After crashing her bike on her way back home from work, a young woman stumbles upon a vulnerable tree goddess whose shrine is being demolished by a construction project. Feeling compelled to help her, the woman invites the goddess into her home and cares for her. However, as their relationship blossoms, the ongoing construction soon complicates things between them, forcing them to face the resulting consequences.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Nenhum episódio encontrado.
Comentários
ryukhyuk
If you enjoy eye-opening art, then this just might be an ONA for you. I personally appreciated the anime's message as it is something that I believe we all forget about in our busy lives. The play between the characters and the underlying metaphors force the viewer to question the world after the short is over. The music fit the bill. Its mood matched the storyline quite well. The art was different, but it held its own within the world of the anime and its message. I highly recommend this small pleasure. While it isn't perfect, I believe any imperfections you seek out only make the message stronger.
ADIBYTE
While most people will glance at this and move along, I recommended you stop reading this and spend five minutes with the short before even bothering to read this. It's a little more serious than a lot of people might be expecting; there are some pretty powerful scenes contained within the short. I quite enjoyed this due to the feeling of brevity it instilled into what happened, though I'm sure a lot of time passed for them, it felt like it happened in a blink of the eye. It felt like I was a being outside the world, seeing a glimpse of something amazing.This is given to us no only by the fact that there's a lot of jumps from situation to situation, but by the sudden emotional jerks it hits us with. Perhaps not everyone will feel as strongly connected to it as I did, but the bitter sweet swirl in my stomach is tantamount to how one might feel for a real life scenario, despite the fiction that's part of it.
I also found that there were some interesting collateral strikes in dealing with the abandonment of worship, loss of nature, culture, or love, and forgetting what we clung to so dearly cared about in the past. Just like love, loss is a part of life. It's a bizarre seeming thing, with no words, but I don't really feel that it needs them. It made me feel a warm sharp fuzzy pulse inside, and that was enough. I will admit that I was a little put off by the unusual animation and sound, but in the end I found it oddly pleasant as well. For what it is, I think I've given it the rating it made me feel it deserved.
CureEtude
Linchpin (n.) 1. A pin placed transversely through an axle to keep a wheel in position. 2. A person or thing regarded as an essential or coordinating element. While I absolutely despise the pretentious practice of putting definitions at the front of written works, I feel understanding these two definitions is pivotal to grasping the genius behind Kanamewo (AKA “A Linchpin”). Utilizing every last second, rapparu is able to create a passionate and impactful work that speaks on the human condition without shoving its ideas down your throat. I absolutely adore this short and hope that this rambling review can help provide some insight on why I hold it insuch high regard. This will mostly be in written in metaphor, so hopefully this will make some sort of sense in the end. Inherently, there will be spoilers in this, so if you’re reading this and haven’t watched it yet, I strongly encourage you to watch it. It’s just 5 minutes. There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s get right to it.
As a working adult, it is so easy to get swept away by monotonous routine. Wake up, go to work, go home, laze about, go to bed. Rinse and repeat. I’ve been stuck in this lethargic stasis before and can imagine how pervasive this sentiment can be in Japan, where there’s often this underlying notion that values work above personal endeavors. It’s a depressing and difficult state that really weighs down on the soul. From context and musical texture, we can infer that our main character is in a similar state. She’s like a wheel without a linchpin, slowly and tediously spinning through life without much motivation outside of not falling off her axel.
It is then that she finds a linchpin in the form of the spirit. She brings the emaciated spirit home almost out of instinct. At first, she’s hesitant to fully allow this anomaly into her life. She contemplates the benefits and risks, as indicated by two bizarre stops in the music, the first being when the idea of keeping her initially comes into mind, and the second being when the decision to do so is made. With her linchpin now in place, things in life start to gradually take color. The music starts to build as the two get to know each other. The wheel, now secure for the first time in its existence is able to move at a comfortable pace.
However, due to the lack of experience this woman has in living fully, things quickly spiral out of control into a blindingly fast explosion of energy. With a screeching guitar and an absolutely brutal use of the drum machine, the music soars into this maddening tempest of sound. The wheel is blazing over the track in a way it never could’ve imagined. The ride is rickety and filled with things that will inevitably deteriorate the state of the wheel and the much more fragile linchpin, but these glorious moments of passion and unbridled happiness are addicting and euphoric. Even the mundane, such as watching TVs or going for a walk are given new heightened meaning. Unfortunately, this state, the woman must know, is unsustainable. Eventually, the linchpin is going to break.
Upon the first notice of problems, the woman tries to slow down, nurturing the spirit, hoping to bring her back to a survivable state, silently regretting how fleeting the experience has been. But unfortunately it’s too late. The spirit dies and the woman is left back at square one with nothing. In mourning, she falls back to depression, one just as strong, but more pronounced and tangible. Burying the spirit offers little comfort, but allows her to at the very least go back to her old ways. It is not until she’s able to look back at the memento of her experience that she’s able to come to terms with herself and smile. And while she will never forget her first, from here she will move forward to find another linchpin and learn once again how to love life.
This entire story is about recognizing the fleeting beauty of life. Yes, by maintaining the status quo and holing yourself up, you can live for a very long time. But is that really living or just mere survival? Kanamewo proposes we all must find our own reason to live, someone or something to direct our passion towards. A linchpin not only physically keeps us grounded in the axel of society, but mentally is essential to finding fulfillment and self-actualization. We’re going to make bad decisions along the way and there will be times of immense pain, but the triumph past these moments of weakness is what makes the moments of strength ever the sweeter.
I admit that a good chunk of this write up is me projecting my own experiences and philosophy onto the art. While I am now familiar with rapparu’s body of work and can point to many instances where these themes can be found, there’s a real possibility that I’m reading way farther into all this than was ever originally intended. That said, I’m only tackling the short from one perspective in the above write-up. There’s a lot to also be said about the short’s environmental message, interpretation of lesbian relations, etc. It’s just such a dense animation, drenched in pathos and soul. While it’s not perfect, there’s so much to find throughout to the point where I’ve watched it at least 30 times and always come away with something new.
I hope this was an engaging read and gave you some sort of appreciation for the short. Feel free to hit me up if you want clarification or wish to discuss some points further.
dhsteel
Oh, my GOD. This was 5 minutes of extreme emotional intensity. I enjoyed the visuals and story a ton, but what I really came here to rave about was the music and sound design in collaboration with the visuals. The choice of music was so strong, so visceral, and unsettling in a way that perfectly suited the story. I felt my heart pumping, and for a story consisting of no dialogue and only five minutes to do that to me is deeply impressive. Basically, it's very short and worth committing five minutes of your time to experiencing. And you truly do experience it, rather thanwatch it.
Krunchyman
After watching Kanamewo two times, its nihilistic theme is rather banal compared to the likes of NGE, Texhnolyze, Berserk, or even Kiki's Delivery Service. I understand that people feel lost in the Age of Reason due to the 'Death' of God. But the impact would have resonated with greater effect, if say, the main girl had an aspiration to affirm her "Denial of Death." A failing/failed 'immortality project' would have destroyed the symbolic belief structure she used to 'transcend' reality, bringing her back to earth and giving justification for her indifference towards life. This would, eventually, raise the dilemma of whyhumans are 'cursed' with consciousness when it fosters an 'unsolvable' dilemma and constant anxiety.
Unfortunately, the viewer is left believing that environmental destruction and the repetitiveness of life cause unremitting listlessness. Or, in other words: depression for the sake of depression.
inim
TL;DR: In just five minutes of runtime the love story of a woman and a female tree-deity is told with great emotional power and excellent craftmanship. Forget plastic emotions like in Shelter, this is the gold standard for storytelling in anime shorts. If I had to pick one short to convince a normie friend of the power of anime, it would be this one. Story: A working class woman on her way home finds a suffering supernatural woman near a construction site. She takes her to her home, treats her condition, and the two become a couple. Won't spoil the end. What matters is themasterful storytelling, which is achieved visually by a well paced sequence of well picked scenes in fairly up-tempo cuts. Each short scene creates as much emotion as complete episodes in lesser anime would do. Visual storytelling at master level. I have to substract one point, but only because of limits the short run-time implies on story complexity. (9/10)
Art: Solidly above average. This is not the cupboard sized eyes type of emotion communication, but a relatively natural look of characters. The tree-girl is a bit more chibi. Motion is fluid, this is not a slide show at all. Focus is on the emotions in the faces, so backgrounds tend to be a bit more simple with a few exceptions. Light, rain, smoke, fog etc. are used to improve the emotional mood of the scenes. Drawn by hand with love. (7/10)
Sound: There are no sound effects, a single very good song is played throughout the complete run-time. The song has itself emotional depth and excellently fits the visuals. It's experimental indie rock (guitar, bass, drums) with some electronic noise effects. The guitar effects range from natural to highly distorted and build tension along the progressing story. (8/10)
Character: The woman's character development within just five minutes is flat out a 10/10. I've seen whole seasons of an anime where the chars developed less. I have to deduct two points, one for run-time again which prevents complexity, and one for the tree-girl which remains a puppet grade character without development. (8/10)
Enjoyment: This is the most intense and compact emotional journey you probably take in just five minutes. The story arguably is not the most complex of them all, focus is on emotion. Certainly one of the best three anime shorts I have ever seen. Again deduction for complexity limits of the format. (8/10)
Overall: Life is not fair to short movies, and neither am I. If this was a full length anime done with the same artistic level, It would be a straight ten. I do not think shorts can reach 9+ due to their restrictions, anything else would not be fully fair to epic story telling. This not too widely known anime short easily leaves the fake emotions of a Shelter lying in the dust. A rock solid 8/10.
stormyxcloud
I really really enjoyed this short and the animation wasn't very bad like I had been reading people say, I actually liked the animation style. The music fits, but it gets a bit screechy at the end. Besides that it is really nice. The story was sad and this film really shows a lot in 5 minutes, you can tell that the main character and the tree spirit bond over a spread out period of time and the feeling in this film is very deep for such a short amount of time as well. The ending is really sad and I didn't expect it but it actually mademe cry, also I swear this film goes by in the blink of an eye. It felt like 1 minute
I would recommend this to anyone looking for a sweet and emotional story and really think everyone should watch it! It is only 5 minutes and is really an amazing film. Give it a try! :) You won't regret it.
Saucinator
The Emotion that is being shown in every scenes are as they meant to be, If you want a quick yet heavy film this was for you. it might be quite hard to understand the whole scenario but one you watch it again I guess you Will might get the point. but The problem that I'm Concerned about is the tree goddess, For me the Age of the tree should be related to the age and the looks of the Goddess, cuz im my perspective I see the goddess as a loli that is influenced by smoking and some stuff that the unnamed girl is doing toher.
but overall I love the art style , the music is quite eerie yet it suits the mood of the story that's being portrayed by the animation and the author itself.
I hope this helps
Gsarthotegga
If I were rating solely based on the animation, I'd give this a bit higher. It has some roughness in a manner characteristic of independent net animation, but the character motions, the rain, etc., are depicted in a very pleasing manner, and any amount of rawness just makes it feel more... soulful; it's certainly better than stiff, poorly animated TV series. No serious complaints there. The deity's sparkler scene and hopping through the water are especially nice in terms of movement and camera, as well as the bike/rain scene. The character art is kind of generic, but works fine to generate motion. The deity lookslike some kind of loli pokemon with green skin and pink dimples; I'm not sure if the main stumbled upon her at random, or if she was playing Pokemon Go in the rain. Backdrops are probably the weakest visual element, and certain scenes have CGI.
There's no sound and this is a silent film, but there is a song that's kind of fitting, yet it also feels a little odd, sounding like multiple songs layered together and sometimes even a bit amateurish, but it carries a certain energy that melds nicely with the animation, becoming more intense, as is needed, while other times it's a fuzzy ambient piece. Glitchy vocals accompany the parts that are supposed to be sad. Not a bad song, but I don't entirely feel like it hits all of the right notes for the short.
Thematically and emotionally, I don't see much of an appeal. It's simple enough. The deity grows weak and dies as the shrine is destroyed, and in typical fantasy fashion, she was probably becoming weaker before the shrine was being demolished, as the modern age is one lacking in religiosity or spirituality.
The main kidnaps the deity and takes her home, does fun things with her like play baseball and, uh, run around with sparklers. They bond, but I don't really feel it. Actually, it might be because the deity looks like a wind-up doll. Like, I don't think there's anything in that noggin. There's no there there. The brain already died, I guess. Only the main character really reacts to anything. It's like a grown adult pretending to bond with a wind-up doll, trying to create the imaginary friend she always wanted, to no avail. The only time the deity feels alive is during the aforementioned INTENSE animation scenes, which have nothing to do with the main.
If anything, they don't so much as bond, as the main becomes dependent on the deity for meaning. The deity is just a symbol, and she is used up by the main character, relied on, and becomes the center of the main's existence to distract from a meaningless life. She forces her to play with sparklers and it's like a metaphor for the deity burning out of existence. She apparently even chucks her across a body of water like a stone. Is this part of the point? Maybe, but we still have the problem of the deity being a predictable symbol above and beyond a character. Most pets in anime—symbolic or otherwise—have more personality.
Amusingly, I think some people were theorizing about whether or not some of the activities of the main were having an impact on the deity (beyond speculation above), and that led me to think of how maybe the deity doesn't like yuri, and so the main forcing CPR on her and spitting into her mouth killed her. I don't personally think the themes work very well in tandem with anything remotely sexual or romantic, yuri or otherwise—yeah, yeah, fine, do Ah! My Goddess! if you want to, but it feels poorly integrated considering these are just thin character sketches with no personality whatsoever. It's a little crass, and the toilet scene is, too—imagine depicting a deity on your toilet...
Who knows if any specific action mattered. Does polluting your body with cigarettes and affecting your health impact your connection when it comes to faith? Stress? Modern living? Perhaps so. Ultimately, though, if the nation gives up on an idea, it becomes harder for the individual to believe in the idea, and so while she cherished the idea of the deity, she stopped believing in it, but ideas can be reborn. Or MAYBE it was just a wind-up (sex) doll (she treated it like one), the gears broke down, so she buried it, then someone else planted a banana tree, and the last frame wasn't related to anything else. I don't know.
But what I do know is that the short lacked any real emotional impact. There is the semblance of sadness, but it is a shoddy mimesis. I felt the same during the sad moments as any other part, as I didn't feel there was any real connection between the two, and everything about it felt forced. The main staring off into space, puffing cigarettes, her Pokemon getting sick, and cry.gif. Is this supposed to evoke sadness? You could say that's part of the point, and maybe it is: that she's trying her hardest to force a connection that's not even really there, but that doesn't seem to be what the film is conveying at all, especially considering the final frame's obvious meaning. It's another rumination on meaning and nihilism. There's nothing new to see here and very little is said. Bonus points for the rawness and unusual charm that independent net animations can provide. This is likely an independent animator to keep an eye on.
Vires55
It's almost like this 5 minute silent animation managed to say more than most mediocre shows I've seen. Not much else to say really, for such quality given how few people were involved it really is a miracle of passion. I recommend being slightly intoxicated in some way and leaning back while you take in the brilliant music, intensely emotional animation and a story that will have you coming back to piece it together. For me at least nothing can beat the concise nature of it, unlike most other works that have you sit threw time-wasting bull, which i can appreciate if i need to killtime, Kanamewo is a short and sweet roller-coaster that every weeb should see at least once.
