Tokyo Loop

16 short films, and I thought I might as well review and rate each one briefly.

1. Tokyo Strut Rating: 7/10 Breaks animation down to its bare essentials, but it's admittedly cool what you can do with little more than sticks and dots. Dug the music, too.

2. Tokyo Trip Rating: 4/10 Frustrating. Some images look cool on their own, but there's no rhyme or reason to what's shown here. I know this didn't come out of nowhere, but it feels that way, and not in a good way. Closest thing to improvised animation I've ever seen, for what that's worth.

3. Fishing Vine Rating: 6/10 Do we live in a society, or the Garden of Eden, or a mid-2000s indie rock music video? Or all three at once, somehow? I might hear the music for this one in my nightmares.

4. Yuki-chan Rating: 6.5/10 The first short in the Tokyo Loop anthology movie had such nice music, and then all the others so far have sounded like nightmares. Yuki-chan also looks like a nightmare, by the way.

5. Dog & Bone Rating: 7.5/10 That's just life, dawg. (I also don't know why, but this one felt very familiar)

6. Public Convenience Rating: 6/10 Felt genuinely nauseous after this one.

7. TOKYO Rating: 5/10 Pretty enough, but it's not great when something's only a few minutes long and still feels like it wears out its welcome.

8. Black Fish Rating: 6.5/10 Black Fish makes most of the other Tokyo Loops look conventional by comparison. It's almost entirely abstract until the second half, when discernible images start appearing in flashes. The effect was pretty cool.

9. Unbalance Rating: 7.5/10 Tetsuo: The Iron Man + the Take On Me music video + the poster for The Frighteners + Inland Empire = Unbalance. This seems to be the best-known short film from the Tokyo Loop anthology film, and, if so, fair enough.

10. Tokyo Girl Rating: 6/10 With this and Unbalance, the Tokyo Loop anthology film seems to be moving away from animation a little, though Tokyo Girl is made up of live-action shots with animation occurring over/on top of it. It feels like an almost pleasant daydream compared to some of the nightmares that came before it. This whole project continues to throw me for a Loop (of the Tokyo variety).

Penguin.

Music sounds as if Air and Boards of Canada had a baby.

11. A Manipulated Man Rating: 5.5/10 I didn't know what to make of it, but if it was intended to make me feel mildly anxious, then mission accomplished.

12. Nuance Rating: 6.5/10 Puts the emphasis on the Tokyo part of Tokyo Loop more than the Loop part. Made me feel kind of sad, despite all the color.

13. Hashimoto Rating: 6/10 If there's one place in Japan that smells more strongly of cigarette smoke than the Studio Ghibli HQ, it's the train station in this short.

14. Funkorogashi Rating: 6.5/10 **** happens.

15. Fig Rating: 7.5/10 This one looks and sounds particularly cool. It's a highlight from Tokyo Loop for sure.

16. 12 O'Clock Rating: 6/10 Feels appropriately like a denouement for Tokyo Loop, and it's interesting to contrast with the minimalism and starkness of the first segment, Tokyo Strut. 12 O'Clock has a kind of ugly sheen to it, but again, that feels intentional. It's not great on its own, but it's interesting within the context of this anthology film for closing the Loop.

Overall, this is a pretty good anthology film. You have some misses of course, but there are more hits. It's a lot to take in all at once, but worthwhile for anyone who likes weird/experimental animation.

As for highlights: Tokyo Strut, Dog & Bone, Black Fish, Unbalance, Funkorogashi, and Fig.