To start, it’s worth saying: it’s genuinely inspiring to see Garnt pull off a largely self-funded production of this quality while also staying true to his vision. This shit ain’t easy, that’s for sure.

When I first saw the Instagram announcement, I’ll admit I got Vietnam flashbacks to Misty and “Chronexia.” But then the trailer dropped and I was completely blown away. Blown away by, of course, the art and animation, but most importantly, the seemingly incredibly original world-building. Those Thai dragons alone made it clear this wasn’t a vanity project with a YouTuber’s name slapped on top. The art direction was equally bold—some of those shots of Daichi traveling the elevator had my jaw on the floor. I was sold.

Naturally, I assumed this was building to a full-cour series. Learning it would instead be a film felt even better: a concise story seemed like the smarter choice for both vision and budget. Only later did I realize it wasn’t a feature, but a sub-20-minute short. That raised a real question—could all that implied lore survive such a compressed runtime?

What worked: the sheer density of the world, the care Garnt poured into building Euthania. Kevin Penkin’s score shimmered through beautifully. Even the VA work supervised by Connor and starring Sydney were extremely competent—something I was slightly worried would be compromised on for the sake of working with your wife. Everything amazing about the trailer came through. And in a broader sense, the ambition itself deserves praise. Most YouTuber-led anime projects collapse under the weight of overpromising and underdelivering. Garnt, however, clearly took the medium seriously.

What didn’t: the screenplay. I never felt connected to either protagonist. Nearly all my attention was spent piecing together the world-building and lore, leaving no room to actually invest in the people inhabiting it. Only after reading the comments did I realize what the emotional arcs were meant to be—something that should have been obvious onscreen. Great short films often manage to pack an emotional punch into limited time, but they usually work within a familiar or easily graspable setting. Here, the complexity of the world left little oxygen for the story. The result was a project that looked extraordinary but never quite landed its emotional core.

In the end, the project’s best form may have been its trailer—20 minutes that felt less like a film and more like an extended cut of a brilliant preview for a feature that doesn’t exist. Which is frustrating, because I know I’d be hyped as hell to watch that.