Mizu no Kotoba

9 minutes. That was my initial thought when a friend told me about this piece of work. So obviously I had close to no expectations while watching it. Normally I would have thought it was a waste of time, but for 9 minutes? why not?

So I watched all 9 min and 5 seconds it had to offer and I was amazed with what it produced. It gave some nice insight in to the way people think and the values people have. In 9 minutes they introduce 6 characters and develop them just enough to keep it interesting. The art was an interesting style that was ... appealing and essential at some key points. There was a nice smooth soundtrack to match the setting of a small relaxed coffee shop. It was highly enjoyable and I would encourage everyone to watch it, and for 9 minutes why not right?

Story:
There's a lot of content here bundled up in a short period that is incredibly underwhelming. Despite it being introspective, it gets some sort of point across, but it's really just bits and pieces of a bigger picture that is never fulfilled. It's decent enough to speak to the viewer but not good enough to leave any lasting or memorable experience. I've already forgotten half of what happens, or what was discussed, and I only watched it (with my full attention) nearly 5 minutes ago.


Art:
The art is fitting, but it's a bit of a clash. It's jarring at first but then settles down to a ... tolerable degree. However, when characters are doing more than sitting idly, they look strange and disproportionate.


Sound:
Audio is fine for the most part, but the song used near the end is pretty lackluster and somewhat irritating to listen to. It has no lasting appeal, either, and will likely throw viewers off as unfitting or out of place.


Character:
There are decent characters in giving us specific differences between 6 individuals. However, it's all kind of left empty-handed and there's little to nothing to define these characters beyond idle chit-chat. Or, perhaps I should say, each character merely signifies some specific thing rather than signifying realistic people.

Also, totally forgot there's a seventh character who is 100% only used as a 'plot' device.


Enjoyment:
I mean, it's 9 minutes. The first half is enjoyable, but the second half fails to really resolve or confirm anything. I didn't need it to tell me what was in the animation, but it doesn't complete the mystery of certain aspects, or show any connective tissue between certain things in the story beyond them existing in the same production.


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Found it on Crunchyroll while searching for another anime. It felt like I was watching a demo of someone trying to test whatever techniques they could pull out in a shortest amount of time. Honestly not a fan but again it was 9 minutes and 5 seconds so I wasn’t expecting much until I saw people giving it a good review so I decided to watch it but it was meh tbh.
The story was unique I guess but you’ll have no idea wtf is happening since it’s too short, is it intriguing? Nope not at all. The characters i found them annoying tbh it felt ... like someone was bored & observed people in a cafe and decided to put it here.
The art style is fine.
Honestly I wouldn’t recommend it but it’s short so if you want give it a try I guess.