Part of life is exploring new things. I have never been drawn to anime or Japanimation, so I sought out this film as an experiment. After watching this, I can say that I am still not the audience for it. But I can see the appeal, especially here. The Night is Short, Walk on Girl does an exemplary job of capturing a feeling. With a masterful, almost classic Hollywood score and brilliant visuals, it tells the story of the mostly metaphysical if not wholly surreal journey of two young, college age people: an uptight, down on his luck boy and the titular girl, a carefree, impossibly charismatic character with an unquenchable thirst for life. Lots of funny stuff happens like a silly group line dance that reoccurs, meeting a character named Don Underwear who won't change his underwear, everyone gets a mysterious virus by the end and at points the film becomes a straight-up musical number. There are plenty of tropes and gender politics explored, though some of that is lost on me given the cultural differences. The most interesting stuff that seems to transcend language, etc. is the dissection of the chaos that is young adulthood. It can feel so hard to fit in. You drink too much, or not enough. Just landing on the right way to act moment to moment can be a perilous task. I've been there.
