The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl

It isn't easy to describe the irreverent, hallucinogenic, philosophically complex and comically juvenile Japanese animated rom-com "The Night is Short, Walk on Girl." It's part "Jules et Jim," part "Animal House," with a little of Disney's "The Fox and the Hound" and a little "Yellow Submarine."

Based on Tomihiko Morimi's novel, one of the two that are set to be published in English, this feature-length film is the spiritual sequel to "Yoj?han Shinwa Taikei" ("The Tatami Galaxy") an earlier novel that was made into a limited television series by the same director. Both novels explore undergraduate life at Kyoto University and the interconnected nature of humanity through bawdy humor and magical realism, as idealistic students attempt to reconcile their dreams of "rose-colored campus life" with their surrealistic realities.

A black-hair girl, referred to as the K?hai "Junior," decides that she is ready to embrace the world of adulthood and sets out on an all-night journey through the streets of Kyoto where she meets a strangely sympathetic pervert, an upperclassman that refuses to change his underwear, a couple of bohemian vagabonds that live well by paying for nothing and a gender-neutral School Festival Executive Head (something akin to a student body president) who allures and confuses the desires of both men and women. In addition, she encounters a number of quirky shamans and gods, like the god of used book markets (a bratty little boy who intentionally slam his ice cone into men's crotches).

As K?hai barrels forward, a boy called the Senpai "Senior" decides that he is madly in love with her and ventures to do everything he can to twist his fate and put himself within her path, hoping that she will notice him. Along the way, he pushes aside one obstacle after another – a spicy food eating contest, the retrieval of her favorite childhood book, a disabling flu strain, and an anarchistic guerrilla theatre troupe.

Each of the students wonders if destiny can be mastered, and something always prevents the two from coming together. What they discover, however, is that all of humanity is interconnected.

Fans of anime and complete novices will be amazed by this visually spectacular and narratively disarming masterwork. And this Blu-ray combo pack (with English and French subtitles) includes an interview with the visionary director and a couple of trailers.

"The Night is Short, Walk on Girl"
Blu-ray $29.95
http://nightisshort.com/