(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com. It would help support my work, and keeps the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this review!)
So, it’s been three years since I have started to review animated films! I keep missing the date that I started, which is September 11th, 2015. While I was not intentionally setting this review up to be the 3rd year special, I thought, why not? I will never get over how adventurous reviewing animated films has been. You simply don’t know at times what path a film will take you down. It’s might be fate that I choose the ones that I do, but I like being surprised, and one of the biggest surprises for me was The Night is Short, Walk on Girl. Directed by Masaaki Yuasa of Lu Over the Wall, Devilman Crybaby, and Mind Game fame, The Night is Short, based off of a book, sort of acts like a spiritual successor to the Tatami Galaxy, with multiple characters that show up in minor and major roles in this film. I mean, it’s not a coincidence that the same author wrote both Tatami Galaxy and The Night is Short. Some have said to watch Tatami Galaxy first, but to me, a film should work no matter if you know about the source material or not. Plus, the plot lines of both properties are highly unrelated. The surprise for me has been how much I have loved this movie. It’s been in my top five animated features for pretty much the entire year, with no real competition pushing it down on the list. Anyway, let’s dive in and see how long this night will go.
The film’s main protagonist is a college girl named, well, The Girl with Black Hair, voiced by Kana Hanazawa. She decides to, one night, see what adult life is like with heavy amounts of drinking, and seeing what path fate will take her down that night. While that is going on, she is being followed by a male student named Senior, voiced by Gen Hoshino. He thought that meeting up with her multiple times by what he considers coincidence, will show her that the two were meant for each other. As that goes on, multiple weird events happen, the two star-struck “lovers” meet interesting characters, and the night proves to be one full of mystery and wonder.
So, what’s good about this movie? Well, for one, while the plot is more of a thin piece of string holding all the events together, I was surprised at how invested I was with the overarching story. Seeing the two leads interact with other characters, and encountering nightly shenanigans, like a book festival, multiple stops for drinking, a rebellious theater group, and so on, lead to some enticing and captivating dialogue sequences. It shows the world that is seen through the eyes of cynicism and hope, how books and people are connected by one another, and how stupid Senior is for wanting to directly interact with the female lead. Yeah, let’s talk about the characters for a moment. I have seen the criticism of Senior for what is essentially stalking the female lead, and not really wanting to put the effort into actually getting to know her. Well, that is true, but the film knows that. His actions are never rewarded, until the end when he gets rid of all that nonsense. Any time he thinks he has found a way to indirectly make her his girlfriend/future wife, it’s instantly shot down. It’s not lampshading the situation either, which is smart, because it’s so easy to lampshade a toxic or bad habit with meta jokes, and the show or film being self-aware that their characters are honestly horrible. The other characters are simply fun and interesting to see, from two other college students that travel with the female lead, a loan shark with a three-story train, a man who won’t change his underwear until he finds the woman he crushed on ala love-at-first-sight, and the supposed God of the Used Book Market. The overall film is more like an experience of a night that takes many twists and turns, seeing the best and most cynical of human beings. It’s a story with plenty of great lines and very funny physical comedy that is more in the vein of the black and white film days, and less The Three Stooges.
On the animation side of things, The Night is Short is a visual treat. It has Masaaki Yuasa’s signature style, with not-so typical designs, wildly expressive movements, on-point physical comedic moments, and a vibrant color pallet. You can tell they also used different art styles at points where character models have solid colors. It’s a trippy look that gives you many memorable moments. As for the voice work, while I am sad that they never did a dub for this film, I don’t mind. You would have to wonder how they would have made certain scenes work, especially the singing sequences. Not to say you can’t, because Lu Over the Wall did it, but I think it was the right choice to make this one a sub-only film.
My major complaint with this film comes in the form of a certain reoccurring joke. It’s a common joke for most anime to have a boob grab joke, where the creep gets punched in the face for being a creep. I get that they instantly lampshade these jokes, and I know different cultures like different kinds of jokes, but this one needs to die in a ditch. It’s never funny, and it’s one of those anime tropes that keeps popping up, and it hurts the image of Japanese animation. It’s not like the rest of the humor in The Night is Short is like this, because it’s not. It simply sticks out among the great jokes and visual gags in the film. There is also a scene that may or may not intentionally come off as homophobic. I won’t spoil the scene in question, but it did make me raise my brow a little on how certain viewers might portray this scene.
The Night is Short, Walk on Girl is a fantastic animated film with a more adult lean. I highly recommend picking this film up when it comes out on Blu-ray and DVD. Masaaki Yuasa has put out a very impressive filmography, not counting his TV work. I can’t wait to see what else he comes up with. If you want to see a crazy and wildly imaginative animated film aimed more for older teens/adults, then check it out. I hope more of my future reviews are for films like this. Next time, I think it’s time to finally talk about a film I have been waiting for a year to watch, The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales. Thanks for reading! I hope you liked my review, and I will see you all next time!
Rating: Criterion/Essentials
The Other Side of Animation 