[Anime Review] Short Peace - The 2013 Sunrise Flex

Sunrise (and now Bandai Visuals) are a studio I haven’t followed much. I’ve never been a huge mecha Anime watcher (less lack of interest and more a feeling of dread at staring at the sheer vastness of content available), so I don’t seek anything specific from the studio. I just turn on what interests me and Short Peace just happens to be produced by them.

There will possibly be light spoilers in this review. I would highly recommend (heavy emphasis on) watching through the hour and ten minute runtime before reading further. Welcome to my review.

What This Film Is

The official synopsis and promotional materials call this a compilation of four separate films. That is true but there is a fifth shorter film that introduces the compilation in a pretty similar (but not stop motion way) as how almost every film and OVA in the Garden of Sinners series did it. I won’t talk about that franchise here, but I will briefly talk about that cold open and each of the four shorts in this compilation below.

What This Film Isn’t

This is not one fully cohesive experience with an overarching plot. The films can probably be watched in any order without anything truly lost or confusion inducing due to how they only loosely reference each other. It’s also not for children. Films 3 and 4 do both have elements that might make a few audiences feel horribly uncomfortable. Again, I’ll talk about these below.

Introduction

According to different sources, this 3 minute short doesn’t seem to have a set official name. I’ve seen Short Peace Special, Short Peace Other and the Beginning online. If you know the official name, feel free to comment below. Thanks.

This short seems to take place during or after Film 4 as the background ruins and slight bit of technology shown implied. The character designs and overall vibe of this short were such a departure from most of what came afterwards. The stand out star of the experience was the audio work. The entirety of the compilation past this point did not disappoint in this aspect.

This story I felt was the weakest, though. There’s almost no plot to speak of and the animation quality and visual style felt the least refined. The character movements and animations felt very stiff, the girl’s facial features lacked the details shown in the rest of the shorts, and the white rabbit didn’t quite seem of the same world. These don’t mean it was terrible. Lower quality but better than many Anime series out today is still impressive. And impressed I was with how this didn’t overstay its welcome and was a solid introduction.

Tsukumo (Film 1)

This short was personally my favorite in terms of visual presentation and general vibe. The way it started reminded me heavily of some of the older Resident Evil games: the backgrounds and foregrounds were prerendered, layered still shots of forest, hills and a singular temple in the distance. The stand out elements were the main character, an unnamed wanderer, and his pack. I was a huge fan of the cel shaded, stylized 3D Borderlands game series look on display here.

The temple was where most of the story took place. I loved how they handled each room and their denizens (posessed objects with some light puzzle box elements and small hints about who this wanderer really was; seriously pay attention to tiny details related to his pack and various sound cues for that context). The DVD cover showed that this one film one several awards at Anime venues, and I can believe it. The ending was a treat for me too. After finishing, I felt excited for the rest of the films.

Hi no Youjin (Film 2)

The transition to and presentation of this short were where this one shined the most. The vast majority of it continued the pre-rendered visuals of the previous short but was shown from a top-down isometric perspective (think most of the Diablo series of games for an example) on a living tapestry.

All of the characters were painted, almost hand drawn 3D models using an advanced version of what was used prior with solid composition work. The story was also more straightforward. One of the rooms in the first film was based on this short in its puzzle design. It had a large cast of characters and the few important ones, despite not having much screentime, were well fleshed out. The conclusion was also left somewhat open ended for all but the main heroine, leaving me wanting more in that style. There were other touches that impressed me, but I’ll leave those for your discovery (if you haven’t seen yet).

Gambo (Film 3)

This short was honestly my least favorite. The cel shaded style and 3D model usage from the first one returned but felt a bit unpolished. The characters were very detailed but less realistic in proportions, there was a penciled-in shading on the edges of everything and both the White Bear and the red Ogre had jarring moments of weird facial features and expressions. I saw eyeballs protruding out of the rest of the face on the bear in several scenes and the ogre’s face and body stiffly moved despite its massive size and heavily toned musculature. Both definitely took me out and were very noticeable.

I watched this at an overnight coffee shop; I slightly regretted that due to these next parts. The amount of blood shown and nudity was excessive and long shown in the small handful of scenes they appeared in. There’s also a very gross scene about halfway through that could possibly be classified as body horror due to its heavy implications. This film was most definitely not safe for work and possibly the one I could tell someone to skip if I knew they would not be able to stomach the material.

I do think this film belongs in the compilation and do believe it was worth my watch, mind you. The sound work and background details were where it shined above the other two. The bear sounded like I imagined a massive monster of a beast would sound. The Ogre didn’t sound like a massive humanoid but a truly demonic, otherworldly being.

Instead of being in mostly one singular location, there was a bit of variety here ranging from a fresh, comforting field of flowers by a flowing river to a snow drenched mountain side. There was also a direct connection with the fourth film that most people will probably miss on a first viewing. This was another story that I’d love for further exploration of in the future.

Buki yo Saraba (Film 4)

Outside of the introduction, this short was the only one that was mostly hard science fiction. I was a bit middle of the road on this one, though. It wasn’t that terrible but felt very derivative and reliant on tropes and references to Western post apocalyptic stories.

Examples: A small rag tag team of men traversed a desert wasteland listening to an approximation of American classic rock anthems. Their code names and dog tags looked cool. The team is out to salvage weaponry and materials left over from the aftermath of a world war. The story was also another straightforward one that would be mostly predictable to veterans of similar works.

Outside of the vehicles, the suits the main characters wore and the machines they fought, the vast majority of the short used a more traditional 2D animation style that reminded me a bit of Cowboy Bebop prefilm. I appreciated the camera work and multiple perspectives used throughout. I also felt that the enemies were well designed and menacing. The ending was also worth briefly mentioning in the next section.

Light Spoilers Incoming; Skip to My Closing Thoughts Below If An Issue

What was mostly a dark tale of the end of times for a group of former soldiers ended with an amazing and equally as dark joke that also would make this not safe for public consumption (due to male genitalia being on display despite being barely and comically badly censored in the version I watched). I will never not be a fan of rug pulls when done well and this one just had me rolling with how twisted it was: the reason the machines were hostile was implied self-preservation and a single man was left alive completely stripped of all clothing and deemed harmless after his entire squad was completely taken out in mostly gruesome ways. The flyer and offering of assistance by the final machine was wonderful.

My Closing Thoughts

As a whole, Short Peace was an experience that I’m glad I had. It felt less like a true series of short stories and more like a way for Sunrise to just show off their talents and cool technology with a big movie budget to boot. I’m glad that HiDIVE recently added it to their lineup and wouldn’t have seen or heard of it otherwise. I also know that younger me would have mostly enjoyed it as much when it released. My love of abstract art pieces is one element that may never die off.

There was one more story released in the form of a tie-in video game released for the PlayStation 3 in all regions but I know very little about it. According to Wikipedia, it came with all four films as a bonus disc (minus the short opening) and is considered the definitive way to consume them. Someday, I may check it out but that’s beside the point.

What were your thoughts on this project? Have you seen anything similar? Leave your comments below, vote and reblog if you enjoyed reading my review. Thanks and have a wonderful rest of your day.

Important Info

• Mixed between adaptations and original works
• Studios: Sunrise (Anime); Grasshopper Manufactures / Bandai Namco (Video Game)
• Genres: Science Fantasy Anthology
• Seasons / Episodes: Summer 2013 (Theatrical Release); Winter 2013 (Video Game release)
• Recommended Watches: Memories (similar compilation film series with a heavier focus on Science Fiction); Wave, Listen to Me (criminally underrated Sunrise series about radio shock jockies with a twisted humor that the final film reminded me of)