Quick Review: _Night is Short, Walk on Girl_

Finally got around to seeing Night is Short, Walk on Girl last weekend. (I had heard positive reviews of it at Arisia a couple of years ago, but this was the first time I found it on streaming.)

That is the most magnificently bizarre thing I've watched in a long time. It's an anime movie about a night out on the town, which just gets stranger and stranger as it goes along. Topics include:

• The god of used bookshops
• Guerrilla theatrics
• Historical pornography collectors
• Petty surveillance
• The relationship between age and time
• Ritual dance
• And a truly astounding amount of alcohol

The only thing I can think of to compare it to is After Hours, a similarly weird mid-80s movie about a nighttime outing, that used to be a staple at Kitchencon. (This isn't as dark as that one was, though: a bit more dreamlike, not quite as blackly nightmarish.)

Mild content warning for the hoary old trope of a dude who can only express his romantic feelings through stalkerish behavior. (Nothing exceptional or scary, but it's a significant element, as it is in too many stories. That said, the story does not paint this as admirable: he's kind of a notable dumbass.) Oh, and torture through spicy food.

Fun and worth watching, but only if you're prepared to just roll with the dream-like logic. Currently on HBOMax.