The Anime

This is the shortest anime I will ever review and thus my shortest review. As of 04/01/24, the original 'Kakomareta Sekai' anime can no longer be found. It's a shame that one of the most iconic anime directors of our generation's first official project has now disappeared into the void of lost media (it was taken off his website due to bandwidth issues), but it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference if the genuine article was still intact. It is a 30 second piece accompanied by music composed by Tenmon. The only remnants of it now are 15 frames captured from the film that have been edited together in this video. You can still gauge the meaning of the short from the video - two people (probably a parent and child) walking somewhere (maybe a pyramid) - but it removes anything that could remotely be described as 'an experience'. The music is gone now and so is any movement. However, I can't imagine a whole lot more animation present in the original as the few frames that have been preserved seem to be totally disconnected with no flow between the two. The background art can still be assessed from these frames and it looks alright but nothing to write home about. The character designs are also fine. They look awkward but they're clearly not meant to resemble humans so they're acceptable. The title card looks fine. the shot composition actually looks very good: there's a good contrast between the light, warm and dark colours. Reflecting on it now, it actually looks like a precursor to the art direction that would later be applied in 5 Centimeters Per Second. All in all, not much to praise, but not much more to criticize.

Final Verdict

So should you watch this movie? No, not unless you're a mad Shinkai fan. It's the equivalent to watching PowerPoint slideshow that doesn't even have those annoying, unnecessary transitions bundled along with it that primary school kids like to use on their history presentations. That said, it's only 30 seconds so it's not going to hurt you to watch it. You've probably spent longer reading this review. I doubt you'll be lying on your deathbed thinking about those extra 30 seconds you could've spent if you hadn't watched Kakomareta Sekai. I can't say the same for Shinkai's later works like The Place Promised in Our Early Days or Children Who Chase Lost Voices. That garbage robbed me of hours of my life I'll never get back.