An acrylic painting on wood panel, titled 'Short Peace', of a young woman in bear pajamas holding an umbrella tsukumogami that is shooting fireworks out of the end.

Short Peace

(2013, Shuhei Morita, Katsuhiro Otomo, Hiroaki Ando, Hajime Katoki)

For several years I’ve been frustrated with the current generation of anime being produced so I was ecstatic when Short Peace was shown in town. This is a collection of 4 short films from 4 directors and Sunrise Inc. I feel like each story was pretty generic with the purpose of using insane graphical techniques to give the stories more life. For example, in Combustible, Otomo tells a pretty common tale of forbidden love in feudal Japan, however, he uses amazing textures and the top-down perspective found in traditional Japanese paintings to really draw you in. Nearly all films also seem to have the message, “This is how to mix 3D modeling with 2D animation CORRECTLY, take notes!” Possessions in the biggest example of this. Fucking amazing.


A screenshot from the anime film 'Short Peace' of a traditional Japanese merchant being attacked by kimonos. An anime gif from the movie 'Short Peace' of a girl floating in the air and glitching out of existence. An anime screenshot of a traditional Japanese household in ukiyo-e view. From the film 'Short Peace'.

© 2013 - Sunrise