Anime Review – The Night is Short, Walk on Girl

A bold young lady and her university colleague have an incredible adventure as they explore the wild and vivid Kyoto night life. – ANN

Release: Limited Theatrical Release. Available on disc from GKids January 29th, 2019.

Episodes: 1 (film)

Review: Please be aware that this review contains spoilers of the film.

There are some who say that the college years are the best years of a person’s life. While I disagree with that for the most part and wouldn’t trade my adulthood away for anything, I do believe there are certain things you can only get away with doing in your early 20’s. For me, those things involved staying up to all hours and then stumbling to class in the morning with no permanent consequences, eating all sorts of ridiculous junk food, and packing 8 or 9 people into one hotel room when traveling to out-of-town anime conventions. Looking back, it’s hard to see how my body and spirit were able to tolerate those things, but now that I think about it there was probably a little bit if youthful magic involved.

“Magical” is a good description for The Night is Short: Walk on Girl. The film takes place across one very magical, year-long evening. Its seasons pass by as often as the wind blows, bringing with them a bizarre cavalcade of characters, events, and encounters. At the center of this bustling cyclone of activity is a young woman, called “Kouhai” (effectively “underclassman”), youthful and full of energetic curiosity, who’s mostly on the lookout for a good time. Hovering at her periphery is a young man, “Senpai” (upperclassman), who’s smitten with her, but whose unskilled attempts to get closer and actually talk to her are thwarted by his own nervousness and lack of game. It’s only when he finally learns to behave like a normal human being, and she learns to pick up on her own feelings, that the two have any chance of forming a connection.

If the look of the film and its general premise feel somewhat familiar, there’s a reason; this film is based on a novel by Tomohiko Morimi who also authored The Tatami Galaxy, which received an anime adaptation several years ago. While the protagonists of this story are different, the similar setting, somewhat similar themes, and a few crossover characters, as well as the return of many key production staff members including Director Masaaki Yuasa, cause this film to feel like a spiritual sequel to that seminal but underrated TV anime. It’s enough of a continuity that those who loved Tatami Galaxy will likely get the warm fuzzies from seeing this film, but the story itself is different enough that it still feels like a brand new experience that could appeal to newcomers.

As a huge Masaaki Yuasa fan, I always marvel at how his skills and sensibilities as an animator continue to inform the unique visual storytelling style he brings to his directorial efforts. While character artist Yusuke Nakamura’s designs skew relatively tame in terms of human look and proportion (aside from Higuchi’s chin, which is its own entity all together), Yuasa’s own propensity towards portraying cartoonish and expressive bodily distortion helps to add visual flair in scenes that would benefit from it. Senpai’s quest to eat the spiciest food leaves his entire face swollen like a fish, and every time Kouhai (or any other character) takes a hearty gulp from their glass, their act of swallowing disrupts the very serenity of the rest of their body like a wave across the water. In the wrong hands these goofy visual tricks might be distracting, but much like Kunihiko Ikuhara’s wielding of absurd humor in even some of the darker moments in the anime he’s managed, here Yuasa puts this effect to judicious use.

As Yuasa mentions in a post-film interview (presented as bonus content at the film screening I attended), the story is stitched together from vignettes that are, in the original novel, focused on different characters. I think it’s a testament to his skill as a filmmaker, as well as the skills of those writing and adapting the script, that the story reads as a coherent whole while still allowing each quirky part of the story to revel in its own seasonality and pocket narrative. Both of the protagonists – the young woman and her spirited interactions, and the young man and his neuroses – serve as constants to tie everything together neatly.

As much as this film deals with some serious subject matter, the most notable of which is the general tendency for young people to eventually come into their own self-awareness kicking and screaming, it’s definitely an upbeat and fun film, with moments that I’d go so far as to call “joyous” in addition to being incredibly funny. There are a few in-jokes especially for fans of Tatami Galaxy; keep your eyes peeled for a minor character called the “God of the used-book fair,” who ought to be painfully familiar. Our favorite man of very refined romantic tastes, Jougasaki-senpai, also receives a call-out(if not a direct appearance). Beyond that, though, there’s a glowing core of more universal humor that’s based around the very absurdity of human behavior, including the very specifically naïve-but-earnest Kouhai’s strength of will, and the Senpai’s fever-induced inability to come to a decision (represented by a parliament full of full of clones inside his own head).

If I had to criticize some aspect of this film, I might point out that it owes quite a bit to its predecessor. As a huge fan of all of Yuasa’s work and The Tatami Galaxy specifically, this doesn’t bother me a bit, and like I said I imagine a lot of fans in a similar position to me would feel the same. But it is very interwoven in spirit with that fast-talking tribute to youthful indecision to the point where I feel like they are very complimentary to one-another, and for people new to this universe it might not feel quite so meaningful even if they find the film itself entertaining anyway.

I think my feelings about the film are best summed up by an experience I had in the theater before I had the chance to watch it. I was there with friends to see a different anime film, which was, unfortunately, pretty underwhelming. The theater itself actually felt a little sullen and stuffy to me, though that may have just been an illusion. Following that film’s conclusion, though, was a 2-minute sneak-peek of The Night is Short, Walk on Girl. The short preview, really just the first couple of minutes of the film, signaled such a change in the atmosphere of the room – people were actually laughing! – that it was almost hard to believe. The power of the humor and craftsmanship of this film were apparent in even that short amount of time.

There’s a scene in the film where the Kouhai gulps down her fill in a drinking contest, with imagery of blooming flowers and flying birds behind her. There’s a certain lightness and joy to it that really encapsulates what the film is all about to me. While I don’t doubt the thought and craft that went into bringing this animated movie to the screen, it’s the films inherent humor and joy that gives it the illusion of effortlessness that so many other anime productions lack. I think that in itself is a gift and the film itself a treasure – like a favorite old book, found at a book fair, and a person with whom to share it.

Pros: The humorous story is presented with visual and narrative style. There is a sense of joy surrounding the film that seems as though it would be difficult to manufacture.

Cons: The film is probably best watched as a companion piece to The Tatami Galaxy, though it’s certainly not a requirement.

Grade: A