Anime – some of you love it, some of you are put off by it because of the weeb sub culture that make their presence known at big comic cons and the rest of you are wondering what the hell I’m on about. Anime is the name given for Japanese animation. The first anime films were made in the 1910s with Ōten Shimokawa, Jun’ichi Kōuchi and Seitaro Kitayama making their mark on the industry. It would be three more decades before the first Japanese animation production company – Toei – would come to life. Anime started to distance itself from Western influences like Disney films in the 1970s. From there unique sub genres including cyberpunk, mecha, space opera and many more would come to be key parts of anime. Anime’s influence has spread far beyond the country of Japan with many around the world knowing a whole host of animes including Digimon, Ghost in the Shell, Sailor Moon, My Neighbour Totoro and Dragonball Z. A new anime film has hit the film circuit called The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl, a romantic comedy film centered around a woman named Otome and her Senpai.
In some ways the film has quite a simple plot that focuses around a young woman’s experience on her first proper night out. That on its own wouldn’t make for an interesting film but through the film many strange and wonderful characters meet our protagonist including the money lender Rihaku, Don Underwear and “The God of Old Books”. The events of the film is surreal, nonsensical and completely illogical in real life yet it packs so much charm and humour that it’s impossible to hate. Every character stands out in their own way and even the creepier ones have something intriguing or enjoyable. In an plot fuelled by alcohol and coincidences lies deep and interesting explorations of topics of love and life.
Something that is very noticeable about this animated film is the animation style itself. In some way it’s a very different look to a “standard” anime style. Whether it’s down to the budget or an entirely intentional stylistic difference the animation in The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl is more fluid and less glossy. That’s not to say that the animation is entirely devoid of anime tropes with visualizations of intensely emotional declarations and over dramatic romantic monologues. Throughout the film the visuals tend to match the feelings as opposed to the settings. On a worse film this would be annoying but it works well for The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl.
Throw away the linear logic of time and disregard the usual. Take an adventure into The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl that you’ll never forget or regret.
The Night is Short, Walk on Girl is out now!
