Gambo

Written and directed by Hiroaki Ando from an original story by Katsuhito Ishii (Redline), Gambo tells the story of Gambo, a white polar bear who defends a young child from a royal family against a bloodthirsty demon that wants to harvest young women to re-produce more demons by getting them pregnant. Gambo is brutal. No, I'm not kidding. By reading the synopsis, you're probably thinking it's a really dumb story but trust me, it is damn good and ends with the most bloodiest fights in anime films by far. Plus, the art in Gambo looks beautiful and the designs are top notch (the demon, in ... particular, looks pretty f*cking boss) and the music is heart-pounding. What can you say but GO GAMBO!!!

It's only 11 minutes long so my review will be brief as well. The story takes place a few hundred years before our time, in Japan. I found Gambo very powerful and raw. The action was bloody, but not excessively gore either.

The battle scenes themselves are what you'd expect between a bear and a giant Oni type of monster : claws, bites, punches. No fluffy moves.

I highly recommend this one for those who like straight to the point action.

The art was ok. The character development wasn't something that could be fit in such a short piece, but it was satisfying to ... me.

7/10 overall enjoyment

Short Peace is a multimedia project composed of four short anime films produced by Sunrise and Shochiku, and a video game developed by Crispy's Inc. and Grasshopper Manufacture. The four films were released in Japanese theaters on July 20, 2013 and were screened in North America during April 2014. Sentai Filmworks have licensed the films for North America. The video game was released in January 2014 in Japan, April 2014 in Europe, and September 2014 in North America.

Gambo
Writing and Direction by Hiroaki Ando |
A mysterious white bear defends the royal family from the predations of a red demon. The story revolves around the lives of ... more than one character in particular – a Samurai, a Little Girl, a mysterious White Bear – who are linked to each other in one way or the other. The story depicts the understanding nature of both human and the animal hearts. The short film depicts the desire to fight for the righteousness and to protect the one who is important at any cost, in an uncompromising manner. The story also reflects the ignorant nature of human heart which makes oneself a pessimistic. In short, ‘a coin has two faces’ – has been well depicted in the short film. The animation and artwork are praiseworthy and the quality as a whole resembles that of ‘Possessions’.

Genre (s) – Tragedy | A subtle ending which involves both goodness along with a big deal of dreadfulness | Runtime – 24 minutes approximately (fractions excluded)