Scrap Diary

Many times I wonder what would be of Japan's art if drugs were easy to come by and its use/possession wasn't so harshly punished.

This could be thought more as a music video. Great acid ambient techno accompanying nicely drawn and animated surreal imagery. I can already picture this being used as visuals for some rave music set.

The first thing that strikes the viewer when the short begins is the simple charcoal on paper approach, which I feel adds a warm touch and feels closer to the viewer.

I feel like people over here are being quite close minded to these kinda experimental things. Why bother ... watching and giving such ratings to things that clearly don't fit your tastes?

I'm not entirely sure why the superimposition of traditional anime is made on literal experimental shorts. It is logic like that which really intrigues me since what we are looking at here is no ordinary anime, more so the origin of the word anime (if you feel the need to stay traditional).

This is raw Japanese animation, which is somehow very different to anime but that is a topic for another time. This wacky short, intentionally made in an obscure fashion. The messages it draws? I've yet to know. But one thing is certain, the unorthodox behaviour is simply nothing to brush over. Take this as ... an expression, some psychedelic expression with a means to show the viewer a new concept and idea in a daring and frenzied pattern. It is simply wild. Maybe it is a meta-reference? Maybe this was just rando drawings you'd expect to see in the first stage of development in a project, and Tanaami just thought to make a movie out of it. Who knows.

But it is decent stuff tho. So 6/10.

The best part about Scrap Diary is that it's only a few minutes long. I stumbled upon it randomly and didn't know what to expect, but was disappointed nonetheless. It's a bunch of random (and sometimes almost disturbing) sketches that transition into on another with an even more disheartening soundtrack. Now to some, I'm sure, this is quite a work of art. I don't mean to claim this view is fundamentally wrong (although I disagree with it), however this is almost certainly not what you'd be looking for in an 'anime' (and I use this term reluctantly).

I find it hard to believe there are two ... sequels to this, yet, then again, it does not seem like it would cost a lot to produce these (whether we consider actual money, or man hours, or both). Then again, I wouldn't be to surprised if my curiosity led me eventually to see them unfortunately. Well, I suppose you may expect another review if that is the case.