Rain Town

The aesthetics of emptiness are immaculate.

The rainy town. Not many remaining, probably nobody if you look carefully. It's easier to pretend it is, at least. There are robots, maybe, at least one sits by the bench. Perhaps it was a flood, potentially a catastrophe. The world might've drastically changed, for humans are now by the hills. However, the robot sits there, waiting for the girl who couldn't do anything but leave him there.

The paint-like animation fills the space with melancholy, with an abandoned beauty which can't be replicated anywhere else. As a university project, this is incredible. Ultra short, with great world building, ... designs, environments.

I loved the world, and the story does come to an end, it isn't just a tech demo about a little world with no meaning, it's a small-scale story that heartwarmingly ends. Neat thing, lovely thing.

8/10. It was great, and a nice short film.

Rain Town is a punchy short story that tells what needs to be told with without exaggerations or understatements.

The anime truly shines on its art. Because of the lack of the dialogue, the depth of the scenery and art direction brings up the themes. It's more of a location study than it is a narrative. The characters are given some level of analysis but it's rather flimsy and superficial. Their individuality is mostly undistinguishable and blends in with an existential and somewhat larger-than-life narrative on the nature of memories and childhood. And in that it's pretty impactful, although somewhat tongue-in-cheek and not so elaborate.

However, the ... establishing shots on the city (both past and present), specially if taken into account the use of watercolor technics and dissonant, unsettling and slightly eerie piano arpeggios as the dominant soundtracks, turn the anime into a great study on locations and how they themselves produce a feeling of order, chaos, distance, closeness, brightness and loneliness. The simple contrast on the girls' bright jackets against the rusty blended earth tones of the robot-thing are enough to portray the distance between the subject and object of a memory. Many other imageries could be included here to tone in with the other themes, such as the cramped alleyway versus the open space with electric cables or how the use of watercolor in a rainy town makes it feel like background and foreground are constantly dissolving in each other.

Overall, the use of art to pack in so many interesting themes in a short anime, despite the lackluster narrative, makes it a definitive worthwhile watching experience for those willing to spend their 10min of streaming.

Strong directorial vision and truly unique visuals, but somehow ends up having a bit of a convoluted plot?

As with most shorts, this is more of a mood piece than a narrative one. It's definitely a world that feels like it could be explored in more depth and brought to life in interesting ways. Unfortunately, Rain World decides to focus its short narrative around something which would take way more time than it has to build something meaningful out of. The incongruities kind of smother the impact of the story and its few moments of surprise (two, in total) don't really make up for that.

It's still ... cute and worth a watch to see something different in animation. The shots are extremely well composed and the world well-rendered.