Makoto Shinkai's Short Films

I consider Makoto Shinkai one of the most interesting new anime directors. I've reviewed two of his full feature films, 5 Centimeters per Second (2007) and The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004), on this blog already. Finally I had the chance to watch his earlier work which consists of a bunch of short films he made mostly alone.

The first I saw (and clearly the best one) is called She and Her Cat, a story about a woman and her cat which unfolds in Shinkai's traditional fragmented way. The monochrome animation reaches the levels of beauty of Shinkai's later films even though he animated them all by himself. He manages to bring so much emotion into only 5 minutes and the film's form is almost impeccable in its wild editing (which reminded me of Hideaki Anno). Even though the short film relies on narration, it never feels artificial or off-putting - which happens usually when the narrator dominates the film. In short, it's probably the best animated short film I have ever seen.

The second one was called Other Worlds, a brief (a minute and a half) look at the lives of a couple. There is no sound apart from the use of Erik Satie's Gymnopedie, a composition that has become so clicheic recently, but Shinkai manages to make it really fitting. The sketchy, monochrome animation fits the mood of the short film although it's hardly as great as it is in She and Her Cat.

The third one is actually a music video (for a song called Egao (The Smile), but it is worth noting when you want to watch Shinkai's work. Shinkai's trademarks are hardly visible in this music video, but that might only be so because of the format. Some of the background animation certainly reminds me of his full feature films, but the mood and pacing of the music video are just weird for him - and you can notice that because the effort isn't as good as his other short films.

Scores:

She and Her Cat - 9 out of 10

Other Worlds - 8 out of 10

Egao - 7 out of 10

YouTube uploads of the short films:

She and Her Cat

Other Worlds

Egao

The Cat Piano

While reading /Film today, I found this article. By reading that article, I found this intriguing short film called The Cat Piano (2009). It is an 8-minute animated short film set in a world populated by cats. Its bebopesque, fantastic art direction is not the only interesting thing about it: the film is also narrated by none other than Nick Cave. There is no dialogue, but the poetic narration can be heard throughout the film. The entire film works like an epic poem, which is certainly interesting. Its form is ridiculously well thought and the world is easy to "get into". As much as I loved the narration, the film's content is a bit dry otherwise, but it works well in general. It is an impressive short film which I would recommend to anyone.

Score: 7 out of 10