Reviews for Bâan: The Boundary of Adulthood

Bâan is personal. For most people, the concept of leaving home can be very foreign. The borders we created and the feeling of community are very addictive. They bind you to the place you feel like you belong. But what if you didn't, or you felt like you didn't? Bâan is an isekai story, a story about two people leaving their birthplace behind to seek their own future. The concept of leaving home is becoming increasingly common worldwide. However, what isn't usually spoken about is the difficulties that come with it, or maybe even the feeling of finding a new home. Bâan is like a small documentary,an expression of the feelings that come with such a journey. This is a personal project, the writer opening his feelings about the journey, and you can see it very clearly.

But this also means that for this short movie to tug your heartstrings just right, you need to have observed such a journey. This 18-minute journey should not be seen as a standalone movie; for its value to be understood correctly, it should be seen as a peek into one's future, a look into one's present, or a memory from one's past.

To better explain it, Daichi and Rin are not two characters you bond with because you know their backstories perfectly, or were present at a significant event in their lives. You bond with these characters because they are going to be, are, or were you at some point in your life.

The details:

Characters:

Daichi and Rin are the two main characters, and each has a distinct life; they live differently. You can see their aspirations and their wants from their life quite clearly, and that is where they feel real. They feel like self-inserts, but not because they are bland per se.

Animation:

Studio Daisy did a great job making the world feel as alive as possible. The character movements and expressions felt smooth, and the CG did not make itself known at any point. The animation got fast where it needed to be, and it did it very well. I can say it felt like a high-budget non-action seasonal anime.

Music:

One of Kevin Penkin's better works, it fits the mood very well, to the point that I don't remember any of the music individually. They are blended with the scenes in my memory.

Story:

It is personal, and how much you understand will depend on how much you have already experienced. This is 18 minutes, so don't expect a full-blown story told through character dialogue. You will need to piece some things together yourself.

Watch it. You will either have an eye-opening experience or an 18-minute, short, good anime experience.

Thank you, Gigguk. See you at your next premiere.

The creators of the anime Bâan: The Boundary of Adulthood have done the best job they could, from animation and music to visual storytelling, all around. But this kind of story cannot be told within 19 minutes. No matter how much effort was put in by every person involved, the anime is destined to cause mixed feelings. The anime didn't resonate with me. I've never experienced homesickness. But I've never experienced a lot of things anime usually depict. So what's the difference? Obviously, length. One standard episode is not enough to empathise with characters whos experience is so different from mine. The story feels complete,but so quick, that it slips out of my hands.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed watching Bâan. The anime was created with a lot of love and passion, it felt with every second of animation. The music goes straight to my collection. The voice acting was perfect. The characters felt alive. The world of the anime was interesting enough that I would like to visit it personally, or at least watch another anime in the same universe.

And maybe one day, when I will be far away from home, I will rewatch this anime and I will be able to catch the feelings that were poured into Bâan.

Very happy for Gigguk to see an ambitious project to fruition. I love his content and promise to deliver from the heart. Baan however? It's. Okay. Just okay. Not bad, but I don't feel as if I've gained anything from the experience. The ups here is definitely the Quality that goes with Baan. I can tell that great care was put into the animation, the designs, the music, the desire to deliver some decency in its presentation for the most part. As an artist myself, I can definitely appreciate the thought and care that went into the design of things as a whole! However, the "story" is justa tad too disjointed. It connects, but it's weak... likely due to the time constraint of 18 minutes (Though I've seen AMAZING stories told in single anime episodes or less before this). Focusing a little too hard on the cute girly's side and not so much the male protagonist. Things are glossed over, disjointed in continuity, or rather there's little explanation for what few characters appear. There's no emotion to really feel in such a short time span. It needs more to really stand out as something worth recommending.

I will always appreciate this attempt nonetheless. It's every anime lover's dream to see their own ideas or story in an animated form! I believe if Gigguk wants Baan to succeed and not be a one note project, the story needs to be made in written novel or possibly manga form. Because as it stands, I can't fall in love with these characters past a character design point.

Well, it's alright. The animation looks nice. Design of the characters is pleasant to the eye, though not very unique or original. Music is actually really good. That's about it. There is no real story here, only some ideas that could result in one. Fragments of something that could become a plot, but nothing else. For a short film, I expected something told in a better way, a self-contained plot that operated on its own terms. Unfortunately, this isn't the case. Bâan is more of a conglomeration of various ideas and more or less overused tropes. It definitely has some originality, but nothing stands outbecause it's not an 18-minute film with a unique idea, but rather plot points from a series told in one episode. I'd like to see this idea expanded, but as it is, it's just mid tbh.

I could also nitpick the main theme. As I understand it, it's a story about finding one's bearings in a new reality. However, the film fails to present this in a credible or insightful way. Like Garnt, I don't live in my country of origin; I emigrated at age 11. I felt lonely, had no friends, didn't understand the language, and struggled at school. Bâan doesn't capture those feelings at all. Maybe this film aims for something different, and I shouldn't have had such expectations, but based on the previews, I did. Rin looks more like a college graduate on a job hunt than someone experiencing another world. Daichi, on the other hand, looks like he's gone camping in the woods. And while we're at it, why is this an Isekai, besides Garnt's love of the genre? Daichi could have gone on vacation to China, and the entire "plot" could have remained the same.

Anyway, I could complain about it, but I won't. That's definitely not what I did. So yes, these are issues worth discussing, but the film's length makes it difficult for me to seriously consider criticizing the plot elements, because, as I mentioned above, they don't add up to a coherent story.

The harsh truth: Bâan isn't very good. It's fine. And that's okay. This comes in two parts. The first part is Bâan as an anime. And as said, it's not fantastic. I get glimpses of the vision that was intended here. In effect, this is an isekai where two people live different lives: one in a fantasy landscape, and one in a modern world. They're each trying to find "their place." As the creator himself said, Bâan means "home." Thus, the two primary protagonists are both finding their version of home. The film is definitely very inspired. I'm detecting a lot of Matoko Shinkai in itsDNA. It wants these big images, these grand vistas, and these stunning shots. It also wants to evoke a lot of wholesomeness and emotion. A lot of the scenes are not trying to be anyhting special - it's more about showing growth, learning, and emotional reaction to those experiences. There's a lot of things that happen in a short runtime. But we get this full arc, mostly focusing on the female protagonist, where she tries to find home, perhaps gets a bit disillusioned, and then eventually finds a realization of the place she needs to be. I'd be lying if the emphasis on food, similar to directors like Shinkai and Miyazaki, didn't get me a little choked up at the end. But on the face of it, this is a very direct, functional story about finding oneself in a complicated world.

Now the problems. It's easy to say Bâan struggles with its runtime, and that's very understandable. It's a short indie production, but it's REALLY short, barely clocking in at around 15 minutes. It's really hard to tell a cohesive, big, emotionally deep fantasy story in that runtime. This is like watching a full film in fast-forward; blink and you'll miss a detail. However lovingly that detail was crafted, it's only on screen for a second, and you can only take that one second to appreciate it.

However, the runtime is not the issue. Because there are plenty of anime that are fantastic with an even shorter runtime. You can tell a great story with any length of time. The key is knowing HOW to tell that story in that runtime, and Bâan does not know how to tell its story quickly. It wants to have all the dense worldbuilding, these deep character moments, emotional reflection, thoughtful scenes, laid back scenes, wholesomeness. And it just doesn't have the time. So it feels like a lot of the scene is wasted. It's like the reader's digest of the actual story, and you're barely getting the snippets as a viewer. If the script was tightened, if details were cut, and if worldbuilding was sacrificed, this could have been better. the nuts and bolts could have been tightened, because there is a good story somewhere in here. We just saw a small portion of what was on offer. It's like someone trying to rush a five-course meal. We didn't need a feast; just give us one good plate, and we would have been happy. Instead, we got a sloppy feast.

I think the real pity therein is that Bâan could have been good. It had potential. It just wasn't there, delivered by a desperation to tell a bigger story than it could. It's sad when that happens, but it happens, even in some of the best case scenarios.

That's part one: an anime that had lots of dreams that it couldn't live up to.

Then there is part 2. Because the reality is, this is an indie animation, built from the ground up on an original concept, basically funded off of hopes and dreams. This was someone's attempt to make something. And that is so commendable. As a creator myself, I see so much heart in this story, so many untold stories as well, so much left to say and do. But eventually, you have to publish. No matter how beautiful your little creation is, if it doesn't exist, and people like me can't rip it to shreds for all its faults, then it just doesn't exist. The limitations of the product came to be, and we got what we got. But it was bold to try this hard, and it is commendable to try. Few try, even fewer have the resources to bring something of this quality to realization. And we can bicker on the actual quality, but again... this exists. How many other indie creators are making anime short films? Not many, I can tell you that.

If you like indie projects, this deserves a lot of praise. It's not good, but it's not bad either; there's a lot of soul, and there are lots of people who could learn from this. It's awesome that exists, even with its faults. It's just a pity we couldn't see more of the true intentions that no doubt exist just beyond the boundary of what was shown.

Bâan is another one of those anituber "weaboo" productions, and I don't mean this in an insulting way but more in a matter of fact kinda way. Gigguk is an anime fan, he likes anime, and he wanted to make an anime. He didn't want to make any kind of animation, he wanted to make an anime specifically. Because he isn't an artist, he's a weeb. And as such, Bâan doesn't try to be creative, or artistic, or even incorporate any of the aspects of Gigguk's culture and environment he grew up in. It tries to check all the boxes that make people point afinger at the screen and say "hey! that looks like an anime!", and that's it.

And to give credit there, he succeeded. If I hadn't known this was made by Gigguk, it would seamlessly fit into the seasonal anime production pipeline, there is pretty much no difference besides the length. That is because the production is functional, and that is the biggest praise I can give here. It's not riddled with amateurish animation, the music is good, the voice acting is good... it's watchable without cringing at how bad the production is. So kudos to Gigguk for having enough money to afford a decent production that isn't eye or ear cancer.

Other than that, it's basically just a generic checkbox type anime.

Isekai? Check.

Moe girl MC doing cute things? Check.

Bland guy for MC? Check.

Wannabe-Shinkai directing? Check.

Random Ghibli vibes? Check.

Foodporn? Check.

Obligatory sakuga scene for 3x3 bait? Check.

At the very least there is no fanservice, because this is a tasteful anime obviously, not a trash taste one!

The story is basically a gimmick, which isn't necessarily bad since it's a short film. The bigger issue is that it's very empty and boring, which is the last thing a short film can afford. The concept behind Bâan is that two characters go to different worlds, and the gimmick is that there is a twist at the end that "subverts expectations" for what we thought the relationship between the two characters would turn out to be. That's the gimmick. So it's reliant on that one gimmicky twist, but it has nothing else in it, and that's the issue. It's roughly 15 minutes long and a lot of it is wasted on watching characters move from point A to point B. It's so empty that they had to add random fantasy creatures in the background just so the audience doesn't get distracted, basically like those youtube videos where they have random videogame footage running in the background.

If characters aren't just moving around with nothing happening, it's likely because the walking simulator is interrupted by showing nice-looking food. A lot of time in this 15 minute short film is spent on watching pretty-looking food. Why? Because it's a checkbox, that's why.

If the point of Bâan was to convey how these characters feel, then it completely failed at it, because

1) most of the run-time is wasted on watching characters move around or with watching food, and

2) because all the scenes that actually show how characters cope with their situation are as generic as they could be.

Everything here is completely non-specific. These are not characters, they are self-inserts, and the situations they face are not their specific situations and circumstances, but they are basically stock scenarios. I cannot describe these characters or the problems they face for anyone to be able to recognize them as a part of Bâan, because they are interchangeable with any other typical bland male protagonist or bland cute girl in any other anime that exists and the scenarios they face are also generic and non-specific. When the girl is job hunting, she's disappointed at first, and when she finally got a job, she's happy. When the girl works at the job, she's stressed and makes mistakes, which makes her a bit sad, but she eventually gets happy again. That's all I can say about it because there is nothing more specific to it. There is no love for detail in this story or its characters, it feels like a story that could've been written by ChatGPT.

So when Gigguk says it's "based on his real-life experience", I have to laugh for how generic his experiences must've been. Is there really nothing more concrete or specific he experienced than "when bad things happened, I felt sad, when good things happened, I felt happy"? Watching this, it just feels like he didn't care about exploring these characters or reflect on the specifics of the situations he went through in life.

So that's the issue with this whole thing, it only checks boxes and there is nothing interesting in it. Gigguk said this was a passion project, but it's really not. It's an ego project. He didn't want to express anything, he just wanted to be able to say that he made an anime. And I'm not saying it wasn't a lot of work, it probably was, but if it really had been a passion project then it wouldn't be so generic that ChatGPT could've written it.

Went to the premiere expecting Bâan to be great, if taking into account that a YouTuber made it, I left thinking it was amazing, even if compared with any big studio anime! It's incredible how three-dimensional the characters were and how complete the story felt with it only being a twenty-minute short film! The animation quality is a testament to the fact that giving enough time should be the anime standard, and Kevin Penkin did not disappoint with the Soundtrack (can't wait for the OST!) The Crossing cultures theme was well thought out and incredibly moving. Anyone who's moved to Japan will particularly relate, but anyonewho has crossed cultures, or even just left home, is sure to be moved by Rin's struggles and inspired to be honest with themselves when life isn't what you expect. Bâan gives you a moment to introspect on your personal changes, something you might ignore during the chaotic mess of moving.

If you want a glimpse into an interesting Isekai world, this movie is for you. If you want quality animation and music, this movie is for you. If you want an emotional story dealing with parental expectations and finding 'home', this movie is definitely for you.

It's telling that such a short story leaves you reflecting for weeks! Highly recommended to watch, especially since it's literally free on YouTube on Gigguk's channel from September 20th!

I have never written a review until now, but Baan made me want to. I’m giving it a 10, not because I’m a Gigguk fan, but because in just 17 minutes this short film managed to portray so many emotions that even a lot of high-budget anime fail to capture. The story itself is simple, but that’s what makes it so strong. It doesn’t waste time with unnecessary history or worldbuilding — it gets straight to the emotions, and that’s what hits hardest. The execution feels unique because of how genuine and grounded it is. The art style fits perfectly with the tone: it’s not flashy, butevery frame feels intentional and adds to the atmosphere. The characters, despite the short runtime, feel surprisingly well-rounded. They have flaws, fears, and little moments of humanity that make them believable. Their reactions to events felt natural, which is rare for such a short piece.

I think a lot of people will enjoy this, even those who don’t usually watch short films. If you’re into character-driven stories that make you feel something in a short span of time, Baan is worth it. I can guarantee those 17 minutes of your time won’t be wasted.

Having heard from the Trash Taste episode that the script got trimmed because, respectfully by his own words, 18-minutes was the length Garnt could afford funding mostly by himself. It's pretty apparent that this 18-minute anime short film could've been fleshed out even more, it left me wanting for more—not to mention the original script being 30-40 minutes. Throughtout watching it I honestly felt the gentle warming passion and how personal it was for him. And of course SEA GANG REPRESENTATION LET'S GOOOOOOO!!! But with all that said, I really hate to say it and Garnt I'm so sorry but... As it is..., it's one ofthose "IT HAS POTENTIAL" type of story. It could've been great instead of being just fine or good, I can understand why some people disliked it or disappointed by this. I believe each person has differing reason as to why they disliked it, but me personally it came from a good place of hope and wish that it could've been more.

However, despite all that, whether you like this or not, I believe we can all agree that minute 09:38 was totally necessary.

I watched both the anime and the video about making the anime, and with all seriousness I recommend the latter. Baan was animated by professional animators, voiced by professional seiyus, given soundtrack by a professional composer, and written by a YouTuber who makes videos about animes. As a result: it looks and sounds amazing, but it's a mess underneath it all, even for a short anime. You need to have skills to write a competent story, you need even better skills to tell a short story, and Garnt is actually good at telling about stories, but not stories themselves. An average viewer won't even understand whathas happened in the span of these 18 minutes, neither did I. When I first watched Baan, I thought it was just a beautiful animated sequence without an underlying story, and only after I've read what it was about did I understand that it actually has a story, or rather a skeleton thereof, that was poorly told.

As I stated in the opening line, I recommend watching the video about the making of this anime. You won't lose anything by not watching the anime itself as both the anime and the video tell the same story: about an anime fan who made an anime.

Nothing inherently wrong with Bâan but the length. I know it was self-funded, so I feel it's unfair to compare it to the average anime with a huge budget, but at the same time, I can't really develop any feelings toward the characters, setting, or world without more context. With the roughly 15 minutes of runtime, it did more than I think I or most could, yet I was still left with so many questions about what's going on in the world and how it works, or what even the setting is. I can easily see this being an amazing series, as I 'm veryinterested in what I did see. I can't form a real opinion since there wasn't enough here. I just felt like we were dropped into a series halfway through and hope this could get funding to create a 12-episode season or a full movie.

It’s not offensively bad. It’s just bland. The whole thing feels like a filler isekai anime, offering nothing profound or memorable. There isn’t any real sense of distinctiveness or artistic intent, and the result simply comes across as bland in the end. Even the parallel word scenes play out like side-by-side comparison tables in a corporate PowerPoint slideshow, which only highlights how little the anime has to set itself apart. I don’t think the length is an excuse either, because Shelter managed to deliver more world building and emotion in just 6 minutes. That said, others might enjoy a non-Japanese anime for a change.

Something many adults will come across someday is leaving their home, to the unknown, to explore more opportunities in their lives. The feeling is unsettling, yet, one could say it's necessary for the journedy of adulthood. I see is as what Bâan wants to represent, both characters becoming adults, in more ways than one, and having to deal with the next steps of their lives. Not only the concept is nice, but it's also what makes this 18 minute episode stand out from most other anime out there. One great aspect to point out was the gorgeous soundtrack made by Kevin Penkin, one of my favoritecomposers. All the songs fit so well into the scenes, and the timing to play each was also great. The usage of Thai culture (even though I'm as lay about Thauland as the next guy) felt well crafted and directed. You can really see Garnt made a love letter for his own culture, and of course, the whole anime industry.

Sadly, 18 minutes weren't enough to fully develop the story, even if the central idea was fairly well presented. It showed a vast world, with lots of room for character writing and worldbuilding, but the lenght couldn't keep up at all. Even with these flaws, I still recommend everyone to see it, it's a short but rewarding experience, and I had fun with it.

This is a two person review between me and the friend I watched this with--my review is at the top, and hers is at the bottom. -- For better and for worse, Bâan was about everything I expected. The art was pretty okay. Very basic character designs save for the Thai-flair. Physically no body looks too different from you’re typical modern anime. Again, the thai-inspired land of Euthenia is pretty cool, but we don’t see as much as I would like of it. There’s one bit of cool animation in the middle, but everything else moves pretty boringly besides that. Penkin did a good job withthe soundtrack---it sounds beautiful, yeah---but like most things in this short film, it didn’t particularly stand out to me.

Story wise….. It’s alright. The message of the short isn’t anything new. It’s a nice story, but it doesn’t say anything particularly interesting. Time constraints may be to blame for this, but just because a short film is short doesn’t mean it’s incapable of being industry. I think the thesis of always having a home to return too/family is nice for people who’ve experienced living abroad and what not, but it doesn’t stand very well on its own. The characters are somewhat interesting, but don’t stand out too much in the grand scheme of things. There was an interesting twist at the middle that I didn't see coming, but that's about it.

All in all, it’s a nice piece of western weeb history, but its not too much besides that. Its interesting insofar Maneetapho is living every western weeb’s wet dream. I’m happy he got to make a show that was deeply personal to him. I’m glad he was able to express himself. But objectively speaking, I wish Bâan was made by an artist who had something to say rather than an artist who had an opportunity placed before him. The desire to say something must come before the means to say it.

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This show is as anime as it gets and it kinda sucks for it.

To start off, I think a lot of negative feelings that I have for this show might be just an amalgamation of my dislike for the anime industry needing a specific target, but oh well. Every opinion is biased, and so is this one.

Baan looks like every other anime from the 2010s and 20s. The colors are mostly washed out or pastel, the eyes have a little highlight and black shading on them, the mouths are a simple thin line and the girls all conveniently look more like children than the men. It is a very by the books aesthetic for a very by the books story.

The storyboarding isn't special either, most of the shots are flat and tell me little to nothing about a scene other than the basics. It doesn't try to be anything new, much like its character designs. It seems like the whole staff was trying to play it as safe as humanly possible, using a lot of visual tropes present in every other seasonal show as a way to attract the average anime watcher. Every time the protagonist did something cute that I have seen a thousand other times in anime, I felt a pang of frustration. I wasn't watching a grown woman navigate a new life and environment, I was watching an assortment of little anime tropes that wanted me to point at the screen and scream “moe!”

This attachment to every basic aesthetic under the sun makes the short very drab. It tells nothing new because it is busy telling everything that has happened before. The single creative element -- a world inspired by Thai mythology and culture -- is buried under the slide of life japanese real world (because we need things, Japan even in anime I guess).

In the end of the day, the short is harmless. It tells a little story about how growing up is tough but you can always go back home. But it sand papers all its edges and leaves me with nothing. This amount of money should have been given to a transgender weekly vídeo essayist or something. Maybe it would have been more artsy.

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Review on Bâan: The Boundary of Adulthood (Gigguk short film – YouTube) From Reviewer to Creator: Why Bãan Matters Gigguk is a well-respected critic, YouTuber, and podcaster in the anime community. Starting his channel on YouTube with a love of anime, making reviews that garnered millions of views for his thought-out and personal opinions, he touched and made many think of anime as more than just a Japanese cartoon, but also a literary and cultural medium. Bâan is a 19-minute short film created by Gigguk professionally, with real and known studios, animators, voice actors, and musicians. From Kevin Penkin (who composed tracks in A-grade anime series like Made inAbyss and The Apothecary Diaries), to Studio Daisy, and voice direction from professional voice actor (and his friend) Connor (CDawgVA), and also real Japanese voice actors. A real professional cast, from planning, production to artistry.

This is a cultural movement for anime. It is the first ever successful move of a fan and reviewer of the medium to creator in the industry. It is also noted that this is one of the few times where someone outside of Japan has created an anime. After all, when people think of “anime”, they think of Japanese animation made by Japanese people. Here we have a Thai ethnic with a British background stepping into the scene.

Further, Gigguk’s Bâan also relays his own cultural influences from being Thai through character designs and Thai mythology. Bâan — the title, means “home” in Thai. The plot line also focuses on leaving the nest and making your own home in another country (or in the film’s case; another world). Thus the animation also touches on the well known isekai genre. This breaks the wall of anime being just Japanese, but also still includes common themes that make anime its medium.

Bâan also blurs the boundary between fan and creator, critique and art. This cultural first for the anime community opens the floodgates for the medium and its culture. Showing it is possible to tell your own story and make your own anime. This could lead to more personal projects from other fans, similar to how books have fanfiction novels. However, it is noted that this was only possible for Gigguk because of his own personal branding and public platform. It was mentioned by Gigguk as well, that this short film — despite being 19 minutes — was a huge spend and I am unsure if it made profit.

The Constraints of Short Films

Bâan was a 19-minute short film. This is a short window for storytelling. I personally view this film to be a passion project. A film the creator made for himself and this shows through the cultural and emotional touches, to the character design, world-building and music. However in terms of plot, I’d say it was somewhat lacklustre.

This is not to the fault of Gigguk, the choice of storyline seemed to be more slice of life with a touch of isekai. It relays the ups and downs of leaving the nest and finding your own home. I personally believe this type of story needs to be fleshed out with deep character backgrounds, making climax and storyline more of a slow burn. Thus the boundaries of 19 minutes is not nearly enough to show the true depths of his story. I personally felt that due to pacing, lack of time and a bigger focus on character concept and world building as opposed to character building, the film felt more like a teaser to a real movie or 12-episode anime season.

Professional Polish

That is not to say there were no positives to Bâan as a work of art. I’d say, in terms of professional polish, Bâan is up there, and stands its own against even big name anime

productions.

Using professional artists and creatives such as music composer Kevin Penkin, Japanese voice actors, professional English voice direction and known studios, animators, and directors really made a difference. This is not an amateur production, this was Gigguk’s fledgling start to creative works as a director. That in itself is inspirational.

Gigguk’s ability to coordinate and bring these people and work packages together is not the only testament to professionalism. Gigguk shows that passion doesn’t have to be compromised for professionalism and that is a talent not everyone has. Being able to still show that this is his own independent vision and add his own touches to make Bâan charming is what makes this art. While the time constraints made the film’s plot lacklustre, the professional polish relayed the story’s charms.

The character designs were lovely and well thought-out. It has the professionalism of real anime designs as opposed to fanfiction OCs (original characters) and still showed his cultural background through inspiration of Thai mythology. The music was not just chosen because of the A-list name of Kevin Penkin. But actually added to the vibe of the film and the world-building. It made the isekai and world-building integral.

I also noticed none of the music was overtly dramatic, which suited the slice of life vibes. I appreciated that despite the lack of climax in terms of plot, the film did not try to artificially create drama that did not suit the storytelling with music. I believe this further shows Gigguk himself understood he would not be able to show both world-building and in-depth characters and chose to direct using skills over storytelling due to time constraints.

Narrative Strengths and Weaknesses

Due to time constraints, I felt that the plot was lacklustre. There was a lack of climax even for a slice of life anime, where there isn’t much drama. Bâan felt more like a 4-panel slice of life comic than a traditional slice of life anime. In a traditional slice of life anime where all of the episodes are about the daily life of characters, there is still a climax that hits you. Usually it makes the audience question about the mundanity and fragility of humanity or cherish their actual present lives. Watchers will start tearing up because they feel for the characters who have been built up through the story.

For example, in Bâan there was the difficulty of finding your own home, a sense of comfort and homesickness was shown in the movie. But due to the lack of character development, I, as the watcher, understood but did not feel for the characters. I believe this is because for me, the characters stayed as concepts and were not built upon due to there only being 19 minutes. Due to the time constraints I understand why there was no major climax. But the film still had the slice of life anime vibe so it gave me the expectation and excitement of wanting to feel something that Bâan did not provide. Had it been more humorous like a slice of life 4 panel comic or not been made with such professionalism, maybe I would have not expected much as an audience.

However I must also mention that being able to bring about this feeling of expectation from the audience is the charm of Bâan. The charm of the plot is also the fact that it takes itself seriously, as it shows Gigguk’s life experiences and passion for anime. Which is why I felt this film was lackluster, in a way I wanted to watch more of the film because Gigguk made it professionally and because the concepts were individual.

Bâan has showstopping professionalism for Gigguk’s first project, that is not to say however there are no creative strengths. I believe the world-building and character concepts are the true creative charm of the film. The comfort of touching on isekai genres made it familiar and anime-like. The personal touches of Thai mythology in both character concepts and world-building made it charming and made me want more of the anime.

Gigguk made a film that wanted me to question and know more about the world he built in the film by using his own life experiences and touching on his own culture. This personal charm he added to the film is by far the biggest narrative strength. It is also why I wished there was more

to the film.

Unfortunately it felt like vibes replaced narrative tension. This made me feel like Bâan was a teaser to an A-grade anime slice of life as opposed to being an A-grade stand-alone short film. The lack of climax and character development but intense world-building was a double-edged sword. It made me want to know more about Bâan and excited about Gigguk’s potential. However, it also made the short film feel too lacklustre despite its charm and passion.

The Yes-Man Problem

Upon finishing Bâan, I was immediately excited to discuss this culture first. Only to find most people loved the film but did not have much to say on it apart from; “it was cool” and “I can’t believe he did it”. I do believe it is important to pat him on the back as Gigguk has created a cultural landmark in anime.

But the silence speaks. The anime community is not willing to dive deeper and critique their own. For future anime productions this film is a big positive. It could lead to more content and the dream of many fans being reality - to work in the anime industry. Not just making anime as a director, but even as animators, musicians, editors etc. However I still believe discussion on the medium objectively still needs to be had, especially in the area of fans and critics making art as the discussions is what contributes to movement.

Conclusion

To conclude, Bãan is not just a film. It is the first step of the audience being the creators. This film is a cultural movement in the anime community. While it had its flaws, there is no doubt that it is a landmark that shows the medium’s potential to grow. It also shows Gigguk’s talent and if he decides to lean into this creative direction I look forward to his potential and its effects on anime.

Note: Thanks for reading. Even if you don’t like it because it takes a lot of effort to read this many words haha. I actually wrote this by hand with a pen 1 hour after finishing Bâan and later typed it out. Took about three hours of my time when I was bored.

OK, so reality check. Animation is gorgeous, music is awesome, but the story is basically a nothing burger, it tells nothing. We have a guy who goes to a planet, some folks are harvesting some dragon creature's egg, they get wiped out by some monsters, girl flies into that guy, he's her father now? There's rice and curry and colorful vibes but that's about it. And this cost more than 300 000$ ?? Are you kidding me? If this was some anime series and this was the first ep I'd get it, like more story later, more stuff explained. This literally tells us nothing. Youget nearly 3 minutes of black screen with credits out of 19min total actual story and animation are 16min only.. Kinda disappointed, then again I didn't really expect much. For music, for animation, for colors absolute praise. Story? 1/10. Hope his next project actually tells a story instead of random scenes of feel good shots, uplifting music and rice..

What makes Home "Home?" Where do we feel at Home? When does Home feel like a tender embrace? These are questions that may appear when people are confronted with the topic of Home. The human person is deeply ingrained with the yearning for Home—hence why one tends to seek where they truly belong—a place called Bâan. Life drags on, it is a continuous process of living each day to the very best of one's abilities. It can be either viewed as exciting, something to look forward to, or even as exhausting, draining—simply absurd. But, what life makes it a meaningful experience is coming back to aplace where humanity can call it Home. Bâan beautifully represents just that, where scenes of life are shown why Home can both be a struggle and an embrace.

Bâan tells the story of Daichi and Rin, two persons who have their very own concept of what Home is. However, to the Home they called, they left in search of Home—only to find Home is where they feel that tender embrace of belonging to a loved one.

This review is going to be very personal. I hope it can connect with everyone who had a similar experience as well. I moved to America from an Asian country at a pretty young age. Many of my friends and mentors in America assumed that since I moved when I was so young, I probably see America as my home. However, those formative years I spent in my homeland drove what I perceive as home deep into my mind. Every year, every month, and every semblance of my homeland drives a heavy sense of longing into my heart. Baan is the most accurate representation of thissituation I have seen yet. Fighting on and working hard in a foreign land because you don't want family to worry, or because a new beginning is just that hard to achieve. Then that call from home inevitably arrives. The tone flowing out of the phone isn't anger, not frustration, but calmness with a little hint of sadness mixed in. They miss you, and simply want to see you once more.

I am going to be more lenient with my rating since I respect Garnt for pursuing a creative path outside of being a content creator, especially when there no monetary incentive behind it. I don't rate everything extremely high, I consider a 6/10 being a decent show. I think I'll be doing him a disservice by not giving an honest review so here we go. Baan is a 20 minute, 1 episode anime short-film. Unfortunately I don't think the creative process was in line with the run time it was given. A lot of times, less is more. The story had too many layers to giveit a smooth transition from a beginning to the end. Obviously it's not going to get a prestigious studio that does the best work in the industry. But with the occasional abrupt transitions and jumpy flow of scenes due to the story telling, resulting in a disorientating film to watch.

Knowing him, being a big Isekai fan he would want to do something like this. But in a 20 minute short film, the end result is going to be lackluster. I don't know the actual cost of hiring a mangaka artist, but maybe doing a manga would be better in terms of planning and budget. A webnovel is barrier free creative endeavor that only needs a platform to share your work.

This seems like the classic problem of trying to run before learning to walk, but I see the attraction of wanting to create something on screen. It must be visceral to see your work realized in animation.

I have no hate towards Gigguk/Garnt, as I love his videos, but this short film was all over the place and trying to be too many things at once while doing none of it right. The concept of fantasy elements and homesickness was a unique and good idea, but when you only have 18 minutes, it's very hard to pull off correctly. The fantasy elements were just not properly explained; we only got to see a minute or 2 of the happenings of this other world, and this isn't like Made in Abyss, where that mystery is intriguing and fosters a sense of adventure. Thisfeels more like I like fantasy, so I will just throw it in there even though it doesn't really add to the main point of homesickness. As compared to the greatest inspiration, Shelter, where the "fantasy"-like elements added to the theme of loneliness as she is drifting alone in space, it fosters a similar feeling of parental bond in a third of the time and hits at a much more emotional level.

The main point of the short film is homesickness, and we did not have NEARLY enough buildupfor us to be able to feel for Rin; instead of spending more time on her office life and maybe why she may be struggling in life and maybe why she wants to go home to her father after a long time, we waste valuable time on the fantasy elements that weren't even done well anyways. Link Click is a great example of how in a short time they are able to show the struggles of office work and the homesickness of a girl who has just been abused and overworked.

The characters of this show do not feel right. We saw at the start that Daichi had a fight with his mother and is leaving on his own but never saw his conclusion. Did he end up going home? Did he just seclude himself after finding Rin? We will never know because there was no time to show this; again, they should have cut the fantasy element to better flesh out the character. Rin, while more developed as a character compared to Daichi, felt like she just speedran life and all the character buildup. We immediately see her finding Daichi office work. At least show a little bit of what happened right after they met and how they ended up growing his daughter-father bond.

Some opinionated gripes now...

After watching this, I had a sudden urge to rewatch Shelter, as it was my favorite anime at one point (still up there) and felt really similar to this both as a passion project and somewhat with the theming too. Despite being a third of its runtime, it manages to build a way better narrative and show us a very deep and emotional bond between father and daughter much more than Baan. As much as I love Kevin's work with anime like Made In Abyss, the music did not hit NEARLY as hard as Shelter did, where it really told the story without having much dialogue at all. The animation in Baan feels a lot more choppy and unpolished, especially if we compare it to Shelter. Granted, obviously a longer span means more work, and more steps might be skipped because of it. You can tell there are like half the frames of a regular anime; maybe because I watched this on YouTube or something, but this did not look that great (then again, Shelter was on YouTube, and it looked fantastic, and that was 8 years ago now).

TLDR/Conclusion: Overall the theme is a great idea, but in the short time he had, he could not tell a good fantasy nor a good homesickness story. I understand that this is his first time writing a story, but it would not be fair to cut it some slack when reviewing an anime because of it. If he had just focused on the idea of homesickness and just removed the fantasy elements of it, he would have been able to tell a much more compelling character story with more emotional depth, but instead most of that time for building those things went into trying to build this fantasy world that didn't even get properly explained anyways. You are left with a show that has poorly written fantasy elements and had little to no time for emotional investment of Rin to feel for the homesickness aspect of the show. If you want something better with very similar themes, I recommend Link Click and Shelter. Link Click with its incredible episode on homesickness and shelter on how a passion project could have been and the emotional impact of a parental bond.