The Night is Short, Walk On Girl (theatrical screening)
I'm a bit stuck for where to start with this.
I'm a massive fan of The Tatami Galaxy, you see, so this film is kind of a dream come true. I'd avoided learning anything about the film before going to see it, so had no idea just how much the two overlapped. All your favourite characters are back for a new adventure! (There's even a little cameo for the main three from the next Masaaki Yuasa feature Anime Limited are bringing us: Lu Over the Wall.)
The film starts good and just gets better and better as it goes on. I thought it was amazing how it even seems to play with the viewer's own sense of time: "There's no way you could get through all of this in a single night!" I caught myself gleefully thinking during the film; there's just too much packed in. But come the end, I couldn't believe that it really was only an hour and a half long: it fits an impossible amount into its running time! And without ever feeling cluttered at that.
The visual style is as wonderfully deranged as the plot — classic Yuasa — and the voice cast are on top form as well. Kana Hanazawa, who voices our main character, somehow manages to craft yet another voice performance that is uniquely this character and no other. How does she do it? I swear she's some kind of vocal alchemist or something! The music is very recognisably Tatami as well, right down to the end credits song by Asian Kung-Fu Generation, who also provided the opening theme for that series.
I'm already keeping everything crossed that Anime Limited are able to give this a home release on BD further down the line. I'm keen to see it again already!
Bonus ramble (CONTAINS SPOILER):
I'm a bit stuck for where to start with this.
I'm a massive fan of The Tatami Galaxy, you see, so this film is kind of a dream come true. I'd avoided learning anything about the film before going to see it, so had no idea just how much the two overlapped. All your favourite characters are back for a new adventure! (There's even a little cameo for the main three from the next Masaaki Yuasa feature Anime Limited are bringing us: Lu Over the Wall.)
The film starts good and just gets better and better as it goes on. I thought it was amazing how it even seems to play with the viewer's own sense of time: "There's no way you could get through all of this in a single night!" I caught myself gleefully thinking during the film; there's just too much packed in. But come the end, I couldn't believe that it really was only an hour and a half long: it fits an impossible amount into its running time! And without ever feeling cluttered at that.
The visual style is as wonderfully deranged as the plot — classic Yuasa — and the voice cast are on top form as well. Kana Hanazawa, who voices our main character, somehow manages to craft yet another voice performance that is uniquely this character and no other. How does she do it? I swear she's some kind of vocal alchemist or something! The music is very recognisably Tatami as well, right down to the end credits song by Asian Kung-Fu Generation, who also provided the opening theme for that series.
I'm already keeping everything crossed that Anime Limited are able to give this a home release on BD further down the line. I'm keen to see it again already!
Bonus ramble (CONTAINS SPOILER):
In the sequence leading up to Senpai's visit from The Girl with Black Hair, I have never seen anything so vividly convey the whole swirling, chaotic mess of thoughts, feelings, hopes, insecurities, contradictions and unanswerable questions that, you know, that stuff involves. It's like Yuasa putting the inside of your head right up there on screen. He's a genius.
