Anime Midnight Matinee: Kakurenbo This is an artistic short film that I’ve honestly never heard of, but reading the description on Tubi it sounds interesting. A group of children decide to play a game of hide-and-seek in an abandoned city and get chased by demons. I’m not really sure what to expect, this might be a horror anime or maybe an action anime? The title page looks pretty cool, so I’m going to try it out. I don’t watch many small studio or art films, I just like the animation and stories I watch to be a little more polished than most small studios tend to have. Also, too artistic stories sometimes go right over my head, so hopefully this won’t be too avant-garde. Well, I’m definitely going into this one blind, hopefully it’s a good one! First ImpressionsThe animation wasn’t great. It was computer generated animation, which I’m not really a fan of, and it did have the bobble head problem (a issue computer generated characters seem to have where the person’s head is constantly bobbing, floating, or nodding) a feature of computer animation that I find extra annoying. Though I’m not a fan of the animation style, I did like the character design. It looked similar to Naruto character styles, with similar costumes and aesthetic. The background designs were very nice, a cross between ancient pagoda town and a modern abandoned urban landscape. From the very beginning of the film, the look and mood of the anime was dark and foreboding. This is definitely a light horror film, which I’m absolutely a fan of. In fact, I really liked the story of this film. It was nicely creepy without being gory, using jump scares, urban lore, and creepy settings to great effect. Though the film was short, it still did a great job expressing a good ghost story. The StoryLike a classic Japanese ghost story, it starts with kids sharing a rumor about a creepy place that their friends just have to check out. Dun dun dun! The rumor goes that seven kids have to gather at this abandoned city nearby, and if they play hide-and-seek there someone will disappear! So of course a group of kids have to try it out, what could possibly go wrong? Though at first it seems that everyone is there just for a thrill, as the kids start talking to each other it becomes clear that not everyone is there for adventure. One of the boys is there to rescue the lost kids that have already disappeared. He knows that the story is more than just a rumor. His little sister played there and already disappeared, so he’s going in with the group to find the lost children and get them back out again. Of course, not everyone is altruistic either. There is a bully that’s going in just to show his lackys how tough he is. Too bad for the lackys that they quickly learn their “boss” is more than willing to sacrifice them, to save his own neck. There is also a pair of mysterious twins that won’t speak to anyone, yet move in perfect time with each other. As if they’ve had training, cough, cough, demon hunter training? Though the legend says that seven children have to play, there are eight that want to go in. No one is interested in being left behind, and there doesn’t seem to be anything stopping an extra kid from entering the city, so all eight of them enter. Very quickly the kids branch off to explore the empty city, moving in groups of two or three, and at first everything appears pretty normal, just regular shops and alleys. The only thing off is that there’s no people there. But as the kids look around they find odd wooden statues tucked into alleys or perched in doorways, places where they don’t belong, and all of these statues are of demons. Then creaking sounds of wooden joints start to follow some of the children. Just out of their eye sight they hear rumbling as if something heavy is moving on the next street over, but they can’t catch sight of it. Then, screams are heard in the alleys where the children are playing, and one by one, kids start disappearing. As the story reveals what is actually going on in the abandoned city and the fate of the lost children, the one heroic boy finds out that the worst fate of all, might be held for the child that wins hide-and-seek. I really loved this story, it was wonderfully creepy. I’m totally going to re-watch it for Halloween. In ConclusionSo did I like this movie or would I watch it again? Yeah, I think I would. I still don’t like the animation style, but the story was good enough that I can give that part a pass. The computer generated animation wasn’t that annoying, and most of the time the setting was so dark I hardly noticed. The story was nicely creepy and had that wonderful children’s ghost story vibe, and the setting really made the story come to life. I really wish this film could have been a bit longer, the 25 minute run time couldn’t really give much background story on the characters nor show much character depth or development. With how rich the environment of the story and the interesting hints of the characters, I really think there was enough material to build on that this could have been a longer film. #anime #animeMidnightMatinee #animeMovies #horrorAnime #Japan #JapaneseCulture #kakurenbo #paranormalAnime #scaryAnime