Reviews for Shiranpuri (Special)

Young Animator Training Project/Anime Mirai short reviews: Part 8/12 The rest of the young animator training projects definitely feel like they’re aimed at a family audience. Even Wasurenagumo, although that ending would probably give the children nightmares. But their stories are generally well told enough that they’re engaging without feeling condescending. Minding My Own Business doesn’t manage that balance at all. It’s about bullying in school. The artwork looks like children’s scribble drawings, which suits the tone its going for, since it’s meant to be a child recounting their observations on bullying. But the whole thing comes off as a 30 minute infomercial your primaryschool teacher shows you when she’s too hungover to actually do any teaching. Which is fine if you are a hungover primary school teacher, but as a dirty foreign pirate illegally downloading obscure single episode pieces airing on Japanese television as a training scheme for young animators, it isn’t really worth your time.

Verdict: Skip

Shiranpuri is a one episode anime but don´t let that discourage you or else you might miss this little fine gem here For one episode it has a better narrative (beginning, middle and ending) compared to many 12 episodes anime shows which often concludes into nothing. Shiranpuri is about bullying, it isn´t really something new because this topic is already explored through many other media and in various ways. But what I like about this one is its mores realistic approach and being a point of view for a bystander, not the one who is being bullied: I can hardly see any reason to skip this one especially becauseof its unique but quite well made animation, good voice acting, good plot phasing and it being a whole story itself.

It doesn´t need more than one episode because it knows what it wants and does it.

A simple story about bullying and being an observer to said action. The message was straight forward, which is effective but is all it amounts too. Shiranpuri, aesthetically it is visually simple yet expressive. Especially with the sound department as well and how said visuals enhance them. Like this one for that. But other than that it plays it really safe which means it doesn't develop past that point. Potential is there but is washed because it doesn't go much or amount to much more. Is it pointless, no, but because of said stagnation, no other themes are expanded on.

This short and sweet story exists with the sole purpose of being an opportunity for young and inexperienced animators some practice to improve their skills. The animation style is very different from the usual anime visuals but it does have fluidity and that helps getting the ideas across with this not so colourful style. The sound design is solid with the seiyuus really delivering their lines perfectly. The theme for this story is about bullying and how ignoring it only makes it worse. It's a tough theme to portray in a meaningful way but it was a nice attempt and anything that raises awareness tothe damage that bullying causes is always worthy of praise.

As I said in the beginning, it's a nice and sweet piece of art that gets a 7/10 from me.