Le Typhon de Noruda

An animated short with sleek animation is nothing new when considering Studio Colorido. But the problem here is that Typhoon Noruda plot was not made to be developed in only twenty and something minutes. It's like you took any of director Mamoru Hosoda films and compressed it to one quarter of its original runtime. The initial ruse between the two boys is never really explored beyond its immediate consequences, even if it hints deeper personal reasons, the sobrenatural threat is never explained beyond the "your world is in danger" to have any impact or sense of urgency, and the characters don't have enough time to broke out from the spectrum of anime cliches. If I said that Azuma is the sad boy with long, brown hair, Saijo is the angry boy with short, dark hair, and Noruda the mysterious "out-of-this-world" girl, I have given you all their characterization in this film. Not that this short is bad. Its animation is good and some of its shots are pretty noteworthy. But it falls short of any bigger impact it seemingly wanted to have. Neither a typhoon or a wind, this short is simply a brief breeze, that will pass thought you without lefting any lasting impression. So, why Sentai Films decided to release it in Blu-ray and even give it its own dub, its beyond me. Funnily enough, when production of Typhoon Noruda was first revealed, it was originally announced as a feature-length film. To fill in time when shown in Japanese theaters, Typhoon Noruda was presented as a double feature together with other short of the studio, "Hinata no Aoshigure". Incredibly, said short-film manages to better developed its unpretentious story and have more exuberant animation in its few 17 minutes, than Typhoon Noruda.

This is okay for a brief "when you have nothing better to do" anime short. But it is all fluff with no substance. There is a story without a plot, no explanation given as to why things are happening or who is at the center of it. As such it feels more like a 28 minutes trailer than an actual feature. Too short for a movie, this has the trappings of a single episode of an anime series... without the series. The animation isn't special, the story is almost non-existent, and the ending fairly unsatisfying. It's like being invited to dinner and fed potato chips as the main course.

This is fine if you have absolutely nothing better to do, but it's all fluff with no real substance. The so-called 'story' has no plot, and the movie never bothers to explain why anything is happening. Who is the girl? Why is she important? What's the point of all this? It feels like a 28-minute trailer for a full anime series... except the series doesn't exist. The characters are empty, the animation is decent but nothing special, and the ending is completely unsatisfying. By the time it ends, you're left wondering why you even watched it. It's like being invited to a fancy dinner, only to be served plain potato chips. If you're looking for a meaningful or engaging anime, this isn't it.

The emotional moments fall flat, it takes itself way too seriously and even the visuals are underwhelming. Altough I must say I really liked the music.

I think this would've worked better as a full lenght feature.

It could've fleshed out the boring characters and their boring baseball freindship, and made some of the more absurd elements of the story less jarring.