Seriously. I’ve seen Comedy for ten times now already, and I’m still drooling. This ten-minute short by Studio 4C really is a piece of beautiful art. Not just the drawings and background, but the story and the characters themselves as well.
Just for the record, it may be named Comedy, but the short itself is everything but a comedy. It’s a story, set in Ireland in the middle ages. The English are about to invade a village, and one of the villagers, a five year old girl, searches for a black swordsman in order to defend the village. The movie is just ten minutes long, so you’d wonder how such a story would fit in such a short amount of time. Well, the creators knew exactly how to use the time given to them, and they somehow managed to do this.
To fully understand Comedy, you should actually watch it at least twice (you’ll understand when you do ;)). The little girl and the black swordsman are surprisingly likable. In only ten minutes, Comedy shows that the two of them have very versatile, strong and interesting personalities. Something most anime can’t even do in an entire season. The little girl, coming up with such an idea and having the bravery to actually execute it (remember, she’s five and the English are about to invade) was extremely cute to see. The black swordsman also was given a friendly side in his obsession with books. The combination of these two characters works surprisingly well.
The character art in this short is unique. Characters have extremely white faces, with black clothing. Their faces are drawn rather messy, though the style this gives off only contributes to the overall quality of the movie. The animation shows that a lot of effort has been put into it. You can especially see this in the action scene. It’s a short one, though it’s extremely creative coordinated. Throughout the entire movie, an operatic voice takes care of the background music. It greatly contributes to the scene, but it also doesn’t drive the attention away from the really important parts.
Still, the fact remains that this short film is short. There is a little bit of background info given about the swordsman, though it isn’t enough. I’d love to know more about him and the little girl. I’d love to see more of this. But unfortunately, that’s impossible. Overall, while there isn’t really any tension or angst in this short, it keeps fascinating me. I just have to see it over and over again.
Ya..just saw it in youtube on ur recommendation…it was a masterpiece but two sentences explains it all…cannibal/vampire +comedy book…ur right, u DO have to watch it twice to understand..the explanation was backwards….thanks for painfully reviewing so many animes.. i have been looking for something like this..I love ur sense of humor..but the way u praise it without revealing the storyline so much is …commendable.. Please continue ur good work..
Thanks. ^_^
I’m a bit sensitive to spoilers myself, so that’s why I decided to not include any major spoilers in my anime reviews (I’ve got episode reviews for that ^^;). Also, this is the first one someone praised my sense of humour. 😀
I saw this short yesterday and I loved it to bits. The only thing that creeped me out was the swordsman’s laugh at the end. Ugh. But other than that, I really liked it! Not very many anime take place in Ireland! I liked how it used Schubert’s music (Ave Maria and some other one that escapes me) as the series music. Great!