean? Probably something. But it was an affective experience. |
9 | Movie | 3 | Short, c | 18-04-18 | 18-04-18 |
| 2 |
Present made no Michinori
|
8 | ONA | 1 | Short | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 3 |
Kanamewo
That was certainly unique, and pretty great. A strange little story told incredibly expressively - from art and animation to music. It had a good sense of atmosphere.
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8 | ONA | 1 | Short | 14-12-15 |
| 4 |
Calm
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8 | Movie | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 5 |
00:08
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8 | Movie | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 6 |
Yuureisen
Silhouettes. Multiplane camera/background depth/layered shots. Intricate designs. Blue/red colour palette. Music: haunting choirs, sometimes more playful, sometimes more fearsome/menacing, sometimes accompanied by drums; appropriate moods are evoked. Pirates attack a ship; the latter haunts and torments them as a phantom ship. Without dialogue; so much is conveyed wordlessly; tone and atmosphere via visuals/music. This is really good.
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8 | Movie | 1 | Short, oofuji, c | 18-04-18 | 18-04-18 |
| 7 |
Yami wo Mitsumeru Hane
The music really makes this. Sparse, quiet drones. Minimalistic and ominous. Sounds like it's from some black ambient project LLN would be responsible for.
Visuals are interesting. Crude charcoal (?) drawings. This person has an interesting style, where each frame is drawn then erased for the next to be drawn. Gives it an odd texture. Lack of colour adds to the atmosphere evoked by the music. Surreal imagery seems to tell the story of a bizarre mythology. I didn't pay enough attention to the narrative details, but that didn't matter much to me. All its elements work together so well. Unique. |
8 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 30-12-17 | 30-12-17 |
| 8 |
Shijin no Shougai
A rather strange story about the unempowered, poverty-ridden masses. It's bleak - with the quiet avant-garde music and brown visuals really contributing to its atmosphere. It's an unusual method of storytelling, where dialogue appears only as text on a simple background, but also deals with many grounded issues. For something so short, it really does reference, explore and make use of plenty of ideas. I think (like many good stories), the story can be understood on multiple levels. As a personal story of those living in harsh conditions, and the awakening of the story's 'poet'. As a philosophical and political exploration of people like that in general. And as an atmosphere and tone piece - as something that paints a picture of this desolate existence.
Of course, the story's themes are all related to each other, but if I explain them separately properly, hopefully the connections will be rather obvious. - Economic injustice and work. The story opens with a worker attempting to challenge his employer about wages. The toil of the factory workers is emphasised by their downtrodden look as they leave their workplace. The poet's mother is literally unravelled by her work. The story clearly has concerns about economic and political injustice running through it, with the rich and powerful living up on the hill above the slums below. It has a revolutionary sentiment, both in the context of art and practical political and economic change. By the end, the factories are ownerless and producing for the benefit of the average person. - Motherhood and compassion. The poet's mother becoming a jacket is the central symbol here. The poet has a simple 'feeling' that he should not let the yarn, and consequently the jacket, to leave him. He cannot rationalise this, but this is his compassion for the essence of his mother. Perhaps this is also making reference to the jacket as a sort of 'motherly figure', for comfort and protection. The jacket is sold to a pawn shop, and later on in the story a rat is looking for somewhere to shelter her young. She comes across the jacket, which becomes a bright red. The red is pretty vivid and contrasts pretty much everything else in the movie, given that it's the most coloured out of anything else. Red is usually something like passion, but here I guess it's just full of life and emotion, in contrast to the grim world it inhabits. Perhaps it reacted to the rat because of the rat's desire to protect its children. The red mother coat seeks out her son and becomes a source of warmth and shelter for him. It is at this point that the poet recognises that he IS a poet, which is discussed in the following section. Later on, the ownerless factories begin to distribute jackets in abundance. After the ordeal, everyone has something to comfort them. - Art and its place. The concept of the poor's dreams is pretty integral to this notion. Their hardship begins to steal their 'dreams, spirit, hopes' away from them. In the story, this is symbolised by them coalescing into great, thick clouds that cover the world of the story. Snow begins to fall from the clouds, and this has a vastly different effect on the rich and on the poor. The rich are overcome, and plead with foreign countries to aid them (and references to war are made here). The poor poet, however, discovers 'words' through the fallen snow. He revels in the snowflakes, made of the peoples' dreams, and discovers how to express them. He 'hears' the 'voice' of others - the underrepresented. So this becomes an exploration of the artist's place - the artist can express the voices of these people, either to make them feel empowered or agitate for political change. The very end of the story seems to suggest that this story is itself a work that expresses the voice of these people. So yeah, very very interesting. I love it. |
8 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 27-12-15 |
| 9 |
Nakedyouth
The story of the tension and feelings between these characters is told completely without dialogue. I must admit, I almost completely forgot about narrative while watching this. But that's only because it does such a good job in all other aspects - with art, atmosphere and tone.
It's definitely unique. Realistic backgrounds, well animated character movement and evocative and purposeful directing. The sound design is also incredible - mostly consisting of the calm background noise of summer cicadas, water and lovely ambient music. It has an intense, natural beauty, perhaps to reflect the relationship and inner mental spaces of these characters. |
8 | ONA | 1 | Short, c | 25-10-15 |
| 10 |
Kagami no Genon
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8 | Movie | 1 | Short | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 11 |
Saru Kani Gassen (1927)
These early experiments with animation, with their distinctive visuals and unnatural movements and lack of sound, are pretty fascinating. This is based on a silly folk tale. It's actually pretty amusing, and it looks awesome.
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7 | Movie | 1 | Short, historical, c | 25-06-19 | 25-06-19 |
| 12 |
Metamorphose
This person's minimalistic drawings of simple life are far more interesting than fuckin' Mirai Mizue's, that's for sure. This one's about a caterpillar, and is pretty artistic and abstract.
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7 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 13 |
Haruko no Bouken
High contrast black and white photographs. Good use of shadow. Good sound design: distortion, noise, wind. Creepy and intense.
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7 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 19-04-18 | 19-04-18 |
| 14 |
Grim
Takashi Ito is back, blurring the line between animation and live action once again with his photograph-based trippy bullshit. In an apartment, things heavily distort, and a woman appears amongst the noise. Quite inventive.
|
7 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 29-05-16 | 29-05-16 |
| 15 |
Spacy
In a gym hall. The camera zooms into pictures of the same gym hall, and then again, and again. It's a basic cycle that keeps repeating, but changes speed and direction and orientation. It's weird calling this animation, as it feels more like a live-action art film, given that it's composed of photographs. A very disorienting experience.
The best thing about this was definitely the sweet music. Layered digital beeps create a cacophony of experimental sound. Truly delicious. |
7 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 29-05-16 | 29-05-16 |
| 16 |
Crazy for It
Animation and art wise - absolutely no complaints. A wide variety of drawing styles packaged into something rather insane. It's well above average for this type of thing. Music wise - it was decent. Good enough. I did quite like the song, but didn't think it was incredible.
|
7 | Movie | 1 | Short | 17-12-15 |
| 17 |
Kikyuu
Another lovely looking Ryu Kato short. A looping sequence of exploring the corridors of a cruise ship, except each time the style is different. Very interesting.
I'm not a huge fan of the song this time, though. |
7 | Music | 1 | Short | 27-03-16 |
| 18 |
Playground
Mirai Mizue's style is pretty distinctive, as usual, and this is similar in some ways to his other work - strange, simple creatures morph and change. But I thought the visuals were more dynamic than usual, which was nice. More colourful too. The music is pretty much what elevated this though. Guitar ambient with an IDM-esque drum beat gives it a nice melancholy feel. Totally worth it just for that delicious sound.
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7 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 19 |
Sensuikan Cassiopeia
Interesting techniques: still images, and movement is only achieved through (live action) water distortion, bubbles, lights, and camera movements. A unique mix of animation and live action methods to create an unusual visual style. Good music too: low-key sounds, musique concrete-esque.
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7 | Movie | 1 | Short, raw, c | 18-04-18 | 18-04-18 |
| 20 |
Kanimanji Engi
Silhouettes. Feels slow-moving because of the low FPS. Atmospheric, mood-centred, as opposed to earlier comedic films. Apparently based on a Buddhist tale. Woman saved by a crab she once saved. Kindness begets kindness, goodwill is reciprocal.
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7 | Movie | 1 | Short, historical, c | 25-06-19 | 25-06-19 |
| 21 |
Nihon Animator Mihonichi
It's hard to give some overall opinion on this because it isn't a series. The shorts vary wildly in style and quality. What I think I can say is that it is a rewarding experience to watch these. Even if some weren't good on their own, I can appreciate them showcasing this technical talent. There were plenty of great ones, though.
Episode 2 - It was good up until the end when they threw in some teen romance. Episode 4 - Art is good. Fairly uninteresting revenge/redemption story told in a more interesting way - with minimal dialogue and calm, but somewhat ominous, music. Episode 6: That's more like it! Art and animation are pure genius, and it actually has a rewarding and funny little story. Episode 7: Nice, an Evangelion thing. Everything looks lovely bathed in red light. It's quite okay, but a little boring after a couple of minutes. Episode 8: Mediocre video (up until the end) and bad song (ALL the way through). Episode 9: More of a love letter to transforming giant robots fighting kaiju than anything. Not very good. Episode 10: I like the art style - lovely bold, dark, defined lines. Things get kinda crazy, but it couldn't hold my interest. Episode 12: It's not good, but it is unique. I've never seen these attempts at realistic CG in anime before. It doesn't look nice though - movement can be slightly unnatural, overall aesthetic is bland. Episode 13: Well done art, but boring and not particularly funny. Didn't actually finish it. Episode 14: Not funny. Very energetic and lots of sex references because haha that's hilarious lol x Episode 15: A sequence of gags about a little ghost who struggles to scare people. Kinda cute. Episode 16: A guy protects the moon in his mecha and communicates with a girl on Earth. Visuals are all over the place, which I very much like. Episode 17: Odd sci-fi in which crimes can be reconstructed from DNA (somehow). Two police officers try to work out who killed a woman. Strange visuals and character designs. Episode 18: Very visually creative. Stop motion animation featuring a boy doing various things in each season. Spring: Animated in a lunchbox - so the rice first acts as a background, then the boy eats something from another compartment, essentially breaking down the previous frame. Summer: The boy is animated over different handheld fans, lying on the ground. He interacts with the pattern on each. Autumn: The boy sweeps up 'leaves' into a pile, and plays with them. Everything is 'drawn' with various bits and bobs laid on the ground. Winter: Animated on the side of a mug. He plays in the snow, but hot water is poured into the mug, melting his snow man. But a plant sprouts from its remains, signalling that spring is arriving once again. Episode 19: Little animals control a robot girl. She's cute, the music is good, the animation and art are good. Enjoyable. Episode 21: Convoluted and disjointed mecha action. Decent tunes. Not bad at all, even if it was hard to tell what the story actually is. Episode 22: Japan is assimilated into some Greater East Asian Federation. I guess this displays some fear of the erosion of Japanese culture, as well as authoritarianism. People resist, there is a revolution, but the ensuing neoliberal reforms destroy the country. It's mostly just a montage of nationalistic and populist events. Episode 23: Weird story about perversion. Interesting art and animation. Episode 24: A bunch of futuristic samurai fight. Decent atmosphere due to the dark backgrounds and environment and the piano music. It's fine as a bit of action. 'Might does not keep a nation safe.' Episode 25: Gorefest about a tragic 'hero' who just wants to find someone more powerful than him, that can destroy him. And he must sacrifice himself for the 'greater good'. Could've been better, and definitely felt like a trailer for a more fleshed-out story. Episode 26: Comedy about two hitmen. Not terrible. Episode 27: Some weird looking girls do things in a weird looking world. Good background art and animation. Episode 28: Music video about a figure skater. I enjoyed it. Episode 29: Another Trigger one. Humanity is confined and monitored. They've lost their history, and some men try to piece it back together - through old fictional media. It's quite amusing. Good ambient music too. Episode 32: An Evangelion thing. And yuri! That's the kind of yuri I like - just a sweet wee moment shared. Episode 34: That was just very creepy. Pervy robot messing around with woman alone in the wilderness in a caravan. Not good. Episode 35: Reminds me of FLCL, with the style and music. Then it becomes a quite explicit Daicon opening animations reference. I liked it. |
7 | ONA | 35 | Short, Compilation, c | 25-10-15 | 11-04-16 |
| 22 |
Heya/Keitai
|
7 | Movie | 1 | Short | 23-09-15 | 23-09-15 |
| 23 |
Shinsatsushitsu
Disorienting point of view movement and shimmering backgrounds. Grim and strange atmosphere. I like it.
|
7 | Movie | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 24 |
Yodaka no Hoshi
The only thing wrong with this is that I usually don't like that method of storytelling that involves a lot of narration. But it's a decent wee story anyway.
This is done by Ryu Kato, so of course the main strength here is the incredible art and innovative animation. |
7 | Movie | 1 | Short | 29-10-15 |
| 25 |
Nimrod
Ryu Kato is such a fascinating animator, and this is probably his most unique creation I've seen so far. Beautiful moving paintings are animated over the pages of a book, and briefly on the surface of a globe. Plus, it's a music video, and the song isn't bad at all.
- Rewatch: Song is pretty so-so. I mean, it's got some catchy sections but I'm not the biggest fan of this kind of music. The music video is still fascinating, but music videos can be limited. I'm not sure how well I the song and video go together either. They don't clash, but there doesn't seem to be any particular harmony either. Maybe I'd see it if I understood the lyrics. |
7 | Music | 1 | Short | 27-03-16 |
| 26 |
Dance, Dance, Dance
For a music video this is pretty excellent, and I don't even care much for the music. I mean, it's not bad, but nothing compared to the level of artistry displayed in the animation. Beautiful style and colours.
|
7 | Music | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 27 |
Around
Lovely art, animation, music. The story (or rather, slice of this character's life and world) is nice.
|
7 | Movie | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 28 |
Dareka no Manazashi
As it opened with a gorgeous shot of a sunset-bathed city, I kind of knew it was going to look lovely. I suppose that's what's to be expected from Makoto Shinkai, or so I have heard. I actually think this might be the first thing of his I have ever watched.
Well, I wasn't disappointed. The music was just fine, but the story it told was nice - about the tired lives and estranged relationship of a woman and her father, and how the woman's feelings change (but also stay the same), and how they begin to reconcile. Definitely one of the most emotionally effective shorts I've seen. |
7 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 25-10-15 |
| 29 |
Kick-Heart
Masaaki Yuasa does it again.
|
7 | Movie | 1 | Short | 29-10-15 |
| 30 |
Tobacco to Hai
Pretty cool wee short. Battery farmed chickens break free from their cages, but the rebellion is eventually put down. The chicken responsible for doing so expects praise from the farmer, but is instead shot. Never trust those who are above you, I guess! Really nice dark and rough visual style.
|
7 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 22-08-16 | 22-08-16 |
| 31 |
Denshinbashira no Okaasan
A strange little thing. A telephone pole raises a child, taking on many motherly duties. It feeds, shelters and protects him. But then it appears that it's all a fantasy in the mind of a scared boy whose mother abuses him. A sad story, both about motherhood and also how people try to escape their abuse.
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7 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 21-12-15 |
| 32 |
Visions of Frank: Short Films by Japan's Most Audacious Animators
A series of shorts about an anthropomorphic animal named Frank, all done in different, diverse art styles. I think the only one I didn't really like was the first. Uses 3D animation, a collage/paper cut-out style, stop motion, minimalistic colours, bright and well defined colouring, sand, as well as a great variety of different styles of background music and sound. Surreal, creative, and sometimes creepy.
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7 | OVA | 9 | Short, c | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 33 |
Yoru no Okite
The simple soundtrack of intermittent recorder tones and subtle tape hiss is so good. Like Yami wo Mitsumeru Hane, it sounds so ominous.
|
7 | Movie | 1 | Short | 30-12-17 | 30-12-17 |
| 34 |
Tabi
Opens up with some photos of the city and a woman on a train - which appears to represent modern life. And because this is simply littered with imagery reminiscent of ancient times, it seems to be evoking some contrast between modern and ancient life.
Fantastic music and art. In fact, it seems to be a mish-mash of works by various Western artists, and it totally works and looks beautiful. Anyway, I actually didn't get much more out of this than the modern/ancient contrast, some random thoughts I had along the way, and 'this looks and sounds cool as fuck'. And, I suppose, I just like surrealism in general regardless of whether I get some abstract meaning out of it. So this was good - I liked it quite a lot. The only real issue wasn't with the piece itself - it was the untranslated Japanese at the start and end. Oh well. |
7 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 28-12-15 |
| 35 |
Hyakka Zukan
At first I was pretty skeptical about this short's merits, but as it continued it got pretty creative. It's like an animated version of that game Japanese people play where they say a word and the next person has to say one based on the last syllable. There was a real diversity of styles.
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7 | Movie | 1 | Short | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 36 |
Suisei
The sound of running water. Messy watercolour visuals. A man bites into an apple but then throws it in the stream, his reflection morphs into various sea creatures... An odd vamp starts to play. I really liked the rough and abstract style.
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7 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 04-04-16 |
| 37 |
Fantascope: Tylostoma
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7 | OVA | 1 | Short | 12-07-16 | 12-07-16 |
| 38 |
Tokyo Loop
A fairly diverse collection of shorts. Mostly animated but some live action. Definitely a mixed bag, with some being excellent and others being a bit mediocre. The whole thing's worth a watch though.
Part 1: Ueta Mio (no idea who this person is and I can't find anything about them). A light exploration of movement, perception and perspective in animation. First, a person and a dog drawn only as widely spaced dots are walking. Despite the nature of the drawing, it's pretty clear that this person is strutting forward. Then lines are drawn between the dots in different ways and the animation becomes much more unnatural. Then multiple people/dogs are animate beside one another, and the lines start to go between the different 'characters'. Things keep changing up and morphing. Movement in a 3D plane and the perspective of the original animations shift round some axis in 3D space. All set to some simple drum music that really captures that 'strut'. Actually pretty interesting.
Part 2: Tanaami Keiichi. Familiar style here. The music is actually quite beautiful for once. The visuals are the same old stuff except not quite as good as other Tanaami works. I still quite liked it. Part 3: Seike Mika. Part 4: Oyama Kei.Brilliant music. The distorted and confusing world of a child. Dealing with death. Part 5: Shiriagari Kotobuki. Part 6: Tabaimo. Again, brilliant music. Part 7: Uda Atsuko. A mediocre short. Part 8: Aihara Nobuhiro. Lovely sound, nice visual textures. Part 9: Ito Takashi. Not exactly animation, but a weirdly edited short film. I loved it, mostly because of that delicious (guitar based?) distorted noise music. Part 10: Shimao Maho. A live action/animation hybrid where shots of Tokyo at night and during the day form the background to simple moving drawings of a woman, clouds, animals, etc. I thought the animation really detracted from the short as a whole because it wasn't any good, and I would just love some video of the city (especially at night). The quiet, slightly ambient music was very nice though. Unfortunately, the short wasn't as good as it could have been. Part 11: Wada Atsushi. Minimalistic pencil drawings, surreal imagery, sparse music. It was decent. Part 12: Murata Tomoyasu. Very interesting visual design, colours, animation. Part 13: Furukawa Taku. Part 14: Kuri Yoji. As usual, the music is fantastic. Rest of it is mediocre. Part 15: Yamamura Koji. Interesting style, dynamic visuals. To bad the music isn't as great this time. Part 16: Iwai Toshio. |
7 | Movie | 1 | Short, Compilation, c | 28-12-15 | 01-01-16 |
| 39 |
1001 Nights
The strange and artistic visuals are a treat. I don't care much for the music or the story it is trying to tell, however.
My issue with the music was more about my lack of interest in classical music. I don't find much distinctive in classical soundtracks. But given that it is classical, I can appreciate how well it was written, and how well it contributes to the piece as a whole. |
7 | Movie | 1 | Short | 24-10-15 |
| 40 |
Inaka Isha
|
7 | Movie | 1 | Short | 14-11-15 | 14-11-15 |
| 41 |
Robot Carnival
A bit mixed, but good overall. Some stuff was kinda boring - animation showcases based on action, which I'm not a huge fan of. I want things to connect to, or artisticness in other ways. Episodes 4 and 6 were excellent.
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7 | OVA | 1 | Short | 21-10-16 | 15-11-16 |
| 42 |
Onkyo Seimeitai Noiseman
Great animation, great music. As a full series - with a more fleshed-out and effective narrative while keeping the art, direction and level of surrealism - this would be incredible.
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7 | Movie | 1 | Short | 22-08-15 |
| 43 |
Sensou no Tsukurikata
The educational format limits this, for sure. It teaches some important lessons about war, but through lecture, not through narrative. The art and animation were excellent though - really diverse.
|
6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 22-08-16 | 22-08-16 |
| 44 |
Mormorando
No idea what happened there, but it looked and sounded good.
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6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 45 |
Lilac (Bombs Jun Togawa)
A grotesque but interesting animated music video with music that isn't too bad.
|
6 | Music | 1 | Short | 21-11-15 |
| 46 |
Sayokyoku
A guy takes his 'pet' (an egg?) out for a walk, and lets it eat random people. Eventually, it gets so big and aggressive he smashes it with a hammer, leaving only a little pet in its place. He continues on his way, but apparently he is next on the menu to be consumed by the egg. A simple story about karma. Pretty unique, visually. Kind of stop-motion (in a 2D plane, i.e. the character walks from right to left, and there doesn't appear to be much depth), very lo-fi, surreal imagery. Sounds are weird and add to that nightmarish quality the whole thing has going. Good stuff.
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6 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 26-03-16 |
| 47 |
Tsuru Shitae Waka Kan
Birds at the seaside. They take off, they fly, and the camera pans to the side. Short and simple, yet effective.
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6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 48 |
Mimizu Monogatari
Uses photographs (both colour and black and white), some drawings, the sound of people screaming or laughing (more the former). No clue what the imagery actually means; maybe I'll try to parse it some other time.
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6 | Movie | 1 | Short, raw | 20-04-18 | 20-04-18 |
| 49 |
Ishikeri
It seems like Kubo Yutaro becomes less interesting when he's doing something more grounded and less abstract. It's still a lovely piece of animation, and shapes still morph and change. Also, the music is good.
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6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 17-12-15 |
| 50 |
Ghost
Takashi Ito. Works pretty well as a kind of spooky horror thing. Definitely has much more of that campy horror feel though, unlike his other, more artsy stuff. The music really pushes that angle too.
|
6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 29-05-16 | 29-05-16 |
| 51 |
Thunder
More Takashi Ito. Nothing new, really.
|
6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 07-06-16 | 07-06-16 |
| 52 |
Memory of Red
A rapidly changing red chaos begins to take form. A good exercise in abstract animation - interesting textures, minimalist sound design. It's enjoyable.
|
6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 16-12-15 |
| 53 |
Nouryou Anime: Denkyuu Ika Matsuri
Strange and dark in tone. I thought it was pretty cool.
|
6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 14-12-15 |
| 54 |
MTV ID (Shunsuke Saitou)
Might just be wee MTV things but the art and animation were cool and the music was decent.
|
6 | Special | 2 | Short | 22-08-16 | 22-08-16 |
| 55 |
Recorder
Another interesting short from Ryu Kato. This one has less naturalistic beauty, but I still like it.
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6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 56 |
Genei Toshi
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6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 18-04-18 | 18-04-18 |
| 57 |
Ongaku Shoujo
Considering they have the same director, this is like Sakura Trick in that they both look rather lovely. Unfortunately, also like Sakura Trick, it isn't very funny. But it is silly and cute and nice.
Too bad they had to rely on the fairly dumb dramatic tricks of 'character is moving away' and 'moving speech in front of everyone to reinforce earlier sentiments in the face of some obstacle'. Although the actual conflict was caused by a character's reaction to this obstacle rather than some weak sauce 'I'm sad you're going away' pish, it was still just a misunderstanding. Eri THOUGHT Haru didn't care a whole lot about their time together because of her clear willingness to accept that she's leaving, but it just wasn't the case. Haru doesn't ACTUALLY feel that way. So instead of exploring what these characters actually mean to each other, forcing them to come to certain realisations and whatnot, it was just a bit of an excuse for that previously mentioned moving speech where Haru basically says 'no, no, you've got it wrong' and 'our time together was fun and did actually affect me' etc. etc. This could have been done better but wasn't a huge issue because at the end of the day, anime girls making emotional speeches to their friends IS quite nice, if sometimes a bit goofy. |
6 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 21-11-15 |
| 58 |
Paulette no Isu
So THAT'S where that noitaminA intro animation comes from. It's sweet, peaceful and rather beautiful, but not especially meaningful. Not much to it, but it's a pleasant story about loneliness, finding friendship and chairs that walk.
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6 | ONA | 1 | Short | 23-12-15 |
| 59 |
Kaidan
Calm, ambient music. Interesting green/grey/metallic colours. Real photographs as backgrounds. Rapid cuts. Odd imagery. A young girl playing around outside. It's an unusual and quite captivating short focused on mood and tone.
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6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 09-01-16 |
| 60 |
Ga no Iru Tokoro
Interesting art style, oppressive bleakness, odd sound design, quiet surrealism. This paints a rather depressing picture of urban living in monolithic apartment buildings. It's good enough.
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6 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 27-12-15 |
| 61 |
Yume 10 Yoru
The actual animation wasn't the most incredible I've seen in an abstract short, but the final product is better than the sum of its parts. Partly because the odd sound collage background noise is just perfect here.
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6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 62 |
Fetish Doll
That classic experimental Keiichi Tanaami style. The first half isn't quite as strong this time around, but when it gets to chaotic colours and shapes and scribbles time it improves. Frightening visuals. Strange and somewhat inappropriate music. No idea what it's trying to convey - something about fetishes? It does have a lot of weird sexual imagery. Maybe it's just designed to cause discomfort, and it's pretty successful at that.
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6 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 28-12-15 |
| 63 |
Scrap Diary
Just a rather strange abstract animation. Not the best example I've seen, but decent. I did like the music a lot.
|
6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 64 |
Short Peace Opening
Very good music. Sub-par character animation at first, but everything else looks rather beautiful. A fine way to open an anthology.
|
6 | Special | 1 | Short | 17-12-15 |
| 65 |
Yami Shibai
Some of the stories are spookier than others, but they are all entertaining.
|
6 | TV | 13 | Seq, Short | 00-00-14 | 25-07-15 |
| 66 |
Kyuushigai
Possibly the best song I've heard by this band - can be quite dissonant, with hints of math. Great video, as usual. Surreal landscapes and images.
- Rewatch: Much less fond of the song now. Visuals are fine, but not quite as interesting as Kato's other works. |
6 | Music | 1 | Short | 27-03-16 |
| 67 |
Gambo
A big bear fights a troll thing. It's about as silly as it sounds. Pretty well produced.
|
6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 31-07-16 | 31-07-16 |
| 68 |
Little Witch Academia
Beautifully animated.
|
6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 16-09-15 | 16-09-15 |
| 69 |
Furiko
Looks nice and is kind of sweet, I guess.
[See the comment for My Life for slightly more in-depth thoughts on this.] |
6 | Special | 1 | Short | 26-08-15 | 26-08-15 |
| 70 |
Utsu Musume Sayuri
Strange and unsettling.
Somewhere between January - March 2015? |
6 | OVA | 1 | Short | 00-00-15 |
| 71 |
Rain Town
Pretty atmospheric and melancholic.
|
6 | ONA | 1 | Short | 23-09-15 | 23-09-15 |
| 72 |
Akai Ito
Depicts various situations in real life, where all the characters are made out of the 'red string of fate'. So I guess the story is about these people who are connected by fate, but also a rejection that this is anything absolute. The thread can be broken. A story about love and fate and reconciliation and life. The music was okay, the narrative was fine, but the art and animation were actually really interesting. Actually, that's what pretty much made this a rather good little short. The way movement is conveyed only through the shifting of one line, and how different situations morph into one another, is excellent.
|
6 | Special | 1 | Short, c | 28-12-15 |
| 73 |
3-tsu no Kumo
|
6 | Movie | 3 | Short | 15-06-16 | 15-06-16 |
| 74 |
Saiyuuki: Son Gokuu Monogatari
Cutout animation. Completely silent. I like the aesthetic, especially the backgrounds, which are somewhat collage-like. Like many other early shorts, more interesting than engaging.
|
6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 18-04-18 | 18-04-18 |
| 75 |
Enkinhou no Hako: Hakase no Sagashimono
Quite mediocre when it comes to art and stuff (relative to this guy's other stuff - I still like the rough art style) but the hilarious cheap synth music is great.
|
6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 76 |
Tsumiki no Ie
Fansub Group:
|
6 | Movie | 1 | Short |
| 77 |
Kikumana
I've watched this before ages ago but forgot about it. A dark and quiet mood piece. Good sound design and atmosphere. Overall, it's decent.
|
6 | ONA | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 78 |
Bavel no Hon
Interesting art. Okay music. Strange story. Not much else to say.
|
6 | TV Special | 1 | Short | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 79 |
Atama Yama
Very strange. The story is odd and the art and animation are good.
|
6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 19-12-15 |
| 80 |
Kujira no Chouyaku
Strange world, weird and dreamlike story.
|
6 | Movie | 1 | Short | 01-10-16 | 01-10-16 |
| 81 |
Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko
Rather nice. The melancholy is emphasised by the black and white visuals.
The music is mediocre - that calm piano music isn't terrible, but it seems to be in a lot of these short emotional pieces. |
6 | OVA | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 82 |
Keifuku-san
I like the colours and vaguely aquatic feel and Kemono Friends-esque look, but that fucking whispering levitating stingray made really annoying noises.
|
5 | ONA | 1 | Short, c | 02-01-18 | 02-01-18 |
| 83 |
Uma Musume: Pretty Derby PV
I want this to be a show.
EDIT: Apparently the show's garbage. |
5 | PV | 1 | Short | 01-07-17 | 01-07-17 |
| 84 |
Mori no Andou
Thank you Mr Ando I love you
|
5 | ONA | 1 | Short | 00-00-12 |
| 85 |
Nakanaori
A couple of samurai girls fight each other, but make up in the end. The style is rough but not bad. It was quite okay.
|
5 | ONA | 1 | Short | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 86 |
Anison Nippon
Wasn't particularly substantive but has surprisingly good animation and music (especially the second version).
|
5 | Special | 1 | Short | 22-05-16 | 22-05-16 |
| 87 |
Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica: Concept Movie
Madoka's great, but this is pretty inconsequential. Maybe I'd feel differently if I could understand what the heck they were saying.
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 25-09-16 | 25-09-16 |
| 88 |
Tang Lang Bu Chan
Looks decent enough, but boring
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 04-01-18 | 04-01-18 |
| 89 |
Mochibei
This gets bonus points for actually being genuinely frightening. Getting verbally abused by some weird deformed thing is certainly not the most pleasant experience.
I wonder if the person who made this was just angry at someone, or if this is supposed to be some deep exploration of human ugliness. I'm joking, of course, as none of that really comes through in the short. |
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 27-12-15 |
| 90 |
Balloon
Just a silly, but rather well done, little animation. Not much more to it.
|
5 | ONA | 1 | Short | 17-12-15 |
| 91 |
Korekarasaki, Nando Anata to.
|
5 | Music | 1 | Short | 31-08-18 | 31-08-18 |
| 92 |
Comics
A yellow character hangs from the red sky above a weirdly textured sea. There are brief moments of distortion. Eventually morphs. Good sound design. Quite creepy. Not a lot to it.
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 18-04-18 | 18-04-18 |
| 93 |
Fantastic Cell
This might be first thing this person's done that I haven't HATED. Still not amazingly inventive, but fine enough. Anyway, his fascination with the shapes of primordial or primitive life is evident here, as it is in his other works. Things begin to take shape and become more complex over time, as they 'dance' to a waltz by Tchaikovsky.
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 94 |
Red Colored Bridge
Crazy colours and shapes and objects everywhere. It's pretty silly, but entertaining.
I did like the music. |
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 26-09-15 | 26-09-15 |
| 95 |
It Girl
Good tune. Okay video.
|
5 | Music | 1 | Short | 00-00-14 | 00-00-14 |
| 96 |
Hoshi no Yuuenchi
|
5 | OVA | 1 | Short | 18-06-19 | 18-06-19 |
| 97 |
Gondora
Well that was a short one. Too short to be substantial, but the sound was very good and the visuals were okay. Distorted and weird.
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 27-12-15 |
| 98 |
Toki wa Meguru: Tokyo Station
Time and memory and human connection. About a woman who remembers her father, a worker at an important train station, while trying to get his watch fixed. Many links to the past and allusions to the passage of time. I didn't like its aesthetics (including music) or presentation.
|
5 | ONA | 1 | Short | 29-01-16 |
| 99 |
Yukidoke
Unusual art and animation style, good background sounds, a spooky slow story and Eraserhead levels of bleakness. It's okay, but doesn't achieve quite as much as Eraserhead did.
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 100 |
Nisou no Kuzu
Two people send animals and stuff to each other - to communicate? Probably should have paid more attention, but eh.
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 28-12-15 |
| 101 |
Cross Road
Felt way too much like a trailer. Little snapshots of these peoples' lives. Captures that moment of meeting someone similar to you by chance, in Shinkai's staple kind of soppy way. Not too bad, and looked pretty good, but its brevity really hurts it.
|
5 | CM | 1 | Short | 29-06-16 | 29-06-16 |
| 102 |
Aki no Puzzle
Abstract animation. A fairly average example with above average music. One difference being that there's a lot of stuff flashing. This isn't enough to positively distinguish this though.
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 103 |
Picotopia
So this was basically just an ad or promotional thing? Not bad, for its purpose. The style was just okay, but it was well done and interesting enough to keep me watching the whole 2 minutes this lasted. Not much else to it, I suppose. It's okay.
|
5 | PV | 1 | Short | 22-12-15 |
| 104 |
Yu Bang Xiang Zheng
Very nice style, but a little boring.
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 26-03-16 |
| 105 |
Harmonie
A pretty straightforward drama thing. An isolate girl, trapped in her 'world', burdened by certain strange dreams, has a chance to make a connection with someone else - a boy in her class who experiences that world in his own dream. In the end though, it isn't really possible to step into someone's mind and have their experiences become yours. The story just kind of laid this stuff out but didn't do a whole lot with it. I can't even really tell if it was trying to express some coherent message, or was just a snapshot of two peoples' lives - one with some rather mundane issues, the other with some rather, uhhh, strange ones. Juri is clearly pretty desperate to make some sort of connection with someone who's 'the same' as her, but eh.
Some of the dialogue isn't very believable and the auxiliary conflicts didn't really add much - like the thing to do with Juri's boyfriend, and the main character's infatuation with Juri. I guess it was added to make him seem a bit more like a real high school kid, but wasn't particularly compelling. Plus, he isn't a particularly compelling character anyway. Juri herself is better, but by no means groundbreaking. A pretty average story overall. |
5 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 30-06-16 | 30-06-16 |
| 106 |
"0"
Fairly average video - girl seems to love someone who doesn't reciprocate. At the end she decides she doesn't need that person and just goes out, or something. I liked the song.
|
5 | Music | 1 | Short | 27-08-16 | 27-08-16 |
| 107 |
Little Witch Academia: Mahoujikake no Parade
GUMAF 17/09/15. Pretty similar to the previous instalment, but with a little more drama. I didn't like it quite as much, though.
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 17-09-15 | 17-09-15 |
| 108 |
Hi no Youjin
Reasonable. Tragedy thing about a girl being married off, but she loves someone else, blah blah etc etc. She starts a fire, but dies in it. That's it.
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 31-07-16 | 31-07-16 |
| 109 |
Doudou
Quite interestingly animated. The illusion of depth is created by having multiple layers on top of each other moving at different speeds (to capture that effect where further away things move slower).
A lush natural world is evoked. It is integrated with a rather technologically advanced jungle society. A little pig explores this world, and has to face its possible future destruction. Pretty mediocre music for the most part. Also, there isn't much of a narrative to speak of (at least until the second part), just having a quite predictable 'save nature!' story. It's pretty much exclusively an artistic world-building exercise, which is fine. The music holds it back from creating a compelling atmosphere to supplement that world-building. The one exception to this are the brief moments of melancholy piano music, as the pig contemplates its world's ecological collapse. |
5 | Movie | 2 | Short, c | 18-04-16 | 18-04-16 |
| 110 |
Buta
GUMAF 17/09/15.
|
5 | TV Special | 1 | Short | 18-09-14 |
| 111 |
Ojiisan no Lamp
Music is not so great. Decent visuals. Uninteresting romantic aspect.
The main character's fascination with this new technology is met with skepticism at first ('just work harder' instead of adopting new technology), but he soon starts lighting up neighbouring villages with his lamp business. In other words, people accept the benefits this brings. Then as electricity starts to roll out, his business (which is pretty much who he is at this point, in the narrative anyway) becomes obsolete. He is now the skeptic - he resists, telling elaborate tales of how further modernisation will wreak havoc, destroying their traditional way of life. But he is alone in his way of thinking, and perhaps feels betrayed. But there is a chance for him to come around like everyone else. It's never really made clear whether his attitudes are rooted in financial considerations (given selling lamps is his livelihood) or in a genuine love of the technology. But perhaps this ambiguity allows the story's themes to be applicable regardless of these underlying reasons. So the story of this far-reaching technological development is told in a rather personal way through the eyes of someone who is most affected by changes. It's not debating advantages and disadvantages of these changes, but exploring their effect on this man and his attitudes towards them. And in doing so, says something about how, on the individual level, people can react to these things, and why. The emotional journey of this man and the technological development of the country go hand in hand. It isn't perfectly executed though - it's heavy handed, sometimes unrealistically written, and the personal story isn't always compelling. |
5 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 22-11-15 |
| 112 |
The TV Show
Decent tune. Visuals were okay but a bit empty and repetitive.
|
5 | Music | 1 | Short | 24-12-15 |
| 113 |
Aos
Makes references to the senses in a highly surrealist fashion. MAL describes it as an 'explanation of reality' but I can't say I got much of that out of it. Except maybe that reality is defined by the senses? I'm sure there is enough symbolism I have yet to unpack (although I don't think I'll be thinking about this particular short in depth, unfortunately).
The visuals weren't particularly artistic but they were okay. I do appreciate the sound - odd vocal noises. Reminds me of the kind of underground avant-garde music I'd actively seek out. |
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 28-12-15 |
| 114 |
Docchi ni Suru?
Well drawn and animated. Not much of a narrative to speak of - a bunch of things wordlessly happen. And the viewer is prompted to make decisions? Not that they'd do anything. Weird.
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 04-04-16 |
| 115 |
Ai
Experiments with perception and depth. Some cool sounds; pretty creepy. I like the wallpaper-esque textures mixed with simple hand drawings. I don't like Kuri Yoji's character designs.
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 18-04-18 | 18-04-18 |
| 116 |
Life no Color
Very nice electronic music that sets the tone well, but pretty sparse in terms of narrative and visuals.
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 24-12-15 |
| 117 |
Joseito
Well, it tried but it really isn't that good. Portrays a young girl's interior world as she deals with depression, lack of motivation, lack of self-esteem, loss of her father, anxiety about how she appears to others, bottling up feelings, and a whole load of other things. I suppose it describes the 'dark side of growing up'. This is all important stuff and fiction is a powerful way to explore it, but I really don't like the delivery here. Everything's pretty much explained outright by the girl as an internal monologue. This can be useful to illustrate a character's own subjective perception of the world, but having feelings simply explained can be a bit heavy handed. These emotions can also be expressed through character interaction and tone, and excellent series that rely on a lot of internal monologue (like Kare Kano and The Tatami Galaxy) are also very good at this. But Joseito relies on it exclusively, and suffers due to this. Also because it's just one miserable thought into the next, it doesn't feel like a genuine expression of what it means to have depression and anxiety. It feels like the show's main priority is simply being as miserable as possible.
I did really like one bit though: the bit dealing with the blindness of Sin. Blindness is not something I've really come across as something explored in fiction, but it is both fascinating and tragic. The girl explains the loneliness and lack of certain visual comforts due to blindness. This is definitely something I'd like to see in a better delivered story. As for sound and visuals - well, I watched it like 10 minutes ago and I can't remember a damn thing about the sound. It wasn't anything too flashy, I know that for sure. The visuals are strange and uncanny but I'm usually quite a big fan of strange so we're all good on that front. |
5 | OVA | 1 | Short, c | 05-01-16 |
| 118 |
Saru Masamune
According to "Floating Worlds" (Novielli, 2018, p.12), this is unusually smooth cutout animation. Narratively basic, but historically interesting. Goofy music.
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 18-04-18 | 18-04-18 |
| 119 |
Genius Party
Good as visual showcases but mostly lacking compelling stories.
|
5 | Movie | 7 | Short, Compilation | 02-07-15 | 12-07-15 |
| 120 |
Tenrankai no E
Basically a long, animated political cartoon. Cynical caricatures all around. As is usually the case with these shorts, I appreciated the art styles used and the fact that this is probably more of a visual experiment.
There's a manipulative and dishonest journalist. He sneers and makes deals with shady folk and simply observes the horrors of the world without being emotionally invested in them himself. A dying insect as its natural habitat is destroyed by humans, becoming an artificial commodity in a small, controlled garden amongst the excesses of modern industrial life (as illustrated by the shadowed, grey person walking around replacing flowers as if they are simply ornaments with no life of their own, while at the same time throwing the insect, the real life that needs support, aside). Oh boy, the cosmetic surgeon. Because nothing's more illustrative of the sterile and alienated culture of modern times than people physically altering themselves to appease both internal and external pressures, apparently. Ugh. I mean, sure, there's an important dialogue to be had around these issues. How important are social pressures forming warped ways of viewing ourselves and how we should be? How does this intersect with the alienation inherent in the capitalist production process? etc. etc. Unfortunately, this has pretty much nothing to contribute to that dialogue. Anyway, it's set up like a kind of conveyor belt, where one person quickly comes in, the surgeon makes their face all 'nice' again, they leave and then it's onto the next person. Emphasising how this is supposed to be some sort of industrial process. I was expecting to see some sort of negative effects of all this playing around with peoples' faces but it just ended. I did really like the rough, simple art style of this segment though. Next up: the big factory proprietor. The music is sinister and evokes the sense of a rigid march, to illustrate the disciplined nature of the industrial workplace. The boss overlooks everything, commanding from his elevated position. The workers are strictly controlled, the humanity is stripped from the system. And automation starts to take hold, further decreasing the humanity of the factory. But the contradictions in capitalism come to a head, and nothing goes well for the boss, as he becomes part of the production process himself. Did the machines just revolt? Is this supposed to symbolise how the increasing mechanisation of the workforce, and hence the increasing organic composition of capital, enhances class conflict as the rate of profit begins to fall, ending in the downfall of capitalism? Probably. I actually kind of liked this short. Not because it accurately portrayed the complexities of the issue, but it did capture a lot of my sentiments on the issue. It might be highly exaggerated, but yes, I do think the modern workplace strips the humanity out of work, and I do consider the employer-employee relationship to essentially be morally abhorrent. This part succeeded by appealing to my most basic feelings on an issue, and I suppose that's what this kind of art is supposed to do - the other sections just failed at this by virtue of my own thoughts on the matters. Not that I think simplistic propaganda is a particularly virtuous goal when it comes to media in the first place, but whatever. So congratulations, short, you have successfully manipulated me. The beatnik. Already a stereotype, apparently. A bunch of baby birds dance. Then some fight. The the shadow of a larger bird flying overhead appears and they go back into their egg shells. I'm not particularly familiar with the history of the beat generation, so I don't really know what this means. Maybe that they're all fun-loving young people who act transgressive but immediately submit as soon as a greater authority appears to ruin their day? I can't really say. Boxer. A sleazy businessman/boxing manager forces an elephant to train hard. The elephant gets in the ring to fight for its manager and consistently wins. It gets bigger and meaner over time. The boxing elephant is paraded around in front of the media and the populace while the manager counts his cash. The boxer has an indulgent lifestyle with people to serve him. He begins to defy his manager and his contract. Back in the ring, he starts to lose to the new elephants under the manager, as he trains them up while the old boxer is indulging in his riches and fame. So this part's about some exploitative nature of violence-for-sport, which is bad for pretty much everyone involved (except the manager who's profiting from everyone's exploitation). And in the end, they can't function without the manager, apparently. Can't say I even agree with the base sentiments this time. The TV talent. The equivalent to edgy folk screaming about Kim Kardashian these days. Well, almost. Portrays the life of TV workers as hectic - further emphasised by the music. Then the glamorous portrayal of the star is contrasted against the reality of her job - an actress in an advert for athlete's foot. This segment wasn't so bad, to be honest. I liked the art style, and it was more dry irony than pretentious 'criticism'. Zen priest. The priest just sits, unmoving. The music sometimes intensifies and the screen shakes, but the priest sits through it all the same. Through rain, thunder and lightning. Through rock falls. Through fire. Through a snow storm. He momentarily breaks his meditation to stretch and yawn, before suddenly realising he ought to get back to his 'inner peace'. Or what should be inner peace. This just suggests that it's all for show, and because he's being watched. Soldiers. Liveliness and blood spatters and explosions evoke the chaos of war. By far one of the most visually engaging segments. A couple of soldiers try to give a woman in a house water but end up fighting. This part was pretty great solely because of its beautiful aesthetics. And now for the 'Allegorical Conclusion'. A stream of people (the characters from the film) go through a huge stone arch and on to a small gate, while watched by the human carvings in the arch. It's like it's being held up by the arch people. The gates start to close behind the characters and the male arch people begin to move, but without them it begins to crack. They cannot follow the others through the gate. So it's only with the support of those who cannot follow that the people of our society are able to continue on their journey? Unless there's some Greek mythology references that there's no way I'd get. Anyway, pretty decent part here. This thing seemed to get much better towards the end. It hints at some actually important issues while draining them of most of the nuance an actual critical evaluation would require. This is why I compare this to a 'political cartoon'. It'd also be appropriate to compare it to those 'I'm 14 and this is deep' memes one might see on Facebook criticising highly simplified problems of modern civilisation. Some segments were good, but most were quite unimpressive. The way everything was integrated with the music was pretty impressive though. Even though I don't consider it some sort of aesthetic masterpiece, I do appreciate these elements of it. |
5 | Movie | 1 | Short, c | 20-04-16 |
| 121 |
Cencoroll
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short |
| 122 |
Ani*Kuri15
GUMAF 17/11/14.
|
5 | TV Special | 15 | Short, Compilation | 17-11-14 |
| 123 |
Onboro Film
A silly little comedy short that plays around with the medium. It's actually quite charming.
|
5 | Movie | 1 | Short | 04-01-16 |
| 124 |
Pale Cocoon
|
5 | OVA | 1 | Short | 00-00-14 |
| 125 |
2010
The colours and animation were kind of cool but it wasn't particularly inspiring or anything. Music was crappy too.
|
4 | Music | 1 | Short | 23-08-16 | 23-08-16 |
| 126 |
Zawazawa
Short, silent metamorphosis of various shapes. Not as bad as other simple-line minimalistic animations, but still not that great.
|
4 | Movie | 1 | Short | 21-11-15 |
| 127 |
Hakubutsushi
Watercolour animals appear, morph and disappear. Pretty forgettable.
|
4 | Movie | 1 | Short | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 128 |
Ari Ningen Monogatari
A story of a rather primitive society and its relationship to the world around it. Neither the story or animation were that good, to be honest. The 'twist' at the end seemed to come out of nowhere. 'This is our future' wasn't exactly a thematic thread running through the short. Although I DID just notice the short's bloody name is 'Future Man'. Oh well. I did think the landscapes were beautiful and it did look unusual, but I can't say I liked it a whole lot.
|
4 | Movie | 1 | Short | 17-12-15 |
| 129 |
Taifuu no Noruda
Combines a dumb sci-fi story with an also-dumb drama. A 'lonely boy meets mysterious girl' type thing, in which he learns the value of not running away - with far less detail and character complexity than I'd have hoped. The conflict between the main character and his friend is not compelling in the slightest. It slowly bubbles as a fairly shallow conflict in which he stops playing baseball - and then everything comes out in a scene where they just tell each other their feelings. No foundation for any of it. The atmosphere and animation were both done very well though, so it's not all bad.
|
4 | Movie | 1 | Short | 16-12-15 |
| 130 |
Wakie Wakie
Kinda wacky stop-motion music video. Car chase, then robots playing instruments. Song was pretty mediocre. Upbeat, though.
|
4 | Music | 1 | Short | 22-08-16 | 22-08-16 |
| 131 |
Baka Baka Baka na Sekai
Loads of seemingly unrelated short segments. Gets some extra points for the odd, abstract style (which, at points, I actually really love) and the goofiness factor, but really is not that interesting.
|
4 | Movie | 1 | Short | 27-08-16 | 27-08-16 |
| 132 |
Tensai Banpaku Opening
Better than the usual Mirai Mizue visual style, but still rather uninteresting.
|
4 | ONA | 2 | Short | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 133 |
Poker
Music is mediocre. The morphing shapes animation at the start was fine. I like the bit where there are nicely textured painted backgrounds, but that didn't last very long. I definitely was not a fan of where everything started going a bit mental towards the end. Also, HOLY SHIT is that the embryo develops into a foetus thing? I HATE that short. At least it's in a more interesting context. Anyway, this was only 3 minutes but I still got pretty bored.
|
4 | Music | 1 | Short | 09-01-16 | 09-01-16 |
| 134 |
Usagi ga Kowai
I didn't care much for this. The art is different, but there's not much else to this. It failed to create any sort of good atmosphere. It got boring.
|
4 | Movie | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 135 |
Okashina Hotel
Nicely drawn and animated, but in this case this isn't enough to pull it above mediocrity.
|
4 | Special | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 136 |
Last Orders
Silly ad set in a cool cyberpunk environment. Not much else to it though.
|
4 | CM | 1 | Short | 22-08-16 | 22-08-16 |
| 137 |
Galo Sengen
Never really got the cultural references. Song was alright.
|
4 | Music | 1 | Short | 22-08-16 | 22-08-16 |
| 138 |
Buki yo Saraba
Pretty boring military thing.
|
4 | Movie | 1 | Short | 31-07-16 | 31-07-16 |
| 139 |
Tsukumo
Summer 2015, sometime. Lovely backgrounds and atmosphere at the very start but very awkward CG animation style. Pretty dumb, and I didn't care much for it. A bit of a step down from the opening, to be honest.
|
4 | Movie | 1 | Short | 00-00-15 |
| 140 |
Sekaikei Sekai Ron
Couldn't find English subs. Didn't seem that interesting from what I could gather, though. I liked the art (but not the character designs).
|
4 | OVA | 1 | Short | 29-10-16 |
| 141 |
Bloody Night
Completely and utterly ridiculous, but has a strange sort of charm to it. It's kind of like the completely deranged underground black metal of anime except I think that stuff is genuinely good, unlike this. That music, that stop motion animation. Everything is so cheap and bad but also hilarious.
|
4 | ONA | 1 | Short | 23-12-15 |
| 142 |
Agitated Screams of Maggots
Eh. I don't listen to Dir En Grey, but this made them sound like fairly generic metal. The song isn't bad, but it isn't good either. The art was marginally more interesting, mainly by virtue of being different. But it's not like I experience a shortage of unique art styles with all these shorts. It just isn't enough to hide the fact that this is meaningless to me. It was just fairly stupid body horror.
|
4 | Music | 1 | Short | 18-12-15 | 18-12-15 |
| 143 |
Je T'aime
There were some nice moments, but overall Not Very Good. It started out pretty lonely - a dog wandering an empty city, with music to match the mood. But the music changed, things got a bit sci-fi, then the music changed again. It wasn't quiet anymore and the short pretty much lost everything that made it good. Disappointing to say the least.
|
4 | OVA | 1 | Short | 13-07-16 | 13-07-16 |
| 144 |
Fumiko no Kokuhaku
Nicely animated but not much else.
|
4 | ONA | 1 | Short | 23-09-15 |
| 145 |
Karo to Piyobupt: Ouchi
A couple of animal friends build a tree house. Not particularly interesting, but I did at least appreciate the art.
|
4 | Movie | 1 | Short | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 146 |
Ningen Doubutsuen
Ridiculous early Kuri Yoji experiment. Repetitive, not interesting in itself, but somewhat amusing, and thankfully not too long. More a historical artefact than anything.
|
4 | Movie | 1 | Short | 18-04-18 | 18-04-18 |
| 147 |
Coffee Tadaiku
Could've done without it. Apparently it's a tribute, which may explain my lack of enthusiasm.
|
4 | Movie | 1 | Short | 27-08-16 | 27-08-16 |
| 148 |
Noisy Birth
Music is okay. Crappy CG is crappy. It's pretty mediocre.
|
4 | Music | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 149 |
Shizuku
A man is lost at sea and tries his best to get water to drink. Pretty much completely played for comedy though. Not much of interest.
|
4 | Movie | 1 | Short | 05-01-16 |
| 150 |
Ame to Shoujo to Watashi no Tegami
Sub-par aesthetics. Kinda boring romance (or attempted romance) with the love letter.
Girl sends a love letter. She's rejected, but tries to stay positive by considering it an experience gained. That's hard, though. Then there's a silly little bit with a young girl in the main character's bookshop. They discuss the main character wanting to become a novelist, and their mutual love of books. It turns out the guy she confessed to did write a reply, and she's happy about this. She's glad that she's able to experience the warmth of connecting with the young girl. This is pretty mediocre. The story's nothing special, and the visuals really bring it down. |
4 | ONA | 1 | Short | 24-12-15 |
| 151 |
Kakurenbo
An average horror story that is both empty plot and character-wise and fails to create any sort of suspenseful or threatening atmosphere. The sound design was decent. Both environment and demon design and animation were good, but character animation was not.
|
4 | Movie | 1 | Short | 27-06-15 |
| 152 |
Hoshi no Koe
The atmosphere and visuals can be very good, but can also be very bad - they both certainly suffer during the mecha scenes, which are both very ugly and boring. The name is beautifully haunting, but the story is fairly mediocre. It does deal with interesting themes - distance and communication, moving on and growing up - but the dialogue can be stilted and I didn't care much for the characters. I understood the issues presented, but didn't connect with them.
So, it has many problems while still having a bit of potential. It's hard to say I really enjoyed this though. When I get to Shinkai's other works, I'll hopefully see a more developed version of this show's ideas. |
4 | OVA | 1 | Short, c | 07-12-15 |
| 153 |
Koto no Shidai
Neither the music nor the video were particularly exciting.
|
3 | Music | 1 | Short | 17-04-18 | 17-04-18 |
| 154 |
Ai (ONA)
Now that's a short short. Found it funny.
|
3 | ONA | 1 | Short | 22-05-16 |
| 155 |
Requiem (ONA)
Ehhh, alright then. Very minimalistic, but I can't say these simple line drawings are something I like a whole lot. It didn't completely lack value, I suppose.
|
3 | ONA | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 156 |
Tama Gura Abayo: Moki Yumokyu Superdeluxe
Well...at least it was rather amusing.
|
3 | Music | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 157 |
◯
More of that mediocre minimalistic and abstract animation.
|
3 | ONA | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 158 |
Shigeru
what
|
3 | ONA | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 159 |
Kokuhaku
A weirdly animated girl just...murders the viewer? Strange. Slightly amusing, at least.
|
3 | ONA | 1 | Short | 24-08-16 | 24-08-16 |
| 160 |
Koumon-teki Juuku Ketsujiru Juke
I suppose this was supposed to be funny and weird but it came off as trying waaay too hard. I did appreciate some things about the sound - the chopped up rhythms and fucking MLG air horn. I didn't get anything else out of this.
|
3 | Movie | 1 | Short | 27-12-15 |
| 161 |
Count Down
30-ish seconds of...well, not much really. Some people partying. I at least appreciate the way it's animated - morphing line drawings.
|
3 | Movie | 1 | Short | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 162 |
My Life
A woman walks through life. This is definitely not a bad idea but everything came off as super generic and mediocre - falling in love, getting a job. Sure, that is what people do. But it's barely meaningful to me without some sort of emotional complexity or good atmosphere or interesting themes. This had none of these. The art was okay but the music was also very generic. This is bad and not worth it.
Also, because I thought of it while watching, I suppose I'll do a little comparison of this and Furiko. The two shorts both portray peoples' lives over time, and Furiko also has a fairly generic story like this. But I did like Furiko - I wouldn't say I loved it, but it was decent. So what does it do differently? - It has interesting visuals. They're pretty minimalistic (and devoid of colour), but the swinging pendulum motif really works. As well as being a neat visual trick, it clearly expresses how the passage of time is important. People change, people die, and people try to escape it (like when one of the characters actually pushes against the pendulum and tries to prevent it from swinging). This isn't exactly the most radical or insightful theme but from a 4 minute short that's not really what I expect. It's an idea that's expressed so much better than in My Life. - It has better music. It's not incredible, but the slow piano music and building crescendo are far superior to the uninspired trash My Life is set to. Well, I guess that's pretty much it. Or at least, all I could think of right now. The point about the pendulum is pretty much the most important thing though. That's what I think elevates Furiko. |
3 | ONA | 1 | Short, c | 27-12-15 |
| 163 |
Wheels
Not a whole lot to say. I didn't really like anything about its style, especially that generic blues BGM. Rural mechanic does mechanic things under the watchful eye of a baby. The baby then takes the vehicle out for a wee joyride.
|
3 | Special | 1 | Short | 24-05-16 | 24-05-16 |
| 164 |
Memory (ONA)
After the end of the world the memories of a robot are played back. Just goes through some old times. It's like the whole short longs for the past, which I can understand. Crappy visuals and music get in the way of a good atmosphere. Tinkly piano music and PS2-era video game graphics. This is nothing special. It thinks it's more emotional than it actually is. Actually ended up being completely ineffective.
|
3 | ONA | 1 | Short, c | 23-08-16 | 23-08-16 |
| 165 |
Highway Jenny
Completely ridiculous nonsense. I've got to give it credit for having fairly unique visuals though. Also, it was kinda hilarious for a wee bit. But the visuals and amusement wore off as it went on, and it started to get painfully boring. The music was very mediocre, and the story was hilarious pseudo-deep garbage. The start was like a string of not-very-insightful sentences or 'meditations' on various things - basically what I imagine a 14 year old attempting 'deep thinking' to sound like. It's trying it's god damned hardest to be artsy and deep but completely failing and is simply laughable.
|
3 | OVA | 1 | Short, c | 16-12-15 |
| 166 |
Jigazou
It may be incredibly short and have almost nothing interesting about it but at least it's a nice idea.
|
3 | Movie | 1 | Short | 05-01-16 |
| 167 |
Sweat Punch
Short 1: Ehhh, well I watched this a couple of months ago and now have almost forgotten everything about it. Opened up with a woman (prostitute?) in a (hotel?) room and then some bizarre 'lessons' started, and the visuals were unusual. I guess it was fine at the time - wackiness for the sake of wackiness is fine in moderation - but it clearly hasn't left much of a lasting impact. Quite disposable.
Short 2: Stupid. I've seen so many shorts, the art style isn't exactly unique. It's just different from most TV anime. Boring story, boring visuals. Please let me out. Short 3: Mediocre fantasy/historical thing. Short 4: More crappy mediocrity except this time in the form of a modern military/mecha story. Most of it is spent in some battle where we're just treated to some shooting and some mecha jumping around in a forest and some soldiers screaming names. Then some guy's in a hospital and he dies. It's an action scene without a larger narrative to justify it. Also, 25% of it is credits. Short 5: More comedic this time. Also, the best visuals out of the lot. Still kind of boring, but the strongest short here - a boy gets attached to a little machine as it starts to cause trouble. |
3 | OVA | 5 | Short, Compilation, c | 06-01-16 | 26-03-16 |
| 168 |
In Search of Axis
A technical experiment with early 3D technology. First and second are basically uninteresting; I actively despise the third. Also, Polygon generally suck.
|
2 | Special | 3 | Short | 19-04-18 | 19-04-18 |
| 169 |
Love Bites
lmao
|
2 | ONA | 1 | Short | 26-03-16 |
| 170 |
MAG Net Jingle
Ehhh. I've enjoyed some of this person's other work, but not this one.
|
2 | Special | 1 | Short | 22-05-16 | 22-05-16 |
| 171 |
Goro-chan
Cat walks around a town along to crappy music. Not good.
|
2 | Music | 1 | Short | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 172 |
Okaasan ni Naisho
Colourful but really bad. Just tries to be vulgar and doesn't manage to be particularly funny.
|
2 | ONA | 1 | Short | 27-08-16 | 27-08-16 |
| 173 |
The Embryo Develops into a Fetus
Absolutely nothing to this except a rather unenjoyable animation loop.
|
2 | ONA | 1 | Short | 25-10-15 |
| 174 |
Timbre A to Z
13 whole minutes of Mizue Mirai mediocrity. Uggghhhh. Honestly couldn't wait for the fucking thing to finish.
|
2 | ONA | 26 | Short, c | 23-05-16 | 23-05-16 |
| 175 |
2005-nen Uchuu no Tabi
Another of those experimental animation showcases that has aesthetics I don't care for and barely anything I consider meaningful. Pretty much a waste of 1 minute.
|
2 | Special | 1 | Short, c | 14-12-15 |
| 176 |
Maid of the Dead
This Nagao Takena dude sure makes some stupid bullshit.
|
2 | ONA | 1 | Short, c | 26-03-16 |
| 177 |
Pupa
|
2 | TV | 12 | Short | 00-00-14 |
| 178 |
Devour Dinner
Silly scenes of weird creatures eating each other. All along to really annoying noises and not-that-great animation. And bloody hell, it's boring. It just keeps going on and on. Can't say it's really worth it to be honest.
|
2 | Movie | 1 | Short | 03-01-16 |
| 179 |
Shitcom
lmoa haha *ironic 10/10* 👌 nice Ｍｅｍｅ m9
|
2 | ONA | 1 | Short, c | 00-00-14 |
| 180 |
Tenshi no Drop
Bad.
|
2 | TV Special | 1 | Short | 00-00-14 |
| 181 |
Fashion no Hajimari
Crappy inconsequential short in which nothing of note happens.
|
2 | ONA | 1 | Short | 22-08-16 | 22-08-16 |
| 182 |
Renkyori Enai
Trash music and trash video.
|
2 | Music | 1 | Short, c | 22-08-16 | 22-08-16 |
| 183 |
Yuri Seijin Naoko-san
A shockingly bad comedy that manages to fit way too many poor taste sexual assault jokes into the space of 6 minutes. I guess it's trying it's hardest to be a RAUNCHY and RANDOM comedy, but it's just appalling.
|
1 | OVA | 1 | Short | 21-05-16 |
| 184 |
Hanasaka Jiisan
I THINK this is what I watched. I was looking for the Kitayama Seitarou version of the tale from 1917 on YouTube. The video I found said 1917 but the drawing style was far more detailed than what one usually sees in Japanese animation from that time period, so I was suspicious.
Anyway, historically interesting as usual. Didn't quite have the visual flair that shorts from around the same time can have. Maybe that was partly down to the bad quality of the version I watched. |
- | Movie | 1 | Short, historical | 25-06-19 | 25-06-19 |
| 185 |
Kemurigusa Monogatari
Gag comedy. Pretty cool live action x animation hybrid.
|
- | Movie | 1 | Short, historical, oofuji | 26-06-19 | 26-06-19 |
| 186 |
Chinkoroheibei Tamatebako
A different era to what I've been watching today. Not a silent film. Feels very cartoony and gag-driven. There's some nice underwater scenes/imagery/architecture. Lots of strange looping animation of sea creature production (?).
|
- | Movie | 1 | Short, historical, oofuji | 26-06-19 | 26-06-19 |
| 187 |
Urashima Tarou (supposed title)
From 1918. Very primitive.
|
- | Movie | 1 | Short, historical | 25-06-19 | 25-06-19 |
| 188 |
Namakura Gatana
Among the first Japanese animations. The content obviously doesn't hold up, so this is more an artefact of historical interest. It's silent, but there are fairly extensive sections of characters talking, which perhaps suggests this was a live show/animation hybrid. Apparently this was how a lot of early films were shown.
Anyway, it looks cool. Some nice silhouettes: houses in the background, one scene where a character is walking through some woods. Parts of the film have been damaged, frames look like they've disintegrated; I actually think this produces an interesting effect. |
- | Movie | 1 | Short, historical |
| 189 |
Haru no Uta
Interesting historically (this is the only pre-war Japanese animation I've seen except a few seconds of the earliest discovered) but not at all in itself.
- Rewatched 26/6/19 I think my previous opinion of this largely stands. It's interesting to see different styles of animation (this looks like paper cut-out), but this particular piece wasn't very enjoyable to watch. Rather abstract imagery, no semblance of a story, and the animation was very primitive. I wasn't really digging the aesthetic: flower petals, dancing women, etc. The music was also rather grating. My response to the lack of a story is interesting, given how little I care about or follow the story in a lot of these shorts. There's something about it _being there_, about the sense of some progression of events, that makes the abstract aesthetic experience more engaging. |
- | Movie | 1 | Short, historical, oofuji | 20-11-15 |
| 190 |
The Chocolate Panic Picture Show
|
- | OVA | 1 | Short | 28-12-15 |
| TV: 2, OVA: 15, Movies: 106, Spcl.: 10, Eps: 0, Days: 102.59, Mean Score: 5.1, Score Dev.: -0.02 |
|
Dropped
|
| # | Anime Title | Score | Type | Progress | Tags (reset filter) | Started Date | Finished Date |
| 1 |
Town Workers
Difficult to watch raw, given that this was mostly just one conversation. Choppy rotoscoped animation; none of the fluidity I usually associate with the method. Nice backgrounds, but overall fairly mediocre visuals.
|
4 | ONA | 1/3 | Short, raw | 05-08-18 |
| 2 |
"Parade" de Satie
|
4 | Movie | -/1 | Short | 08-01-19 |
| 3 |
A Piece of Phantasmagoria
The art is unusual but not good enough to really improve this. I didn't see much in it and I couldn't get into it. I also don't like the method of storytelling - something being narrated or told over animated scenes.
|
4 | OVA | 2/15 | Short, Compilation | 25-10-15 |
| 4 |
Mirai no Watashi
Nicely animated, and the basic emotional foundations are quite nice - progression, being part of something, and welcoming those who follow in your footsteps. If it was just that, this could actually be okay.
But too bad it far-too-positively portrays WAGE SLAVERY and MANAGEMENT. C'mon, what the fuck is inspirational about working for shitty ass McDonald's? Do they even pay the living wage? Not that that'd justify their violent claims to exclusive ownership of capital in order to extract surplus value from the workers. smh |
3 | CM | 1/2 | Short, c |
| 5 |
Yami no Purple Eye
One of those rare times I dropped a short thing only a bit of the way through. A really goofy music video in which a stupid leopard bounds round a city, manga panels appear and there's a pretty sick tune in the background. Seems like a supplementary kind of deal (for manga readers) so I stopped after the first wee segment.
|
3 | Music | -/1 | Short | 13-07-16 |
| 6 |
Shoka
I watched the first of 3 parts that were on YouTube. Well animated action for the sake of action. Not worth it at all.
|
3 | TV Special | -/1 | Short | 17-12-15 |
| 7 |
Catman
I don't even know why this shit exists. Nothing special about it.
|
2 | ONA | 2/7 | Short | 13-07-16 |
| 8 |
Choujuu Giga
Incredibly short commercial. Not too bad, actually. Mostly just because of the art/animation, which were interesting. Not much to it, I suppose. Probably won't remember it after a wee while.
|
- | ONA | 1/3 | Short | 26-03-16 |
| TV: 0, OVA: 1, Movies: 1, Spcl.: 0, Eps: 0, Days: 15.36, Mean Score: 3.3, Score Dev.: -2.39 |
|
Plan to Watch
|
| # | Anime Title | Score | Type | Progress | Tags (reset filter) |
| 1 |
Toumei Ningen
|
- | Movie | -/1 | Short |
| 2 |
Ubasuteyama
|
- | Movie | -/1 | Short |
| 3 |
The Bathroom
|
- | Movie | -/1 | Short |
| TV: 0, OVA: 0, Movies: 3, Spcl.: 0, Eps: 0, Days: 0, Mean Score: 0.0, Score Dev.: 0.00 |