Not Spoiler Free
I've been a fan of Gigguk for over half a decade, was introduced to him around 2018-2019 and he's basically been the only Anituber I watch since then. So fast forward years later and he drops a video announcing his next step which I originally thought was gonna be him announcing he's gonna be a father, but instead announces he's doing from what I believe no other youtuber has ever done in making his very own professional studio made anime.
Basically the same thing as being a father ya know. It was very surprising to see even more so upon learning that this was entirely self funded by Garnt himself and that he chose to not get additional funding because he wouldn't of had full creative control over the story he wanted to tell.
Despite anything I say negatively about this I find the whole story behind the production of this to be really inspiring as someone whose just begun writing their own stories and I'm sure I'm not alone in that feat either. Sure Garnt had youtuber money to help produce this, but that money only got him about 18 minutes worth of content.
And to start off finally talking about the short film itself, we gotta address what'll probably be the biggest criticism Garnt will receive about this, the length. It is very short, too short but lets be real. He knows this, he's probably known of this flaw from day one. They're a lot of things here that aren't fleshed out or could've had more time to expand upon, one aspect in particular which I'll get back to.
But for the tight runtime he had I think he managed okay. The story that is here isn't bad at all, when I'm writing One Shot manga stories you have to solely focus on key points and leave very little room for much else which I think Garnt had the same mindset here when making this. And in that aspect I believe he succeeded even with the length going against him.
Beginning with our two characters Rin and Daichi moving to each others homeland. If my mother abruptly went through my PC like Daichi's did yeah I think I'd wanna move as well. Rin settles in her new home and begins looking for work, getting rejected 13 time which lets be honest in todays age is rookie numbers, before finally landing a job in customer service. While Daichi is exploring the new fantasy land he finds himself in lamenting about the chances he missed to spend time with his mother.
Afterwards cutting to a montage of the two living their lives out getting more and more used to their new life. Which brings us to the twist of the film. Daichi is out exploring as he sees the city preparing for something big, which turns out to be a young Rin being tasked with protecting a Dragon Egg (I don't know what those things are so I'm going with dragon to be safe).
The bigger dragon gets killed probably along with everyone else there while Rin escapes and runs into the onlooking Daichi, revealing that the two of them going to each others homeland in the opening actually happened at two different times.
There Daichi began taking care of her, and the two formed a very close bond. Even with the strict runtime I believe Garnt managed to give us enough context here to be able to fill in the blanks ourselves, yes it absolutely would've been better to see said blanks but in a way too not seeing them is also kind of the point.
To get viewers speculating on what could've happened in between everything we did see and believe in this aspect Garnt succeeded. Leading into An asking Rin to come over for dinner. She showed up during the montage which I honestly thought was her sister, took me a bit to realize they were the same person.
Showing her a voice message of Daichi now grown up left for Rin reminding her that she could come home anytime she felt like it, to which she does ending off the film. Getting the positives out of the way first, I love how the film looks the scenery shots are beautiful even though I think some of them were a bit unnecessary and should've been used on the story itself.
I'm grateful this wasn't solely focused on these two characters and gave us some extra characters to help make each world feel more alive. Kevin Penkin nailed it on the music once again my favorite piece being the piano piece that plays during Rin and An's conversation at dinner. Character designs are on point here I especially love the wings on the Euthanians? I forgot if they had a name so I'm going with that.
Daichi looks very generic but I believe that was the point, as he's just a regular dude. And by the end he has a much more interesting design that fully reflects him becoming one with the land and culture of Euthania, and becoming one with wearing ugly glasses.
The more traditional ceremonial designs of the Euthanians had on during the dragon egg part were great as well, wish we got to see Rin in that outfit again. Honestly, more so on the world of Euthania I'm honestly more curious as to how Japan and Euthania learned of each other and got to the point where they can coexist as they do now.
Writing wise I actually enjoy Rin and An a lot here. Daichi seemed to of been a big help for An in her life, and he raised Rin so from what I gathered both seemed to have a deep appreciation for him and wanted to see what life was like for him growing up to possibly better understand him along with other reasons.
Rin's determination to stay within Japan further enforces that, while An already has a whole family with a new child on the way. Her becoming homesick by the end was a cute way to end of the film.
But due to the films length Daichi's writing heavily suffered the most here. I could piece together Rin's reason for leaving her home, yet I can't say the same for Daichi. The most I can say is that his mother was a bitch and didn't feel satisfied living in Japan, but for how little we see of Daichi throughout the film he comes off more shallow then anything else present here.
Which is a shame too because I think Daichi could've been a much better character had his backstory just been even a little more explored. We have all the pieces for Rin's but theirs very few of Daichi's. Rin's story is one that basically forces him to be out of it, and because of it we see even less of Daichi. Not to say I wanted him to be in Japan with Rin, just that I think we needed more screen time of Daichi getting used to Euthania's culture, people, and life as Rin did instead of him just exploring.
I'm someone who doesn't like to solely criticize media on what they could've/should've been I much prefer to simply focus on what's been given to me and for the most part I think what's here is great for the time given. It's by no means perfect, but if one day Garnt gets the greenlight one day to make this into a full twelve episode series I think theirs a great story that could be told here. 6.5/10.