Totsukuni no Shoujo

Let not an Outsider touch thee,
Lest thou shalt be cursed forever.

Once upon a time, in a land far away that was divided into two realms...
The Outside was roamed by teratomorphic creatures who had the power to curse whoever they touched. Humans could live safely only in the Inside. But when a lost little girl from the Inside named Shiva, and a demonic beast-looking Outsider simply known as "Teacher" initiate a quiet coexistence on the same side of the forest, their bond seems to transcend their incompatible natures. It is the beginning of a folktale about two outcasts -one human, one inhuman- who linger in the hazy twilight that separates night from day.

(Source: Production I.G)

Teacher Main

Shiva Main

Headless Outsider Supporting

Ueda, Youko Producer

Kubo, Yuutarou Director, Script, Storyboard

Maiya, Satomi Director, Script, Storyboard, Key Animation

Nagabe Original Creator

Reviews

Dec 12, 2025

AeroGunz

Recommended

“The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún” is what happens when you priorities story and not plot.

I am a fan of fairy tales. Something that for some reason many people don’t believe. I haven’t read the source material of this short but I will now. But, I have a rule of reviewing something as it’s own creation. If something has a prequel or sequel but it’s in a different medium or a different season of a show I will not take that into account. So I will review the plot and story of “The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún” as ... it is. I’m also autistic so if there is any sort of symbolism here then I probably missed it. Sorry not sorry.

I actually recently decided to change the definition of “Plot” and “Story” that I use.
If You want to know what definitions I used previously just check any of my recent reviews.
But from now I will use these definitions:
PLOT are the surface level events. What, when, where, how and why (externally) things are happening.
STORY is why (internally) things are happening and what internally happens to the character during the plot.

This short reminded me of “The Ancient Magus' Bride” just replacing the romantic subplot with a guardian type one and having a very fairy tale vibe. A young girl lives with a humanoid magical creature that has the power to mutate other living creatures into twisted, evil looking beasts. He doesn’t seem to have control of it though. I can’t say I hate it, I actually enjoyed the form and the fact that there are no spoken words.

The plot is actually mundane. We see the creature and the girl prepare food, read books and watch start. Nothing that would scream action. At least on the surface. The creature obviously cares about the girl. He takes precocious not to touch her. It’s actually left in the air if his touch would mutate her or not. Maybe her touch would mutate him? We don’t know and it’s not really important. What is important is his reaction when he sees the girl gone from the armchair he left her in. He’s obviously distraught, seen by the fact that he spilled the liquid he prepared for her, and he rushes to find her.

The girl obviously lived with this creature for some time judging by the fact that she doesn’t flinch when he’s near and accepts food from him. The doors doesn’t seem to be locked so if she really wanted to escape I doubt she had much trouble with that. But she stays and doesn’t seem unhappy. She does have a nightmare about another dark creature and being mutated but she deals with that pretty fast.

The last scene is actually pretty sad and does pull on your heartstrings as a culmination of everything we saw up to that point. We see that the creature wants to hold her. Hug her. We see him doing that and nothing happens to the girl. But it’s revealed that it was just the reflections on water moving. I am curious whose head was that projection from. The creature, the girl or both?

For a 10 minute short it achieves what most anime can’t do in 12 episodes. It made me actually curious about the MCs and it even made me care about their relationship and circumstance.

Do I think this is a masterpiece?
No. Not even close. The writing is too obscure for that. I have more questions than answers and that really annoys me. Even fairy tales take time to explain themselves most of the time.
But do I think this is something worth your time?
Yes. It’s a nice, short, competent tale that uses buildup the right way to deliver the final gut punch at the very end.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by AeroGunz (159)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Feb 13, 2025

_Bubassotto_

Recommended

The Girl on the Other Side is a curious work. I first came into contact with the work through Brazilian YouTuber Danael Fernandes, who reviews works in general. At first, I thought the character he used was an OC of his, but over time I learned that it was the Sensei of this work and finally I wanted to see what it was about.

This 2019 animation is like a one-shot of the 2022 one (I haven't seen the 2022 one yet), but I feel that it treats the original work differently because it is a very short version of the work, only 10 minutes long.

I ... really liked the fact that there is no dubbing in this animation, it makes us feel what the characters feel through the background music/sound, which made me very focused on watching the work. Another point that I really liked was the animation that is characteristic of the work.

Overall I liked what the work presented in this short period of time and I expect great things for the 2022 version.

=================================================================================================================Versão em Português=====================================

A garota do outro lado é uma obra curiosa, tive meu primeiro contato com a obra por meio do Youtuber brasileiro Danael Fernandes que faz reviews de obras em geral, de início achei que o personagem que ele utilizava era um OC dele mas com o tempo soube que se tratava do Sensei dessa obra e por fim tive a vontade de ver do que se tratava.

Essa animação de 2019 é como se fosse uma one-shot da de 2022 (não vi a de 2022 ainda) mas sinto que ela trata de forma diferente a obra original por ser uma versão bem curta da obra com apenas 10 minutos de duração.

Gostei muito do fato de não ter dublagem nessa animação, faz com que a gente sinta o que os personagens sentem através da musica/som de fundo, isso me deixou muito focado em ver a obra. Outro ponto que gostei muito foi a animação característica da obra.

Em geral eu gostei do que a obra apresentou nesse curto período de tempo e espero grandes coisas para a versão de 2022.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by _Bubassotto_ (161)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Nov 27, 2024

darknessAlike

Not Recommended

Funny

This is one of a kind blank canvas on a museum wall.

If you are the kind of person that can see art in anything, you'll be amazed by this anime. It's going to tingle your imagination, because blantly, there's no story. As for me, I'm just a normal human being, not some kind of artistic genious, so in my mind this anime wasted my time.

Art was unusual for anime genres, and many people will find it beatiful. Happily for them, the art stays consistent. So if you're an artistic genious that will enjoy the story (that is barely there), this kind of art will be ... a great addition to that.

It was a short movie, and while it didn't manage to portray much story, it did manage to bring up a ton of questions. About what the hell is going on. And as a typical, art, it want you to imagine the answers to these questions by using your imagination. I'm sure you artistic types will eat this shit up like ice cream on a sunny day, on the beach.

For anyone non-artistically inclined, save your time.

Thanks for reading~

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by darknessAlike (3)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Silence is Loud

by DeadBored

40 Entries · 78 Restacks

Wholesome & emotional

by Christy3001

22 Entries · 22 Restacks

Short Films to Satisfy Short Attention Spans

by NoelleIsSleepy

31 Entries · 105 Restacks

Manga 'Totsukuni no Shoujo' Receives Feature-Length OVA

Production company Twin Engine announced a feature-length original video anime (OVA) for Nagabe's Totsukuni no Shoujo (The Girl From the Other Side: Siúi...read more

Mar 4, 2021 7:00 PM by Vindstot | Discuss (14 comments)

PV Collection for Sep 2 - 8

Here is a collection of promotional videos (PVs), TV ads (CMs), and trailers for the last week. This thread excludes videos that have already been featured in an art...read more

Sep 8, 2019 3:03 PM by Sakana-san | Discuss (4 comments)

	Poll: Totsukuni no Shoujo Episode 1 Discussion Tsarko - Sep 14, 2019	46 replies	by 4amtime »» Dec 19, 8:12 AM
	So this was underwhelming... sarazanmai - Sep 14, 2019	9 replies	by Phoenixfalconer »» Apr 25, 2022 2:24 PM
	how much does it cover from manga? BEEKAT - Dec 16, 2021	1 replies	by UnbakedToast »» Dec 16, 2021 2:54 PM
	Anime or manga Sorin-Skkkrrab - Aug 10, 2021	3 replies	by jessslyyyyy »» Aug 11, 2021 7:27 PM
	Will they maintain the manga art style? GENDSAMA - Jul 10, 2019	10 replies	by removed-user »» Sep 18, 2019 8:23 PM