Shishigari

Shishigari is a short film animated by studio durian, best known for lookback. It's about a boy surviving in the wilderness and the many things he goes through. While the plot is simple(both slice life, survival, and some action), it's still quite interesting to watch the strongest aspect is the art and animation as it's fairly high quality and aesthetic. The main lead character is a young boy, who is quite strong even though he's small. The boy is fairly simple, but you get used to him. I recommend this movie if you want a quick but entertaining watch.

Score-8/10

I remember stumbling upon a trailer for Shishigari shortly after watching Flip Flappers (another anime directed by Oshiyama), but for years I never heard anything else about it.

For a long time, I assumed that the project had been cancelled…until I recently found a Reddit thread linking to the short film. It had been uploaded to Studio DURIAN’s YouTube channel back in 2019, but unlisted (and therefore hard to find)!

I’m so glad I finally got to watch it, because the film really moved me for reasons I’ll try to explore here.

The short is only 17 minutes long, and the plot is relatively simple. There isn’t ... any dialogue, but there doesn't need to be; if you’ve seen Princess Mononoke, a lot of the imagery here is going to feel really familiar. Regardless, the animation in Shishigari has its own unique flare, playing quite loose with its linework and frame rate, giving the project a hand-crafted feel.

On its surface, this appears to be a straightforward tale of a child undertaking a rite of passage, but I feel like it does a great job of hitting home some key themes. The music, especially, helps to punctuate both the beauty and harshness of winter. The child’s triumphs are fleeting, undercut by the most basic and never-ending needs for food, warmth, and shelter.

Stories about life’s struggles and the necessity to keep moving forward are abundant, but that doesn’t mean they can’t still be meaningful. To pack a poignant punch like that into such a short runtime is pretty impressive, and it makes Shishigari a worthwhile watch, even if there isn’t anything too mind-blowing here.

Between Flip Flappers, Shishigari, and (more recently) Look Back, I feel that Oshiyama has really solidified himself as a director worth keeping an eye on. Hopefully we’ll get even more great anime directed by him in the future!

Review Português × English (below)

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Português

Todo mundo deveria assistir Shishigari!

Honestamente, eu não esperava gostar tanto desse curta-metragem. O encontrei procurando por mais sobre o diretor de Look Back, Kiyotaka Oshiyama. Pessoalmente, é um trabalho perfeito, espero que a equipe tenha atingido seus objetivos com o projeto.

Acredito que muitos não se importem tanto com curta-metragens, one-shots e outros tipos menores de história, justamente por serem pequenas. Eu as valorizo, vejo como um dos melhores espaços para os artistas por trás das obras se expressarem. Isso porque geralmente eles têm menos pressão, motivações mais artísticas do que comerciais e um processo de produção mais saudável com esse tipo ... de trabalho.

Em Shishigari, acompanhamos um garoto realizando um rito de passagem, sua primeira caçada nas montanhas. Uma história simples e muito intrigante, é um conceito que evoca dificuldade, perseverança e esforço, também é algo a qual podemos nos relacionar, pois também realizamos ritos de passagem em nossas vidas.

Eu acho incrível histórias contadas com narrativas não-verbais, é algo que puxa todo o resto da produção — animação, música, storyboard, direção, etc. — pra cima, para contar o que não é dito em palavras, mas que também requer uma excelência maior de quem o faz. Outra característica que gosto muito desse tipo de história é que coisas são deixadas propositalmente em aberto, para que você tenha sua própria visão e interprete os seus significados a sua maneira, enriquecendo muito a experiência.

A animação, cenários, estética e cinematografia são impecáveis. Sou um grande fã de designs mais simples e fluídos e é exatamente o caso aqui. Os cenários junto do design de sons, são responsáveis por criarem uma ambientação atmosférica. Tudo é vivo e também muito bonito, além de claro de se entender, tudo isso graças as cores, iluminação, ângulos de câmera e assim em diante.

A trilha sonora foi um trabalho magistral. As músicas tribais são carregadíssimas de emoção e me imergiram completamente nas cenas. Além disso, todos os outros sons — respirações, passos na neve, estalos da fogueira, sons dos animais — possuem, além de muita qualidade, um papel importantíssimo para dar vida a esse mundo e para contar essa história.

Storyboard e ritmo. Acredito que essas são as peças chaves na hora de ditar como será a experiência de uma produção cinematográfica, o storyboard, servindo como a semente de onde tudo florescerá, e o ritmo sendo uma parte muito frágil, pois não pode ser nem rápido ou devagar demais. Aqui são ambos muito bem trabalhados, tudo isso mérito da direção e edição.

É engraçado como a história não possui uma palavra sequer, mas escrevi centenas nesse grande elogio para tentar fazer você entender como me senti. Quero deixar claro também que sou apenas um amador, e obrigado por ler até o final.

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English

Everyone should watch Shishigari!

Honestly, I didn’t expect to like this short film so much. I found it while looking for more about the director of Look Back, Kiyotaka Oshiyama. Personally, it’s a perfect piece of art, I hope the team has achieved their goals with this project.

I believe many people don’t care that much about short films, one-shots and other smaller types of stories, precisely because they are short. I value them, I see them as one of the best spaces for the artists behind the works to express themselves. That’s because they usually face less pressure, have more artistic than commercial motivations, and enjoy a healthier production process with this kind of project.

In Shishigari, we follow a boy going through a rite of passage, his first hunt in the mountains. It’s a simple and intriguing story, a concept that evokes hardship, perseverance and effort, it's also something we can relate with, since we too go through rites of passage in our lives.

I find stories told through non-verbal narratives incredible. They elevate every other aspect of the production — animation, music, storyboard, direction, etc. — to tell what isn’t said, but they also demand a higher level of excellence from those who create them. Another characteristic I really like about this kind of story is how things are deliberately left open, so you can have your own perspective and interpret their meanings in your own way, enriching the experience.

The animation, backgrounds, aesthetics, and cinematography are impeccable. I’m a big fan of simpler, more fluid designs, and that’s exactly what we have here. The backgrounds together with the sound design, are responsible for creating an atmospheric ambientation. Everything feels alive and very beautiful, and also easy to understand, all thanks to the use of color, lighting, camera angles and so on.

The soundtrack is a masterful work. The tribal music is loaded with emotion and completely immersed me in the scenes. In addition, all the other sounds — breathing, footsteps in the snow, the crackling of the fire, animal noises — not only have great quality, but also play an important role in bringing this world to life and in telling this story.

Storyboard and pacing. I believe these are the key elements when it comes to shaping the experience of a cinematic production. The storyboard serves as the seed from which everything blooms, and pacing is a very delicate part, since it can’t be too fast or too slow. Here, both are handled extremely well, all thanks to the direction and editing.

It’s funny how the story doesn’t contain a single word, yet I wrote hundreds in this long praise just to try to make you understand how I felt. I’d also like to make it clear that I’m just an amateur and thank you for reading until the end.