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From CALF Short Films |
Not.
Why are they still calling themselves diehards? An anime con touches down in your city, and you miss out on it? Poor form Otaku-wannabes. Poor form indeed! Genshiken a recently founded anime appreciation club was present, nice to see. Although the much publicized Gaming Arena was a damp squib, with one console, one TV and a perpetual line coiled around it. The workshops were useful, however imparting knowledge at a festival has always put me off. I want anime and manga around me and I want it in the bucket loads. Where is the cosplay? Where are the comics? Where is everybody? My spirits by this time were sinking fast. They sunk further when the hyper expensive bento available at the Ai cafe proved to be another disappointment.
Relenting to the energy that seemed nearly palpable in the very air around us, I too was about to write off Anime Con as a badly mashed together festival sorely lacking in its target audience, all in all a poor excuse for me making the two hour trip from Gurgaon to Noida. However at that moment something caught my eye, a hoarding for the Anime Theater and an arrow pointing inwards. Without a second thought I made my way towards this ‘Theater’ expecting in my heart another disappointment. The theater was in an obscure corner right near the entrance. A door ajar led into the darkness. With the promise of sound and light and perhaps entertainment.
It was in the darkness of the theatre that my eyes finally opened. I entered this place still every inch the cynic, I came here thinking about the same clichéd movies that are screened from time to time. I came here totally not expecting a revolution. But what was this? The movie in front of me whose title unfortunately I missed was a kaleidoscope of colors and music. As abstract art and designs melded on screen in a psychedelic extravaganza. Mesmerized I promptly found myself a niche and propped myself. My mind which had been stunned into submission by the film was regaining its voice. And once more I thought this was probably a short which would be followed by a Naruto movie or something. It was ten minutes into the short ‘Hand Soap‘ that changed all that. This is not your run of the mill anime appreciation festival. This is their best and brightest, this is the future of anime. Pure experimentation given life. Believe me when I say this to you, this is a whole new dimension in animated cinema. Leave behind the simple shackles that bind our reasoning, forget the Shonen playbook. This stuff, is art. The shorts I witnessed were the creation of Kei Ōyama. And they were each unforgettable.