Short Peace (2013) (part 3)

Gambo

The weakest piece in the whole set. I'm really meh about it, but something had to follow a tragic love-tale. Granted, they couldn't end with Combustible, because that would be a real downer, but there had to be something to buffer that with the last piece.

Still, it could have been better. I'm just not impressed. This is the one you can FF.

More...

We start off with three guys and a horse who have all been beaten by the polar bear. The bear wounds them, but does not kill them. However, the guy wearing the cross has a few choice words for that bear. The bear ignores him and concentrates on the thing falling out of the sky.

This is what I was MADE for!

Meanwhile, two old guys discuss the giant red demon that's being tended to in the house. Saving his life and tending to his wounds must be very lucky!

Or not.

The big red demon kills the old woman and busts up the joint. He goes after the girl and she screams because, well, it's anime. What else is she going to do?

The next morning and the guys who were fighting the bear are having their wounds treated in the house where the demon was. No, the bear didn't do this. No, the bear didn't repaint the place, eat a couple cows, and run off with the girl. That was the demon.

One of the survivors is a little girl, who plays with a spider-lily, just like the one her sister (mom?) wore in her hair before she was hauled off by the demon. The little girl runs into the woods.

Stupid adults.

Can I just say I'm not even impressed with the animation style here? I really want to be, but I'm not. It leaves me cold. The watercolor effect works very nicely with the backgrounds, not so much for the characters.

Anyhow, the kid goes running off and finds a clearing of spider lilies. She flops down in them and pounds the ground. It's not fair that her sister got carted off like that!

Poppies will make her sleep.

This is actually better writing than the rest of the piece. The red spider lily is the flower that symbolizes death and abandonment. Just as in Western culture, flowers have meanings, so you can sometimes use them as a short-cut when introducing a character. This also makes it really weird that the girl was wearing a red spider lily in her hair in the first place. She was pretty much marked for death from the start.

Somehow, all this emoting distracted the kid and she did not see the GIANT WHITE BEAR in the little stream that runs past the flowers. He's eating fish, as bears do. The kid thinks she's going to die, but no. The bear does not kill her, She tells him her problems and he lets her know it will be alright.

Human tears are delicious.

The bear accepts the mission to go save the sister.

However! Lurking nearby is the guy with the cross. He's still hunting the bear and follows it to the...

Oh man, steampunks!

...Crash site, I guess. It's a wasteland. Maybe it's just cursed. The bear goes inside and finds the sister.

A fate worse than death.

Yeah, there's not going to be much saving going on here. We all saw that scene in Aliens. Enraged, the bear just torches the place.

Sadly, the big red demon shows up in time to see its house on fire, knowing its babies inside are dead. The demon and the bear fight. It goes on forever.

Seriously, it's the longest three minutes of your life.

The kid sees this and comes out of her hiding spot behind a tree. She knows her sister's dead, and she cries. The guy with the cross shows up with a special spear. He's going to kill the demon.

Spear sans magic helmet.

This distracts the demon from the bear, but it sees the kid and figures he can try to raise a family again, or at least get a little snack in. The kid decides to use prayer to fight the demon, but the bear shows back up.

Thank god for the Portuguese.

Some local lord (maybe Takashima Shūhan?) has sent over his vassal troops and they fill the demon with musket balls and arrows. This has no effect, but thanks for trying.

But the bear keeps coming! Go bear! That bear is going to kill that demon if it's the last thing he does (don't worry. It will be). There's yelling! There's drooling! There's fountains of blood! The bear is full of berserker rage, which is funny because he wears a bear skin all of the time!

Gambo, arigato.

It's not a life-changing piece. I'm sure that with a good translation, everything might be more meaningful, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. Visually, it wasn't that interesting and the music was pretty blasé. The backgrounds were nice, but there was no outstanding character design or stunning animation techniques. I didn't laugh. I didn't cry. I didn't feel anything. I'm only grateful the movie did not end with this mess.