Psychological Anime

Where do I come From? What am I? Where am I going? Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? Life keeps traveling across the universe.

(Source: Official Website)

This film consists of 6 animated shorts produced by the Human Rights Commission of Korea. Like the previous movie, the stories deal with seeing the world through the eyes of people who are different from social norms. The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature in 2008 from the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

#1: "The Third Wish” (AN Dong-hui, RYU Jeong-wu). A fairy godmother appears before a visually impaired young woman to grant her three wishes. But this is no fairytale. The irritable middle-aged fairy wants to finish her job as soon as possible. Yet she proves to be helpful as she leads the woman through a busy marketplace, which is delightfully reminiscent of "Amelie". But it's no walk in the park, as busy urbanites show no consideration for our protagonist. Yet she prevails through obstacles. With a walking stick, she taps together the heels of her shiny new shoes and follows the "yellow brick road" (guiding tiles for the visually impaired) around the city.

#2: "Ajukari” (HONG Deok-pyo) is a street-style cartoon. It comically depicts how a certain macho "complex" can cripple men. Male circumcision becomes the ultimate standard for being "manly" and those who have failed to do the deed are forever fearful of going to public baths.

#3: "Baby" (LEE Hong-su, LEE Hong-min) portrays the difficulties a career woman faces in having a child. "I'm not saying you can't have maternity leave, but can you afford to raise a child while working?" asks her boss. This smart story portrays everything from mother and daughter-in-law relationships to a parody of "Tazza: The High Rollers" and hilarious episodes where an "ambulance bus" picks up several patients en route.

#4: "Shine Shine Shining" (KWON Mi-jeong) is drawn like a warm, watercolor storybook for children. Grade schooler Eun-jin is smart and popular, but she has a secret. She hides her curly hair, which she gets from her Filipino mother, in braids.

#5: "Merry Golasmas" is an adorable claymation, or stop motion animation of models constructed from clay, plasticine, etc. It explores physical discrimination or stereotypes. In an open audition to find a Santa Claus, the real Santas ― one who's black, another who's Asian, a female Santa and one in a wheelchair ― lose to a fake Santa, a pot-bellied, Caucasian.

#6: “Lies" explores homosexuality. Drawn in pastel-like sketches with art deco-esque details, it is a stunning digital cut-out animation, A homosexual man is forced by his parents to marry a woman, while others are pressured to fake having a girlfriend or receive "therapy" to become straight.

(Source: The Korean Times)

Six animated shorts about discrimination and being different.

#1: "Daydream" talks about dealing with people with disability. It homes in on the daily life of a father with a daughter whose hands and feet are deformed.
#2: "Animal Farm" relies on the rough-and-ready feel of stop-motion clay animation to create a satire of bullying and mob dynamics.
#3: "At Her House" paints a devastating picture of gender inequality within a marriage.
#4: "Flesh and Bone" gently pillories superficiality and the obsession with outward appearance.
#5: "Bicycle Trip" focuses on the discrimination experienced by foreign workers in Korea.
#6: "Be a Human Being" looks at the way young Koreans are barely treated as human beings before they get to university.

(Source: ANIWEBLOG | ASIANDB | Jeonju)

Graduation work in Tama Art University Department of Graphic Design.

Okamoto Tadanari short film.

An ordinary college girl is sucked into the frenetic job hunting, where all her friends dive into with dog-eat-dog vigor and crazed ambition. A potent look at one of Japanese social phenomenon with a dose of black humor.

Graduate Work 2012, Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media.

(Source: Geidai Animation)

Animated music video for the song Shinya Haikai by Shannon feat. GUMI.

Music video directed and animated by goru for the song Choudai na by MIMI featuring Okiishi.

Professional climber Choi Se-hyeon, who got recovered from a car accident recently, discovers that she is pregnant just before the Climbing World Championships. As her long-time aspirations are threatened, she struggles to break free from the duties of motherhood. However, at the same time, she receives text messages from 'herself' who seems to have been through a quite different life after the car accident. And most importantly, she wants to keep her baby.

(Source: IMDB)

Set in a cave imagined as an air-raid shelter, images of the surrounding trees are painted over directly on the film. Vivid colors intermixed with the sound of wartime radio communications and bombing create a harmonious composition of documentary and animation.

(Source: Collaborative Cataloging Japan)

Graduate Work 2017 from Rina Okada, Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Department of Animation.

Hold up minerals and natural stones to the sunlight. Search for the shapes where light shines through and the shapes of shadows. The process of a small spot gradually finding its own form.

(Source: Geidai Animation)

Experimental animation by artist and illustrator Manabe Hiroshi, member of the Animation Sannin no Kai pioneer group of independent animation.

Regarding the destruction of the world, the light relation between the world and me.

A hard rain is about to fall on a small town in Southern China. In a desperate attempt to find money to save his fiancée’s failed plastic surgery, Xiao Zhang, a mere driver, steals a bag containing 1 million from his boss. News of the robbery spreads fast within the town and, over the course of one night, everyone starts looking for Xiao Zhang and his money.

(Source: Metacritic)

Using the constellation as a motif, the heavens and the earth, metamorphose all the creatures. An animated 16 mm short film.

Music video directed by tentoten for the song Seimei Ouka by NEE.

Experimental short movie by Takashi Itou.

Short film by Yoriko Mizushiri.