Short Peace Theatrical Anime Review

In approaching anthology anime over the years, I’ve come to expect a bit of variety to the material at hand. Some the stories presented are largely straightforward or methodical like The Cockpit or The Animatrix. Others feel more metaphorical such as Memories or Neo-Tokyo. In fact… Neo Tokyo comes very much to mind when I think of the structure and one of the stories in the anthology anime Short Peace, which I had the pleasure of taking a date to see.

This new film presented by Katsuhiro Otomo of Akira fame, starts off with a teen girl walking into a strange menagerie picture show. Directed by Koji Morimoto (Digital Juice) The colorizations are a bit psychedelic in nature and may take a bit getting used to. The whole sequence makes for a heck of an introduction of the stories we’re about to see. It’s very much like Neo Tokyo opening with the warped view of a strange cat-girl and her pet going to see a show at a traveling circus, though those colorings stay constant whereas Short Peace tackles the full rainbow spectrum.

Then we get to the first of the four stories presented. The one entitled “Posessions” shows a clothing maker who runs into various forms of fabric tat are each possessed by a spirit of some kind and makes said items a bit challenging to work with at times. Much like the next two, this segment was a bit strange to get used to but lighthearted relatively. My date liked this one best I suspect in part because she used to cosplay and can probably relate to it a little, and I’m betting other similar hobbyists may follow suit.

The next one is called “Combustible,” about a massive fire that threatens to engulf a single village during older Meiji-styled times. I honestly couldn’t get into this one as much as the others, I’m afraid, even though Otomo himself directed this segment. I may have to look at it again at a future viewing to see if I missed something preventing a better review.

Following this was “Gambo,” which again is in feudal Japan and focuses on a strange creature that comes out repeatedly to snatch women from a nearby village for rather nefarious purposes. At the same time though, a groupof armed men go after a Gambo, which is a special white bear which we come to learn has a more noble and human spirit than anyone realizes. After a plea from a small child, he runs off to deal with the problem at hand. This was the bloodiest of the four segments, and my date later advised everyone not to eat while watching it. Overall it was a pretty solid story with art that not as detailed as one might think it might be but there are good defining shapes on screen.

The final one entitled “Farewell To Arms” was my favorite of the lot and in a bit of a jarring move, goes war into a high tech future where war has seemingly decimated local populations. We’re introduced to several weapons disposal soldiers who wind up with the unenviable task of shutting down an unmanned mecha running amok with full weaponry. In one sense, seeing this was like the ending of Neo Tokyo’s segment The Order To Stop Construction, but this one is far more brutal and hard hitting. Anyone who knows me, will understand I’m a product of the 80s real robot era (Robotech, Zeta Gundam L-Gaim, etc) so this sequence was a total treat to watch. With the combination of fast paced events and high-tech detail displayed here, it fells like a cross between the opening sequences of Patlabor movie 2 and The Hurt Locker. Thanks to director Hajime Katoki (mech designer for multiple Gundam shows, as well as the aforementioned Patlabor 2), we’re treated to a serious sci-fi story with one of the craziest endings I’ve ever seen in an anime. My date and I just looked at each other and said “… What the hell did we just watch?”

We saw Short Peace as it travelled the country and seeing it on a big theatrical screen really did bring the beauty of the animation out in full. Also, as an old school anime fan, it was nice to see Emotion’s newest introduction sequence returning to the times when you’d see the stone Easter Island heads animated around a bit with 80s new age music in the background. This made for a fun experience overall and I’m looking forward to owning this movie on blu ray first chance I get.

Recently, I got to see this movie again during Anime Expo, this time with the English dub track. It was a decent enough set of performances with talents such as Luci Christian, Jason Douglas, Monica Rial, Cynthia Martinez and many others, but they didn’t resonate with me as much during the segments taking place in historical Japan. The Japanese voices felt more natural during those stories. I was able to get more from the futuristic Farewell To Weapons though, where English voices didn’t feel so out of place and I had the best time experiencing that segment again at Anime Expo.

Something told me that folks were going to like this movie and it turned out I was right as the blu rays and DVDs disappeared from Sentai Filmworks’s booth shortly after the con screening, like they were inhaled or freebased or something. As to the blu ray itself, the picture quality looked immaculate and the audio was clear and nice. I’d have liked more extras on it besides the trailer but on the other hand, it’s convenient that one can select a specific segment to play on the disc if they don’t want to watch the whole film just then. My only complaint about this movie is that it’s entirely too short and I want more. Other than that, it looks like Short Peace will be another quality purchase for anime fans to grab.

Grade: A-