カクレンボ: Creepy ≠ scary

I didn’t actually realize when I got it that this was a short film. It’s pretty effective technically: one nice thing about a short film is that there’s that much less time in which to concentrate your technical efforts, and this one used CG but in a mostly effective manner. I’m generally down on CG as the effects seem to blend poorly with 2-D animation, but this mostly works. Where it falls down, of course, is characterization: it’s not only a short film, but a short film where every character is wearing masks, inhibiting facial recognition and expression. So what we have here is mostly a mood piece, and it’s a good one: the demons are imaginative, and the setting authentically spooky. What it’s not, though, is scary. But that’s OK too. Tonally, it’s effective, but there’s just not much to say otherwise, inasmuch as the plot and characters really didn’t engage at all.

See also: IMDB, WIkipedia, Anime News Network, AniDB.