The Girl from the Other Side

The Girl from the Other Side, directed by Yutaro Kubo and Satomi Maiya, is a Japanese animated film adapted from Nagabe's manga of the same name, about the bond between a horned creature and the young girl, Shiva, it protects in a cursed "outer land." The film is defined by a distinctive visual style of watercolor washes spreading over sketch like pencil drawings; the outlines of figures are left deliberately indistinct so color can bleed into them, giving the film a more European than typically anime feel. The feature length version was funded through a 2021 Kickstarter campaign by WIT Studio, whose 3 million yen goal was met on the very first day. The film screened out of competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Who it's for: anyone curious about a Japanese animated film with a distinctive European feeling visual style, built from watercolor bleeding over pencil sketches and brought to life through crowdfunding. Who it's not for: those used to classic clean lined anime art, since the film deliberately relies on indistinct, bleeding color boundaries instead.