The Night is Short, Walk on Girl - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Night is Short, Walk on Girl



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
When watching The Night is Short, Walk on Girl had this eerie feeling that I’d seen the animation and characters before. I kept saying to myself “I know this, but it feels different”, and then it hit me. This is basically The Tatami Galaxy anime show, but not really. Turns out The Night is Short, Walk on Girl is made by the creative team behind The Tatami Galaxy, and is sort of tangentially related to the show, or at least an offshoot project of the show in its raw form.

This freewheeling comedy is a crazy and zany adventure about an unnamed girl known only as Otome or Kohai (Kana Hanazawa) and her “Senpai” (Gen Horhino) who secretly has a crush on her from afar. Otome is the young college student who has no clue, while Senpai is avariciously trying to win her over and for some reason thinks that the key to her love is finding a favorite childhood book that she remembers. The film takes the typical slice of life nature of Yuasa and focuses on a surreal and crazy singular night out on the town where Senpai is doing literally EVERYTHING in his power to meet Otome and get her to fall for him.

The film is fast paced and completely zany to the core, fitting right in with Yuasa’s more bizarre works like Mind Game, being unconventional by even anime frame of reference. However, it’s a never slow, never boring, and a delightful little tale with singing, dancing and and some light hearted romance thrown in as well. Comparing directly to Ride Your Wave which was watched back to back with this film, the romance is not nearly as heavy or intense. It’s more of a light hearted romp than it is a deep love story, but it’s still sweet and rather endearing nonetheless.

However, the movie isn’t always a stone cold classic. This is a film that’s going to appeal to fans of whimsy and romantic longing. If you’re looking for a film that has a well structured 3 act story with a beginning and an end, you’re going to be disappointed. This is ALLL Masaaki Yuasa on full display and it’s going to be off putting for some people. However, for fans of The Tatami Galaxy you’ll find this a great companion piece.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Like usual, Shout Studios’ 1.78:1 framed AVC encode is taken from the Gkids master given to them, and it looks quite pleasing. Unlike Ride Your Wave, this goes back to Yuasa’s more traditional style of animation, making great use of dark colors, pastels, and a weird blending of those with some neon shades for the “play” halfway through the movie. Animated by the same group that did The Tatami Galaxy, the encode is simply striking, with a huge purple backdrop that sets the stage for the film. The encode is really strong for the most part, but just like Ride Your Wave, there’s some definite banding going on which causes me to take it down a notch or two (I’m guessing it’s baked into the source material, because this encode peaked as high as 39 or 40 mbps at time).









Audio:

Unlike most of the other films in the 5 film set, The Night is Short, Walk on Girl doesn’t have a dub created for it. That means the 5.1 DTS-HD MA Japanese original language track with subs is what everyone will have to deal with. Naturally this tickles me pink, but fans of English dubs might be a bit frustrated. That being said, this is a solid mix for sure. Dialog is strong and clear up in the center of the room, and the surrounds mainly active for the music and a few boisterous moments. Otherwise this is a fairly reserved and just “adequate” track that doesn’t really push the limits of the 5.1 lossless format that wildly. I was surprised at how reserved the bass was in the film as well. While it was definitely there during the musical numbers and some of the higher action bits, but it was never LOUD and noticeable. I had to go up to my subs every once in a while to make sure the cone was moving (and while it was, it wasn’t MASSIVE). All in all, a solid sounding mix that gets the job done without being standing out as a “wow” track.












Extras:

• Interview With Director Masaaki Yuasa
• Trailers
• TV Spots

Final Score:
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If you love Masaaki Yuasa’s films then you really shouldn’t be shocked by The Night is Short, Walk on Girl. It’s more of the same zany comedy and over the top storytelling that makes so many of his films niche in the anime community. The visuals are amazing, and the story fun and genuinely sweet at times, making it one of the better films he’s released in years (Lu Over the Wall was my favorite up until I saw Ride Your Wave the other day). The Blu-ray looks and sounds great (solid on the audio), but the extras are a tad middling. Recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Gen Hoshino, Kana Hanazawa, Hiroshi Kamiya, Kazuya Nakai, Yûko Kaida, Hiroyuki Yoshino
Directed by: Masaaki Yuasa
Written by: Makoto Ueda, Stephanie Sheh
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: Japanese : DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English, French, English SDH
Studio: Shout Studios
Rated: NR
Runtime: 92 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: January 29th, 2019

Recommendation: Good Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will check it out.